Peru welcomed us with open arms and proved to be a highlight of our trip so far.
We arrived in Arequipa ( the launchpad to the Calca Canyon and Peru's second biggest city) and quickly found ourselves at the local market sampling succulent roast pork and stocking up on snacks for our trip to the canyon.
After an extremely unpleasant, long and rough bus journey ( worst of the trip so far) we arrived in Cabanaconde spent two days hiking in the Calca Canyon, a place which rivals the Grand Canyon for size and beauty. A 1200m decent into the Canyon gave us some spectacular views of the raging river below, cloudforest and condor flying overhead but also daunting thoughts of having to climb back out the following day. We visited some sleepy little villages, made a few wrong turns, watches so,e dung beetles doing their thing and finally arrived at the bottom of the Canyon in an Oasis town with swimming pools and tropical fruit trees. It was low season in the Canyon we had a quiet evening eating mangos off the tree and having dinner with another couple. They luckily warned us about the scorpions which like to inhabit the sleeping huts at night so with our flashlight in hand we quickly disposed of 3 nasty spiders and 1 friendly looking scorpion from the walls of our hut. Cait was thrilled about going to sleep that night but after the long day walking we didn't have much trouble.
At the top of the Calca Canyon.
When you are standing at the bottom of a canyon 3000m above sea level with a steep 1200m climb ahead, we were daunted. It took us 3 very long and tough hours to climb out, and Cait and I both agree that it stands as one of the biggest physical challenges we have ever completed, it was really tough.
We had to make a sooner than expected departure from Cabanaconde as we miscalculated the cash we needed for the days at the Canyon and unfortunately we missed out on going to watch condors riding the thermals from the viewing platform above the canyon.
We swiftly returned to Arequipa and enjoyed a bit more of the city including a sensational stone grill dinner at Zig Zag restaurant. We sampled some nicely cooked Alpaca, which had a taste not too unlike beef.
The next leg of our journey involved heading to Cusco the former Inca Capital city. We had a luxurious overnight bus trip with fully reclining chair, movies, meals and wifi which was a change from our previous bus transport.
Cusco is a nice city but overrun with tourist which makes it slightly harder to enjoy walking the old streets. You are constantly being approached to be asked if you need tours, restaurants and massages. We enjoyed exploring the city including visiting the Sun Temple, an ancient Inca temple and also Spanish Cathedral built over the top creating a strange conglomerate and to me symbolised the takeover of the Spanish Empire in Peru. All of this however was a bit of a sideshow as the main reason for us to be in Cusco was to go on the famous four day Inca Machu Picchu Trek and also following that fly into Peuto Maldondo an visit the Amazon jungle, we had an action packed and exciting 8 days ahead. We were both super excited.
We we picked up at 4.30am by our team at Alpaca Adventures and made our way to the starting point of our trek in the Sacred Valley. There was another couple on our trek as well, a relatively small group compared to many of the other tours but the four of us had SIX porters, ONE chef and ONE tour guide.
At the top of Dead Mans Pass, our super porters and chef (far right), David and Deniz our fellow hikers, Ruben our guide is taking the photos.
The trek was the most fantastic experience of our trip so far, I was expecting the ruins of Machu Picchu to be very nice to look at and for that to be the prize at the end of the trek but I was not expecting to be blown away by the sophistication and brilliance of the Inca Empire, the beauty and diversity of the landscape we would traverse and the overall satisfaction we would have with the "green machine" - our amazing super porters, chef and tour guide, fellow travellers and now friends David and Deniz from Philly in the US.
Hiking on day one, looking pretty fresh.
Hanging out in our tent, set up and packed up by the porters of course.
The "Green Machine" - Our super porters powering up Dead Mans Pass (4200m above sea level).
The trek is truly fantastic, 45 km of cobblestone pathway and stairways and buildings along the way to service the sacred city of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was a city for the important people of the Inca Empire, the royal family, the ministers, the religious leaders, the retired servants of the Empire. The Inca Trek was the secret and safe passage for the leaders to link to the rest of the empire and the ancient buildings along the pathway were; resting places, food growing and storage places ( as Machu Picchu was too humid to grow and store food, it was all brought in to Machu Picchu), places to follow astrology to keep track of the seasons and dates, communication and military buildings.
The architecture and engineering of each site is impressive, they consider earthquakes, drainage and erosion, water supply, orientation. The longevity of the sites is a reflection of their knowledge of the land and intelligence.
For the Engineers - One of the aquaducts, supplying spring water to Machu Picchu and nearby sites, still working after 500 years!
Caity in her poncho in the rain at Mini Machu Picchu..... and terracing on the hills to prevent landslides and sloped windows and doorways to prevent eathquake damage, still serving their purpose 500 years later.
We learnt so much about the Incas and this special place from Ruben our guide, he was also very funny and would tell us to "watch out for the Pumas", that the Spanish were very "stupid people" , tell us to drink "corn beer" in order to be strong and tell us stories about modern times and the village men including himself having to steal women from other villages in order to marry them. The Porters were incredible, while we carried our light backpacks with camera and a few snacks they carried 25kgs and powered up and down the mountain passes. The chef was equally impressive and we dinned like royalty the whole way with Alajandro the chef cooking at least four different main dishes each meal from his two gas burner camp stove.
Poncho time again... and one of Ruben´s info sessions, telling us all about Incas use of astrology and Inca philosophy.
The final day we woke very early 3.30am to line up at a checkpoint to walk through the sungate and enter Machu Picchu site. It was cloudy and rainy but when we walked down into the site, the cloud cleared and we were left with the very famous and spectacular views of the beautiful city and we set about exploring. There is so much more to tell you but I shall stop there. A truly amazing and enchanting part of the world.
No need for explanation here, the fog cleared beautifully for us to take the famous pictures of Machu Picchu.
What an adventure.
We celebrated our successful journey by sampling some local cuisine in Cusco, you cannot go there without trying the delecacy roasted guineapig, the meat was nice, a bit like chicken of course, but it was one experience I am happy to do only once.
We packed up our dirty, wet clothes and jumped on a plane to Puerto Maldonaldo into the Peruvian Amazon. We were picked up in a tuktuk and whisked onto a long boat on the wide and fast flowing Rio Madre De Dios. We arrived at a lodge on the banks of the river and were welcomed by our guide, four monkeys, a Macaw and a warthog.
River journey along the Rio Madre De Dios from Puerto Maldonaldo to our lodge.
Lalo the monkey welcoming us back from one of our trips into the jungle.
Pepe the talking and very temperamental Macaw.
Our time in the amazon was relaxing, amusing and interesting. We went on excursions from the lodge such as night walks to find tarantulars and vipers, walking in the jungle to spot Macaws and monkeys, rowing on a lake to watch endangered giant otters swimming and feeding, spotting Caymons ( crocodiles) from a canoe, swimming in the water with Caymans and Paranahs ( apparently the Caymons are not agressive) We also went on a canopy zipline and went fishing. When we were not on excirsions we spent our time playing with the cheeky monkeys at the lodge, relaxing in the hammocks, itching our mosquito bites and spraying on more mosquito repellant.
Having a swim in Lake Sandoval with the Caymans, piranhas and giant otters, Caity wouldn´t get in at the lake but she did swim in the River Rio.
Canoeing in Lake Sandoval, the other travellers had the job of spotting wildlife (yeah right).
Up in the Canopy of the Amazon.
Bruno the extremely cute monkey relaxing in the hammock with me, soon after discovering my chest hair (hand down my shirt), I think Bruno thought I was a monkey too!
Bruno didn´t want us to leave, he tried to follow us onto the boat, and we wanted to keep Bruno.
Our last stop in Peru was Lima, after being told mostly bad things about Lima, we were very pleasantly surprised by what the coastal suburb of Miraflores had to offer. The food scene in Lima is off the charts, with highly praised restaurants everywhere, we loved the local cuisine, ceviche ( raw fish cooked in lemon juice) and lots of other delicious seafood. We waited 45 mins to eat at a well known restaurant called La Mar and it was well worth the wait.
Sensational Ceviche at La Mar restaurant, the seafood in Lima is sensational.
Octopus at La Mar, yum.
We had a great time walking along the beaches, sipping cocktails on one of the piers, watching people surfing and skateboarding in the sunshine. I could not resist the beautiful waves and the opportunity to surf in another country, so grabbed a hire board and paddled out from the steep cobblestone beach to enjoy some waves. Leaving Cait to go for a stroll on the beach was like leaving chips out for seagulls, she was pestered by men left right and centre but managed to keep them at bay...
A nice view of the surf and sunset at Miraflores beach in Lima.
Well that's enough about Peru, so much to offer, we had a great time, we only scratched the surface but I think we managed to find some of the juiciest worms, we would be happy to have the opportunity to go back one day.
Back to Argentina now.
Adios and Happy Easter
PS how did the Hawks lose to the Cats again, when will the curse end?!
