Salkantay, Macchu Pischu and beyond!!

Back in Cusco I spent 3 days recovering (and not drinking) on Antibiotics and preparing myself for my next trip, The Salkantay hike to Macchu Picchu. Sadly I had to say goodbye to Dan and Holly who were leaving for Equador and so I booked the trip to do with strangers, and worried about how much slower I'd be after my Choro Trail experience.





They picked me up, along with another girl from Loki, Desire from Sweden and we joined the others at the disgustingly early time of 4am and drove 3 hours to the town where the hike begins. My group was six people, Jacinta from Oz, Desire, Simon from Switzerland, Merri also from Oz who was traveling with Peter from Liverpool. I got lucky with my group, they were wonderful, Merri and Peter kept me laughing the whole way, although Simon's exciting stories about working in the packaging factory at home got old surprisingly early on...





The first day was the easy day, which made me and Merri worry about day two which was to be nortoriously hard. It mostly involved a walk along a country road in the hills, and was delightfully flat. Our Guide was Edy, who wasn't the most informative guide in the world but was concerned when I was lagging behind in points from a sore ankle.





Its pretty hard to talk about a hike, basically its alot of walking with very pretty sites along the way, and alot of getting to know each other very quickly. Food becomes very exciting, as does no rain. The first day however, meant, surprise surprise, I got sunburnt yet again! I think I´m starting to break some sort of record... This one was special though, lasted approx 10 days, involved pain, blistering, shedding of skin in volumes that I never knew possible, and finally a patchy tan...





The first night was damn cold, we were camped at the base of Salkantay mountain, approx 2500ft. We were camped under a shelter two to a tent, I shared with Desire, who had a funny habit of talking in her sleep and begining the day by chatting away to me in Swedish :) . Merri and Peter cracked us up at dinner with there never ending slagging matches, which inevitiably I ended up involved in from day two and up until we parted ways. I learned the finer details of life working in american summer camp, such as the codes words for annoying kids- POS (Piece of Shit). They also found my wonderful Irish accent hilarious... ¨Wheress Da Firee??¨





Day two we started by climbing uphill for approx 4 hours, to 4500 ft, up Salkantay Mountain, where we were met with snow! It was cold but beautiful, and at the top we made sacrifices with cocoa leaves and made stone monuments for the Gods who would grant our wishes. Then it was a descent down the other side, which, as usual, I found harder than up for some reason. It began to rain in the afternoon which was a bit miserable and restricted our vision, but I was happy when we reached our next camp.





Day Three, mostly involved treking through the jungle, which was nice, and in the morning was very exciting. Edy asked did we want to take a shortcut, which we soon found out was a vertical drop down a cliff... We giddily slid down and got very excitable with all the danger involved. The bottom wasn´t the end, we then reached the most terrifying of all the bridges so far, which was falling appart, was made of loosely tied together logs of wood with nothing to hold and a drop into a rushing river. I was terrified, but we all made it!





We walked for another few hours until we came to a road where a bus waited to take us to lunch and then onto a town where we continued by foot along the railway track to Aguas Calientes. At that point my legs were beginning to give up on me, but the thought of staying in a hostel with the long earned luxury of a shower kept me moving!





Finally, Day 4, and Macchu Picchu! We woke at 4am to climb a steep mountain to que for tickets to climb another mountain, Waynu Picchu! The pain had left and that morning I was mostly excited, having had dreams of sleeping in and missing the whole experience. We all made it up, and got our Waynu Picchu Tickets. Finally we were at the amazingly high Inka City, which I´m happy to report was not a disappointment after all the walking! Although full of tourists, it is still incredible. Edy had told us the mountain is sinking and we were lucky to see it before it does or before its closed, but Im unsure how true it is...





We had a more experienced tour guide in Macchu Picchu. Those Inkas turned out to be more than a series of painful stairs, and were very advantanced and impressive when it came to knowing the world around them. Alot of Tombs to be seen but tragically no mummys, ceramics, jewellery etc, because the man that rediscovered it was American, from Yale, and guess where many of Peru's national treasures now are... Yep, Yale.





Aside from the missing artifacts, its kept amazingly well, and we heard the sad story of how 180 spainards defeated thousands of Inkas because they believed the Spanards, in their shiney armor, to be Sungods... They killed the leader, and bickering between tribes made it easy for them to divide and conquer the Inkan empire...





At 10 we set about our Waynu Picchu hike. Me, Merri, and Peter stuck together going at mine and Merri's nice slow pace! It was damn steep and a little scary, but the view from the top was amazing once the clouds cleared and you looked down from Macchu Picchu from a height. Note: Be careful of the cliff edges on Waynu, a Japanese tourist fell of last year when she was walking backwards to take a photo...





After many miles, and alot of walking, it was all over. Me, Peter and Merri climbed down and bused back down to Aquas Caliente were we met Edy and organised our celebratory night for the following night :)

Jungle Mania!

Arriving to Cusco I was reunited with Dan and Holly in yet another Loki hostel. This one however was much prettier than that of La Paz, but just as much of a party hostel. I checked into there room 106 which turned out to be a super party room, comprised of us, some crazy London boys and some Aussie girls... all the drinking nations under one roof! So first night in Cusco was a good one!

Tragically however, I managed to get myself sick again the next day, and it was really getting old. Despite this me, Dan and Holly decided to go ahead and book our 4 day trek to Manu Jungle. Luckily my vomiting, fainting episodes lasted for 24 hours and off we went on Monday, with out wonderful guide Freddy. Freddy was born and raised in a little village in Manu jungle so had amazing inside knowledge about it all and all the plants and animals we saw. The first day involved a long car ride down with plenty of stops along the way where we hiked along the path and saw an amazing amount of birds (none of whos names I can remember) and some cappacino monkeys. We arrived to a jungle town just outside Manu where we stayed in a hostel ( along with large flying Cockroaches) for the night.

I loved the jungle, it was incrediably interesting but there were two things I rapidly had to adjust to, one was the intense humidity and the other was the constant swarm of insects, varying from mossies to stinging wasps the size of my head. Having said that, thanks to some amazing insect repellent I didn´t get bitten once, which means goodbye crazy Lariam Maleria tablets!

The 2nd day we drove another bit and stopped in a Cocoa farm for a look. We then got a terrifying boat (yay...) down the river into the jungle. We walked to our lodge which was wonderfully jungle chic! All wooden with no electricity and an outhouse with the kitchen outside under a shelter. After dropping our stuff off we hiked through the jungle for a bit where Freddy pointed out various plants all with different medical uses, and many hallucinagenic ones. He also pointed out the largest species of tree in the jungle which the native communities consult if they want to cut a plant down and also use it to curse people they don´t like. There are over 40 different languages spoken in the jungle by various communities, some of which still live in the stone age and have never seen fire. They only know of them through the communication they have with certain indigunous tribes.

One very sad thing I discovered about Manu Jungle was that in May of this year, the Peruivian government sold it to huge American Oil companies. The entire time we were there we heard and saw helicopters of the oil company. They are currently preforming explotions throughout to find oil, and when they do, they cut the forest, destroying wildlife that has taken hundreds of years to develope. What made me sadder was that western news didn´t deem it newsworthy and it is now too late to stop. I´m lucky I got to see it before its destroyed.

After lunch we crossed the river again, hiked for a bit then took a RAFT on a lagoon to bird watch and look out for the giant otters and rodents. We then waited till nightfall and saw Camens (like Aligators) and other strange creatures.

Unfortunately the 3rd day was yet another sick day for me, but I managed to get myself out of bed at 4 am, get on the boat, and go to the Salt Lick, where Macaws and other birds go early every morning. It was amazing, but after that I returned to bed for the day and slept for 35 hours, which was broken up by sickness and the occasional halluciation! Theres nothing like being sick in a room full of bugs and intense heat. Freddy brought me back some jungle medician which he made into tea but unfortunately, didn´t work to well.

The 4th and final day largely involved our trip back to Cusco. I still wasn´t feeling very well but Freddy told me we´d stop in the Jungle town to visit the doctor. He wasn´t there, so we went to the jungle Hospital instead! Wonderful experience! People mostly walk in there feet in the jungle, and it certainly wasn´t as clean as home, but they still managed to fix me with antibiotics which cost 1euro for over a weeks supply! Don´t think its worth claiming on the insurance somehow...

On the trip back, Freddy told us about our boat drivers previous night, in which him and his friend took a local hallucinagenic which is supposed to help you discover the meaning of life. However, they both just tripped out, he tried to beat up his girlfriend, but he had no strength in him so she just hit him and pushed him in the river! I was glad he told me this after our boat trip rather than before!

Isla del Sol, Puno and the Floating Islands

I met Fenna the next morning on our bus to Copacobana where we would join Evil Jess for the next three days on the beautiful Isla del Sol. I was happy to discover the vomiting had ended so it was a relatively peaceful bus trip. There was however one amusing part where we all had to disembark our bus, board a rickety boat, with no life jackets and cross a section of lake Titicaca. We watched as our bus drove onto a giant raft, with all our possessions, and sailed across the lake. It would be the beginning of a series of boat trips, and with it, my never ending, illogical fear of boats.

We met Jess in Copa, where she´d spent a few nights, and headed straight for, joy, yet another boat, to Isla Del Sol.

Isla Del Sol is an Island in the middle of what people like to say is the highest lake in the world, Lake Titicaca. It however is not the highest lake, but that doesn´t stop it from being beautiful and the closest thing to beach I´ve seen since Chile. The two main Island on this massive 8500 sq km lake (thank you Lonely Planet...) are Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna. These two Islands are where the Inkas believed the sun and the moon were created and are damn impressive. There are no cars on Isla del Sol, and when you arrive you are forced to carry what is now a very heavy backpack up incrediably steep Inka stairs. If theres one thing those Inkas loved its hills with stairs. It is however worth it, the prettiest views of both sides of the island are from the top where the best hostels are. We celebrated our grueling climb with a bottle of wine on the terrace of our hotel watching the sunset.

That night however we were in for a bit of a scare. After dinner, Fenna began to develope a strange rash that started on her legs. After a half an hour however it had spread all over her body. It was 9.30 pm, and knowing that there was no doctor on the island, and the last boats had long departed me and Evil Jess could do nothing but fain calmness, reassuring her that it looked just like a heat rash. When ever she left the room however we let our facade of calm fall and freaked out. We had no idea what was causing it and when her lips began to swell we decided to go to speak to the lady of the house. Upon looking at the rash she immediately stated it was an allergic reaction, which seemed a little odd as Fenna has no known allergies. She squeezed some lemon juice and told her to drink it and to rub the lemon on her rashes. She did so, but when we returned to the room Evil Jess gave her an antihistamine and we set off to sleep. The next day me and Evil Jess both confessed to having seperately checked in the night that she was still breathing! Like some sort of miracle however, the rash had completely vanished the next day... it still remains a mystery...

The following day I hiked the Island, which, I mistakingly thought would take 4 hours in total. In fact, it was 4 hours to the end and 4 hours back, which wouldn´t have been a problem, except I was alone, I returned a different route which continously caused me to get lost, I was losing sun light and had no torch. The way to the end of the island was a pleasant, but hot walk. The end brought me to Inka ruins, and way back I visited many strange little villages. I was slightly panicked at the prospect of being lost in the dark on the island, so the return trip was not so pleasant...

When we finally left the wonderful Island we were all rested and healthy and began our trip to cross into Peru, to the city of Puno. Lake Titi is divided between Peru and Bolivia, and the attraction of the Peruivian side is the Floating Islands, where the Uros people live on Islands made out of many layers of heavy duty reeds. We had been warned however of the seriously touristy nature of the Islands, but it also happened we would be there for Puno day, a strange ancient celebration of when the Inkas arrived to mainland Puno.

Fenna left the next day, but me and Evil Jess stuck around for the strange celebrations, which involved many parades, and a llama being sacrificed in a football stadium, and the king and queen Inkas drinking its blood from a bowl which also contained its heart. Nice.

That afternoon we visited the floating Islands, which indeed, were possibly the most touristy thing I´ve come across so far, but nevertheless interesting and fun. The locals dressed us in traditional dress, and on one island, we became the tourist attraction, local boys wanting there photos taken with us!

The following day Evil Jess and I went our seperate ways in South America and I headed to the Capital of Peru, Cusco.

Stuck in La Paz and near muggings...

After recovering from the Choro trail my next mission was to find a way to reach the jungle. However, it was to prove more difficult than expected, Bolivia isn´t known for its wonderful infrastructure so the bus to the jungle is quoted as taking 18-35 hours and is supposed to be horrendeous. The other option is to fly. However, as rain season has hit a little early, this was also to prove difficult as the planes cannot land in the rain (think Aer Arann only South American style) so after 5 days of trying and repeated cancelations I decided to give it a miss in Bolivia and to try in Peru instead.

After being stuck there, La Paz quickly began to loose its charm, and I became eagar to leave a place for the first time in South America. I did however decide to stick around for the Loki Halloween party. There was a turnover in my room and instead of the ignorant french boys who didn´t talk to me, I got 9 hilarious english boys who decided to adopt me as a sister seeing as I was the only girl. Halloween however turned out to be scarier than anticipated, I woke at 6 am and spend the next day and night horribly sick. Tragically my costume went to waste, although I looked scarier enough without dressing up. I left the hostel once that day to buy a bus ticket for Copacabana, still determined to leave La Paz. This little excursion out was to prove equally scary as it was my first South American near mugging experience. Im usually more careful, but being ill left me a little careless and walking back through a crowded street I felt a tug at my bag and turned around to find a man with his hand in it. I freaked out and started screaming at him angrily and got very high pitched. He pretended he had dropped something, I checked my bag, nothing was missing and walked off quickly. At that point I was just annoyed, mostly at myself. If Im going to get robbed here I at least want a decently dramatic story out of it as opposed to, ´I got a little careless and I guy stole my purse..´

However, that wasn´t the end, about 5 meters down the road two Bolivian school girls that had witnessed the innocident came running after me, and told me I should cross the road. When I asked why they warned me that men were watching me and following me and they would try and mug me. Thats when I got scared, so I jumped in a taxi and got back to Loki where I spent the rest of my time in La Paz.

The next morning I felt better and got the early bus out of La Paz...

The Choro Hike

So whilst in La Paz I decided, despite the vomit session, that I would sign up to do the three day Choro hike in the Ande mountains. Evil Jess, Fenna, and two new amigos, Dan and Holly would be in my group. I figured it was time I got off my lazy holidaying ass and did a bit of exercise, what with Maschu Pischu looming. From the sound of things it would also be a nice easy introduction into the hiking world, the tour operator promised 3hrs downhill the first day, 7 the next, mostly down, and 4hrs downhill the last. But I soon realised that tour operators lie.

The trek started 4900m asl high in the mountain, so high that literally nothing could grow. Not a weed or an ant could be seen. It was also damn cold, we were starting our hike literally in the clouds. Our guide was Angelo, a lovely Bolivian guy who had worked as a computer programmer before realising that life at a desk was not for him and he returned to study tourism. He does the hike twice a week, meaning, he gets one day off a week, and trust me, its a hard job. He was also joined by two helpers who carried the tents and food.

The first day was actualy 7hours, steeply downhill. The trek is an old Inca trail, which basically means it consists of randomly placed rocks which form a dangerously slippy path. That day I also realised just how hard down hill is, by the end of the day I could hardly walk! Our first day was also a wet one which made it particularly tricky. Despite all the pain and difficulty, it was remarkably beautiful, by the end of the day we´d reached 2800, and the jungle base. We´d gradually witnessed moss and small plants appearing, until we were suddenly in the thick of trees and bushes.

The 2nd day was 9 hours up and down. I had considered myself to be reasonably fit, but prehaps a month and a half of procrastination had taken its toll. At points I thought I would die. I also never considered myself to be afraid of heights, but there is something unnerving about walking alone a cliff edge with woobly legs. I had resorted to a trusty walking stick half way through the day. I also foolishly asked Angelo what happens if someone has an accident on the trek. Theres no roads along the way and very few inhabitance. He let me know that a donkey can be called to collect the person for the bargain price of 500 Bolivianos (50euro). Eek...

What was also very interesting was the homes we passed along the way. Very simple and basic, made of wood and straw, the people usually kept animals and small farms. Some had water, some had electricity. We usually camped at some house for the night. The 2nd night we camped with a family that had an unestimated amount of children. We heard a baby crying and were told he was sick. I can´t imagine how they managed a sick baby in the thick of the jungle and mountains... It certainly made you realise how sheltered western children are. The following morning Dan found the cheeky cracker stealing boy eating a battery. Paniced, he tried to get him to spit it out, but the child just grinned. He went to Angelo, ´Angelo, he´s got a battery in his mouth!´. Angelo told the boy to open his mouth, he looked in, then turned to Dan and in a congradulative tone replied ´Yes, its a battery!´

That night I´d collapsed to bed exausted, dreaming of mosquitos and falling off cliffs, only to be woken at 3am to a surrounding storm and a tent full of water. We did our best to stop the water from spreading, but it was a tiring wet night all round.

The last day came and we hobbled our way through the remaining jungle. We came to the Japanese Gardens, where an old Japanese man came in the 70´s to set up his garden and live as a hermit. About 5 years ago he retired from his hermit existence and set up an ecolodge and opened his Japanese Garden to those that wonder by. He was a hunched enthusiastic old man who asked where were from, then would disappear into his house and return with a bunch of postcards from your country. We got his address and promised to send him more when we returned to our homes.

We finally reached our end point, a small town with a road out of the mountains. We celebrated by going for a swim in the river we´d been following on and off for the last 3 days.

The drive back to La Paz was possibly the scarest occasion of my trip so far. I don´t know if I´ve previously mentioned it, but they drive like maniacs here. Driving in the clouds, around the bends of a cliff, and our driver thinks its a good idea to start over taking!! I have a new respect for Irish drivers.

It was then back to La Paz, it took 3 days for my legs to fully work again, but it was most definately worth every minute.