Apr 03 - Cusco

Cusco 3^rd April

Today was a free day and we all had things to catch up on. Mandy and Paul headed out to walk round Cusco (and the Alpaca shops…) Paul found a beautiful Vicuna coat, a snip he thought at $8000 !!!!  Vicuna is the softest of all but the animals are protected, so it is managed cull that provides some wool but it is very rare and therefore expensive. Needless to say it didn’t make it into the suitcase !

Sheena and Eileen did a supermarket sweep of llama souvenirs, then found a fantastic tapestry shop and Janette and Steve did blog and spent hours on the phone to the bank in the UK getting accounts unlocked !! 

By lunchtime they’d had enough and Steve had discovered a KFC in the main square so decided some fresh air was needed. Given that he has hardly eaten for a week due to altitude sickness and we’d been on Bolivian food (not good…) for 2 weeks, a treat was needed so we sat in the sun in the square and had lunch. Sheena and Eileen who had discovered Starbucks on another corner wandered by and joined us on a park bench in the square in the sun.

The Girls in Cusco....

Within minutes they had attracted half the street sellers and mayhem ensued as they tried to buy earrings as the police tried to move the seller on. All very funny.

After lunch Steve went back to the hotel and the girls headed off to the Alpaca wool factory which Mandy had found out about from the guide yesterday and Mandy had been heading for in the morning. A riotous afternoon followed with us trying on nearly half the shop with a big group of the women staff helping and much laughing. Sheena modelled items for Janette’s Mum, Sheena and Eileen kept liking the same things, nothing was in the right sizes and then they couldn’t get the card machine to work so Janette had to get them to reboot their internet router !  We came out financially lighter and luggage weight heavier having had a fun afternoon. When we got back, we discovered Mandy had equalled our haul in her shopping expedition !! Happy days….

Looks like Sheena's 1980's perm !!

In the evening we headed back to the main square which was beautiful and very atmospheric in the evening with the lights twinkling on the hills behind. We found a nice restaurant and had a lovely evening with good food, wine and pisco sours. First proper dinner in ages !!

Apr 02 - Cusco - Imperial Inca's

Cusco 2^nd April

The full team on board, after breakfast the six of us headed out on a serious mission……..to find the artisan craft market in Cusco. 
After 2 hours bartering and bargaining plus trying to figure out Peruvian currency after just getting the hang of Bolivian, we all headed back with a variety of interesting purchases…….now we just need to find a space in the luggage for them……

It'll look lovely in Glasgow...

The Boys after 2 hours in the market.....

In the afternoon we met up with our Cusco guide and set off for our tour with him. We jumped on the minibus and headed up to Tambomachay a water temple site high on the hills outside Cusco. We climbed steadily to 3,700m and then walked up into the site by which time we were all puffing like steam trains due to the altitude and this was Sheena and Eileen’s first real experience of its effects. 

 

The site was impressive with much of the original Inca stonework, terraces and a ceremonial bathing pool for the Inca King. It is thought this was a water temple but due to its location and workmanship, was one for the king and high nobility.

From there it was on to Sikllakancha where many of the original brain surgery or trepanation was carried out. There is the operating table where the operations were carried out. Eileen was having a busman’s holiday at this point….. 

The Operating table........

One of the reasons they were early pioneers of this (although they reckon only 1/1000 survived) was that for high status families they bound the heads of children to give them longer and higher heads and this led to severe headaches and other issues.

From there it was on to the major site of Sacsayhuaman. On the way in, Sheena and Eileen had their first Llama encounter....

As Cusco was the home of the Inca kings, this hilltop fortress was immense and one of the most important fortifications. The walls are immense. The main ramparts zigzag for 400m with huge stones fitted together perfectly, the largest is 8.5m high and 300 tonnes. The scale is just immense. 

During construction over 10,000 workers were involved. This fortress and its final defeat was one of the most important battles in the downfall of the Inca empire to the Spanish conquistadores.

Largest stone 8.5m tall...

By this time, at our high altitude we were watching a wonderful thunder and lightning storm display over the tops of the mountains but the rains were coming, so we headed back down into Cusco, left the van and continued our tour on foot.

Cusco from the Inca sites

First stop was the church of Santa Domingo. Not another church we thought, but no it wasn’t !

As we had seen on every other location, the Spanish had built crosses or religious sites on top of every important local worship site but this was the most impressive. They had built a huge Franciscan church on top of the biggest Sun Temple in the Inca capital !!

Sun Temple under the church

This site Qorikancha was where the Inca kings were crowned and the walls were originally covered in gold. Qori means gold and Kancha a store, so its name meant the place that held the gold.

During two major earthquakes, the colonial construction had come down and had to be rebuilt but the Inca walls never moved due to the trapezoid shape and interlocking stones. All the local schoolchildren know that if there is another earthquake head for an Inca wall and stand underneath it !  

Our last stop today is the Catherdral in Cusco's Plaza des Armes, the main square. 

Cusco - Plaza des Armes

Yes, another church….but again with an ulterior purpose. The local artisans had been used by the Spanish to complete the beautiful and ornate wood carvings for the altar and choir areas and to paint huge religious pictures for the walls. In subversive resistance, these artisans had introduced native elements surreptitiously into the designs. Condor wings replaced angel wings, sun representations instead of halos all very subtle and clever but obvious when you know what to look for. The best was the Last Supper painting which had Guinea Pig as the main dish !!!  Guinea Pig is known locally as Cuy and eaten as a delicacy for feasts and festivals. It’s on most of the restaurant menus in one form or another.

Guinea Pig centre stage. !!

Just fascinating and we learned loads but by this time between walking all day and the altitude we were exhausted, so it was back to base for a quick change then a beer and pizza across from the hotel before falling into bed.  

Apr 01 - Across Peru

 Apr 01 - Across Peru

Another early start, but one we were looking forward to. Today we board the Andean explorer for a 10 hour train journey through Peru to our next stop in Cusco. This train is operated by Belmond who run some of the best & most iconic hotels in the world along with the Orient Express.

Our 10 hour tickets had cost the princely sum of $166 including lunch and afternoon tea, so we had no idea what to expect.

We arrived at the train station in Puno to be met by liveried porters who took us to our carriage.

All aboard the Andean Explorer !!

Our tickets were for carriage A and we expected several coaches, but no……there was only one carriage with 35 seats (only 16 of us on board today though so loads of space – window seats all round !!

The train was wonderful. A beautifully restored old train with perfectly maintained wood panelling, gleaming brasses and some fantastic black & white framed photographs of its original days.

The Bar......Pisco Sour central !!

It had an observation car with an open back so you could stand an watch the world go by or take photographs. 












A lovely wood panelled bar and for food service in the carriage white tablecloths.

The seats were comfortable big armchairs and the service while really attentive, was friendly and accommodating , not fussy or stuffy.

For the four of us having just come through a pretty rough & ready week in Bolivia it was just the little touch of luxury we needed.

A 10 hour journey, lunch with wine and afternoon tea………….all for $166 dollars.  British Rail eat your heart out !!

Happy Travellers !!

The train set off on the narrow gauge track through the suburbs of Puno. Markets abounded one each side of the track and even on the track itself !! 

Goods left on the track as we pass over

The train runs four times a week back & forwards and is the only train on the track, so the local people know when to expect it. The train sounds its whistle and the locals slowly clear the track in front of it and then close in again after it passes. 







Some of the goods were left on the track as they knew the train clearance height meant it wouldn’t affect their goods !

Out of town, we settled in to watch the scenery as we followed the river through the mountains and valleys towards Cusco. 

Local children came out to wave and we spent many of the hours at the observation car taking photos and waving to children.

There was one 10 min stop where the train clears the main track to let the return train pass and within seconds we were inundated with villagers at the back of the observation car trying to sell us Llama toys, weaving and anything else they had. We of course had to have a llama 

The Llama selection....

and Mandy had a very attractive Alpaca fur hat complete with tail which when placed on the adjoining table looked like a sleeping cat !!  It’ll come in handy in Wales we think !

Cosy........

Trackside shopping complete, the onboard entertainment commenced showing us how to make Pisco Sours (the national drink from Pisco a grape spirit). A quiz at the end won Mandy (our local hooch specialist a free Pisco Sour) while Paul & Janette had to buy theirs !!

From there it was on to Peruvian music and dance which ended up with Janette dancing with the band leader and Paul doing traditional Peruvian carnival dancing with the dancer. These Pisco sours are lethal………..

And the band played on..........dancing next

Watch our Paul......she's coming your way !

It was a most relaxing enjoyable day. Just to sit in comfy seats and have nice things brought to us was a real treat and a good rest which we all needed. To do this with the lovely train and the beautiful scenery was just perfect and we all agreed it had been a wonderfully relaxing day.

Arriving in Cusco at 7pm we headed to our hotel which was a lovely traditional mansion with a series of little courtyards and only 10 minutes from the main Plaza de Armes.

However, the most important thing was …………..this was our rendezvous with Sheena & Eileen who had arrived from Lima in the afternoon.

Lassies on board !!!

 After much shrieking and hugging, more oxygen depletion as we caught up on all the news, by 9pm we only had the energy for a beer a quick bite and headed for bed…………..altitude is a wonderful way of enforcing early nights !!

Sheena & Eileen had just come up to 3.350m – a significant hike from Lima at sea level, so we will need to see how their altitude adjustment goes before being too adventurous. They had been told the usual horror stories so were fully expecting to keel over as soon as they got off the plane, however they looked remarkably okay if a bit tired by the time we arrived.

Steve is still suffering from the dreaded altitude but was now 500m lower and looking decidedly chirpier than the last few days at 3.900m.

Just great to have “The Lassies” with us !!!   Looking forward to the next week together.

Mar 31 - Onwards to Peru

31 Mar Onwards to Peru

Heavy rain overnight but by the time we got up Sun Island was living up to its name and our weather luck looked to be holding. 

We walked down to the harbour using one of the original Inca trails, steep stone steps but still exactly as the Inca’s built them.

Sun Island is where the first Inca Sun King had landed and he settled here on top of the island before heading on to Cusco. For the Inca’s and their descendents the Quechua tribe this makes the island of huge significance.

There was a ceremonial site on top of the steep island where ceremonies for the Sun King and sacrifices were held.

The Inca trails are everywhere, over 40,000km were laid during the short 95 year Inca dynasty.

No slave labour was used. The Inca society worked on the basis of community and each person dedicated 3 months of their year to working for the Inca state in return for food & water supplies from the Inca food stores in time of drought or crop failure. The earliest form of welfare state !!

Each Inca trail has a natural water source and at even intervals on the trail is a tembo or rest stop where natural water faucets were available. This meant they did not have to carry water on journey, for example 10 – 15 day walks from Lake Titicaca to Cusco.

When we reached the first water stop which fell away into a stone pool, our guide told us this was regarded as the fountain of eternal youth, so Janette & Mandy leapt straight for a taster 

Cheaper than Creme de La Mer.......

quickly followed by Paul once he was told it had been rumoured to create hair growth !!

Maybe there is some truth in it......

Once we reached the bottom, we headed for our hydrofoil and set off back to Copacabana 
to be greeted by the Bolivian Armada - land locked country - who knew they had a navy !!

Wot no ships..........

from there it was a 10 min bus ride to the Bolivian/Peruvian land border half way across Lake Titicaca.

We went through Bolivian border control in minutes 

Bolivian Border Shed...

Farewell Bolivia.......what a stunning place

and then headed across on foot through no mans land to Peru to clear border & customs formalities there. 15 minutes later we were through & in Peru – a far cry from our Chile/Argentina land border crossing !!

Peru here we come !!........border ahead

From there a 2 hour bus ride to Puno where we overnight with a quick hotel stay & early start tomorrow.






So farewell Bolivia. 

What an epic part of our journey. It had the most dramatic, stunning scenery & the kindest people but so little infrastructure and such a long way to go to bring it anywhere near its closest neighbours of Chile & Peru.






Rustic, original & unspoiled is how best to describe it, significant challenges due to the extreme altitude and definitely not for the faint hearted or fussy. For travellers & adventurers of all ages it takes a lot of beating & we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. 

Best of the rest........

Sauce for the goose...........

The Reed boat is bigger than our ancient hydrofoil !!

One way to cross the border....

Mar 30 - Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca 30 March

5am wake up, so 4 bleary eyed souls blinked at each other over a coffee and then loaded ourselves into the minbus for our journey to Lake Titicaca. Very exciting, it’s one of those places you have heard about since you were at school but never thought you’d see.

Our journey out of La Paz was the usual madness and mayhem with just the most horrendous traffic belching fumes. We climbed out of the valley into the upper reaches of the city and then out through El Alto. While this seems like an extension of La Paz, it is in fact a separate city. It is extremely high, extremely poor and extremely heavily populated.  In La Paz, the less money you have, the higher up you have to live.

Mountain shows how high El Alto is

The morning commute from El Alto to La Paz on mini buses

This area is where the people from the countryside move to so they can work or sell produce in La Paz. Over the last 30 years huge numbers have migrated into the cities from the land, so  now 70% of the 11m population live in 4 cities.

This politically is a very important area as protests are common in La Paz but if the El Alto area gets together and decides it does not like a government policy it carries huge weight due to the number of voters here that support Eva Morales the current indigenous president.chamged the name of the Republic of Bolivia to the Plurination of Bolivia then stood again on the basis that he had never fought an election for the Plurination and is now campaigning for a 4^th term.

Everywhere you look there are painted signs on the walls in El Alto with the name of the president and comments about his support for education etc etc. We take this with a pinch of salt however as one of our previous guides who used to work for the government in a skilled capacity told us that he was often sent out to paint signs like these on the walls……..

Out of the city at last and in to the countryside. We arrived at Copacabana and our first view of the vast Lake Titicaca. It is 8300km2, Just to get your head round the size of this takes some doing. Originally when the volcano first formed it, this lake joined the salt flats and went right down to where the border with Chile. Just vast.

However before we could get on to the Lake, we were taken round 2 museums. The first was the history of the Tiwanaka people who were indigenous to this area. We were given audio guides which had the most bizarre music and weird English accent and then hustled in to the most incredibly amateur and frankly hilarious museum we had ever been in. Given the lack of sleep, the music and the commentary, it was only a matter of minutes before we were all hysterical. We had to hide behind the stone monoliths until we could get our composure……….

Paul & Mandy trying to look interested...

Next was a much more interesting outdoor museum where they showed us the typical houses they lived in, we saw the reed boats they use on the Lake Titicaca and how they make them. All very interesting.

From there it was down to the hydrofoil for our journey across the Lake. Janette was just thanking her lucky stars it wasn’t a reed boat……. We loaded up the small and frankly old hydrofoil with our cases and off we set across the vast expanse of the lake.

Hydrofoil and boarding gate....

The vast Lake Titicaca

It was not at all what we were expecting and so was a real surprise and very interesting. Embarrassingly, non of us knew that half of Lake Titicaca was in Bolivia and that the border with Peru runs right across the centre of the lake, we thought it was ll in Peru.

It was very green and much of the first part of the trip could have been Derwentwater in the Lake District but as we got further out the topography changed and we began to see the Inca terraces on the hills of the small islands that form this area and many of the stone ruins.

Our first stop was Moon Island. In Inca times, this island was only for women, no men were allowed as this was where the Inca chief kept his harem and also where female sacrifice victims were selected and groomed.

Moon Island 

Inca Temple on Moon Island

From there on to Sun Island which was to be our stop for tonight in a tiny eco hotel at the top of the island run by indigenous people. We should have realised when they said top of the island…..  It was a 2 km trek uphill up steep stone stairs which at this altitude of  3900m is a killer. We got off the hydrofoil and left our cases, taking small overnight bags only which porters ran up the hill.

That left us camera bags etc, but not to worry, we had an escort! A local woman with a llama into which they loaded our remaining bags and a local man carrying a first aid kit and an oxygen tank !!!!

First Aid Sun Island style.....

Llama posing

Come on you lazy tourists......keep up

Another fit of the giggles ensued but off we set. After multiple stops to try and get our breath back we kept climbing. It is so high here, it is pretty tough, even though we have had some days to acclimatise. We finally made it to the top of the hill and our hotel.

Made It !!!

It was just fantastic. A charming little eco hotel, with beautiful gardens, rustic but clean rooms and the most stunning views. The sun which mercifully had been behind cloud for our climb came out and we all settled in for a relaxing afternoon on the pretty terrace overlooking the entire expanse of Lake Titicaca.

View from the hotel terrace

Beers on the terrace

Beer and a sunset later, we had an early dinner and off to bed after our 5am wake up.

The Best of the Rest..................