Day 60-61: Lima and Huacachina

Day 60 was the pits.  Slow start to the day, was staying in Mirafores, which is a really modern and posh area of Lima.  It is on a cliff and over looks the sea. 

Went to catch a bus to Huacachina which is 4,5 hours south on the coast.  Half an hour into the trip I started to get stomach cramps, sweatings and generally feeling like shit.  Luckily there was no diarihea, but I had to sit through 4 hours with severe stomach cramps.  I think it was something I ate for breakfast.  My taxi driver felt sorry for me in Ica and took me to a pharmacy, they gave me drugs.  Then drove me to Huacachina and I found a hotel and went to bed.  Didnt sleep well, but today I feel better.

Huacachina is a little village in the desert/sand dunes.  You can do sand surfing, bugy rides in the desert or hangout by the pool or oasis.  So I did a bit of everything.  The bugy ride was cool.  Up and down sand dunes and then jumping.  We wopuld then stop at the top of the sand dunes and sand board down. 

 

 It is like snow boarding but you need to put your weight at the back and it is not as fast as snow boarding.  Still good fun.

Day 55-59: Iquitos and the Amazon

Just call me "Crocodile Tai" from New Zealand.

Only a few problems with that. 1. There are no crocodiles in New Zealand.  2. It does look awfully small (I am talking about the crocodile!!!).

4 days downriver, with the animals and some travelling companions, obviously not as experienced as I was in the wild.  Luis and Milton our local guides came with us and looked after us well. 

 

We left Iquito to Nauta, and then from Nauta we went by boat downriver.  I was wanting to paddle but the others wanted to use the motor.  I was now wearing my leopard string gstring to feel more comfortable in the native environment.

We usually left in the morning before breakfast by boat to search for animals. We saw Squirel monkeys, sloths and lots of birds – eagles, vultures, tucans…. 

After breakfast we would go for jungle walks.  The first one was pretty hairy.  With the end of rainy season, alot of the jungle was flooded, so we were walking around in knee deep water with all the snakes and other creatures.  We saw electric eels that can discharge up to 600v, frogs, spiders and other insects. 

Luis taught me how to outrun a Bushranger snake (very aggressive snakes). They are also called dog snakes because they bark at you while they chase you.  You either have to zigzag when you are running.  Or run around in a circle, or take off you clothes and through then behind you and they will attack the heat of your clothes.  All very handy stuff.

At the lodge they had a tree where lots of Macraws (big parrots), both rainbow coloured and blue and yelow would hangout.  There was also a tucan that cruised around the lodge trying to bite you or your shoes.  In the roof of the dining room there was a Boer Constricter, but only a small one (about 1,5 metres).  It was hunting for rats and bats inside the lodge.  So while you we were eating dinner we could watch the snake up he top.  In the mornings Tapirs (a cross between a pig and an anteater) would come around.

 

Out the front of the lodge we would watch the pink dolphins.  In front of the lodge was a channel that onnected thje rier with a lake and there were a lot of little fish that the dolphins ate.  The pink dolphins are blind when they are born because the amazon is too muddy to see anything.

One night we wnet looking for caimen, snakes and spiders.  Thee were a lot of tarantulas on the trees.  This one is a bout the size of my hand.  Below is a Coral snake, very poisonous.

One day we went fishing for piranhas.  We caught lots of small ones.  We were using meat for bait. 

On our last day we came across a anaconda.  It was about 5 metres long and had been caught in a village closeby.  The anaconda had been starving (with so much water, their food sources move up high away from the water).  The anaconda had tried to eat one of the little boys from the village.  It had actually attacked but had mistimed its lung and only caught its fangs in his shirt.  Someone nearby had thrown a piglet at the anaconda and so it attacked that and crushed it to death.  Then the local men atacked it and caught it.  If the anaconda had been on target the boy would have been dead.

The little boy in red is the one that was attacked.  Also this anaconda is not dead.  Ot is injured so is not moving much.

Finally caught the boat back up river and returned to Iquitos.  There was a transport strike on the next day.  So there wass broken lass and rubbish all over the roads.  But made it to the airport for a flight to Lima. 

Day 54: Cuzco, Lima, Iquitos

 

Today I leave Cuzco and my brother and his wife (by the way, that´s not them in the photo) and jump a plane to Lima and then Iquitos.  It´s been great hanging out with them for a week or 2.  Now they head off to South Peru , Bolivia and Chile.  Iquitos is a jungle town in the north of Peru on the Amazon.  Here is where you can go up the Amazon to camp or lodges up river.  I will be going to a lodge about 140kms up river for about 4 days.  Doing jungle walks and riding up the canales.

No contact with the outside world for 4 days.  See you then.

Day 52 and 53: Cuzco

A recovery day.  Legs were sore and we were all tired.  We all caught up again to watch a bit of the Arsenal vs Villareal game at an Irish Bar and then we needed to sorted out washing and other chores.  Topped it off with a massage to relax the sore muscles.

 Day 53:

Manawanui and Kiriana decided to go to the Sacred valley but I was too lazy and looking for another chillout day.  So had a slow breakfast in teh Plaza de Armas and then walked up to Sacsayhuaman (Sexy Woman is more or less how it is pronounced).  It was an old fortress 40 mins walk from town.  Was one of the last stands for the Incas against the Spanish. 

Cuzco was formed like the shape of the puma and Sacsayhuaman was suppose to be the head, with teh jutting walls as the teeth.  Now only about 20% of the fortress remains. They rest has been taken away during the years to built other houses.  SOme of the rocks are up to 300 tonnes.  They moved them by rolling them with logs, rocks and men pulling.

Day 51: Inca Trail – Day 4

There is a race every year to see who can reach Machu Picchu first.  The locals dont care any food just coca leaves.  They do the 40km in 3hr 45 mins.  We did close to 25 hours to do it. 

Another interesting fact.  Our porters who are mostly locals from the Andes, carry up to 28kilos.  Many years ago there were porters carrying more than 35 kilos, but due to accidents they limited them to 28ks.  The tallest one in our group of porters was 5 foot 6 inches.  When we would take 7 hours walking, they would do it in 2 hours, running with 28kilos on there back.

4:30am start, breakfast at 5:00 and on a bus at 5:40.  Macchu Pichu was a holy city, believed to house scholars and religious people.  It is actually low, it is at 2400m.

It was suppose to have taken 100 years to build it, and it is still uncomplete.  It is broken into 2 parts, the agricultural sectins where they have many terraces, and the urban section where people lived and worshipped. 

 

There were many temples – the most important being the Sun temple which had windows that shone light thru on the winter and summer solaces.  Underneath is the water temple and below that the Pachamama temple (earth temple).  Further down was the Condor temple where dead bodies were found on a natural stone that appeared to be like wings.  The bodies were found on top of the wings.  They believed that they were important people and that this signified that the condor was taking them ot the other world.

Close to the Sun dial was the rainbow temple and the 3 windows temple – reincarnation, pachamama (earth) and the underworld.  Finally was the sun dial which told the month of the year.  Macchu Picchu is at 2400m and its 4 corners point like a compass.  They are not sure why it was abandoned by the Incas, one theory is that they believed that the Spanish were coming so they abandoned it. However the Spanish never made it there.

They have a quarry in the middle that they use to get the stones.  On all the temples the rocks are fitted together like they have been done by machine. 

The clouds covered it until about 8:00 and then they started to lift.  At 10:00am it was all clear.  The "train-ees" arrived about this time. Straight off the train from Cuzco – cheaters. 

Kiriana was one of the adventurous one that climbed Machu Pichu mountain at the back of the site (another 300m). 

They have actually found another site that is bigger than Machu Picchu close by but they are still escavating and dont expect to open it for several more year.

We eventualy got the train and bus back to Cuzco at 17:00 and were back in the hostels at 20:00 for a warmest shower.  Then at the Fallen Angel restaurant for Caiparinha, Long Island tea and Margaritas.  This place had bath tubs for tables with glass ontop and gold fish swimming around inside. Mama Africa was next on the list and we finally got to bed about 3:30-4:30am.  A big night…

Day 50: Inca trail – Day 3

Unfortunately there had been a landslide close to the sun gate above Machu Picchu so we could not continue with the same route, we would have to ascent 115m then descend 1000m to the river and then follow the track to Machu Pichu town.  We would stay there the night so we could get to Machu Picchu about 6:00am. 

Porridge for breakfast then we passed through the Inca tunnel to the last pass.  Just over this pass we came to another set of ruins followed by teh Inca cave. Now was the hardest part of the trip.  1000m descent which really kills your knees.  We went from 3700m at our camp site to 2700m for our lunch break. We had another casualty, Jan fell over when walking down.  She broke her wrist, but managed to make it down and to Machu Picchu. 

 

We finally made it to the river about 15:00 and we had another 3-4kms to walk beside the river to the town.

 

That night we stayed in a hostel and had a few beers.  We even went to the hot springs which were packed with trekkers.

Day 49: Ica Trail – Day 2

Slept well and we were all woken up by Eric doing tent service – coffee to the tent.  Here is the view from the tent.

Then omelets for breakfast.  Today we had 13 kms. We stick our coca leaves in our mouths and start climbing 500m to the first pass.  It was raining and hot work to make it to 4200m.  But we made it.

 

However you did notice the coca leaves they did give you energy.  We took the obligatory photo at the pass and then decended 700m, where lunch was waiting for us.  Soup and beef.  We then ascent another 500m going thru another pass. 

 

Along the way we see the ruins of Ica "hotel" or resting place, when they were walking the trail.  We continue walking and 20 mins from our night site we come accross some more ruins which use to be a food market used to supply Machu Picchu and also a early warning location to warn Machu Picchu of invaders. 

 

It is in the cloud forest so they could not use fires to warn each other.  They used concha shells.  We then descent to the camp site.  We had a little happy hour and a bit of a laugh.  And were in bed at 21:30.   

Day 48: Ica Trail – day 1

Standing outside the hostel at 4:00am, where we ended up waiting for 50 mins until we were picked up.  2 hours in bus we finally arrived at KM 82.  Which is the jump off point for the Ica Trail.  We only carry our personal stuff. Manawanui, Kiriana and I carried about 5 kilos each.  We then hired an extra porter to carry our sleeping bags and a few other odds and ends.  It was already raining when we started.

We were 15 trekkers, 2 guides, and 21 porters.  That number would reduce along the way!!! 

We had team American – Roberto and Todd – all the latest equipment that money could buy – GPS, water cleansers, wet weather gear……  we even think that they had equipment to breakdown there human waste.. we further suspect that the fiters were so good that they actually were drinking there filtered waste to minimise impact on the environment.  They were carrying about 14 kilos each.

Brasilian team was headed up by Pedro -our own Keanu Reeves with a moustache.  Carrying 14 kilos as well.

The UK team was Tom, Becs – humor and beauty (wont say which is which) and inventors of silly games . Jean, Hugh –  Keen to show that this trek is easy.

Dutch team: Arion – proudly wearing the orange of his country.

Australia: Jo – loves beer and boys – what more could you ask for from a woman.

NZ:  Mana, Kiriana and Tai – ready to lead from the front, or get carried up from the back.

Argentina: Alejandro: very sly sense of humor and gets very upset when his soup arrives late.  Also my tent mate.

Our Guide was Eric and Edi: Eric was a great organisers, worrier and lecturer.  He was our little father.  Edi was only with us for a first day.

The first day was, 15km, leaving from 2600m and climbing to 3800m.  We started walking long a river for roughly 7 km.  Then came the first ascent to Wayllabamba.  The ascents were very difficult with the attitude.  We would take 7 hours to do the 15kms, while the porters would take 2hours.  We had lunch at Wayllabamba.  When we arrived to the lunchsite the lunch tent was set up and little bowls of water with soap and a towel so we could wash (what luxury).  First lunch was a bean soup, then trout, then tea and coffee.  We started drinking coca leaf tea. 

Coca leaves are legal here in Peru and people drink it or chew it for energy.  If you chew alot it makes your tongue numb. 

After lunch was probably the hardest walk for us.  Instead of doing 1200m ascent on day 2, we split it, so we did a 700m ascent to our camp at Llulluchapampa close to the first pass. It was at 3850m.

When we arrived our tents were set up and out little bowls of hot water were waitng ofr us to clean up before dinner.  It was a hard day.  Dinner was soup, and chicken.  We were all in bed by 20:30.

We had 2 casualties today.  A couple from UK had started with us, but unfortunately his wife had got a jungle virus and was unable to continue.  So Edi and the couple returned the next morning.

Day 47: Cuzco

Thought we had better make up for our sins from teh previous days and so we decided to do an easy mountain biking day.  The little men in the office said…"·yes yes yes señor, is flat, the route is very easy, yes señor we3 have great bikes.. of course señor you will be back by 18:00".  While we soon learnt the truth.

We started at 7:30 and got a bus to the middle of nowhere.  Jumped on the bikes and sped down the first hill at about 60km per hour, then started the first problem.  A hill.. meaning you cycle up the hill.  The next problem was naother hill, and another, and another.  Add in a 3 flat tyres which had 6 different patches already on them.  More hills.  And a hike of 1 hours to catch a bus because one of the bikes didnt work anymore.  Getting pulled over by the police in a private taxi we hired to get back to Cuzco in time for our Machu Picchu briefing. It was an interesting day. 

 

Have to say we saw some beautiful sites, the concentric circle terraces done by the aztec to experiment on which sort of plants like what sort of climate.  Each terrace has it own micro-climate, so they would plant all different types of`plants and see which ones survived betters in each one. 

 

Then there was the salt terraces covering one whole side of the hill.  The little kids that came over to us during lunch just to watch.  The kids are beautiful but some of then real little ones have very old faces, and dress like growth mens, when they are younger than 5 yrs.

When we finally got back we made it to our briefing late.  Then Kiriana went back to the mountain bike agency and sorted them out.. we even got a refund from them. 

 

Time to go, we have to get up at 3:30 to leave for the 4 day Macchu Picchu trek.  See ya then.

Day 45 and 46: Cuzco

Arrived in Lima at 5:30 in the morning after an all night flight from Miami.  Jumped a flight directly to Cuzco.  Missed my brother at the airport but we caught up at his hostel with Kiriana.  It´s my brothers birthday and we decided to meet here to celebrate his birthday and we would all do Machu Pichu. 

 

We started at 18:00 in an Irish bar in the middle of Cuzco ,with some friends English and Australian friends.  After copious beers and rum, we headed to "Mama Africa" another bar in the the Plaza de Armas, for pizza and tequila.  Our english and australian friends were making Peruvian friends.  Many, many many tequilas, rums, and vodkas later we left for the hostel.  The place was still rocking at about 3:00 but we were too tired.

Needless to say the next day we all felt very sick.  We managed to get out of bed to catch up with our english friends at 13:00 to eat.  Still feeling like shit, we wandered around aimlessly and that night we ended up all getting massages.  Quite funny because my brother, Kiriana and me were all in the same room while these 3 ladies massaged us.  We were all lying on these massage tables in our underwear with sheets over us.  However my massuse decided that she couldnt do the job properly unless I took off all my clothes…

By the way Cuzco is quite a pretty town, I think.