Day 22 to 26 - The Inca Trail

Well the day finally came to depart on that most extreme of adventures we were to undertake - the 46km trek through the Andes along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This really was something I have dreamed of doing ever since I read about Pizarro and the conquest of the Inca. Machu Picchu is the lost city - one the spansih left behind and therefore fairly intact, waiting for four moderately over fed gringos to discover...

The first day of our trek was fairly easy, hiking along the beautiful Urabamba river.

We didn´t have to climb much and finished the day in good spirits. Day 2 saw us climbing up to 4,300mtrs at Dead Woman´s Pass - this was a real test. Basically had to walk up a pretty steep hill for about 5 hours. However, we did it, and the view and the feeling were pretty special.

After that we had to walk down the bloody hill on the other side which, strange as it may seem, is a little more painful on the legs than going up. That night we made camp in a little valley and the cook turned the bottle of rum I bought at Dead Woman´s Pass into a lovely hot drink with tea and lemon that got Neil and I seeing all sorts of constellations in the Peruvian sky.

Day three was not quite as tough as day two, and we began to see more Inca sites with still more amazing views.

Halfway through the day we caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu before decending 1000 mtrs over about 3 hours - full on. That night we had a bar at our camp site and so congratulated ourselves with a few beers. Here´s e taking a rest during the decent - just kicken it on the Inca trail...

On day four we left at about 4am to hike the final two hours to Machu Picchu - this included climbing almost vertical stairs - just what you need after three days hiking. Arriving at the Sun Gate (the entry to the city from the trail) was just sublime. There it was - the amazing lost city if the Inca. We wandered down and spent a wonderful morning walking around the city and taking in its unbelievable views - I thought I had seen some amazing vistas during the previous three days of hiking, but that was merely the entre. Machu Picchu is truly one of the most fucking awesome places there is...

Neil and Luke - just kicken it at Machu Picchu - word.

Day 16 (losing count...) Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Inca

We jumped on a tourist bus to get from Puno to Cusco cos we heard there was some cool stuff to see along the way. There was a couple of great museums, a lady with a Llama...

...and the amazing temple of Wiracocha at Raqchi. This was cool - my first really big Inca ruins and the first example of the really fine stone work.

We arrived in Cusco later that day and tried to settle in. However our accommodation wasn´t that great and we spent the next day trying to sort out some more - once Neil and Sar arrived later that day we moved into much more comfortable digs and finally started getting to know this beautiful city. The main Plaza is mind blowingly awesome, with its huge cathedrals built atop the original Inca temples - I kept imagining how amazing these pre-colonial structures must have been...

A few days into Cusco we took a one day trip through the Sacred Valley of the Inca, which was also mad, featuring more amazing Inca ruins. We also stumbled into the Festival Del Carmine in Pisac, which was also way cool, with basically everyoine in the town dressing up and dancing and singing and playing music and parading through the main sqaure.

Ollantaytambo was my favouraite destination in the valley - it was an Incan fort and observatory, and had these freakin huge stones that they had put into place perfectly... ugh.. was wayyyy awesome.

We also took in and few museums in Cusco, and the food was really good, especially Granja Heidi, which had the best crepes. We managed to have a pretty relaxing time and got very well prepared for our next adventure, the 4 day trek through the Andes along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

Day 13 - 15 Lake Titicaca

Surprisingly enough the Lake Titicaca town of Copacabana is not the one from the song of the same name - that didn´t stop us from singing the song all the way there. We arrived around midday and e was in bed crook about two hours later. Which was lucky really as Copa turned out to be a bit of a hole.

However, it wasn´t the swinging night life that had drawn us there, it was the Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun) - the mythological birthplace of the first Inca King. And it didn´t disappoint!

Our party (minus e) took off first thing the next day for the two hour trip to the island. We were serinaded by a lovely young man at the pier before we left, continuing the tradition of fine sounds we´ve been hearing all across this continent. The trip out was really nice, with lovely blue sky and waters, and the island had an air of age and wisdom (at least that´s what I imagined).

After walking for a bout 5 kms we came across our first Inca ruins - I was pretty happy.

After a little investigating and contemplation of the ancient rituals that must have happened here, we headed back to the south of the island for some more ruins, then home again.

The next day we took off to Puno and made a little trip out to the reed islands - people living on islands made of reeds. It´s pretty crazy... we really enjoyed it tho.

Puno was nicer than Copa and we enjoyed our time here. Unfortunately Neil and Sar got really sick before we were due to leave for Cusco and had to stay an extra day. We decided we could be of little service to them in their state, and stuck to our plan - Cusco via the Sacred Valley of the Inca!

Day 9 to 12 - La Paz

12 hours on a bus from Uyuni to La Paz was interesting - we were thankful it was dark outside because we didn´t want to see the cliffs, the road, or the condition of the bus driver. We split a cerepax and woke up at the bus station before a torturous three hour hunt for some accommadation.

The hunt was worth it and we had the nicest rooms so far on the trip. La Paz is really big and crazy and was a bit intense for the first few hours - the traffic is chaos and crossing the road is risky but it all workd out in the end. We were in a great spot close to the witches market (a good market featuring andean medicinal herbs and potions etc) and some good eating. We took it pretty easy on the first day, and then did some sights on the second, including a local musical instrument museum, which was cool. It had the maddest acoustic base ever:

We also checked out the Presidential Palace etc and did heaps of shopping. The markets were full of heaps of cool stuff, and we spent a lot of time just wondering around. E found lots of thinks she liked:

After much deliberation I bought a Churango - just like the one pictured: It´s pretty cool - sure to be a great addition to the Ethnic Boogalloo Collection.

Our favourite restuaraunt here turned out to be a Lebanese eatery - go figure! We had these amazing mixed platters full of lovely dips and bits - was fantastic - here we are on the first night:

Alas we had to leave and journey on to Lake Titticaca - only as short three hour trip so no drugs required! Check the mad view of La Paz tho - a beautiful, crazy city!

Day 5 to 8 - San Pedro to Uyuni - Part 2

The next day was e´s bday! We saw some more lakes...











... including one covered in ice...



...and made friends with a crazy guy who was riding from the south of Chile all the way to Lima. We also saw more Flamingos and a real life active Volcano! We weren´t that close to it so it wasn´t that great but still pretty cool. The terrain was all volcanoey as well - volcanoey IS a word...





That night we stayed ina hotel made of salt and sang Happy Birthday to e in Spanish. The bricks were made of salt and there were salt crystals all over the floor - pretty freaky!










The next day we headed out to the worlds largest salt flat - the Salar de Uyuni. This was pretty special too. Flat, white, and going on as far as the eye could see. We stopped in the middle and hung out for some cool photos.










Then, we went to Cactus island - an Island in the salt flat full of 900 y.o cacti. Was mad. There was also a shrine to the Qutchuan diety ´Patchamama´ so we asked her to bless our future travels.









The tour ended later that day in the quaint town of Uyuni. After a yummy pizza and some internet time we got on the bus for a 12 hour journey to La Paz...

Suffice to say we were again thankful for the Cerepax...

Day 5 to 8 - San Pedro to Uyuni - Part 1

The Salar trip is a journey through the Atacama desert, the Bolivian Altiplano and the Salar de Uyuni. It would take us to 4,900 mts above sea level, through baron deserts, volcanic moon scapes, 12,000 sq km salt flats and hostels made of salt. We´d been warned of drunken bolivian drivers and feared death from alltitude sickness. Suffice to say we were pretty excited about it!

We left San Pedro with our tour companions and headed the 30 or so km´s to the Bolivian border where we would meet our driver and begin our tour.

Love this pic of the Bolivian border crossing. I mean, it´s an international border, and there was basically this one big teddy bear of a Bolivian soldier in a shack in the middle of the desert stamping our passport and not really giving a damn who the hell we were. We met our driver Edgar, a Quetchua man from Uyuni, and after a quick breaky, headed off.






Our first stop at the was one of the highlights for the whole trip for me - the hot springs. Cos its totally freezing in the desert in the morning - totally f@cking freezing. I still had all my clothes on from the night before. We arrived at this steaming pool of hot spring water and it was just fantastic. Neil and I were the first in so got to star in the pic. The water is like 37 degrees and its about 5 degrees out side - was really cool. We didn´t want to leave...




Next up was another highlight of the trip, the geysers. These pools of boiling hot mud were bubbling up all around us - Neil nearly fell in and died. That would have sucked. There were heaps of them over about a 600mtr sq area, and there was steam too. They really stank - like sulpher, but they were still awesome.







We also saw a white lake, a green lake, and then a red lake. The red lake had Flamingos in it! That was pretty cool - e was loving it.











After hitting our highest altitude of 4,900mtrs we ended up at our accommodation for the night. We made friends with some of the other people in our tour group and were pleasently surprised by the quality of the food, but nobody slept well due to the altitude and the frezing-ness.

The next day would be e´s birthday!

End part one

Day 3 to 5 - Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

The flight from Santiago to Antofogasta took us over the Andes and we were pretty much blown away. As you can see from the pic, the Andes are an awe-inspiring sight. I got to watch hilarious latin american comedy on the plane as well - was waiting for bumblebee man to come out and say ´I i i no mi gusta´!

We went straight from the airport to catch the 5 hour bus to San Pedro, without any food or water... we were both starving and luckily our bag of lollies from Brianne made it into hand luggage or we wouldn´t have survived. We arrived about 10pm not knowing how we would get to our hostel - luckily Roberto, our host, was there to take us home. We met up with Neil and Sar again and went into town for some well deserved dinner!

It wasn´t until the next day that we got to fully appreciate San Pedro - we had this amazing vista from our front door-











... and the town was just so lovely and little and welcoming.

There was heaps of yummy food - one of the restaurents was so good we went three times! Plus there was a guitar in the hostel! Hooray! We pretty much took it easy the whole time, eating, walking around, booking our Solar trip and just hanging out.





We also went out to a little observatory on the last night and got to look at all different stars and planets through telescopes with a lovely French man telling us all about them. Was awesome but freezing - we all had all of our clothes on... Here is the picture of the moon we took-

The next morning we awoke early to cross the border into Bolivia and begin our Solar tour!