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After spending some time in Cusco it was finally time to go see the famous ruins of Machu Picchu. There are many ways of getting to the ruins, the most popular one being the Inca Trail. This a multiple day trip where you walk in the foot steps of the Incas and visit different ruins on the way. Unfortunately for us this trip needs to be booked about 3 months in advance. Obviously, we hadn't thought that far ahead. There are several alternatives to the Inca Trail, the most common being the Jungle Trail and the Salkantay Trek. The Jungle trail takes you rafting and mountain biking while the Salkantay Trek is a more challenging trip hiking-wise and lasts for 5 days. As we'd already been mountain biking and Jas didn't see the point in going rafting outside of Canada the Jungle Trail was quickly eliminated. We also decided we weren't into trekking enough for the Salkantay option. Furthermore we didn't have hiking boots and figured that if we'd made it this far without them, we certainly weren't gonna need them now.
Therefore, we settled for option no.4, do-it-yourself. At our hostel in Cusco we had met a German girl who claimed this would be fairly easy. When Jason figured out that this would also be the most economically feasible option he was sold. The plan was pretty much to get a night bus from Cusco that arrived in Santa Maria sometime in the early morning/late night. From here we would get two different taxis, or camionetas, eventually being dropped off at a hydroelectric dam and continuing on foot along the railroad tracks. We didn't even need a map, which are, as Jason pointed out, for wussies anyway.

Waiting for a camioneta

The bus dropped us off at Santa Maria an hour and a half early due to incredibly reckless driving even by Latin American standards. Relieved to get off the bus we started looking for camionetas. A camioneta is sort of like a taxi in the sense that it will take you where you want to go, but different in the way that you don't get the car to yourself. You pretty much pay for your seat, or as it happens more often than not, part of a seat. We set off with two ladies in the front passenger seat, three gringos and a local lady in the back seat and a couple of guys in the back storage. It was a station wagon after all.
After dropping off the guys in the trunk our driver got a little more careless and about halfway there we had a flat tire. I don't know why I expected there would be some quick fix for this, as say changing the tire, I should have known better after seven months in Latin America. Although our driver had both a spare tire and a jack, he was lacking a tire iron.

Not impressed.

This was at around 5 a.m in the middle nowhere and we still needed to catch another camioneta to get to the dam where we needed to be at sunrise the latest. Our driver sets off to find a screw driver while we remain in the vehicle along with the front seat ladies. Multiple cars pass us, but nobody seems to want to help. We decide they're just down right unfriendly or they're scared we're going to rob them.
Our driver seems in no hurry to return and we contemplate walking the rest of the way, the front seat ladies say it will only take half an hour to the next town. From experience I can tell you that the majority of latinos have a different way of measuring time than we do. 30 minutes can mean anything from 15 minutes til 2 hours. This combined with the fact that 3 gringos walking along a deserted road in the middle of nowhere Peru at 5 in the morning might not be a good idea made us wait for the return of the driver.
Another camioneta came buy and the lady sharing the backseat with us decided to go with them. A couple of minutes later our driver arrived triumphantly holding a tire iron above his head. The tires were changed rather quickly and we all piled back in the car. At this point the driver noticed that one of his passengers were missing. Since none of us had payed yet he was not impressed. The front seat ladies explained that she had driven off with another camioneta, and the hunt began. This was a particularly narrow and winding dirt road even for Peruvian standards and I have to admit that I feared for my life. Jason tried talking sense into the guy in broken Spanish, but he assured us we'd be fine, he'd driven this route for the last 15 years without incident. He eventually slowed down when we threatened to get out of the car, but it still felt like being stuck in a game of Grand Theft Auto.
As we finally caught up with the other camioneta upon reaching town and screaming match began we took this as our cue to leave.
Our next camioneta ride was less eventful and we found ourselves at the beginning of the rail road tracks at the dam as the sun started rising.

Turned out the whole "follow the train tracks scenario" wasn't as straight forward as we initially thought. Sure you could follow the tracks, but following a local guide hired by some other gringos we found several short-cuts

Walking along the tracks we were pretty much all by ourselves and the scenery was pretty amazing

Agricultural terraces

As we were getting close to Aguas Calientes, the town connected to the ruins,we turned a bend and up on the mountain side we could see Machu Picchu. It all our troubles worth it

When we finally walked up the last hill to Aguas Calientes we were all pretty tired and ended up snoozing for a while. Eventually Jason and I dragged ourselves up another hill to visit the hot spring for which the city is named. In the end we decided it wasn't really worth it as the pools were over crowded and the water had an icky brown colour that just made it seem dirty even though we were assured that was not the case.

Finally reached Aguas Calientes

The hot pools

Bed time came early as we were catching the bus to Machu Picchu at 5 a.m the next morning, hoping to watch the sunrise at the ruins.

We arrived at Machu Picchu at around 5.30 with about a hundred other tourists. But hey, it's Machu Picchu what do you expect? As the sun was rising we finally made it into the grounds.

Our first glimpse of Machu Picchu and confused llama

Machu Picchu was built around 1450 in the hey day of the Inca Empire. The "estate" is believed to have been built for Emperor Pachacuti. Only 100 years after the construction was started the estate was abandoned as an official site for Inca rulers as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest.

Although known locally there are no signs of the Spanish Conquistadors ever setting foot in the remote city. Machu Picchu was first "discovered" in 1911 by the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham. The city wasn't really "lost" in 1911 as many people tend to think. When Bingham rocked up it was an 11 year old Quechua boy who took him up to Machu Picchu. At the time there were actually some Quechua families living in the original structures.

One of the reasons we stayed in Cusco longer than planned was to get tickets to climb Wayna Picchu. Only 400 people are allowed up on the mountain each day in two groups. We were in the early group and had to show up at the entrance at 7 a.m

Wayna Picchu is the bigger of the two mountains behind Machu Picchu. It's steep.

Jas is ready to go

The Incas built a trail up the side of Wayna Picchu and temples and terraces on its top.

Exploring Wayna Picchu's buildings

According to the local guides the top of the mountain held the residences of the high priests and local virgins. Each morning before sunrise the high priest followed by a small group would walk down to Machu Picchu to signal a new day. He must have been in great shape.

Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu

Squeezing through old Inca passages

At the peak!

Climbing Wayna Picchu took about an hour. We hung out at the peak for the same amount of time before heading back down to Machu Picchu to get a better look at the city.

The obligatory Machu Picchu photos

Cheeky llama baby

Archaeologists and historians argue of the purpose of Machu Picchu; royal estate, religious site, economic center, prison or agricultural testing station. Most agree that it was indeed an estate of the emperor and probably had religious significance. Many of the buildings in this miniature city are believed to be of religious importance, especially related to astronomy. The most famous religious buildings are the Intihuatana stone, the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of Three Windows

Temple of the Three Windows

The Intihuatana stone. One of many ritual stones in South-America, the Intihuatanas are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. The Incas believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky

The Temple of the Sun, or Torreon.

The central buildings in Machu Picchu are built using the classical Inca architectural style called ashlar. In this style blocks of rock are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The Incas became so good at this that it is said many junctions in the central city are so tight you couldn't fit a blade of grass in between them.

There used to be numerous water fountains in Machu Picchu. These were interconnected by channels and water drains in the rock. Evidence suggests that the irrigation system was used to carry water from a holy spring to each of the houses.

We spent most of the day walking around the city taking about a million pictures. Keeping with the trend we were incredibly lucky with the weather and had sunshine from an almost cloudless sky all day. I admit that it would have sucked reaching the peak of Wayna Picchu covered in fog.
Machu Picchu is such a quiet and relaxing place, despite the 2500 tourists they let in a day. It truly is an amazing place. I for one was impressed not only by their building techniques but also their complex knowledge of astronomy. It makes you feel a little small.
As lunch time approached it was time for us to keep moving. We had tickets to Ollantaytambo on the Machu Picchu train which is supposed to be a very scenic ride. At this point I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one worried about falling a sleep and missing the whole thing, but somehow we all managed to take in the scenery even after a huge lunch. Sight seeing breeds hunger.

We've already blogged about Ollantaytambo, so our next post will be about Huacachina. Finally it was time to descend into warmer climates

Hola!

We were both excited to finally be going to the cradle of Inca civilization; Cusco. Arriving on yet another night bus, we made our way to our pre-booked hostel, Pariwana. To all of you planning to visit Cusco on a budget; Pariwana is probably the best hostel in town. Hot showers with good water pressure, super comfortable beds with real comforters right in the center of the city is pretty hard to beat.

As for many so many others our main reason for visiting Cusco was to see Machu Picchu. However, Cusco and it's surrounding area has so much to offer in itself that this post will not include the famous ruins. That being said a combination of waiting to get tickets to see Machu Picchu and Jason's short hospital stint caused us to spend more time here than intended. (Don't worry, it was "just" a parasite. Nothing a bunch of drugs couldn't cure.)

Arc of Barrio de Santa Ana

Cusco is the biggest tourist town in Peru, there's no doubt about it. Here you'll find backpackers, Japanese tour groups, Europeans in trendy trainers, American retirees and everything in between. The city was the site of the historical capital of the Inca Empire, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. It sits in the Andes at an altitude of 3400m (11,000ft), which can cause altitude sickness in people not used to it. Fortunately, we had gotten used to being at these altitudes while in Bolivia and did not suffer the same difficulties as people fresh off the plane.

In the heart of the city you find Plaza de Armas aka "Square of the Warrior" in the Inca Era. This square has been the scene of many important events in Peruvian history. It is where Pizarro, leader of the Spanish invasion, declared Cusco as conquered as well as the site where Tupac Amaru II, considered the indigenous leader of the resistance, died.

Iglesia de Compañia de Jesus, built in 1576, at Plaza de Armas is considered one of the best examples of colonial baroque style in the Americas.

The Spanish destroyed many Inca buildings and used the remaining walls as bases for the construction of their new city. In 1950 a major earthquake shook Cusco, damaging many of the Spanish constructions. The Inca architecture however withstood the earthquake, even the walls supporting the newer buildings.

Oldest Inca wall in town

You can often see the "Whipala" or "Flag of Cusco" in and around the city, even on government buildings.

Not to be confused with the Gay Pride/Rainbow Falg, the flag is used to represent Tawantin Suyu, or Inca Territory.

Just outside of Cusco you find the Sacred Valley, full of Inca ruins that will forever stand in the shadows of Machu Picchu. We made a little detour to Ollantaytambo after our visit to the more famous ruins. After getting off the train we spent the night here before getting up early to check out the ruins. Of course these ruins had to be on the top of a small mountain, which none of us found particularly amusing at 6 a.m. after climbing Wayna Picchu the day before. Strategic location aside, I really don't understand the Inca's fascination of mountains or hill tops.

Ollantaytambo with Inca ruins on the hillside

Back in the days of the Inca Empire Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti who conquered the region and built the city. Today it is known as the starting point of the famous Inca Trail.

Local ladies in their traditional costumes

Ollantayatmbo street

The Incas built a series of storehouses in the hills surrounding the city. Building them here was no coincidence; the higher altitude provided lower temperatures and more wind protecting their crops from decay.

Other than storehouses Pachacuti had agricultural terraces built all over the valley. By constructing terraces the Incas could farm land that would otherwise be unusable. Having the terraces built at rising altitudes on the steep hills the Incas were able to take advantage of different ecological zones growing different crops at different altitudes. The terraces built around Ollantaytambo show a higher standard than the most common Inca terraces, similar ones are found at other royal estates.

After climbing the surrounding hillsides to get a closer look at the storehouses and a view of the terraces as well as temple hill, we decided it was time to head back to Cusco. Back on the streets of Ollantaytambo we started negotiating with a taxi driver about the fare. He asks us if we'd seen the salt ponds in Maras. We had not. After a little back and forth he had us convinced this was something we had to see as it was on the way to Cusco anyway. So off we went.

The salt pond system seen from the road. It is huge.

Since Inca times, maybe even earlier, salt has been obtained from salt evaporation ponds in the town of Maras. Highly salty water from a subterranean stream is led trough a complex system of tiny channels running down a hillside through hundreds of shallow ancient terraced ponds.

This little cutie hangs out at the look out point taking her own snap shots of the tourists

As the water evaporates in the heat of the sun, the water becomes supersaturated and salt is precipitated. At this time "farmers" will cut off the water supply and allow the water to dry up, upon which he will collect the salt by carefully scraping it off the earthen floor of the pond.

Traditionally the salt ponds have been available to anyone who wants to farm them. So, if you are so inclined all you need to do is find an empty pond, talk to the local cooperative to get some info on how to take care of your pond and get working

Back in Cusco it was time to get packing again. Our next stop; on oasis in the Peruvian desert. More on life in the desert later, or next post will be from Machu Picchu

Hola!

From Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca we left Bolivia behind, and made our way to Peru.

After crossing the border we got on the bus to Arequipa. Arequipa also lies in the Andes mountains, but at 2 335 meters it is almost 1 km lower than Copacabana. Home to almost a million people, it is Peru's second most populous city after Lima as well as the second most popular tourist destination - tough to compete with Machu Picchu. The city is dwarfed by 3 surrounding snow-capped volcanoes with peaks above 5500m (18000 ft).

Nevado Chachani Volcano - 6075m/19,930ft

El Misti Volcano - 5822m/19,100ft

The central plaza - Plaza de Armas - bears a strong resemblance to Parque Central in Antigua, Guatemala but with slightly more greenery and palm trees. It's a beautiful spot to just relax on a bench and take in your surroundings or to lounge with a coffee or beer at one of the many restaurants touting their balcony views of the cathedral at sunset. One evening we did just that. The perfectly cone-shaped El Misti looms over the cathedral in the Plaza de Armas.

Plaza de Armas

View from a restaurant balcony

Many of the buildings in Arequipa are constructed using sillar - a white volcanic stone - giving it a Mediterranean feel. Included in this are the cathedral and the main tourist attraction, the Santa Catalina Monastery.

The Cathedral

Street view outside the monastery

The monastery is considered a "city within a city" and in its heydey, housed 450 nuns, mainly from upper-class Spainsh families who were required to pay equivalent of US$150,000 today as a dowry for entrance. The monastery was for the most part self-sufficient and the nuns had little to no contact with the outside world. As expected, the size and comfort of the living spaces depended on class and wealth.

Cramped kitchen

Larger kitchen

Water filtering stone

The throne room

A section of the monastery is still in use today, however the majority of it is now maintained only as a tourist attraction. The interior walls are painted in brightly contrasting adobe red and sky blue, with the odd natural sillar-white corridor every now and then.

Any tourist travelling to Peru does so mainly because of the Incas. Well, the 'Museo Sanctuarios Andinos' in Arequipa exhibits one of the most well-preserved mummies from that era - 'Juanita the Ice Princess'. The theory goes that this 11-15 year-old girl (who was one of many) was sacrificed over 500 years ago as an offering to the violent mountain gods in exchange for fewer eruptions and avalanches and for a more prosperous climate. Because of the cold climate at the altitude she was discovered (6288m or 20,600 ft), Juanita was extremely well-preserved. Unlike other mummies I've seen, with the substance sucked out of them where skin clings to bone, Juanita retained a form of human expression. It was a strange experience standing there looking at a person who lived, although briefly, in such a different world. We were lucky to be in Arequipa between Jan-Apr because outside of those months Juanita is hidden away in a freezer. Unfortunately for the blog, camera's were not allowed on the tour...you'll just have to see it yourself!

Next stop Cuzco and the almighty Machu Picchu

Hola!

From La Paz we headed for our last stop in Bolivia; Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Our Bolivia travel group had split up in La Paz, and now there were only the two of us and Tom going in the same direction.

After a few hours on the bus heading North and even higher we arrived in Copacabana at lunch time.

Ferrying our bus across Lake Titicaca

Titicaca from the bus

The major attraction in Copacabana, at least for foreign travellers, is Lake Titicaca. Titicaca lies between Bolivia and Peru in the Andes, and Copacabana is the main Bolivian town on the shore of the lake. Life here goes by pretty slowly with most people living off the land or catering to tourists. Strangely enough there is a small military presence; The Bolivian Navy uses the lakes for exercises and remains an active navy even though the country is land-locked.

Local ladies. The modern world seems far away in Copacabana

The main drag

Lake Titicaca is often called the world's highest lake, which isn't completely true. It is considered the world's biggest navigable lake, even though the term refers to navigation by larger boats, usually meaning commercial traffic which there is not much of here. There are at least 20 bodies of water in the world at higher elevations than Titicaca, but none of them even come close in surface area or depth. This lake is huge!

Another reason why people come to Copacabana is to get their cars blessed. Everyday at 10 a.m and 2.30 p.m a Benedicion de Movilidades is performed outside the Basilica de Virgen de la Candelaria. A more elaborate ritual takes place on weekend mornings known as a cha'lla, loads of cars, trucks and buses park outside the Basilica. Car owners pimp their vehicles with flowers, ribbons and flags and ask for protection by the Virgin. At the end of the ritual an offering of alcohol is poured over the vehicle. This blessing is particularly important for pilgrims and long distance bus companies with new fleets. Together with Tom we headed over to see what it was all about.

In front of the basilica

Blessing of the cars

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the small town, getting Tom's shoes sewn back up and drinking beer, until sunset when we decided to be good tourists again.

I don't know what the deal is with the popcorn here, but it is huge and there are whole streets dedicated to selling it! I guess business was a little slow for this lady...

Again, popcorn?!

Just north of the church is Cerro Calvario, a hill which provides good views of the town and lake. We decided climb it for sunset. Its supposed to be a 30 minute walk and when you look up the hill it looks like nothing. Then you start walking and remember that you're at 3000-something meters just about the time you're out of breath. At this point local old ladies are passing you carrying fire wood and children run past you laughing. Its pretty embarrassing. However, when you do reach the top the views are pretty good

Tom starting the climb

Residents along the trail let you use their bathroom, for a small fee of course

You pass 14 crosses on the way up

The city seen from Cerro Calvario

Crosses at the top of the hill

Made it!

Copacabana sunset

When in Copacabana one of the most popular things to do is visit Isla del Sol. The Island of the Sun is the legendary Inca creation site and the birthplace of the sun according to Inca mythology. We decided to do a day-tour and arrived at the dock bright and early.

Ready to go

Coca and cola. A lot of the locals chew coca leaves in Copacabana due to the altitude.

En route to Isla del Sol

The island has a population of around 2500 and most of these make a living farming sometimes adding to their income by fishing and working in tourism.

In many ways Isla del Sol looks like a Greek island, except for the fact that most hills are covered in agricultural terraces

There are no paved roads or vehicles on the island and the way people live here hasn't changed much over the years.

Drying mud bricks

Beach pigs

We walked up to some of the most famous ruins on the island, before we headed back to the boat which took us to the other side of the island. Here we opted out of additional sight-seeing and had a few beer instead. The view from the little restaurant wasn't bad either

Jason and a local craftsman hanging out at the Sacred Rock

Beer break

After a day on the island we headed back to Copacabana. This was our last day in Bolivia, and our last day travelling with Tom, the next day we were heading for Arequipa in Peru, while Tom was going to Cuzco. All good things must come to an end, after dinner and a couple of beer we decided to make it an early night as we all had buses to catch in the morning.We'll try to have an update ready soon

Hola!

From Sucre we got on a night bus along with Faye, Stu, Raine and Tom. The 12 hour bus ride was relative uneventful, but uncomfortable. We'd gotten used to some pretty cushy buses after Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and there's nothing even remotely cushy about the buses in Bolivia.
Nevertheless, we did make it to La Paz and headed straight to our hostel. Since there were still a couple of hours until check-in we ended up drinking beer and playing cards until we could finally find our beds and pass out for a couple of hours.

La Paz lies surrounded by mountains at an altitude of around 3650 m (11 975 ft.), and the climate is fairly cool. None of us had really packed for the cold; it was time to hit the market. Bolivia, as well as Peru, is famous for cheap alpaca and llama clothing, and we'd heard La Paz was the place to stock up on these. The market is a sweater, socks and toque galore, with about 150 shops selling the exact same thing. Right next to the tourist market is the Witch's Market. This market is definitely different selling everything from love potions to shriveled up llama fetuses.

Superstitious Bolivians bury these llama fetuses under the porches of their newly built houses for good luck.

As La Paz grows it spills onto the steep hills surrounding the city. This has resulted in varying elevations from 3000 m to 4000 m. The difference in altitude also reflects the different social layers of La Paz; the wealthiest citizens live in the lower neighbourhoods, the middle class mostly live in high risers downtown while the less economically fortunate live in makeshift brick houses on the hillsides surrounding the city.

In La Paz we stayed at the "Wild Rover", one of the big party hostels in the city. If you want to sleep, stay somewhere else. Since we were a group of six people we ended up having a dorm all to ourselves which worked out well as we didn't have to worry about waking anyone up coming home from the bar, or be woken up by people coming and going. Naturally we ended up party most nights.

Jas with what appears to be his new look.

Randomly met up with The Travelling Cousins, Alex and Laura when they checked in to our hostel Always a good time

Tom charming ladies at the bar

After checking out the market, spending way too much money on alpaca gear and having probably too many beer, it was time to do the one thing we'd plan to do in La Paz; bike the Death Road.

The "Death Road" has many names but since it was christened "world's most dangerous road" by the Inter-American Development bank in 1995 most people refer to it as the"Death road" of" Road of Death". It is estimated that 200-300 travellers were killed yearly on the road, until an alternative road was built a couple of years ago. Still cars go off the road here every year, as some people choose to use the old road because it is shorter than the new one. The road is 61 km long mostly unpaved and down-hill except for a small up-hill section at the beginning of the road. After the road became famous for being the most dangerous in the world it became a popular tourist destination, and today many tour operators offer downhill biking of the Death Road. After talking to different companies we decided to go with "Overdose". Not only do they have great guides, they provide the best gear; its important for your confidence to look like a pro

Ready to go

Full of confidence...

The downhill trip starts at 4650 m (15260 ft) at La Cumbre Pass and descends 1200 m all the way down to the rain forest, ending in the town of Corico. The day starts off close to freezing, but when you get off the bike at the end of the day you're dripping sweat!

The road hugs the mountainside on your right as you go down, on the other side are straight drop-offs up to 600 m (2000 ft)! Most of the road is no wider than 3.2 m (10 ft) and there are no guard rails. Combine this with fog, rain or dust reducing the visibility and you've got yourself a pretty dangerous road!

There are many crosses along the road marking places of fatal crashes or where cars have gone over the edge

The Death Road was something we had planned on doing ever since we started our trip, still I was pretty nervous as we were getting ready. I'd never been on a downhill bike before, and this wasn't exactly cycling to work or the supermarket. Once we got going though and I got used to it, it really wasn't frightening at all and actually a lot of fun

Getting instructions at the beginning of the dirt road. Another thing that's good about Overdose is that ll the guides and instructors are Bolivians. Many companies are foreign run and have guides from Western countries.

Obviously not everyone was as new to this as me, and some people appear not to have a sense of fear at all. Our group was divided into two, those who wanted to go fast and those who needed to take it a little slower. As you got more into it, or got tired, you could switch between groups as we made stops every now and then for the guides to give us some background on the road.

As I mentioned before the road ends in Bolivia's rain forest. The climate here is the exact opposite of that of the altiplano at La Cumbre. As part of the trip we went to a small hotel in Corico were we had a well deserved lunch, beer, a much needed shower and a refreshing dip in the pool. It was so nice to be back in the heat, even if it was just for a couple of hours

This is easily one of the best tours we've done on this trip. The scenery is amazing and the biking truly an adrenaline kick. It is most definitely a must do in La Paz!

After driving back to La Paz (on the new safer road) we got ready for our last night in La Paz. This was going to be our last night as a group, Raine was heading to Cuzco, Faye and Stu into the Bolivian jungle while Tom was heading to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca along with us. More on the less known Copacabana soon