The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu

5 - 9 February

Our tour group had a 5-day tour booked with a local tour company, Andina Travel (highly recommended for this area if anyone else travels here!), which encompassed some ruins, trekking, and of course Machu Picchu.

The first day began with a tour of the ruins of Saqsayhuaman (or "sexy woman" for those not accomplished with the local pronunciation!). It's located on a hill looking over the city of Cusco. The area is used for religious gatherings and concerts, but still sports some very impressive Inca stonework:

It is impressive to think that all of these stones were carefully carved to fit like a puzzle - and they were all shifted by manpower.

We continued on to the ruins of Pisaq, primarily used for agriculture with an impressive array of terraces and retaining walls heading down the hillside. After lunch, it was off to the beginning of the trek.

The trek was in an area barely frequented by tourists - we were the only non-locals in the area. We didn't do the "classic" Inca Trail, which is closed for the whole month of February, but I think the trek we did was quite possibly better. The scenery was stunning, and we were able to spend time in some truly authentic Quechua communities, untouched by tourism.

To see where the trek went, have a look at my trip map: www.trackmytour.com/htKvJ

Here are a couple of photos showing what it was like:

Approaching the highest pass at 4,800 m (!), looking back down into the valley below

Typical Quechua house & waterfall with llama

Tour group all wrapped up against the cold
Back: Linda, Bill, Sharon, Blake, Tom, Sandra, Chris, Jared, Marissa, Steph, Leanne, Shaun, me, Christy, Michael, Nicole
Front: Geert, Sarah, Stuart, Adam
The group was from UK, Ireland, Belgium, Australia, NZ, USA & Canada

The third day, it rained quite hard and we were very glad to arrive at our final camping spot - beside a wonderful set of hot springs! 

The trek was a wonderful experience. I can't speak highly enough of:

• The 3 guides, who were very informative and supportive when we were struggling with the altitude, the rain or anything else,
• The 4 cooks, who woke up before us, brought us coca tea in our tents, cooked us a splendid breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and even a birthday cake for Shaun on the second night (which I am assured is not an easy thing when cooking with LPG), and
• The 7 mule drivers, who would wait until we had all left, pack down the tents, load the mules and then swiftly overtake us during the day to have everything set up at our next site before we got there.

They were all very grateful to us also, because our being there provides them with an income. We played football with them one night, which was a great way to enjoy their company - football truly is the international language!

Playing football at some 3,400 m (very tiring!) with the guides, cooks and mule drivers - si, si, si!
Shaun's team 7, Blake's team 1!

The 4th day of the trip involved driving to Ollantaytambo, a small town used by the Incas as a resting place along the Sacred Valley, midway between the towns of Calca and Machu Picchu. We took a 2-hour walk along a river along the way, and visited the Ollantaytambo ruins in the evening - another example of rather impressive ruins and some excellent background history from our guides.

We all went to bed very early because the next day was the pinnacle of my trip so far... Of course, none other than the immaculately preserved Inca city of Machu Picchu:

I was there!

There's simply no way to describe what it's like at Machu Picchu. The structures, the agricultural terraces, and the surrounds are simply breathtaking. It's not just ruins, it's an intact city surrounded by incredibly steep hills on all sides, and you can't help but just stare in awe around you.

Everything constructed by the Incas - not just in Machu Picchu but elsewhere also - seems to have a very good reason for being that way. All of these details only make everything even more awe-inspiring. For example:

• Many of the primary entrance gates face directly to the location of the sunrise on the winter solstice, which marked the beginning of the Incan New Year,
• An oddly-shaped stone in fact turns out to have been carefully carved to match the shape of the mountain visible behind it in the distance, and
• The windows of adjacent rooms line up perfectly so that one can look straight through all of them.

Detailed, symmetrical Inca stonework

Agricultural terraces & the incredible surrounding scenery - very steep drops to the Rio Urubamba 450 m below

It's interesting that for the most part, the stonework here is not as impressive as many other ruins in the Sacred Valley & Cusco. Machu Picchu itself was not a capital, or a major temple, but sort of a learning city, where astronomers and the like would go. While the symmetry and precision of the stonework is incredible, the stones are generally not carefully carved to a perfect fit like some of the other ruins.

The main reason it is so famous is it's condition. It is believed it was never found by the Spanish conquerors, and so the stonework is as impressive today as during Incan times. Many other Incan areas were sacked by the Spaniards, some places being completely destroyed, as the Spanish wanted to removed any evidence of Incan grandiose or religious symbology wherever possible.

As touristy as it may be, it's one of those must-see places and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of visiting there. It's the primary tourist attraction in Peru (and possibly South America?) for a very good reason!!

We arrived back in Cusco late that evening (Saturday 9th February). Since then I've stayed in Cusco - but those tales will have to wait for another blog!

La Paz to Cusco

31 January - 4 February

On the morning of the 31 January, the tour group of 15 people left La Paz for a town called Copacabana (Bolivian, not Brazilian!) on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The lake is the highest navigable lake at some 3,800 m above sea level, and straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia.

We reached a narrow strait over which the bus was ferried on a very rickety-looking barge:

Several hours later we arrived in Copacabana, late in the evening. The next day we toured to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), which was (and still is) considered a very important religious place for the local Aymaran people. They still meet here every winter solstice (June 21st) to celebrate the start of their new year. It was a beautifully stunning day with some equally stunning views:

The local Carneval was in full swing when we got back to the island, with brass bands filling the air with sound and the locals drinking copious amounts of beer. The traditionally-dressed Aymaran women were handling their liquor much better than the sleepy-looking men!

They all had a habit of pouring their beer into plastic cups, of which about half would be froth (partly due to altitude, partly due to drunkenness!) and then flicking the cup sideways to get rid of the froth - onto a passing gringo if one wasn't paying attention!

The next morning we had an early start scheduled to head across the border to Peru. However the lead guide of our two British guides decided to quit his job that morning, effective immediately... And the other guide had not been along this leg of the tour before! There was a lot of phone calls back and forward to the UK, and some (understandably!) very grumpy tourists, and it was the only bad experience I have really had so far this trip.

However, we eventually got away early afternoon, and it gave us a chance to see the parades through the streets that morning:

We arrived late in the afternoon to Puno, a Peruvian city also on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It was time for one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had to date - a boat trip out to the floating islands of Uros:

The local people have lived on these floating islands for hundreds of years. Some are now accepting of tourists, but many others remain separated from the world of technology and live solely off the fish they catch in the lake and the crops they can trade for on land.

Several thousand people live on these islands that are made of the reeds from the lake. The sensation of walking on the spongy reed floor is rather strange! The houses are all made of reeds also, although a small amount of power is now used on some of the islands (spot the solar panel in the photo above!).

The next day involved a rather long drive to the city of Cusco, Peru:

Cusco was the capital of the mighty Inca empire for many years, and sits about 3,500 m above sea level. The remains of Inca stonework is still visible around many places throughout and nearby the town, and although the Spaniards damaged, pillaged and destroyed much of the original work, some forms the foundations of many of the existing buildings.

During my first full day there, I managed to visit the main Catedral:

As well as Qoricancha (the Temple of the Sun):

The remainder of the day was spent packing for the Quechua Community trek to start the next day. The trek, and Machu Picchu, will have to wait for another post!

Map of my trip so far...

I found a website that lets you create a map of where you've been. I'll try to keep updating this as I go:

Pieter's Trip Map

First impressions of South America; La Paz

25 - 31 January

Well, I've now been in South America for nearly six days. It's been a pretty steep learning curve and experience, for sure, but a good one!

I had one day in Santiago, where I managed to get around a few of the sights as well as walk up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal (San Cristobal Hill) at dusk, to be rewarded with views like this:

To be honest I was surprised how "normal"-feeling Santiago was - while different, it still had many similarities to a western first world city. However when I moved on to La Paz, Bolivia the next day, it was very different. The best way I can think of to describe it is "organised chaos"...

La Paz, quite simply, is crazy - in a good way! The whole beat of the city is completely different to anything else I have ever experienced, from the 8-year old shoe shiners on the streets, to the minibuses and micros (3/4 size buses) driving around with someone yelling out their destinations, stopping wherever they please, to the policeman standing outside each bank with a rifle, to the street food... It's a wonderful experience to begin my travels with. I've been very glad to not be affected by altitude sickness (at 3,800 m!), my stomach seems to be coping and I think the jet lag has finally worn off.

My second day in La Paz, it was time for one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" experiences - a mountain bike trip down the World's Most Dangerous Road - starting above the snowline some 4,700 m above sea level:

Descending on a gorgeous day past 200 m drops and beautiful scenery:

And finishing at just 1,100 m above sea level in the searing heat feeling pretty damn good:

Yesterday I had a trip to some pre-Inca ruins at Tiahuanaco, and yesterday evening met the 14 other people and 2 guides who I'll be spending the next 12 days with. An hour ago we arrived at Copacobana on Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake; tomorrow we visit Isla del Sol and then on to Puno, Cusco and, of course, Machu Picchu.

Adios for now!


02 February: Finally got a decent enough internet connection to be able to post something! We are now in Puno, Peru, and the last couple of days have been pretty interesting, exciting and eventful - so watch this space!