Well the last few weeks have been a blast!
I´ve really enjoyed exploring Peru/Bolivia with, literally, an Intrepid group of people so a huge thanks to my travel companions and Alberto our Intrepid guide who made the experience so easy (except for the Arequipan in bed leg!)
Here they all are in my favourite group shot that, as always, was composed interestingly by the photographer who, to be fair, was our crazy dune buggy driver!
From left to right: Scott (Australia), Corinna (Australia), Ash (Australia), Sarah (Australia), Jezdiana (GB), Kiki (Sweden), Carly (Australia), Steve (New Zealand) and Kat (New Zealand)
The adventure group travel experience was, all in all, ace - but I think it´s more suited to holidaying than long term travelling - so something that I´ll definitely use in my future travels when I´m back from this crazy trip! See, thinking ahead already ...
There were things I wouldn´t have bothered doing on my own because, to be honest, I would have found them boring (I understand that weaving is an important part of Andean culture but if I have to see another demonstration next year it´ll be too soon)
And yet there were trips into the deepest parts of Peru that I would never have arranged on my own and so missed out on meeting the local, fascinating people of an incredible country (they were the highlights of the last few weeks and stand right up there alongside Machu Picchu)
All in all a really rewarding experience and it was a great decision to hit the developing world for the first time in the comfort of a group - but my brain (and body) have now adjusted to South America and I´m looking forward to heading into Chile next Tuesday and down the Pan American highway on my own for a couple of weeks to Santiago
But I´m ahead of myself and it´s time to re-cap the last week or so starting in Cuzco when, because I didn´t need to recover from the Inka Trail, I soaked up another day of Inkan ruins following Machu Picchu
The fort of Saqsaywaman sits high on a hill overlooking Cuzco and was actually designed as the head of a puma while the rest of Cuzco made up the puma´s body (more and more symbology everywhere you turn from the Inkas!)
The stonework was hugely impressive and the stones themselves dwarfed even me! In 1536 it was the sight of one of the most bitter battles between the Spanish conquistadors and the Inkas and thousands of dead littered the site after the Inka defeat attracting carrion eating condors ... gumpf! (Thanks to Lonely Planet for that short history lesson ... my plagiarism days are behind me Reg so I thought I should commend the original author!)
After another impressve bus ride in Peru to Puno it was time to explore the origin of the Inkas and island hop around Lake Titikaka for a few days - one of the Inka mythologies states that their God, Wiracocha, rose out of the lake before creating the world and walking north towards the Sacred Valley and establishing the Inkan culture from their world´s centre at Cuzco (I´m pretty sure this is close but it depends what you read ...!)
Anyway - it´s truly stunning and doesn´t do a bad line in sunsets (this one´s off the top of the peninsula at Llachon)
We all stayed the night at Llachon in the homes of different local Quechans - here´s me the morning after the night before with the very welcoming Primo, Natalia and Lourdes (Madonna fans?!) who has the glum one down to a fine art even at 6 years old! The food they prepare from their own self sustainable lifestyle was incredible - organic vegetables mainly and it was soooo delicious I coud have stayed for a while - if only they´d had internet access of course! They didn´t because they live very simply and we were in no shower and squat toilet land - not camping but getting close to that feeling - although the beds were super comfortable and made from a reed base (my room is on the right of us and I forgot to shut the door!)
The reeds make Lake Titikaka famous and the Islas Uros are created by a hardy set of Quechans who live on these floating reed beds - they build reed boats and welcome soooo many foreign visitors ...
After we´d done Uros we hopped to Isla Amantani and Isla Taquile and enjoyed a night of dressing in a poncho and dancing with our Quechan hosts to Andean charangas, pan pipes and drums ... I say enjoyed but I was touristed out to be honest ... tourism, tourism, tourism was a constant word (or 3) around Lake Titikaka and I hope they don´t rely too much on this potentially unstable source of income
During this merry go round, and for the first time on my journey, I felt like a cog in the wheel of a developing country and I didn´t like it much ... I got semi-stuck in but was feeling pangs of becoming a traveller (not a tourist with money) again ...
Those feelings soon vanished mind you because the journey back to Puno was a delight - the weather was incredible, the pace sedentary (no fast boats here ´cos they´re just too expensive and Miles would tear his hair out at the pace me thinks!), the water was tranquil and the sky stretched on towards and over Andean peaks ... see!
After another night in Puno (that looks like it´s falling down but is actually full of money in the form of contraband from Bolivia) we jumped on another bus and I faced my first ever overland border crossing
Having jumped the gun a bit and forgotten to get a ´salida´stamp from Peru it was all very straightforward to cross a stretch of Lake Titikaka, smile politely at the Policia Judicial and be given the key to Bolivia - I doubt it but I hope they´re all as easy as this - not even a need to pay any entry taxes/bribes! - though check out the dog running to get out of Bolivia in this shot!
And then just as Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince reached it´s climax (I need to put those bad boys to bed and tick them off my To Do list!) I arrived right here in La Paz
I´m contentedly tapping away in a bohemian coffee shop (I´ve missed a good coffee over the last few weeks!) featured in my Lonely Planet and luckily enough attached to my awesome Hostal Naira
La Paz is a buzzing, cosmopolitan city that´s full of attractive Bolivian women, men in suits (it´s not the capital of Bolivia but the commerical centre) and demonstrators! - there´s been 2 demonstrations in the last 2 days but they´re away from my cozy patch of the city and I´m giving them the smart wide berth - it actually feels way safer than I expected and I hit Tiahuanaco tomorrow and soak up pre-Inkan ruins on a majestic scale - Tomb Raidery in look this one and I´ll give you the low down when I next blog - and ´cos the coffee here is great I may well be back soon ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiahuanaco
3 comments:
Great work again Jez - fascinating read. Nice to see use of the glum one has filtered around the world, whilst your attribution of works to their original source would make Jo Doust proud. I, however, am left cold.
Off ski-ing tomorrow - yippeee!
Take care Stretchy.
Reg
Were did you get those three Peruvians from. It looks like some kind of circus show with you standing at 6 ft 2 and them comig up to your knees. What an amazing place. I always thought that this all happened 1000's of years ago. Have you seen a real condor? Aparently they are massive. Keep up the journo work. We are to Suffolk for a week before Jofs wedding. I'll let you kow if I see a Marsh harrier. xx
Very amusing comments guys - both in happy holiday mode I guess - enjoy your respective breaks - so happy you'll be back on snow Reg - go reckless! - and sadly Swifty I missed the condor viewing (the Colca Canyon is where to spot them for your future reference) 'cos of illness - I did see one on a friend's camera - does that count for the 2008 yearbook of spotting?! - for now my fine friends - adios!
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