Bolivia

Our room in Copacabana. We were not sure if it was fashioned after a royal room or a bordello until we tried the bed which was totally worn out and decided it must have been the latter.


View from the hill of the Virgen de Copacabana


Sacred rock on Isla del Sol used by pre-inca civilisation for animal sacrifice.


View of Isla del Sol and Lake Titicaca from the three hour walk along the length of the island.

We found a lovely little town at Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. To get there from Ariquipa we journeyed during the day which was a much needed break from the overnight bus trips. We used just about every type of road transport that day starting with a taxi to the Terrapuerte (their fancy word for a bus station), long distance bus with toilet to Puno, Colectivo (ie Toyota Hi-Ace packed with 20 people) to the border town of Yunguyo, Pedal taxi to the actual border, on foot across no-man´s land between the Peru and Bolivian immigration offices, then finally another taxi to Copacabana.

There was much action in Copacabana on our first day associated with a religious holiday and there were many people playing around with boats and having pilgrimages up the hill that overlooks the town. It appears that there is a special version of the Virgin Mary called the Virgen de Copacabana and on this day the priests at the local cathedral bless cars and trucks in the morning which are highly decorated with flowers and whatever. Then they wander up the hill with toy cars and fake money to little shrines and make offerings to the Virgen de Copacabana. And most importantly, they buy heaps of beer and get totally sloshed up there as well. It appears to be a bit of a mix of Catholicism and Indigenous worship.

The Island of the Sun is nearby and one of the Inca legends has it that the Inca people originated from there. The boat trip over was painfully slow. We had a boat of 70-80 people being pushed by a 75hp outboard! All the windows were fixed in place so there would have been no hope of escape if the thing had capsized, it would have been time to ask a favour of the Virgen de Copacabana if that happened. Two excruciating hours later we finally arrived at the Northern end and had a look around at the archaeological sites before a three hour walk the length of the Island. It was very scenic but I am still feeling the altitude up the hills. Cheryl is fine though.

We finished in a lovely village at the South which would have been a good place for an overnight stay.

Of course travelling here is not without its challenges, it rained every night and morning and was freezing when wet. The hotel´s hot water seemed to have trouble finding its way up to our room and I think we only managed one hot shower in three days, so we were definitely on the nose by the time we arrived back in Cusco last night.

The Nasca Lines

Can you find the Whale in this photo?
Really there is one, no-one has said they have found it yet. Click on the photo to enlarge it then look carefully.


The best one was the Humming Bird


Coming in for a landing on the UFO runway


Our pilot, proof positive that aliens are still living at Nasca

After a grueling overnight bus ride from Cusco, we arrived in Nasca in a zombie state to make our own scientific observations of the famous lines. We took a joy flight in a UFO (known as OVNI here, Objecto Volento No Identificado) to try out the landing strips and check out the figures on the ground. Yes, indeed they can only be made out from the air, but you really have to look hard for some of them. There is no doubt that aliens landed here and as there was no John Howard around to jail them, they even integrated with the local people. Let me out of here the heat is getting to me....

The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

This is a view of the houses of the ¨Virgins of the Sun¨ their honored position meant that they were concubines for the Inca or (if really lucky) a human sacrifice.

That´s right, we had to get this close before we could see Machu Picchu!


Cheryl and our guide, Ivonne, exhausted atop the highest point at 4200 metres.


The Group about to attack the second pass on day three. L to R Laurie, Cheryl, Amber, Amie, Katie

The hardest thing we have ever done!

The altitude really knocked us about and it was a real stuggle to cross the three passes on the way to Machu Picchu. On top of that it rained every day of our four day trek and the soggy camping was not much fun by the third night.

We had a lovely group though with Amber from the UK who was at our Spanish school and two Aussie girls from North of Newcastle. Would you believe that they were from Wallaby Point and we are from Kangaroo Point! Our guide, Ivonne, was a Cusco girl who had studied Tourism at university to do the job. She was very knowledgable and thoughtful and was always there for us when we were dragging our feet at the back of the group.

The second day we crossed the highest pass at 4200 metres. Even our two weeks in Cusco had not prepared us for the altitude and we both struggled up the track only able to take baby steps of one foot only 50mm in front of the other. After a dozen of these, you would stop and gasp for breath with your heart racing. Unfortunately, it did not matter how much you rested you did not get your breath back so you just kept going. Slowly, slowly trying to maintain a rhythm. Laurie was also nauseous while this was going on. We were each fighting our own private battle to get to the top of that rotten pass!

On day three we crossed the second and third passes and they were not as bad but still hard work. The real ¨fun¨ that day was actually the descent. After lunch at the third pass we had a 1,000m Inca staircase to negotiate and everyone still has sore calves from that two days later.

We finally splashed through the drizzle yesterday to reach Machu Picchu. Of course we were in cloud so could not see the classic view from Inti Punku. In fact, we could not see the ruins until we were within 200 metres of them. We were all unimpressed at that point. The funny thing was that there was a guy walking around trying to sell us post cards that showed Machu Picchu in brilliant sunshine. I asked him where the place was on the post cards because we could not see anything like that from where we were! He gave up on us pretty quickly.

Luckly, the weather cleared for a couple of hours while we were there and we even had a bit of sun. Ivonne gave us a great tour of the temples, the ¨sun dial¨ that is not a sundial, incredible stone work, the puma´s head, the houses of the virgins of the sun, the llama´s head, the Inca´s seat and the Inca´s private bedroom (complete with ensuite).

After lots of photos we headed down to Aguas Calientes for pizza and rest before catching the train to Cusco. By the time we got down the mountain the rain had started again so we were happy that we did not go up Huayna Picchu.

Had an interesting chat on the train. See a separate entry for that.

Itinerary Update 12 Jan

Itinerary
Sat 14 Jan, Commence 4 day Inca trail trek
Tue 17 Jan, Arrive at Machu Picchu, spend day there and return to Cusco.
Wed 18 Jan Cusco
Thu 19 Overnight bus to Nasca
Fri 20 Nasca
Sat 21 Ariquipa
Sun 22 Ariquipa
Mon 23 Cocacobana
24 Isla del Sol
25 Cocacobana
26 Cusco
27 Cusco
Sat 28 Jan, LAN Peru S.A. LP 0038, Depart 4:30pm Cuzco to Lima Sat 28 Jan, LAN Peru S.A. LP 5635, Depart 8:35pm Lima to Santiago
Mon 6 Feb, Depart Puerto Montt, Navimag Ferry, 4.00pm
Thur 9 Feb, Arrive Puerto Natales, 4.00pm Arrive Nat. Park Torres del Paine 10 Day Trek Depart Nat. Park Torres del Paine Arrive Punta Arenas
Mon 17 Apr, LAN Airlines S.A. QF 0322, Depart 11:15pm Santiago to Auckland Wed 19 Apr, Qantas QF 0116, Depart 6:30am Auckland to Brisbane

Our host family

L to R: Eddie (work mate of Abel), a niece (can´t remember the name), the Grandmother Antonia, the beautiful Sara, Nano the son, Abel the Father, Cheryl the naughty student, Raisa the pretty daughter. "The Last Supper" with all the host family. (Sorry about the lack of smiles, they were getting frustrated by the fact that my flash would not fire and this was the umpteenth time!) Dinner time is usually full of laughs, especially at our spanish pronunciations. This was the last time the whole family was together. Abel has now finished holidays and has left to do his work in the next district of Puno. It is too far for him to commute so he has an apartment there. Nano will be going back to university in Lima later this week as well.

Ollantaytambo

Inca food storage buildings high on the side of the mountain that overlooks the town. The windows were permanetly open and they were constructed up there to catch the winds that blow off the nearby snow capped peaks. They were pretty smart those Incas! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday (Sunday Jan 8) we headed out to a site further down the Sacred Valley of the Incas which is closer to Machu Picchu. This place is called Ollantaytambo and is at the junction of three valleys. In one of them the descendants of the Incas are still living way up in the mountains and there is a trek you can do to visit these people. We loved this place! Beautiful plaza and no beggars like in Cusco. All very tranquil and the ruins were great too. There are some huge granite blocks up in the ruins that were transported from high on the other side of the valley. The blocks weigh 72 tons! The next spot along the valley is the famous Machu Picchu and we start the four day trek to it this Saturday.

Pisaq

Inca Temple and the solar clock broken by the spanish

This is taken in the Inca nunnery. We were told that the nuns entered the nunnery at 4 years old and were usually stolen for wives when they reached pubity. This one must have been left behind for some reason. Ahhhhhhhh I just got thumped by Cheryl.... ----------------------------------------------- We took the bus to Pisaq with a couple of Swiss girls and a teacher from our school who was a fantastic guide. Pisaq is a town at the entrance to the sacred valley of the Incas and was and important community which guarded the valley from intruders. There are also pre-inca ruins there so it was interesting to see the development of the technologies they used over the ages. The stone work at the temple is amazing, this is one of those places you hear about where you could not even slide a piece of paper between the stones. Have a look at the photo, it´s true! We have a great story about a model in the ruins doing calendar shots. We will save that one for our return...

Para nuestos amigos latinos

Saludos amigos.

Nos gusta mucha la vida nueva aqui en le cusco peru. Todos los dias vamos a nuestra escuela de español desde las nueve hasta una. Despues, regresamos a casa de nuesta familia y comimos almuezo grande. Es muy interestante la comida del peru. El miercoles una chica aqui fue compleaños. Entonces comimos su comida favorita (es una palabra?). Tomamos sopa de pollo con harina de arroz con papitas fritas sobre la sopa. Despues comimos aji de gallina con papas, lechuga, aceitunas, huevo pasado y arroz graneada. ¡Era comida muy, muy rica! Tamien hubo torta de chocolate (yummy).

Creo que estos platos son comida tipica de Sud America. ¿Los conocen?

Dimos a Sandra un regalo, un koalita.

Besos y abrazos
Lorenzo y Cheryl

Homestay in Cusco

We are staying with a lovely family in Cusco in a beautiful house which is quite new and spotlessly clean. The father´s name is Abel and he works for the local Dept of Agriculture managing projects which are converting farmers growing coca to growing legal commercial crops. A very interesting guy who knows a lot about plant species. The mother is Sara and we are calling her the movie star because she is so pretty and has an outgoing personality to match. She helps us with our spanish when we have a ¨bloque mental¨ because she does speak english. The kids are home on vacation from their university studies at a private uni in Lima. The son's name is Nano and the daughter is Reisa. Both are great kids and take after their parents. Reisa's friends Alexandra and Sandra are from Lima and are also staying here for the uni holidays. Sara's mother Antonia also lives here as does Luisa the cook who has been with them for 30 years and is considered part of the family. It all sounds a little crowded but the two story house has seven bedrooms and there is plenty of room.

Yesterday they took us to some Inca ruins at Tipon where there are huge terraces that were used for cultivation and the Incas had made a complex system of aquaducts to irrigate the crops. Much of it was still working. It is quite amazing to see this place and imagine how they were living in Inca times. We had a surprise picnic after looking around the place. It was a feast that had taken hours to prepare unbeknown to us.