[Inca Trail and Machu Piccu]
Monday, 30 August, 2004
Hi
We have just arrived back from seeing the famous inca
ruins of Machu Piccu. It ended up costing about
$50UDS each for the trip which is a lot, but
definitely worth it. We did it as cheap as you can by
organising everything ourselves, taking public
transport as much as we could and camping at the town
below the ruins rather than the hostels which are
twice the price than here in cusco. The big ticket
items you can't get around though are the $20UDS entry
fee and the $25USD train ride up and back (no roads to
this town). We also caught a $4.50USD bus up to the
ruins to save a 3 hour walk up in the dark (walked
back down at the end of the day). The scenery is
absolutely stunning - very very similar to around
milford sound (if you can replace the fiord by a
river). Its just so NZ Fiordland. Huge towering
peaks with sheer rock walls from the top to the bottom
- just amazing. It did make us feel like we were at
home (except for the hoards of tourists). The Inca
Trail finishes at Machu Piccu and I imagine would be
three days of pretty amazing scenery. We of course
didn't walk it, just too expensive. You arn't allowed
to freedom walk it - only guided trips. And the
cheapest guided trip over the trail is about $250USD
for three days of walking down hill on a paved road.
Seems crazy. We had our doubts about whether it was
worth going to the ruins at all cause we have seen
some pretty impressive ruins elsewhere in the Sacred
Valley behind Cusco but it was a fantastic day (very
tiring though).
The incas were totally mad. what were they thinking
building a city on this hill.... If you ever come to
this area of the world, this is a must see. Andrew
made me walk up to this place called the Temple of the
sun (for the view), then all around the ruins
(hundreds of steps), then to another place called
temple of the moon, down another 500 steps (and of
course back up), then up a mountain called Wayna
Piccu, another 500 steps up or so. All in all, a lot
of walking which was finished with the final 600m
decent down more steps back to our campground. I have
sore legs today! We were lucky with the weather.
Slightly overcast with fine patches (good for photos)
for most of the day. Then just as we went out for a
break for an hour around 1pm, a thunder storm hit and
it poured down (real west coast rain) for about 1.5
hours. We got one of the few picnic tables that was
sheltered and sat it out. We then went back in to see
more afterwards when it was sunny again. Most of the
tourists cleared out though and some mad woman gave us
free coke and a massive bag of chips cause she was
leaving! This made our day cause all the food on site
is ridicously expensive (like $5NZ for a small coke).
The other mad thing about the place is you are miles
away from the nearest shop, you arn't allowed to take
food and drink into the site so are obliged to buy
their overpriced sandwiches and drink. You also pay
$20USD to get in and still have to pay to use the
toilet. We snuck our own bananas and bread in and had
to eat them on the top of the mountain where no body
could see us! didn't take enough water though and
ended up buying a $6NZ 2 litre bottle of water which
was guzzled in one hit! All in all a good trip. We
are tired now cause we took the cheap train which
leaves at horrible times. On the way there it was
supposed to leave at 7pm, but our engine broke so we
didn't leave till midnight. Got in around 2am, had to
walk 2km out of town to the campground and pitch the
tent. Got 3 hours sleep then got up early to catch
the first bus up the hill to the site. Back to the
tent for a cold shower by 6pm and crashed into bed.
Then had to get up again at 4am to catch our 5.30am
train back (to the funny wee town called
Ollaytantambo... where we watched drunk locals on
friday night stumble around the plaza for a few hours
while the wee kiddies ran around playing - interesting
combination) Boy we will sleep well tonight. We are
here in cusco looking at more inca ruins and a few
churches, then go rafting wednesday-friday. Didn't
end up going on the earlier rafting trip cause we had
to postpone our train ride for a day (tickets were
sold out).
No other real dramas or stories to tell from the trip.
We should have some good photos from it though. we
have gone through our photo CD's and will email some
through when we get to lima. Really looking forward
to getting there to rest with another english speaker
for a few days!
Must go now and have another INCA COLA - a local drink
that is strongly caffinated lolly water... Tastes
just like bubblegum! Very sweet (you would probably
call it sickly sweet). You can't drink much at a time,
and its cheap. About 25cents NZ for 300ml. We have
been eating fairly cheap here in Cusco. NZ $5 for a
meal with soup, garlic bread, free nachos and a main
(pizza, mexican or local peruvian food) plus free
pisco sour, and coke or tea or coffee. Or there is
the mad chicken outlets where you get a eat all you
can eat salad, a mountain of chips and quarter of a
chicken for about $3NZ. We have eaten way to many
chips in this country - they come with every meal you
order...
Will be in touch again soon.
Lots of love
nicola
[Cusco - Peru]
Thursday, 26 August, 2004
Hi
Just a quickie to let you know whats happening over
here.
We have found a great hostel for $5 NZ each that has a
kitten to play with! Its totally mad.
Cusco is a fantastical city with a huge amount of inca
history. There are buildings everywhere that are
built on inca foundations, inca doorways etc. We will
need a few days just to see everything in the city.
We have found a relatively cheap way to get to Machu
Piccu which is great. Most people walk the inca trail
or take the train up for the day and back and it costs
anywhere from USD $110-$300. ie very very expensive.
If we take local buses, and catch the train for the
last bit, we should be able to get there and back for
about USD $50 each. Very cheap. So we are pleased.
We will head off tomorrow to do that and return
sometime in the weekend. Andrew has found an outfit
that does white water rafting down the apurimac canyon
which sounds like a blast. Expensive though cause its
three days and mostly grade 3-5 rapids and you
definitely want to go with a reputable company. We
are doing a budget to see if we can afford it.... Its
$170USD each for 3 days with everything included.
Expensive for our budget, but we certainly won't get
it any cheaper anywhere else in the world so maybe we
will treat ourselves.
Love nic
* Chinnoble Adventures #8
Friday, 20 August, 2004
Hi again
I think by the end of this one you will be almost up
to date with our happenings....
In the last three weeks we have had 3 very different
and interesting adventures...
Our first was a climbing trip into the Condoriri area.
We caught a taxi out to the small town of Tuni where
we were met by a donkey and donkey driver that was
going to carry 25kg of our gear up to Condoriri Base
Camp 3 hours up the valley. Condoriri is a fantastic
climbing base about 2-3 hours drive from La Paz. The
base camp itself is beautifully situated at 4500m next
to a glacial lake at the head of a valley and
surrounded by a circ of 5200-5700m peaks. There is
running water, flat grass, rock toilets, friendly
locals, donkeys, mules and llamas grazing around the
tents and 4 mad dogs that will steal your food the
minute you turn your back. Its warm during the day
and there is always someone interesting to yarn to.
Our first full day there we did an acclimitisation
walk up a nearby 5300m peak. Then it was time for our
first real climb of the week - Pequeno Alpamayo at
5500m (not alot higher really but the other peak was
all rock with a nice path up it where as this one was
all snow and ice). The next day we departed camp
around 3am and began the amble up valley to the
glacier which we spent the next 4 hours trudging up in
the dark. It got light as we reached the top, a small
peak on the ridge at the head of the glacier. From
here we decended a rock spur on the other side before
climbing an elegant arete to the summit of P. Alpamayo
which looks like a mini Mt Aspiring form this side. As
it happened a Canadian couple we had met the day
before were having an unofficial wedding, saying their
wedding vows on the summit the same day. The climb
down the glacier was uneventful and fast and we were
back lazing around the tent in the sun by lunchtime.
Poor Nic spent the rest of the afternoon in bad shape
with stomach cramps and nausea. Seems like the bug
from the week before was back
The following day we rose at 1am again, and were
walking up towards the the highest peak in the
Condoriri massif (the head of the condor) by 2am.
Half an hour up the gravel slopes to the glacier was
as far as we got as Nic was struggling to keep down
breakfast. Climbing and tummy bugs weren't a good
combination so we retreated to the tent for the rest
of the night and day to sleep. We had arranged for
our taxi pickup the next day so didn't stay around to
climb more.
The weekend was spent in La Paz with our Canadian
friends organising our next trip to climb the volcano
of Sajama. All was organised and arranged to leave on
Monday. Monday morning rolled around and Andrew woke
up with the flu. Bugger.... As it turned out, one of
our Canadian friends woke Monday morning with food
poisening, so we had 2 out of 4 in bad shape. It was
never going to happen. Nic spent the morning running
around town organising an alternative trip to the
Amazon Basin and by 11am we were sitting on a plane to
the amazon town of Rurrenabaque. Down into the warm
thick air and humidity (and mosquitos) of the amazon
hopefully meant that Andrew would recover faster while
getting to see some of the jungle and wildlife at the
same time.
Landing on the grass runway at Rurrenabaque was a
shock to the system. We had dropped from 4000m to
200m altitude, and the temperature had increased from
about 10 degrees to over 35. We went straight to our
accommodation and spent the rest of the afternoon
sleeping in our room with the fan on full.
We went to a restaurant for a late lunch around 4pm
and were served the hugest sandwiches we have ever
seen - they ended up being lunch, dinner and the
following breakfast all in one. All for about
$2.50NZ.
We had a further day's rest in Rurrenabaque sleeping
in hammocks and wandering the dirt streets before
heading off on a pampas tour. This involved an
extremely dusty and hot 4wd trip to a village 4 hours
away, then sitting in a dug out canoe and zooming up a
river for 4 hours spotting wildlife and baking in the
sun.
Within the first 200m of river we had spotted more
alligators than we could count on both hands, an array
of turtles basking in the sun along with white herons
and pink flamingos. This river was thick with
wildlive. Half way up river to our camp we spotted
pink dolphins swimming in a corner of the river. They
apparently keep away the alligators (hmmmmm), so we
all went swimming in the murky brown water to cool
off. The only drama was one girl being bitten by what
our guide called a sardine (phirana!). Still, quite
crazy swimming in the river with pink dolphins and
alligators less than 50m away in the shallows. I
tried not to think about the piranahs, snakes and
other things that were probably swimming with us.
Our camp was clean and comfortable with ample food and
comfortable hammocks to hang out in.
First night at camp had Nic on the toilet for most of
the night making friends with the huge beatles and
spiders while sick again. Nothing a bit of the
super-antibiotic Cipro couldn't fix and on day two of
the tour we all went anaconda hunting. This involves
wading around thigh deep in a swamp hoping to see one
sun bathing on the surface or stand on one with your
foot (all good fun when these snakes grow to 10m).
Unfortunately (fortunately!?!) we didn't find one.
The heat was unbearable so half of the afternoon was
spent sleeping in hammocks back at camp before heading
out in the boat to go piranah fishing. Andrew caught
one - although very small and we watched an amazing
huge red sunset across the amazon basin before
returning to camp for a massive dinner.
Our third and final day was mostly getting back to
Rurrenabaque with a small jungle visit in the morning
to look at various plants and their use in medicine.
It was actually a relief to be back in our hostel in
Rurre where there were less mosquitos and we could
escape the heat. Our sicknesses made our tolerance
for the heat and the biting insects very short.
Next day we took the mad flight back to La Paz, this
time climbing the 4000m back up to the altiplano in
the unpressureized plane where everyone either passes
out or goes to sleep with the decrease in oxygen in
such a short time. Andrew and I were the only ones to
remain conscious and we were glad to see the pilot use
an oxygen mask for most of the flight.
Back in La Paz we had a day to rest and a day to pack
for our next trip - Illimani 6450m (or thereabouts -
all depends on what map you look on).
The peak is visible from most areas in La Paz. The
trip all started with a 4am alarm clock to catch a bus
that apparently left from the a certain market anytime
between 4.30 and 5.30am. After a minor delay with
being deadlocked into our hostel, we managed to get up
to our bus only to find it full of sleeping campesinos
(peasants). Some old guy made room for us, and there
we sat shivering for an hour before departing. The
bus ride was the scariest we have been on so far and
lasted for 5 hours. We shared it with an isle full of
produce, sacks, beer, locals carrying chickens and
even a crying kitten.
Once we got off, some wee man came up to us offering
us a mule for $50Bs to carry our packs to base camp
(about $10NZ). He said it would be able to carry all
our gear. We initially said no, but were easily
persuaded and literally a second after we said yes,
this man and his friend picked up our packs and zoomed
off up the road with us struggling to keep up. Our
mule was two villages away so they insisted on
carrying our gear to there.
At the first town Una the original guy we made the
deal with disappeared and out came someone different.
We waited for them to buy beer and bread (the bolivian
essentials) before carrying on up to the village
Pinaya where we were left with one of the guys wives
and his 8 children. There our mule turned out to be
two small donkeys, both looking very unimpressed with
being loaded up. Another two hours of pushing the
donkeys up the hills saw us at base camp 4500m where
we spent our first night along with other climbers,
porters, cooks, mules, donkeys and horses from
commercial expeditions. The next day we struggled
under heavey packs to the high camp 5600m - otherwise
known as Nido del Condors (nest of the condors) which
is a small platform perched on a ridge with
magnificent views over to La Paz and the altiplano.
The next day we had a rest / acclimitisation day
watching other climbers up on the mountain and being
entertained by local porters and bowler hat woman
(complete in skirts and rubber sandals) trying to
pitch flimsey dome tents in the afternoon snow storm.
Our climb saw us leave the warmth of the tent at 4am
and climb in the dark with the lights of La Paz
shimmering in the distance below us. The route was
obvious although hard and icey. We summitted just
after 11am along with three other spanish guys and
enjoyed panaromic views of the yungas, altiplano and
La Paz. It was a great climb, but hard with the
altitude and cold. Again, the last 200m seemed to
take forever. We teamed up with the spanish guys for
the decent and shared ropes to abseiled the steep
sections arriving back at camp at 2.30pm. There we
ate, packed up everying and continued down to base
camp (another 1000m decent with heavy packs for the
already tired legs).
Our final day out was long, tiring and scary... We
did an alpine start (4am) for our walk out down the
valley in order for us to reach the road end and catch
the supposed 8am bus. This was all well and good
until we got lost and ended up in a gorge on the wrong
side of the valley. We waited for it to get light
before continuing and eventually getting to the road
on time. Of course the 8am bus was late and didn't
pick us up until 11am. What followed was the worst
bus trip ever. A couple of hours into the journey we
broke down. Gear box jammed into third. An hour of
the driver and his helper faffing around with spanners
and tools fixed nothing. The funniest sight was the
bus drivers wife dressed up in skirt and bowler hat
under the bus trying to fix the problem while all the
men just stood around scratching their heads.
After an hour, we were all ordered off the bus to push
start it up the hill (still in 3rd gear) to allow
another car to pass. Hope the photos come out! Then
it was another half an hour before it was unjammed and
we continued. This is when the steep part of the trip
started. All we could think about was the bus jamming
in 3rd again on the steepest sections of the road and
plunging off the edge after the brakes failed....
The road itself is extremely windey and narrow with
pot holes and ruts all over the place. I sat on the
left hand side of the bus for the views and quickly
regretted it when I saw how little clearance we had
between the back wheels and the edge of the cliff
(often less than 15cm with the bus knocking stones off
the edge as we drove past). Then just when you
thought it couldn't get any worse, we would drive over
a dip in the road and the bus would lean (quite far)
over the edge. All the locals sat there calmly while
I swore, and Andrew sat white knuckled holding onto
the seat in front. )note this is the crux of the
Illimani climb)
We were relieved to arrive back in La Paz in one piece
7 hours later....
As for now, we have decided to head for Peru and will
probably hang up the ice axe and crampons for a while
as the climbing season has been bad there this year.
We're keen to find somewhere warm to spend some time
before heading into the hills again.
Till next time
Andrew and Nic
(Now in Arequipa Peru)
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