Peru

The day before the walk we had a briefing and received our duffel bag, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat. We are allowed to only take 10 kg in total and the stuff we received weighed 5 kg. Also met the other members of the group, 15 in total - 2 canadians, 1 yank, 1 british, rest aussies - ages ranging from 22 to 69. On the day of the walk we got a bus from Cusco to the 82 klm mark on the train track which is the start point for the walks and there we met our porters, cooks etc. All the luggage, food, cooking stuff, tents etc for the 5 days is divided up between the 20 porters and they only carry 25 kg each. We started just before lunch time and were told that the first part of the track was flat, wrong, flat to the peruvians is quite hilly with lots of big steps and we knew we were in for something over the next few days. Had lunch overlooking a ruin, and it started raining as well - just what we needed. The rest of the first day was walking, walking, and trying to walk slowly to get accustomed to the altitude but everyone was still getting pretty exhausted and had to have breaks. Arrived at camp to find everything set up and a 3 course meal awaiting us including banana flombe!. Everyone slept well that night.
The second day we were warned was going to be the hardest and they were right. The walk was basically uphill all day with lots of steps and gaining altitude and lots of heavy rain. I had lots of trouble with stomach bug, and lost all my energy, so this day was petty bad. Penny was fine except for shortness of breath. Jose our guide stayed down the back with us and was a great support - it was a b terrible day!!!. Finally got to the top of 'Dead womans' pass and then had another 1.5 hour walk downhill to our night camp. Downhill really means downhill, lots of steps, lots of steep paths and its still raining. Got to the camp again everything set up - our tent was amongst two creeks which surrounded us with lot of mud. After all that the days views were still pretty amazing. dibble straight to bed and Pen for tea for another 3 course meal. Everyone slept well again.
Day three was no where near as the day before, but peruvean flat with some steep climbs and down hill section through man made tunnels and narrow paths. Had hail through this section and we got quite wet walking to our lunch break. After lunch started off in rain again still walking through pretty amazing cloud forrest, and surrounded by snow cap peaks that you had to keep an eye out for as the clouds wee continually coming and going uncovering them. Also lots of waterfalls. Arrived at our night stop, the rain had stopped and all had dried out. The camp was on top of a mountain range with unbelievable views in all directions - we had a nice camp spot here with a great view over the other tents to the back of machupichu.
Woke up early and went to the top of our mountain to watch the sunrise and as it came up it shone on the snow capped mountain around us - it was something pretty special. Our morning cup of tea was delivered to us on the mountain top. Had a ceremony for the porters where we gave them thee tips, and whatever they get they sure deserve, as they leve camp after we do and then they run/jog past you wherever you are on the trail with a big smile on their faces. The walk this day was basically down hill with just a few small climbs and after we had lunch we countinued the walk to the 'sun gate' which overlooks machupichu and had sunshine the first for a few days, where Jose congratulated us all on making the treck. From the sun gate you look down on machupichu and to us it was more the setting, and what we had done rather than seeing machupichu although it was pretty special as well. we then walked down to machupichu where Jose gave us a small talk on the history of the area. After that we got the bus down the the town where we visited the hot springs and went into town for dinner in a restaurant - a good night was had by all. We still slept in a tent that night alongside a quite fast running river - again everyone slept well.
The next day we got the bus up the mountain to machupichu, and found out that our trip up there would be cut short. We have had most things on this trip and now a landslide had come down from near where we had started the treck and washed away the train line so no-one could get in or out. Anyway we enjoyed our visit to machupichu and it is pretty amazing what the Incas did get up to and where they did it and there are still lots of mysteries as to what actually happened to them.
Came down from the mountain as word had got around that trains were going to take people to the landslide, and then we would walk around the landslide and bus into Cusco. This turned into quite an event - the train station was bedlam with everyone trying to get on the train and our guide Jose was a great help here as we were able to get a great sport at the front of the que but there was still lots of pushing etc trying to get into the station. After we got in, our group was still together at the front of the train line. Waiting for the train was a carnival atmosphere with a group of schoolkids singing, people standing on the tracks talking, and siting on the edge of the station with free coffee being handed out. This was most probably made better as one of the canadian ladies had some brandy which laced the coffee. We got on the train to have seats as we were irst onto our carriage, and then they just pilled everyone in there was people everywhere and by this time it was all quite good fun. After the train trip we arrived at the next staging point to find total bedlam, with buses, cars, trucks etc, waiting to transport people to the next spot for buses along a single lane goat track. Jose had ordered a bus to take us to Cusco but it couldn{t get through to us so we ended up on the back of a small cattle truck with all of us standing up in the back, dust everywhere, and going along singing songs, it was quite a trip. We went through the top side of the landside and could see where they were working trying to fix the line. Finally got to Cusco around 2.00am - not much done the next day although we met up with 2 girls from Perth and the british girl for tea as everyone else had left cusco.
Puno next installment - we will be thee for a day or so and then off to Copacabana

Hoo roo

A young couple who are returning to Australia from London have moved into the unit next door to us and we have got on well with them. Our two rooms share a common loungeroom and we had a good yack the first night we met them and have been with them doing the tourist thing since then. The first day we got a taxi out to an inca ruin about 10 k from the city centre and got dropped off by the taxi - we then walked around a couple of ruins there and when exploring a track trying to walk from the first ruin to the second we walked through a local village that is off the normal track that the tourist go as most travel around by bus or taxi so would not have walked along the track we did. The people were really friendly in the village - lots of smiles and laughing with us when we tried to talk to them. The first two ruins were at 3,800m and then we walked back to the third ruin down the windy road about 6k through roadside villages and rural areas. All the houses are mud brick construction with thatched roofs, and mud brick perimeter walls with all the normal farmyard animals running around the place. After the third ruin, and they are all different, we ended up walkiing into town and having tea at a 'chifa' chinese restaurant - bowl of soup with rice and vegetables seperate for S/- 8.50 each (around A$3.00) When we got back to the hostal the girl of the couple said she had a great day it was like walking around with her parents. I think they have adopted us a quassi parents. They are amazed that at our age we are doing what we are doing by staying in backpackers and walking around everywhere. The next day (yesterday) we did a full day tour out to more inca tours and had a good look at the Sacred Valley where the Inca's lived and the people still do lots of farming. It is a very pretty place with a stream running down the valley with lots of villages scattered along it. The houses in this ara are a bit better construction. Lots of farming with corn and potatoes being grown. The inca ruin we went to was pretty amazing, they had sort of built this buttresses up the end of a valley and you climbed up steps to the top where they had built a place to worship the sun god. It is amazing to see the size of stones and accuracy of the many sides fitting in to each other. Although in ruins it is still of pretty amazing construction. It rained whilst we were up there but just a steady drizzle so didn´t get too weet. Had a buffet lunch with everything you could imagine to eat. We got back to the city square around 6.30pm, and had tea in town - again around the $3.00 price range. Cusco is a really neat place with lots of the traditional clothing being worn and you can walk around with no problems whatsoever - could stay here longer. We haven't found the altitude too bad as we did take it easy when we first got here and Arequipa is pretty high anyway. Today is a rest day, to the markets, try and find a freight company to see the cost of freight, and catch up with Carolyn Whiting ( a friend from Perth) this afternnon. There are heaps of things to buy and at a good price, but the problem is carrying it around for another two months as we didn't have much space in our backpacks when we started.
Had a fun dinner with Cas Whiting and Dowd's who we haven¡t seen since Kununurra days. We have agreed to meet in Rome next time Ha!
Today (Saturday) was trek briefing and preparation and it is raining hopefully it will stop tomorrow for our 5 day trek. Catch you in 5 days.

we are off to the amazon tomorrow morning at 3.00am, you beauty. we have a flight to Iquitos then to the jungle lodge for two days so will most probably not have any contact until we are back in Lima on Tuesday afternnon so will check again then. Arrived Lima early this morning after an early start - had a walk around Miraflores, the area we are staying in, saw the beach area where the Amazing Race was recorded - looks nothing like the show it looks like all rocks. A great surf was running with a heap of guys out.

Will check on tueesday. If you get the correct address{s for rod and fern could you forward the messages to them. it is their e.mail addresses that are incorrect so you may have to ring them.

bye. mum and dad.

After an early start - getting up at 0300 hrs for our flight to Iquitos the flight was delayed after taxying out and getting into the takeoff line, due to cloud/haze over Iquitos initially, and then when taxying back to the terminal the flight was cancelled due to birds over the airport until 5.00pm that night - so had a bit of a wait at the airport with no real waiting area so we waited in the cafeteria area with all everyones bags against the back wall to reduce the risk of stuff being stolen - we had no dramas. They have these black buzzard type birds in Iquitos and they fly all around the airport like our seaguls during the day, but they are bigger than gulls. Finall got to Iquitos around 8.00pm, didn't see much as there was this cloudy/haze all the way but you could see the high mountains now and then. Bus into town was in an old bus with no windows, wooden floor, loose seats (you get the idea?). Like Asia they drive like madman always in a low gear revving the motor for sound effects. Didn't see much of the town at this time as it was getting late. Got dropped off at the harbour? and then had a 1 hr trip in a long metal boat with outboard up the Amazon, and then into one of the tribuataries to our lodge. Had no idea where we were as it was very dark. Got to lodge and then had a walk around 1k to the lodge again in the dark just with our torches paying attention not to tread onto any landmines. we had to walk through a local village and they were having a great party - took photo's of the houses the next day - wooden houses on stilts with thatched roofs - very basis. The lodge was pretty clean but very basic - no power, twin beds, running water from the Amazon. Slept pretty well, but it was very very hot so swetted like mad initially then woke to being cool. This didn{t last very long as it warmed up, and very humid. Breakfast bread rolls, omellete, fresh fruit, juice, tea/coffee. Had a jungle trip across the Amazon to one of the tributories, saw small dolphins on the way, and then went into a logoon to look for pink dolphins but didn't we any. Local people were here and there around the banks of the Amazon and the lagoon fishing and washing. the water is dirty with lots of vegetation drifting down the river - not much rubbish. After the lagoon wewalked through another village - pretty basic houses thatched roofs and walls - chooks, pigs, dogs lying around the houses - kids walking around you asking for lollies - and as it was a Saturday there was a party going on at one of the houses and they were having a good time - this was around 9.30am - they are very friendly and all say hello and wave. again considering where they are with no running water they are all dressed in clean clothes. We walked thru the village until another small stream, were we boarded a small dugout with a generator for a motor with one of those long shafted props that hang out the back of the boat. The trip down the stream was pretty exciting negotiating jammed up logs and shallow areas - passed little houses on the way with people paddling around in real little dugout canoes fishing. Went fishing in the river and Pen caught two piaranha??? fish, they are not very big but have very small but sharp teeth - you cant even feel them biting the meet off the hook apart from very small tremors. had lunch at another bush lodge and then walked about an hour through the jungle to a big lagood where we paddled out in a canoe and saw these weird big birds up in the jungle that made this weird noise - didn't see any wild animals or anything. The walk back to the lodge was very hot and really high humidty- one of the guys was ill from the heat. from this camp we had to return to our original camp again arriving in the dark with no torches so had to be very careful not to tread in anything or fall into anything. This is the night that we had the earthquake - it rumbled for about 30 seconds and shook the hut around a bit but no damage was done. they said that they do not normally get earthquakes in the jungle although they are prety common in the coastal cities. The next morning we went to visit a sharma (witchdoctor) who gave us a bit of talk in the local herbs and drugs that he uses and one of the things that he uses the most is 'catsclaw' that you can buy in the health shops at home and he says it cures just about everything - also visited a home that made sugar cane drink with a manual press and then a jungle village that put on a dance which we joined in (and got charged for) and had the option of buying necklaces, stringbags etc. back to the camp, lunch, and then the trip back up the Amazon to Iquitos, stopping at a village on the way where we stopped at a fish farm where they have these giant fish (they say 3m long) which we fed - didn't see them just heard the whooshing sound that they made when they came up to et the fish we supplied. Back in Iquitos we had a walk around the local markets saw all the sharmas ingredients in mass - there were some pretty amazing things that these drugs were meant to achieve however we didn't try any. I wanted to try these big witchity grub type things on a kebab but wasn't allowed. Lots of other normal market type things unique to the area. Had a quiet drink in the plaza de armas (main square) and watched the world go by. Arrived bck in lima safely. The next day we had a town tour of <lima which was very interesting, huge churches, great archeological musuem, and then we organised our trip to Arequipa in the afternoon.
Arequipa next instalment.

From Lima we flew to Arequipa about an hour flight. The airport is something else - the background is three snow capped volcanoes with one of them still active - they are just behind the city. The accommodation was in an old spanish house on a main street close to the main plaza - all the towns have a main plaza that the place revolves around, every night it is packed with heaps of people. The first night we were there they put on a great parade around the plaza especially for us which was nice - they really know how to have a good time.Lots of traditional costume and dancing from different schools. It was, or appeared to be total chaos with groups of people with different music blaring from gheto blasters mounted onto ordinary car roofs, marching around the plaza and then they suddenly marched off in a different direction. The next day we had a bus trip out to the Colca Canyon area where we were to see the condors. The trip started off on a nice tared road through the country side steadily climbing in altitude. we stopped off half way at a little shop for drinks and toilet break and they had heaps of the local people selling all the touristy stuff. That was the end of the tar and the start of the very rough dirt road going over a pass at 4,800m when you got out of the bus it was very hard to walk very far without becoming exhausted - a great view though. The next stop was Chivay, and then on to our accommodation for the night. We had a great view down the coca canyon valley but it was still pretty hazy. The next day was the bus trip from Chivay out to the Colca Canyon where the condors were and again this was really rough, windy, and dusty. When we got to the viewing area there were heaps of tourist buses and people perched along the edge of the canyon. The canyon is round 1mile deep near where we were and the condors fly along the edge in the thermals. There were none when we first got there and then all of a sudden they appeared flying along the edge of the canyon, and you could see them seeming to be looking at the people - they put on a great show and then shot through. Got some good photo´s. After lunch in Chivay we th9ought we would be nice and move back from where we were in the bus and meet other poeple - bad move - we ended up over the back wheels and we had a really rough and hot trip back to Arequipa as there was no airconditioner and we had to keep the windows closed due to the dust. No more mister nice guy!

Next day we did a tour of the city visiting musuems and a really old convent which is a city inside the city. The second girl of the rich spanish families had to go into the convent to be nuns and they nver came out and the family could not have contact with them again. They had to pay dowries? for them to go in and depending on how much they paid determined their status in the convent. This was seen as a good thing as it helped the family get to heaven easier and into a better position. We then did a tour of the country around the city seeing some of the old spanish villa´s. arequipa was pretty nice, and appeared safe. Lots of really nice white stone buildings. We also visited a museum that has the Ice Maiden an Inca mummy that was found on the top of a volcano.From studying her and other mummies found in simmilar locations they discovered that mothers of their day kept the umbilical cord to help curer the child if it got sick later, now we start doing it.
We are now in Cusco at 3,200m and have only been walking around the city area getting aclimatised. It is a really nice city a lot clearer air than the other places we have been again surounded by mountains but no snow only houses that at night creat a fairylight affect. The hostal we are in is really good US$20 per night including breakfast - we have our own lounge and there is a kitchen if needed. Not sure why you would bother when you can get a three course meal for US$5. There are some aussies and pomms staying where we are and there has been a lot of sharing information. Watched a bit of the baseball world series in an irish pub this afternoon with a guy from boston - pretty strange eh!(boston red soxs v chicago).
watch this space take care all,love US