Sorry, it´s been a while again!

12/09/09

Went for another ride today, a 30km trip down one of the mountains surronding Arequipa, Pichu Pichu. An early start at 07:00 and then a 3hour jeep ride up some incredibly bumpy roads to near the summit of Pichu Pichu. The bikes for this one were a bit more hard work, I had a hard tail GT that must have been atleast 6years old, with about an inch of travel on the front suspension if I put all my weight on it! The road was a lot rougher than the Death Road too, it was nothing but sand, gravel and big boulders! 3hours of decent later I had collected 8 blisters, but it as great fun and a challenging ride.

13/09/09

Didn´t really do much today, went out to the bus station first thing to get a ticket to Lima, then just spent the day sitting around having a few drinks. I bumped into a British couple that I met on the way to Puno, they were leaving for Nazca that day so were just relaxing with a few drinks. I sat with them for hours chatting and swapping stories then grabbed some dinner - all in a very lazy day!

14/09/09

Another day of much the same just the relaxing and drinking! Caught the bus out to Lima at 19:30, a big comfy seat for the long ride. Some appalling films though, and when you´re stuck on a bus with a speaker above your head there´s no way to get away from it!

15/09/09

Arrived around 10:30 in Lima and grabbed a taxi over to the place that Dad and I had booked up to see if I could get into my room a day early - unfortunatly not, but they did put me in contact with a few other places where I could stay the night, one for $100, and one for $20... Needless to say I went for the $20 one! I dropped off my stuff, cleaned up, and then totally sold out - a few beers at a TGI Friday´s and then I went to the cinema to watch The Hangover. Yet another lazy day really. My excuse is that I was saving up my energy so that I wasn´t knackered by the time Dad arrived!

16/09/09

Dad wasn´t scheduled to arrive till 21:00, so I had a whole day to fill with walking about. I started with a stroll to the sea front, and then along through a series of parks to the middle of Miraflores. After a great sandwich and a quick coffee (I didn´t have breakfast in the morning) I decided it would be a good idea to walk the length of Av. Arequipa to the middle of historical Lima... it ended up taking about and hour and a half! A quick walk around central Lima, then I made my way out to the airport for a beer away from hustlers and to wait for Dad.

Dad arrived safe and in one piece at about the right time and the guy from the hotel took us back. After a bit of catching up we crashed out.

17/09/09

We got up around 06:00 (Dad´s jet lag and my inability to sleep past about 06:00), grabbed some breakfast and made our way to some ruins just down the road. It was an old religious site built by the Lima civilisation around 600-700AD, and was incredibly well preserved. There´s still a team of people working to further excavate a large area of the site, and their work looks painstakingly slow. The results are impressive though. Unfortunatly the site used to be 3 or 4 times the size, but the lack of planning regulations in the early 1900´s meant that alot of it was destroyed and built upon.

In central Lima, we checked out a few of the buildings, the Cathedral etc, and got a set menu lunch in a nice little square. We also checked out the monestry and Catacombs, someting that a lot of people had told me about along the way. The place housed an amazing and huge library, as well as an delicatly carved dome. The Catacombs were huge, and stretch for 3 floors below the monestry - it´s estimated that they contain around 25,000 bodies. A lot on the first layer have been excavated and then the femurs and skulls have been arranged in patterns, which is a little odd!

After that we had pretty much seen all the good bits that there are to see in Central Lima, and all cloaked in the ever-present grey fog that seems to hang around the city. After a quick stop back at the hotel we grabbed some dinner in a nice little place down the road.

18/09/09

Up early again, although this time it was to catch the plane over to Cusco. The guy from the hotel took us back so we didn´t have to try and track down a taxi, we paid our airport tax, and jumped on the plane in no time. An hour later we landed at Cusco airport and were ready to tackle the city.

A short taxi ride to the hotel, dropped our stuff and went for a first walk about. We thought we would be clever and get our train tickets to Aguas Caliente (at the foot of Machu Pichu) that day. Unfortunatly the station was closed (although we later found out that it was the wrong station anyway!) We also took the chance to get our ´Tourist Tickets´, a ticket that you are forced to buy if you want to visit any number of the 16 Inca sites or museums around Cusco (at a cost of 130Soles each too!)

After spending so much on the ticket, we thought we may as well start making use of it, and headed to some ruins that had subsequently had a church built on top...only to find out that it wasn´t included in the ticket, and we had to pay extra to get in anyway!

For dinner that night we went to one of the many restaurants surrounding the main plaza, where Dad had some Alpaca, and I tried the Peruvian delicacy of Guinea Pig! It was really nice meat, but it´s too much like hard work to try and get all the good bits off - especially when you´re presented with a whole Guinea Pig, including feet, head and teeth!

19/09/09

Figured we should make some use of the Tourist Ticket today, so we caught a taxi out to the furthest of 4 Inca sites and then walked back to Cusco checking them out along the way. Both guide books that we have said different distances for the return walk, and neither were correct. My books estimate of 8km was wildly out, as we were heading back for almost 5hours! And it was all down hill, so we were going pretty quick! Each of the sites were impressive structures, and all displayed the Inca´s phenominal masonary work - walls that are so well built and fitted that there isn´t so much as a hairs-bredth between the stones. For the walk linking the sites and then back in to Cusco, we managed to take trails across fields and through little villages rather than along the main road. At one little place we decided to stop at a ´restaurant´for a quick coffee - we were promptly told that they didn´t have any coffee, but we could have an apple tea, ok, no worries. However, what we were presented with was Aniseed Tea...apparantly it was all they had!!

The final site was an old Inca fort on top of the hill overlooking Cusco. This place was huge, with 3 tiers of zig-zagging walls, all atleast 12feet high. Unfortunatly the place was over-run by the Spaniards and alot of the stone from the site was taken to build some of the grander buildings in Cusco. Leading down from here was an old staircase that dropped us right outside our hotel!

A quick clean up and we went to town for another quick walk about, a beer, and some food. Had an amazing dinner at a place called the Witches Garden, fantastic food, a really friendly owner, and a great atmosphere. It took us ages to pick what to eat, everything on the menu looked so good! I think we may end up going back again once we´re back in Cusco.

20/09/09

Up at 05:30 in order to catch the train to Aguas Caliente, at the foot of Machu Pichu. Before he came to join me Dad booked us in for a night there so that we would have a bit more time to explore the area around Machu Pichu. The train rolled in at around 10:00 and we went straight to the hostel where the lady was very helpful with information about Machu Pichu, and in particular a walk back along some of the Inca Trail to a set of ruins that Dad wanted to check out, the lady told us that it was an hours flat walk there...(that was quite wrong!) It turns out that the only way in was to pay for another entry to the Machu Pichu site. After a quick chat we decided it would be worth the extra money to buy 2 tickets each, we´re only going to be here the once.

An hour later, after getting our entry tickets and the bus tickets we were up at Machu Pichu. First impressions were incredible, it´s such a huge site and mostly complete too. The Spaniards never found it, indeed it wasn´t discovered as a site until 1911! We made our way up the first trail, doubling back past the main entrance and rising up the terraces to get an amazing veiw over the site (your classic postcard shot!)

The trail up to Inkupunktu (I don´t think thats how it´s spelt, but I cant´be bothered to dig the book out of my bag to check) was only about 40mins, but it was anything put flat! Slopes and stairs all they way, with no let up. Some of the stairs were a good foot tall too. But we made it, and were rewarded with a great veiw back over the Machu Pichu site. We realised that we were higher up than the Wanyu Pichu peak, the area that you have to get a special ticket to climb.

As the walk took us a lot less time than we thought, we had quite a while left up at the site, so we took the opportunity to explore the lower levels, terraces, and some of the housing. After about 14:00 the place got a while lot quieter as people had to leave to catch the train back to Cusco, and we managed to walk around relatively unhindered by tour groups.

The evening consisted of me beating Dad at chess, a few beers, and a pizza. We also decided that we would get up early and check out the possiblility of getting up Waynu Pichu.

21/09/09

Another early start, 04:45! Up, dressed, and in the que for the first busses up to the site. We got there just before 06:00 and they reserved a place for us to go up Wanyu Pichu at 07:00. A slow walk through the site and we got to the Wanyu Pichu gate. Whilst stood waiting in a rather formidable que, we decided that we were going to give it miss. We could see the first few people slowly picking their way up, and at the time, the trail looked near vertical. Rather than destroy ourselves and then have to rush to see the rest of the site (they estimated atleast an hour up to the first point alone), we decided to take it easy and take the chance to enjoy the site before hoards of poeple turned up.

We started with a look around the Royal rooms and the temples before grabbing a coffee (it was only about 08:00 by now!) After that we moved back into the site to check the rest of it out and enjoy the opportunity to get some photos. Yesterday was totally overcast, and even rained once or twice, today, in contrast was beautifully clear and sunny, making for some great photos and a lovely atmosphere to meander around the site. By 10:00ish we were all done, a total of nearly 9hours up there over 2 days, so we made our way back to town, got some lunch, and then came to this cafe for a coffee and to update the blog. Our train back is at 14:50 so not too long now.

The Machu Pichu site is breath-taking. Such amazing workmanship has gone into all the buildings, you can see where all the roof beams went, how they set up two-story houses, areas that were used as common squares and trading shops, a whole citidel pearched atop a mountain. Surrounding it, all you can see is green faced mountains and valleys nearby, and snow topped peaks shooting up beyond them. I can´t really describe it all properly, the photos will hopefully give a proper impression of it when I have the chance to upload them.

The only down side is the amount of times that both Dad and I have been bitten! Tiny little flies that look like Thunder Flies, but leave you with big red lumps. Both us of are itching our arms like crazy!

On a final note, if Dad hears anymore pan-pipe music I think he may go postal. I think his dislike is reaching similar levels to my dislike of Salsa following my time in Cuba!

Take care,