El Valle Sagrado de los Incas

Actually, the Sacred Valley covers more than just the four ruins found just outside of Cusco that we visited today, it actually includes Macchu Picchu, Ollantaytambo and Pisaq to name a few. But when tourists do a Sacred Vally tour, it usually just includes the ones that we visited today.

Of course, we didn't take no stinkin' tour! We are independent travellers so we were determined to visit the four sites at our own pace. The day started nicely enough as we jumped on a local bus and told the conductor that we wanted to get off at the first of the sites, Tambomachay. The four ruins that we were targeting today are within 8 km of Cusco so we decided that the best way to get around would be by foot. Map in hand, water in our backpack and the shining sun to warm our steps, what could possibly go wrong?

Now I could just go on with some history or story about each ruin, but to be honest, one Inca ruin is pretty much like another and as we started to climb the hill to the first site when disaster struck! It started to rain. No problem we thought as I dutifully took out my rain poncho now affectionaltely dubbed "the tent", it's only 9am, the real rain isn't supposed to start until at least 1pm so this must be a glitch. But this was no glitch. The rest of the day followed the now familiar pattern. While we were walking to the next ruin, the rain thankfully eased up a bit and when we arrived at the ancient, priceless, Inca site, the rain started to bucket.

Nevertheless, we did enjoy our day and the sight of the impressive stones at Saqsaywaman or the labyrinth at Q'enqo made the day worthwhile. And as we sat at Jack's Cafe in Cusco tucking into our sandwiches we both agreed that we had had and amaizing day.

Ollantaytambo to Pisaq

First (no second) Ruins
The next morning we woke up bright and early and packed up our bags and left them at the lovely hostel that had been staying at for the past three nights and headed for the local ruins. We had been scared off checking it out before because the fee advertised at the entrance was S/ 130 (£28) which we thought was a bit much. After speaking with some other travellers, we discovered that the fee included entrance to about a dozen ruins in the Cusco area and is valid for over 10 days. So we coughed up our soles and headed up the ruins.

The ruins themselves were interesting, though writing this in hindsight makes it difficult to accurately describe what we felt at the time as we have seen so many other ruins since. The most impressive bits were the massive stones that they seemed to have quarried and lugged up the side of the mountain (how?) and the many agricultural terraces built into the side of the mountain. My reccomendation would be to check them out if you are in the area.

Peruvian Hot Springs
Some guy who was trying to sell us a tour mentioned that there were hot springs that you could go and bathe in at Calca. Sweet, we thought, muscles aching a bit from all the steps at the Macchu Picchu and Ollantaytambo ruins, it's on the way to Pisaq, our destination for the night, so we'll head there.

After negotiating one local mini-van (S/1.5) and one local bus (S/1), we arrived at the bus station at Calca. On asking around for the hot springs, we discovered that they were actually located 8km up the mountain at a place called Machacancha and we could get a route taxi there for only S/2. We jumped in.

The hot springs were not exactly what we expected but hey, the water was warm, we had a roof over our heads and another experience under our belt. Recommendation: why not :)

Pisaq
After safely negotiating our way off the mountain (another route taxi), we caught another bus to our destination, Pisaq and checked ourselves into the Kinsa Ccocha hostal. The name is the Quecha for Three Cockroaches... an ominous name... nevertheless, I did manage to examine the rooms before we handed over any cash and there were none of the creepy crawlys in sight.

Safely checked in, we went exploring. I think that Johan's favourite town was Ollantaytambo but mine so far is definately Pisaq. True, it doesn't actually feel as if you will turn a corner and encounter a real Inca (actually you do as the folk of Ollantaytambo are direct descendents of the Incas) but the streets are narrow and clearly for foot traffic and kept very clean, and the shops sell things like shampoo and granola bars...

Tomorrow's adventure will be a day of ruins as we explore the Sacred Valley...

An Inka village

We have now spent the last couple of nights in a lovely, genuine Inka (using the olde tyme spelling of the word) village called Ollantaytambo affectionately known as Ollanta by the locals.

It's a beautiful and interesting quaint little place and as you walk along the narrow cobbled streets (yes the Incas did cobbles), you can't help imagining what it would have been like so long ago. There are still Inca doorways and walls standing from those days that are still in use today, in fact, that makes up quite a big part of the village.

Yesterday, the rains cleared up and we went for a walk through the village then followed the signs up the mountainside to explore some Inca ruins left open and free to look around. Apparantly the really interesting ruins are found on the adjacent mountain which you need to pay to enter. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow.

Sadly, the good fortune that we had throughout most of the trip seems to have run out as I became ill once again last night, so we couldn't visit Richard's company today :( I'm feeling much better now but it might be vegetables and dry crackers for me for a few days...

To the hills...

The last few days in the jungle were as good as the first, a lot of more of the same (birds and monkeys galore) though the highlights were definately the times we spent in small canoes. Silently gliding through the forests looking for animals and trying not to scare them away. Or, in Vaniah's case, focusing on not falling in the water. So we left thinking it definately exceeded our expectations, and looking forward to the next opportunity we could get to wash our mosquito-repellent soaked clothing.

Cuzco
Next stop, Cuzco, altitude 3500 m and boy did we feel that. We noticed immediately that we were getting a bit winded a little earlier, but since I´ve been skiing on almost these altitudes before I was fairtly sure it would pass easily. That didnt quite happen, and we might just have had a little e-coli dose in something we ate along the way too. So we only managed to take a few short walks around the city, which is a beautiful little place by the way. Lots of old stone buildings, cathedrals, winding narrow cobbled streets and brightly clad locals leading the odd llamas that give it an ancient feel about it. In the next few days, when we go back, we´re hoping to catch all the great ruins outside of it as well.

Machu Picchu
One of the main reasons for visiting Peru, and to go on the this trip in the first place, was Machu Picchu, the mystical ancient ruins on the top of the mountains. Due to our issues with the altitude and food, and the constant raining that starts at 13.00 each day and keeps going until late in the night we opted out of doing any 4 day hikes, and instead caught the train. We got up at the crack of an hour before dawn and went to the bus stop. Then we went to the back of the queue, about 100 - 200 meters further up. This was at 5 am. But a little after 5.30 we got on a bus and went up the mountain, another long queue (they must like them here too) to get in.

It would have been great if we could have had a better day for it it was raining heavily and being soaked and cold is not the best way of seing and appreciating it. A word of warning first though, when you go to Machu Picchu you are a part of a captive audience and you will feel ripped off. You can only get to Machu Picchu village (formerly Aguas Calientes) by train or walking, so the train fare is extortionate. And in the horror that is the village, the food, water, snacks are grossly overpriced and the restaurants and hostels lack service. This is a great shame since the ruins themselves are amazing and it only serves to deter people from coming. Top-tip: when you go, go on a hike that does not involve a night in the village and head straight out after coming down the mountain.

Once finally in it was quite astonishing though, despite the low clouds and the pouring rain (top tip for anyone visiting, avoid rain-season, especially if you are trekking). It would be interesting to know what this place actually was, its almost never mentioned in preserved texts. But this makes it quite fun as well, you can easily play a game up there. Trying to get as many alternate explanations as possible by evesdropping on different guides (knowing multiple languages will definately be an asset). They are all happily going along telling their version as if it was a proven fact that the building currently in was the temple of winds. Or that the last building was where the emperor took his baths. We heard a few, most interestingly when two English speaking guides gave different descriptions, no more than 10 meters apart!

At one point, at a rock in a stone quarry, we overheard a different guide say to his troupe of 30-odd followers:

"The Incas worked very hard from sunrise to sunset then went and drank beer!"

which was too bad because the Incas had very advanced (for the time and place) stone cutting techniques which the guide didn't bother to mention, instead with a kurt "take picture", he herded his group onwards.

So tonight we'll be happy to leave this village and head to Ollantaytambo, from where we'll tomorrow hopefully visit Richard Webbs (an Univerity friend of Vaniahs) company.

The jungle - day dos

After retiring at around 9pm, we woke up bright and early in the morning for our pre-breakfast excursion. This turned out to be a canoe ride for just Johan and myself and our guide, Moises and we had to help with the paddling! The morning is comfortably cool and it was clear that the birds also agreed because they were out in full glory. I wish I could remember the names of all the birds that we saw, I hear that there is a checklist that we can use to record what we've seen so I will try to source one of them. The best part of the trip was seeing the calmness of the river and the refection of the jungle in it.

Breakfast was the usual delicious food and soon afterwards was time for our walk. We took a boat to the place were some of the others were meant to go camping the night before but their guide got ill so they couldn't go so we proceeded to take the walk around the lake. It was a long and hot walk, too hot for many of the animals though we did manage to see some tiny night monkeys up a tree and lots of birds including a tucan - though I didn't see that one...

Pirana fishing
After lunch, several others arrived from Iquitos and another traveller, a nice medical student from California, joined our group. The afternoon excursion was a trip to go fishing for piranas on the river. Very exciting! We travelled for a bit by boat to where the piranas were and Moises showed us how to bait the hook, make a circle in water lilies and drop our hook deep into the water. Within seconds I got the first bite, a tiny little thing that had to be thrown back. We fished in a couple of spots, finally finishing with about 8 acceptable fish including one that Johan caught! They have promised that we will be able to eat them tonight... I hope so :)

After dinner (yes we ate piranas and yes they were delicious) we went out again on to the river by night with the new group that arrived at lunch time today. Again I was amaized by the number and beauty of the stars. With no artificial lights to compete with, we really had the chance to see the stars the way our ancient forefathers would have seen them. The sky was clear and the moon was yet to rise so they were displayed in all their splendor. Wonderful. And then the moon rose - full and low and a yellowish-orange colour... A sight I will remember always.

The next few days were just as amazing as the first two however they were so visual that it's hard to just describe them so we've created a photo album for you to see.

Peru

Hello Jungle

Much of the next few posts were written out in the jungle where we had no electricity or internet access to upload them

So much can happen in just 24 hours that we find ourselves needing to record this as we are already beginning to forget some of the amaizing things that we have already seen.

To Muyuna
As expected in the morning we headed down towards the river (not the Amazon we discovered but one of its tributaries), and boarded our boat which would take us the 3 hours to our lodge deep in the middle of the Amazon jungle. After about 15 minutes the water changed colour from the dark brown to the light brown of the Amazon. Wow. We kept saying to each other "I can't believe that we're on the Amazon!". Pretty cool. Pretty soon however, the noise of the boat engine and the unrelenting jungle on both sides lulled us both into sleep, broken for a few minutes by a stop at the last big village (7000 people) before we reached to our Lodge.

Muyuna lodge was more than we expected though I have to admit that I'm not sure exactly what I expected. We met our guide, Moises, and after a delicious lunch where we met some of the others staying here, we went to our private bungalow. We expected not to have any electricity or hot water, but we didn't expect a beautiful thatched covered room set high on stilts overlooking the river with a generous balcony complete with a relaxing hammock. The entire room was surrounded with mosquito netting and our ensuite bathroom with separate shower was more than we imagined. We will definately enjoy our time here.

The first activity of the day was a walk through the jungle starting at 3pm in the afternoon. We donned our longed sleaved shirts, long trousers and the wellington boots that we hired in town and headed off into the jungle following our trusty guide, Moises. It wasn't long before we were attacked by mossies and for the second time on this trip I was thankful for the fly net that I bought back in the Outback of Australia. Seems that it works just as well on mossies as on flies. Moises was soon pointing out different plants and birds to us. THere was a plant whose leaf juice is good for burns, another mushroom that needs to be dried for several days before it is good to eat. We saw some parrots, hawks and a toad which was undistinguishible from a leaf, until it jumped. We saw a group of tiny marmaset monkeys playing in the bush, beautiful kingfisher and loads of termite and ants nests. Plus we had a great walk through the jungle. A great start.

Now a word about the mosquitos
We could dedicate an entire post to the unique Amazonian mozzies or wax lyrical in several posts about them until you are board stiff however we will try not to. Suffice to say, they are hugh, plentiful and have more persistance than your average mozzie. I will be hard pressed to find their equal anywhere in the world. They are the one thing that we could definately do without on this trip however I suppose that if we didn't have them to constantly consider, we would find time to worry about some of the many other nasties that live in this jungle.

After another scrummy dinner, we headed out onto the river on a little motorised boat in the darkness with Moises at the helm with a spotlight darting through the trees and bush. Not spotting any animals in the bush, we came to a little lake covered with water lily plants and came to a stop. Moises bent over the side of the boat and seconds later came up with a baby Caiman! He started to talk about its size and weight but none of us were listening to what he was saying, we were fully focused on the creature in front of us that he was holding. What a sight! Perfectly formed with strong hind legs and smaller front legs I touched his tail which was scaly and covered with some kind of moss that grows there. Wow! Moises put it back into the water and we were on our way back to the lodge.

What an incredible day, and we have 4 and a half days left. Each day can't be this good...

The mighty Amazon

You guessed it, after travelling for just over 20 hours (of which less than half was spent in the air, the rest in empty and closed airports) , we have arrived in Iquitos in Peru. Now Iquitos is a good sized town (400k people) situated in the middle of the Amazon jungle. It is so isolated that their are no roads to the town, the only way that you can get there is by plane, like we did, or by boat.

The first thing that you notice when you arrive in Iquitos, is the lack of cars. Instead almost everyone (it seemed) was travelling around on either a motorcycle or as a passenger in one of the ubiquitos converted motorcycle taxi's. Of course, when you think about it, how are they going to get cars to Iquitos? There are no roads... so either you'd have to fly (hideously expensive for the average Iquitos farmer) or by boat, which is possibly less expensive but certainly more convoluted. The lure of having a car certainly exists though and there were a few driving around, conspicous in their presence.

Weary and jet-lagged, but aware that we needed to stay awake to stay on the same time zone as everyone else, we went for a walk around town to get a feel for it.

Surprisingly, we both thought it felt a bit like Jamaica except when we wanted to communicate with anyone. Then the tables were turned.... Wherever we went, people automatically directed their conversations with us at me (I assume because of my complexion) when actually, Johan is the one that has the head for languages and the confidence to speak in Spanish. I have already lost count of the number of times that I have had to say, "no hablo Español" and point to Johan who wonderfully takes over. I do feel quite bad about it, maybe there is some way that I can start to pick up a bit more of the local lingo...

After a delicious two course lunch of chicken and fish with rice for S/ 7 each (approx £1.50) we wandered down the road in the direction of the local crafts market and stumbled across this ---> the mighty Amazon. Remarkably unspoiled, it really focused our mind on the main reason for coming to this place and now we can't wait for our time in the jungle to start.

Tomorrow morning, they will pick us up from our hotel and transfer us to a boat where we will travel for 3 hours on the Amazon to reach our lodge which will be our home for the next 4 nights. While there, we hope to go for walks in the jungle and see some of the local flora and fauna as well as sample some more of the delicious Peruvian food that we got a taste of today. Unfortunately, there is no internet access out there so we won't be updating our blog for about a week but don't worry, they haven't lost any guests yet :)

And of course, if we haven't already said it, we hope that you have a wonderful 2010. Happy New Year!!