Weeks 47 to 50
13 June to 5 July
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD for 20 June
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDAD AND JAMIE for 24 June
When we left Lima we caught an overnight bus to Ica (not Cusco as stated in our last update!). From Ica we caught another bus to Huacachina where there are enormous sand dunes and we rented some sand boards and had a go at sand boarding. It was good fun and easier than snowboarding as it did not hurt when you fell over. The downside was that in order to get to the top of the sand dune you had to walk and it was extremely hard work walking up a very steep sand dune! From here we headed to Nazca to see the famous Nazca lines. The lines are best seen from the sky so we booked ourselves on a 20 minute flight over the lines which include a humming bird, monkey, spider and various other patterns made in the stone. You are warned before getting on the flight that due to the size of the plane (seats 6) it can cause motion sickness as it circles over the lines and sadly for Christine it did!!
From Nazca we caught the overnight bus to Cusco, just in time for the beginning of the Inti Raymi festival (as stated in our last update!!!). It was a great week of festivals, free concerts, parades in the streets and the culmination was the Inti Raymi festival itself on 24 June. This festival is the biggest Inca festival and people come from all over South America for it. The start of the festival is at one Inca site in the town where people in traditional Inca costumes recreate the Inca rituals. From the main town the parade goes to Sacsaywamen, another Inca site up on the hill above Cusco. The main event takes place in an arena and people sit up on the hills watching. Some areas where there are Inca ruins are closed off to the public but due to the volume of people wanting to attend, there was still an enormous queue when the parade reached the arena and people just broke through the barriers and sat on the Inca ruins (and this was the locals!!). Once in the arena the parade recreates the sacrifice to Pachamama (mother earth) in the form of a llama. You do not actually get to see the sacrifice as they crowd round the llama. There is then the lighting of a flame and the giving to Pachamama of gold and silver and prayers for good weather and good crops.
We went on a tour to the Sacred Valley to visit the sites of other Inca ruins. It was great to see the ruins but unfortunately, as with many organised tours, we spent more time at local craft markets than at Inca ruins!! We were due to do the 4 day Salkantay trek which ended up at Machu Picchu but unfortunately Darryl had picked up a bug so we were unable to go. However, he was well enough for us to join the trekkers at Ollantaytambo the night before the climb to Machu Picchu. We were up at 4.00am to set off to reach Machu Picchu in time for sunrise, and boy are we glad we did! It was a very steep climb but the sight of Machu Picchu as the sun comes up, before any other people arrive was just amazing! The view is breathtaking. The Inca ruins are just spectacular and they are surrounded by the most beautiful valley and snow capped mountains. Within Machu Picchu there is another climb up Wynapicchu for great views back over Machu Picchu itself which we also did. It was a great day which ended with all the trekkers getting together for a drink in the evening, and not getting to bed until 4.00am the next day!
Once back in Cusco we heard from a voluntary organisation we had contacted about doing some volunteer work. The organisation is called Seeds of Hope (www.peruseeds.org). The organisation is run entirely by volunteers, one in Huraz and one in Cusco. The aim is to provide after school care and help for children from poor families. During their time at the Seeds of Hope school they have help with their homework, time to play, are given fruit to eat and at the end of the day they wash their face and hands, clean their teeth and are given moisturiser for their little dry hands and faces. The children there are amazing, they may come from very poor homes but they are so full of love and affection. We had a wonderful week there with them, it is amazing how the language barrier really does not matter with children. At the end of the week we bought some equipment for the school as a donation, the favourite being the skipping ropes. Both the girls and the boys were great at skipping and played many similar games to those we remember playing as children. We will always remember our time here with very happy memories, we just wish we could have stayed longer.
At the Inca Museum in Cusco we saw an amazing exhibition. A voluntary organisation has decided to try to preserve the old cultures and dialects which are dying out. They teach teenagers how to use recording and camera equipment and they then go to the local villages and interview the older people about how things used to be and these people generally only speak the local dialect. One of the interviews was with a lady who was 107 years old! The organisation plans to do this in other parts of the world too so that old customs and dialects are not lost forever. What a great idea!
On 28 June we decided that as much as we loved Cusco and had met some great people there it really was time to move on, but not without a fight. Having spent 11 nights in the same hostel and having agreed the rate on arrival, when we came to leave the lady had increased the price and was demanding much more money from us. Darryl refused to pay this and although we reminded her of the conversation we had had , she had conveniently forgotten about this and then tried to say her English was bad (when in fact it was very good) and tried to blame the night porter!! When we tried to give her what we believed was due and then leave she locked us in and would not let us out of the hostel. Our bus was due to leave in 30 minutes so unfortunately we had to hand over the money but we were not happy and will not be recommending Hostel El Arcarno to anyone!!
We caught the bus to Puno from where we did a 2 day 1 night trip on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is just beautiful (and extremely large at 165km – half belonging to Peru and half to Bolivia) with wonderful views of the snow capped Cordillera Real in Bolivia. The first islands on the lake we visited were the Floating Islands which is a village made entirely of reeds. The base of the islands is the roots of the reeds which are about 1m thick and on top of this they lay reeds, in a criss cross fashion, again to the thickness of 1m. The houses and boats of the locals are also made of reeds. Some missionaries had been to the islands and one of the houses had a solar panel and the lady invited us in to see the inside and we were extremely surprised to see a stereo and TV, it looked so out of place with the surroundings! We had a ride on a reed boat, it was extremely comfortable.
From here we headed a couple of hours out into the lake and to the island of Amantani. Here we were met by Gregorio, whose family home we were to stay in that night. Gregorio took us to his adobe brick house with a very cosy room for us and we met 4 of his 8 children! His wife only spoke Quechua so unfortunately we could not chat with her but we had fun playing ball with the children. Later we hiked to the top of the island to watch an amazing sunset before Delia (Gregorio’s oldest daughter) took us to the local village hall where a local band played and she taught us some local dances (and dressed us both in local dress). Gregorio’s wife prepared us some lovely meals in huge cast iron pots on the open fire and we felt very at home. The next morning we headed off again, this time to Taquila Island. This is another lovely island which looks almost mediterranean. We had a lovely fresh fish lunch overlooking the lake before heading back to Puno on the boat.
From Puno we caught the bus straight to Bolivia, stopping for just a few minutes to have our passports stamped out of Peru and into Bolivia. Our first stop was Copacabana, a nice little town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We hired bikes to cycle along the shore of Lake Titicaca (or so we thought!). We followed the map and were taken up steep hills and down deep valleys, all off road on very bumpy terrain. After 3 hours we decided we would head back as it was extremely hard work due to the altitude. From here we did a another 2 day 1 night trip on the lake, this time to Isla del Sol where we hiked from the south to the north of the island and back. We stayed in a little village on the north of the island called Challapampa which was very quiet with roaming animals everywhere. Whilst having lunch on the beach we saw a herd of sheep, pigs, cows, donkeys and chickens wander past! As it gets cold at night we decided to buy ourselves a bottle of rum to warm us up before bed. It was a full sized bottle and cost the equivalent of 66p FAB!! On the trek back we saw a poor sheep who had fallen off one of the terraces and his front leg was still tied to a post up on the other terrace and he was just dangling there. Darryl went up and untied the poor animal just as the farmer arrived. There was a dog near the sheep and we were not sure if the farmer was saying the sheep had been spooked by the dog or whether he was scared of the dog and that is why he had not been to untie the sheep himself!
From Puno we caught the bus to La Paz which is a huge city at 3,650m above sea level. Due to the height of the city we had believed it would be extremely cold here but today, our first full day here has been extremely hot! We have seen some interesting things. For example there is a “British Indian Restaurant” and one Italian restaurant had “Chinese spaghetti” on the menu!!
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