To the Andes and the land of the Incas

What a change! From the incessantly hot, white sandy beaches and "simcity using cheat codes" of Brazil, to the cold, traditional and high altitude mountains of Peru. Everything has changed - its much colder, they speak Spanish, I pay in Soles, I am at 3500m above sea level... and on it goes. Starting in Lima, I needed to ration my available time to try cram in all the incredible sights of Peru into 3 solitatary weeks. And I was surprised. For some reason I expected Peru/Lima to be a dirty and old city with some crumbling colonial architecture... In fact, it is extremely modern in places and reminded me a lot of the US - this is particularly the case in Miraflores (the tourist district) where I stayed. A massive glass, 30+ storey Marriot Hotel dominates the coast with strings of US restaurant chains and fast food "restaurants". So it was a surprise, but not sure if it was a good one! Downtown Lima does, however, house some of the most impressive colonial buildings I have seen so far in South America. Incredible palaces built by the Spanish (this was their South American capital) - I took some photos and will upload soon. I also met some lovely Peruana´s here and had a chance to practice my spanish over a large number of (touristy, overpriced) beers!

With those quick 2 days over I was off to the ancient capital of the Incas - Cuzco. But despite best laid plans, Starperu had better ideas. Rather than let us board our 9am flight, or provide us any information other than a "delayed" message, we were eventually told at 11.30am that the flight was cancelled. The reason? They forgot to arrange the plane. Now, farbeit for me to comment on the idiocy of others, but my freaking-goodness, surely you have a checklist: pilots-check, cabin crew-check, food-check, flightplan-check, AEROPLANE... oh, whoops! So, using more Peruvian effiency, I was in my compensation hotel at 4pm and scheduled on the 6am flight the following day. What a great use of a day... After the 3am wake up call, we all did manage to get the flight and arrived in the capital-in-the-coulds. Cuzco was the capital city of the Inca empire (over 12 million people and roughly the size of Western Europe) and is situated at 3500m above sea level. Not for the faint hearted. Or in my case, not for the unfit!! My hostel is up a 500m hill and every time I get there I need a few minutes to get my breath back!!

Impressions of Cuzco are not great unfortunately. Everyone here has a job in the tourist-related trade. Despite being soft-natured people, these guys are not soft-sellers. They will attack you constantly trying to provide "free tourist information", "Inca Trail", "massage, amigo?", "you like to smoke, amigo?".. Its tiring - every moment you are outside you are saying "no, gracias" - if you cant say that before you get here, you will have problems! The city itself does hold a lot of interesting Inca and Spanish heritage. And thats a good thing because I was stuck here for 6 days before I could decide/book my trip to Machu Picchu. I did the museums (incredible), I found the 12 sided stone (Piedre de los doce angulos) and managed to avoid a massage all week. I also did a fascinating tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, visiting a few ancient ruins and learning more and more about their culture, skills (they domesticated over 4000 varieties of potatoes) and destruction by the Spanish. Will provide a lecture to anyone who is willing to sit through it :-)

And then it was time. I managed to book a spot on the famous Inka Trail despite dire warnings that you need to do this 6 months in advance and for 2 or 3 times the price. A little apprehensive about the hike that requires "medium fitness" in the rainy season, I stocked up on equipment from the local outdoor store and was on my way. Day 1 was painfully easy. "Painfully" because it made us all think the rest wouldnt be so bad - and booooy, were we wrong... Starting out with a group of 11 and two intrepid, local guides (Edwin and Oscar, who together stand about 7 foot tall!) we caught a glimpse of Veronica one of the Sacred Incan mountains - its over 5200m high and is capped with glaciers and snow even now in the middle of summer. A great dinner made by the porters and an early night and we were eased into the whole experience. A point worth making about the porters - everything we did, they did bigger, better, faster and shorter. They walked the trail, but with 20kg packs made carrying pots, pans, gas, tents, etc. They setup camp before we arrived, cooked the (very good!) food, cleaned after we went to sleep, made breakfast, took down the camp and still beat us to the next camp sight. They truly are amazing and deserve some serious respect for what they do.

For them the second day was easy. For me (and many many others, I must point out), it wasnt. It was the most physically challengin thing I have ever done. I dont think the 4 hours spent squatting over the mountain toilet the night before really helped, nor did the fact that I didnt eat all day (realted to the previous issue!), but in any case, walking literally straight up a mountain for 4 hours was always going to be a challenge. We started at 3000m and climed to the "Dead Womans Pass" at 4200m... Its a combination of steps, steps and some steeper steps. In the final stretch I was walking 5 steps and resting for 2 minutes before doing the next 5 steps. I did make it (and wasnt last) but when I got to the top, I literally just passed out on my bag for 20 minutes (beautiful photos to follow!) - while Americans were shouting the name of their schools and other randomly useless things into the massive valley below. Our prize? To walk down 500m in the clouds to our next camp sight. A great camp it turned out to be, as I slept solidly for 15 hours before getting up for day 3. Comparitively, day 3 was like taking your dog for a walk around your garden, if you live in a 5th floor apartment. I had a good sleep, even managed some breakfast and finished the 8 hour walk over two more passes in record time. Along the way we stopped and saw some fascinating Inca towns, each with their own pruposes and strategic placement. Our guide Edwin made sure we knew all about it, in Spanish, English and Quechua! The final day was a short 90 minute walk (at 5am) to the Inca Sun Gate to see the most spectacular view of Machu Picchu. Obviously, all we saw was grey cloud, but I will google the view in a minute! Some more short walks down and we arrived at the Guard House which sits above the famous city, used to check who was arriving from the Inca Trail, and from where the most famous shots of the city are taken. Unfortunately, I didnt manage to get a clear view of the city with Wayna Picchu (the "young mountain" behind the city) both visible in the same shot, but hey, we cant have it all (i.e. thats not my photo on this blog!). A fascinating place, Edwin took us around the site for 2 hours explaining the city, the rituals, the culture of the Incas in pristine surroundings. The city itself is amazing, the view it has of the valley around it is breathtaking. I would call it a canyon rather than a valley, because the cliffs are sheer and the river runs so far down you can hardly notice it. Its hedonsitic, crazy, spiritual, scarcely believable all at the same time. And that was with all my wet weather gear on! A truly magical experience.

Now that I have eventually showered (three times in 8 hours), I look forward to the last week or so here in South America. With Bolivia and some other great sites in Peru still to go, I can just about manage to motivate myself to move on! No sadness yet for this part of trip coming to a close - its been amazing so far, so the last week will cap it all off perfectly.