From Bolivia to Peru

Hello people.

By now, i guess you will be all a little tired of my incessent drivelling, but fear not for today i have great tales of wonderous adventures through the famous Lake Titicaca, where the Inca´s believe the sun was born and life began. From there we will move onto Machu Picchu. A mysterious place that requires no build up. So get yourselves comfortable with a nice cup of hot cocoa, wine, Old Peculiar, buckfast (for the scottish readers), meths (for the scottish readers), what ever you are into, we all friends here......

Our journey began in La Paz upon a very untrustworthy bus which was to be our transport for the next three hours. Everything was tootling along just fine until we came to a large expanse of water that was not Lake Titicaca. We were a bit confused but we and all the other passengers were quickly ushered off the boat by a man in military uniform with a large machine gun. It soon became apparent that everything was standard procedure and we were to board a boat to the other side of the water. Simple enough for people, only the bus had to do the same. We weren´t allowed to take our ruck sacks off the bus before it boarded a rickety raft (it can be described in no greater terms), so we had to watch all our worldly possesions bob along side us across the water. It was an interesting experience although not one i would wish to repeat. We rejoined the bus at the other side and promptly resume our journey to the cheerfully named Copacabana without incident.

The town itself is quite interesting although is very touristy. It does however have a very bohemian hippy type vibe which Maya found very alluring. Our plan was to take a small hike the next morning further up the coast of Lake Titicaca to a smaller town, from where we would cross the water to a small island on the lake, Isla del Sol, or island of the sun. We left our ruck sacks with the hostel and just took bare essentials in our small bags. We had no map, but followed the coastal road, passing one or two small villages and little else along the way. The views were incredible. On one side we had the beautiful blue lakes and mountaneous terrain on the other. The joint was hard and hilly but great to be off the beaten track, free to wander where we please amongst small communities of Bolivia. The lives of some of these people are incredible. You see them farming by hand much in the same fashion in Britain in the times before the industrial revolution. We´re not talking twenty or thirty years behind but decades and decades. Anyhow i digress once again.

After about 3/4 hours of walking, we were suitably tired and arrived at another typically small town still about an hour from our planned destination of Yampuputra (or something similar). Just as we were coming out of the town a wee man came running up to us asking if we want to be rowed across the Lake. Floating along in a boat sounded better than walking further in the heat so we agreed. On first discussions i was under the impression he and a friend were going to row us across but it turned out to be just the one wee man and his wee rowing boat as our transport for the hour long crossing to the island. It was really cool just to be having a wee adventure. After about half an hour Maya decided to turn on her mobile to pass the time. We hadn´t really had any signal in Copacabana or while we were walking, but low and behold we had signal. And then just as we were half way across the lake where the Inca´s believe the sun was born and life began we got a wee beep beeep which turned out to be a message from me mum to let us know that i was now an uncle and my sister had had a wee healthy baby girl named Matilda. Obviously this didnt come as a total surprise. We did know she was pregnant after all but it had been a few days since the due date and it was still a nice coincidence.

Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!

After hearing the news it was time to start the celebrations so quickly found a place to stay on the island and headed to a restaurant which had beautiful sun set views over the Lake. We ordered a lovely bottle of Chilean wine and promptly wet the babies head in style. A very pleasant day and night indeed.

The island itself is just a lump of uneven rock. Everything is either steeply uphill or downhill, there or no paths going flat. We found this out the hard way as we spent the next day walking all the way around the island which in total took a very gruelling 9/10 hours. The views are incredible however and its difficult to stay mad at the hills for too long. We stayed there for a total of two nights just enjoying the atmosphere and the sheer blueness and beauty if the lake. But time was ticking and we needed to get to Cusco to prepare for our five day trek culminating in Machu Picchu.

We hopped on a motorised boat this time for the journey back to Copacabana where we stayed another night before embarking on a ten hour bus ride to Cusco. Before we left for Peru i did manage to treat myself to a couple of Bolivian football shirts. They are cool.

We landed in Cusco fairly late at night but managed to find our accomodation fairly quickly. We had a three nights to chill out and prepare before setting off and just planned to relax. Cusco is a beautiful city. Really old and charismatic with tiny wee streets and interesting buldings. It is obviously very touristy given its close proximity to Machu Picchu, but still retains sufficient credibilty to be considered very cool. It is however very expensive, especially compared to Bolivia, so we will have to be careful with our money while we are here. Luckily we have found an incredible bakery just near our hostel which has the best bread and pasties (empinada´s) you could wish for at a very reasonable price so we are happy.

We set off on our Salcantay Trey last Thursday morning at 4.30am. It was a crual time to start and one that we saw a lot of over the coming five mornings. We had a short bus ride to a small town in the middle of nowhere where we were introduced to the rest of our group of about 13, a quick breakfast before the walking began at about 7. The trek itself is four days of hard walking to a sacred mountain called Salcantay. The fifth day is spent at Machu Picchu itself. It soon became very clear that the trek wasn´t going to be just a simple walk in the park. It was hard going usually walking from 7 in the morning to at least 5 at night. The first day was spent covering the largest distance although was fairly steady going. We were always walking uphill but at a fairly steady incline so it didn´t feel too tough. The weather was hot and the bugs were biting which all contributed to feeling pretty knackered as we rolled out the sleeping bags for camp that night. The first night was spent at the base of some incredible scenery with many a snow capped mountain nearby for pleasant viewing, it was however bloody freezing. I donned all the clothes i had with me, resulting in two thermal shirts, a t-shirt, a woolly jumper, jacket, and woolly cardigan complete with two pairs of socks, boxers, shorts, and trousers, woolly hat and gloves. I was still freezing inside a sleeping bag and liner. Didn´t get much sleep but never mind. Oh i forgot we had also had a reasonable amount of rum to try and keep the cold out. It seems i didn´t drink quite enough.

Despite the cold we still awoke the next morning in fairly high spirits and set off for what was billed as the hardest days walking at about 6.30am. It was cold and the days target was to be our highest point of about 4600m at the base of the sacred mountain of Salcantay. That required a predicted five hours of severe uphill walking before another four down the other side to where our camp was to be based for the second night. The day was hard going. It was difficult to get warm after such a cold night and the sheer steepness of the terrain was difficult, but we powered on and actually made the ascent in about three hours. It was abit strange as we were supposed to be celebrating, but a i lacked a sense of achievement somwhat as we were nowehere near the highest point of the area. We were at he peak of a valley that had huge mountains surrounding it. I didn´t much fancy attempting to scale the mountains but clearly our highest point felt a bit unsubstantial when dwarfed by its surroundings. Once we got to the other side of the valley the weather warmed up and camp wasn´t so bad the second night. The third and fourth days were more like jungle treks. The terrain completely changed from harsh mountainous rock, to lush green flowers and fauna. And the heat!! Phew it got hot and consequently the walking became hard er and harder. The tiredness began to tell with the heat and lack of sleep and the waling became harder and harder as the days went by. The fourth day wasn´t helped by a stinking hangover from a really cool party on the third night. We had a good group to walk with and enjoy a drink with which made the trip a really cool few days. On the third night we had a treat with a trip to some hot springs. We got there at dusk and were left splashing around with our first taste of hot water surrounded by stars and distant mountains. Really quite cool. It was that the put the group in a good mood and hence why we all set off walking on the fourth day with stinking hangovers.

The fourth night was spent in a small town at the base of mountain Machu Picchu called Aguas Calientes. Its where everybody stays before they had up to the ruins and is just a town established purely for tourists. Our camping days were over and we provided with a nice hotel for the night although it was another 4am start on the fifth day. Our early start was to incorporate a gruelling hour long hike up steep inca steps to Machu Picchu in time for the sun rise. Bearing in mind we had spent the past 4 days covering at least 90km, this was a hard hard climb, but it was soon to be worthwhile when we finally arrived at the Lost city at about 5.30am. Machu Picchu is an unbelivable place and an incredible experience. The ruins itself are obviously amazing but it is the setting that is just awe inspiring. The whole sity is on the point of a mountian with drops either side and spectacular views of other pointy mountains all around. We had a wander around the ruins and then headed up another nearby hill called waymapichhu which was a great point to get a great view point of Mach Picchu. It was an incredible day spent just gazing at the ruins and their surroundings. We were all really knackered just from the previous days exursions but just sat and chilled and basked in the beauty of the place. The Inca´s were clearly nuts to build such a place in such a remote spot but it makes for cracking tourist attraction now. The ruins itself are about 70% original and 30% repaired, but that doesn´t diminish the impressiveness of the place at all.

We got back to Cusco late on Wednesday night and have just slept for about 12 hours. I´m still tired but am off to meet our trekking group for a few celebratory drinks tonight. The Salcantay Trek was a demanding alternative to the Inca Trail and was a pretty testing experience. The final day is the reward for both and Machu Picchu as a spectacle is worthy of many a hard days trekking. Unfortunately I think of few words to describe it, but it is indeed an incredible sight that everyone must try try to see at some point.

As for me and Maz, with no have no plans. Since we arrived that only mark on the calender has been this trek so now we´re footloose and fancy free. I think we´re probably going to head around the south of Peru for the next couple of weeks ending up in Lima, hopefully in time for a big festival/ carnival which i think takes place on the 18th October. From there who knows, but that is a lovely freedom to have. We can probably have a couple more months travelling about but then it will probably be time to try and find some work. We have been very busy doing lots of stuff for the past six weeks and it is probably time now to just chill and enjoy travelling without doing too much stuff.

Anyhow its all good. Travelling life is suiting us both well and its exciting to hjave no idea of where we might be in a week or two.

I hope all is good back there, and i hope to hear from you all soon. Feel free to pass a comment on anything you´ve read (all you need to do is click the comment button at the bottom of the text). It´s nice to hear your news as well as me blabbing on about my´n.

Best wishes
Rob

p.s. I think Maya has promptly whacked up some photos on her site of Machu Picchu so you can get a good gander on there. I will try and put some up on here as soon as possible.