When last I blogged I told you all about the wonders of the Galapacos and today, I`m going to skip Christmas and Ecuador (those stories and more to follow). Today, we`re here to hear about a near vomit commet over archeological signs; 90km hiking around glaciers and jungles; ending in stroll around the world`s most famous Inca ruin, Machu Picchu. If we`ve time, we might get to hear about the lovely Lake Titcaca (pronounced Titihaha) and the floating islands there.
So, when we left Ecuador we took a 30 hour bus to Lima, overnighted in a hostel and then took another 12 hour bus to the desert town of Nazca. Along the way we drove through miles and miles of uninhabited, otherworldly desert wasteland. When we finally arrived in Nazca, the heat of the desert was pretty much overwhelming. It is hot, and I mean really hot. Like what you`d imagine living in the Sahara is like hot.
Well we decided that we could only fully appreciate the famous Nazca lines from the sky so we charted a plane and off we went. Now, the Nazca lines are like giant hyroglyphs in the ground that you can`t actually see unless you`re very high above them. Flying is pretty much the best way to see them since you can only see one or two from the viewing stand that`s been constructed.
Now, the plane held 6 people including the pilot and co-pilot. The first 10 or so minutes you spend getting over to the Nazca lines, so in spite of my initial nerves at the fact that the plane nearly tipped over when I got in, I was doing ok. A few mintues later, we`re soaring over huge marings in the ground, over 100m long. First the right side, then you`d swing back so people on the left side could see. This is where the problems started. You feel a bit the way you do in a wobbly lift when your stomach tries to jump into your brain and then gets sucked back down to the ground again. A bit like that, only in the extreme. At one point, I thought my whole insides would be sucked down to the ground. It was then that I handed Ian the camera and grabbed the sick bag with both hands just in case. I had to go for a good lie down for an hour after that flight! While I was turning several shades of unchartered green, Ian was having the time of his life.
Flight and dodgey plane aside, the lines themselves are really interesting. Nobody really knows what most of them are or why they were made. Some people specualte that they are landing markings for aliens, which is all a bit X-files for me. But one of the figures does look like a cross between a man and alien and an owl. Its all a bit odd.
Anyway, from Nazca we headed to Cusco to make our way to Machu Picchu. Now we`d been told that the Inca trail can be pretty pricey and that there`s another trail that`s a bit more of a hikers hike to get to Machu Picchu. So we picked the Salkantay trail as the way for us to get to Machu Picchu. Now, the Salkantay takes you to just under 5,000M above sea level, through the mountains, under a glacier, through the jungle and around the mountain that Machu Pîcchu itself is on. It goes from very very cold, to very hot! Every day you see a completely different scenery, you go from high altitude with only bugs for company to jungle heat with monkeys trying to steal your dinner. Its a fantastic way to arrive at Machu Picchu.
Day one is a pretty easy going day. You walk for 8 hours, up a bit, flat a bit, up a bit, flat a bit. You stop for lunch and you watch as the Salkantay mountain slowly gets bigger like its coming out of a backdrop for a film at you. You spend one very cold night in a tent well wrapped up chugging down coca tea to combat the effects of altitude on you. It was the first time we had seen stars so clearly in a long time. We watched as the sun set over the Salkantay mountain, the snow turned from crisp white to firey red until eventually the mountain disappeared and we could only see the faint glow from the moonlight reflecting on the snow. It was cold, and probably not all that poetic, but it was beautiful.
The next morning your up at 5.30 or so and hiking by 6am and the tough part starts. Now, the climb isn`t that difficult in and of itself, its just the altitude gets to you a bit. So after 10 minutes of walking your starting to huff and puff your way up like a chain smoker. After 15minutes, your wheezing like an asthmatic wondering why you`re doing this to yourself. But you set yourself targets, like, I`ll walk to that next big boulder and then I`ll sit down. By the time you do sit down and take a few minutes your heart is pounding like you`ve just run a mile when really you`ve walked very slowly a few metres.
We were exceptionally lucky with the weather, we had crisp cold and clear skies our whole way up and pretty much all of the way back down. You could see the whole of the Salkantay mountian and the valley around it. The feeling when you get to the top on that second day is brilliant, not only becuase you`ve made it up without suffering the dizzing effects of altitude sickness, but also because you know its all downhill the rest of the way. What a feeling!
The third day you walk through jungles and end up in the `city` of Santa Tereasa. Now, I say city with a little bit of sarcasim here. When they sell you the tour they tell you that Santa Tereasa is a big town, its not. Across the road from our hostel (which was really just a camp site) was the local abattoir. This consisted of a concrete platform at the side of the road, covered by a corregated iron roof, completely open to the world and it had a hose and a drain at the side. It was the first time in my live I`ve seen a whole cow slaughtered in a mere 15mintues. From full animal to carted away in the back of a pick up truck in minutes. We all had a morbid curiosity about it and everyone stood around to watch at some point. Some of us were extra shocked as inedible enrails were tossed into the hedge along with a fetus. It was not pretty.
That night we all looked at our dinners long and hard before eating. Unfortunately, monkeys would try nd nip it off your plate which didn`t leave us with a lot of time for too much reflection, probably a good thing.
The next day was our last before reaching Machu Picchu and some of us had some sore heads becuase of some crazy american drinking game. Word to the wise, never get into a drinking game with american MBA students where you`re not allowed to make any facial expressions, it won`t end well for anyone involved, especially Ian.
That said, the walk was beautiful and by lunch we`d perked up enough to enjoy the landscape again. Most of it was clouded with heavy rain, but we were still awed by the huge green mountains leering over us.
Day 5, finally we reached our destination, the world famous, Machu Picchu. We got up at 4am, and started to walk up to Machu Picchu at 4.30am. Even at this early hour, there are groups of people walking very quickly towards the entrance. Everyone is trying to make it look like they`re not runing when all they want to do is break into a sprint down the road. The thing is, if you get to Machu Picchu early enough and you`re one of the first 400 to the gate, you get a special stamp so you can enter Huayna Picchu. Huayna Picchu is a mountain at the back of Machu Picchu that overlooks the whole site and where you can get some of the best vistas in the valley.
Now as we were walking up ot the gate, you suddenly feel really competitive. Like you`re thinking, Ive just walked 90km, I`ve had about 5 hours sleep and noone is going to take my spot in Huayna Picchu away from me. They just don`t deserve to be up there as much as I do, and I refuse to allow anyone to take my spot away from me. Subsequently, I was one of the first 30 people to the top. Taking it two steps at a time, I whizzed past anyone who got in my way and stopped for noone. I was really just trying to keep up with the Belgian man from our group. This guy goes ski mountaineering every year and is probably the fittest man I`ve ever met and if we hadn`t taken a wrong turn and missed the steps at one point, he would have been up there first with hours to spare.
At 6am having gotten our precious stamps, we met our guide who took us around the site. Machu Picchu is fantastic, there`s a reason its as famous as it is. Its every bit as amazing as everyone says and there`s nothing anyone can do to talk it down. It is pretty crowded later in the day when the trains start arriving, but when you get there that early, you more or less have it to youself. Even with the crowds, the site is so impressive on so many levels that the only way to do it justice is to go and visit it for yourself. Everything from where it was built (on the top of a mountain) to the plumbing (the aquaducts that run through it are still fully functional) and the farming technique that were used. On top of that, the whole city is basically a calendar where on the June soltice the first ray of sunlight hits an exact spot on a carving of a lama. The place is spectacular and not to be missed.
When we got back to Cusco we headed in for some well earned Alpaca burgers before making our way to Puno. Puno is a town on Lake Titicaca and from there we were able to visit the floating islands which are completely made out of reeds. We were also able to stay with a host family on one of the natural islands and take in the scenery. The thing about these places is you have to see it to believe it. There are litarlly people on these floating islands that have never set foot on dry land. The traditional dress on the natural islands is so important that if you don`t know how to make the kind of hat that shows your married, you can`t get married. The people here hold their traditions very close, but at the same time, they`re really open to sharing it and letting outsiders learn about it. Which is brilliant!
So that`s Peru, next up should be hair raising bike journeys in Bolivia and mountain hiking with ice picks, but watch this space!
3 comments:
Great post!
Sounds wonderful - Macchu Picchu is fantastic, you're bringing back some great memories for me. I'm also laughing heartily at the mention of Ian losing a drinking game. Clearly he has learned nothing from Drunken Jenga!
Salkantay trek is the alternative to the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu was recently named among the 25 best Treks in the World, by National Geographic Adventure Travel Magazine.
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