Zo On The Go

As I had decided not to do the Galapagos (sad, I know) because they were just too damn expensive, I decided to take a trip to see the "poor mans Galapagos", the Isles Ballseta, near Pisco. Hmmm, so named the "poor mans Galapagos" because they are supposed to have a lot of the same birds and penquins and you can see them in a day and it cost next to nothing, but really I think it should be named "poor sucker who has to endure this tour". Unless you are interested in seeing a whole heap of bird crap on some rocks, my suggestion, is not to go. Oh, and the bird crap really is half the attraction. It´s used as a fertiliser and apparently fetches more money than oil! Who would have known. Maybe the islands are nicer in Summer when the skies are blue and it´s warm, but the day I went it was cold, windy and sprinkling, not ideal. And there seems to be a thick layer of smog covering Pisco. Like the rest of Peru´s coast that I saw, Pisco is literally a rubbish dump, plastic bags and bottles strewn everywhere. There was also a thick layer of scum around the islands which I can only assume is caused by all the boat trips there.
The following is an incident that happened to me in Pisco which just about sums up a lot of my experiences with South American men. I have many more such stories, but I´ll just tell the one and you´ll get the picture. Pepe was one of those agency touts that meets you at the bus. He met me as I got off my bus and as he was the only one there, I had no idea where I was going to stay and had a cheap hostal on offer, I decided to stay at the hostel and also booked my tour through him. Pepe seemed really nice. He was old enough to be my father and told me stories of how he used to work for the bank but the government had shut many of them down and now he was touting, I felt a little bad for him. I had lunch with him on my first day there, with two other girls that he had sold tours to that day. Later that afternoon as I walking to find the bus station to book my tickets to Lima, he actually came with me to book them, which I thought was really nice of him since the station was outsided of town. He was restoring my faith in Peruvians who I hadn´t the best experience with so far - mostly because I had only been to a lot of touristy places and they all want to rip you off! Later that night as I sat in my room, Pepe knocked on my door and invited me upstairs for Pisco Sour on the roof top. I was beginning think this was a bit weird, but was glad to see the other two girls up there also. It was about this time he started making comments about how beautiful I was, beautiful eyes etc... So, I had one drink then went to bed. Next day, went on the tour and then rushed back to my hostal to pack for my afternoon bus. I was in my room for all of two minutes before Pepe knocked on my door again. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and then grabbed me around the waist and started telling me how beautiful I was, how he hoped I´d come back to Pisco one day and then kept trying to kiss me, I kept moving my head, literally screwed up my face in disgust and eventually got out of his grip. The whole time I kept thinking, where on earth did he get the idea that I would want an old man to try and kiss me and that I would think about coming back to Pisco for him?! Had I said one too many "muchas grazias"?? Did he assume because I am blonde and western that I was easy game? I don´t know, I am at a loss. I left Pisco with a very sour taste in my mouth indeed!
Then started my long trip up to Ecuador. I was catching a bus straight from Pisco to Lima and then from Lima up to Cuenca, my first stop in Ecuador. The ride up the coast was dissapointing as I mentioned before...one awful polluted coastal town after another. I had decided not to stay in Lima as I really was over big South American cities, and just wanted to get to Ecuador. My overnight bus from Lima was supposed to make it into Piura (the closest town in Peru to the border I would cross) in time for a morning bus to Loja in Ecuador where I could get a bus to Cuenca. But of course the bus was 3 hours late so I was stuck in Piura (possibley an even bigger hole than Pisco) for the day waiting for the next bus out that night. As I bordered the bus, I was pretty happy to be leaving Peru. I am sure if you get off the beaten track in Peru, the people are lovely etc etc, but the gringo trail, despite all it´s wonders (Machu Picchi, Colca Canyon) doesn´t seem to bring out the best in the Peruvians.

Nazca-esque type drawing on the sand dunes - how does it stay there??

Well, can´t say I was as enamoured with Arequipa as eveyone else seems to be. Mabye it´s because I´ve seen far too many beautiful colonial cities in South America, many of which I think are nicer than Arequipa. Or it could have been the stike - there´s nothing like barred up shops, empty streets, smashed bottles on the roads and protesters in the plaza to ruin the beauty of a city! Still, I managed to spend a few days there, mostly because I was staying in a really nice hostel with a huge library of pirated dvds! And of course the strike put me back a day or two. It was my first strike so far in South America, and I consider that to be pretty good going for 5 months! Oh, and there was also the most interesting musuem I have ever been to. It was for these 500 year old ice mummies they had found on a mountain. One in particular, know as Juanita, has been nearly perfectly reserved, she still as skin and all her internal organs. Fascinating stuff.
My main reason for going to Arequipa was to visit the Colca Canyon and the condors (the before mentioned Inca cartoon has a lot to answer for!!). Not being at my fittest (too much sitting around drinking beer and eating ice cream), it probably wasn´t the best idea to book a 3 day trek into the world´s deepest canyon, but what the heck, I´m on holiday!
First day, we were picked up nice and early at 6am to take the public bus to Cabanaconde where we would start our trek. In the taxi transfer to the bus stop, I was suprised to see that I booked the same tour as Serena, the girl I had met in Cusco (I was making a habit of meeting people accidently I already knew on tours!). After a typical lunch consisting of soup, a main meal which always is served with plain rice and coca tea, we were off. First part of the trek was the descent into the canyon. There are tracks all over the canyon linking the occupants of the tiny villages that are perched into it´s edges. It´s crazy to think of these people living their lives in this canyon, their only way in and out via these tracks, their only transport, their own legs and their trusty mules.
It as a 3 hour walk down some pretty narrow and hairy paths. I took it pretty slowely, because of the afore mentioned unfittness and also because I am clutsy enough on level ground, let alone on narrow and slippery paths! I nearly slipped over about 40 times (no exaggeration, I counted!) One does not feel good when you are overtaken by a couple of 10 year old peruvian boys...running down the path...in sandles made from old tyres...with a mule in tow! And no, the fact that they probably do it everyday, did not make me feel better! After the descent, and a little rest, we crossed a bridge and started our way to our first nights accomodation, on a narrow path that ended in a steep 20 minute scramble in the dark. I was pretty sure that it was never mentioned that I would be walking on paths with sheer drops in the dark when I booked the trip, but no matter, I made it up alive and there was beer at the top, so it was all good! Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted and with a long day of trekking ahead of us, we had an early night.
Next day, after breakfast, we headed to our next stop, an oasis in the middle of the canyon. Along the way we visited a musuem that the villages had set up that explained about their dress and food and some of the animals that lived in the canyon. Our guide explained to us that tourism within the canyon was helping the villages survive. Many people leave these villages when they finish school, but because of the money and jobs that tourism was bringing into the canyon, more people were staying. At the same time, they´re aren´t too many tourists there, so the small village atmosphere has been maintained.
The next couple of hours we continued our descent downward. All this walking down was killing my knees and I found myself looking foward to walking up at some point! We reached the oasis around midday and it as a really beautiful and welcoming sight! Not really an oasis as such, but there were palm trees and lovely pools to swim in. We stopped here for a few hours to swim, lie around in the sun and eat lunch before we had to make the journey back up the canyon.
It was 3 hours walking up zig zagged paths. We had the option of hiring a mule if we wanted, and my pride was a little hurt when the guide asked me if I wanted one! Apparently he had noticed how unfit I was! I politely declined the offer and decided to try and walk. I was actually petrified at the idea of getting on a mule to take me up the steep and narrow paths, sounded about as much fun as having teeth pulled to me! So I started the walk and pretty quickly became the last one at the back. My guide, Pepe, stayed with me and looked at me hopefully whenever someone came past with a mule and offered me a ride. I kept politely refusing. Meanwhile, my breathing was getting harder and harder (as well as being unfit, my breathing had not been the best at these high altitudes) and my legs were turning to jelly. About three quarters the way up, another man and mule came by and I took pity on Pepe and decided to give it a go! Terrifying. My mule was at the back of three and kept trying to overtake the other two, on the outside, where sheer drops awaited me! And no, again, the fact that this mule probably did this everyday, did not make me feel better! I was torn between being absolutely petrified and the knowledge that this was so much easier than walking. I decided to hold on, close my eyes at the scary bits and hope for the best! Of course, I have lived to tell the story, but I won´t be doing that one again in a hurry!
We arrived back at Cabanaconde at dusk, checked into our hostel, had much deserved showers and then headed out for dinner and some salsa. We were all too tired for a big one and we had an early start the next day for some condor watching.
We awoke to cloudy skies which was not good for condor viewing. And in fact, we almost missed them. After waiting around for 40 mintues, about 5 minutes before our bus was due, the sun came out and so did the condors. They were magnificent, soaring through the canyon. Absolutely huge and they come pretty close too. I was happy. I had now seen Macchu Picchu and condors, two of the main reasons I had come to Peru.
After the condors, came the hot springs in Chivay. Aahh, just what we needed after all that walking! As lovely as they were, the experince was slightly ruined by a weird man video taping an old man and two young peruvian woman frollicking in the pool. Hmm, pretty sure you can get arrested for that sort of thing in Australia!! And that was the end of the tour. A bus took us back to Arequipa where we all went our seperate ways, a few of us got on overnight buses onto our next destinations (me to Pisco) and the others I can only imagine were either talked into more salsa with the guides, or collapsed into their hostel beds - I´m going with the latter!

Arequipa

Colca Canyon


the "oasis"

Cuzco - by far the most touristy place I have ever visited! From the moment you arrive you are bombarded by finger puppet, postcard, sweater, massage, doll selling Peruvians on every plaza and street corner! It is a lovely city in all its cobbled street cuteness, but the constant harrassing can be a bit much!
Still, I was of course very excited to be there, as this was the jumping point to Machu Picchu, the BIG one for most people coming to South America.
I met some new amigos on the bus from Puno, Serena (English) and Guy (Israeli). We spent the next few days hanging out together in Cuzco. Serena was doing the Inca Trail and it was nice to be able to get caught up in her excitement as I wouldn't be doing it myself. The trail now gets booked up months in advance, and not knowing when I would be in Peru (after all, I was orignally supposed to be ending my trip around about now!), I didn't get a chance to book a trip, so was missing out.
We spent days wandering the colonial streets, checking out the nearby ruins on horseback, and eating good food, including the delicious alpaca (I couldn't be tempted to try Guinea Pig though!). Then Serena went off to do the trail and Guy and I headed off to the Sacred Valley on our way to Machu Picchu. This was the cheapest way to get there by the train and it was actually a really nice way to do it.
We first went to Pisac, which has some impressive ruins of it's own as well as large markets filled with every type of typical Peruvian souvenir imaginable (more finger puppets!!) Here we ate amazing empanadas cooked in a wood fire oven and still warm flat bread typical of the area. After Pisaq was Urubamba. Not a lot to do here, no ruins to speak of, but we had to come here to get a taxi to Ollantaytambo, where we would catch our train from. Ollantaytambo is a lovely little village - still touristy, but felt more genuine. They have some ruins of their own, but we arrived too late so we saw them on our way back. We ate dinner here and caught our train at 8pm to Aguas Calientes. This is the last village you can stay at before heading to Machu Picchu. As you can imagine, it is completely set up for tourists going to the site. There are so many restaurants, hostals and souvenir shops here, I can't imagine they all can be making a good living, despite the number of tourists that flood into this village.

Cuzco

Serena and I

Sacsayhuaman - ruins close to Cusco

Photos for our mums!

Pisac ruins

Flute player at the ruins in Pisac

Rio Urubamba

Urubamba

Ruins at Ollantaytambo

Machu Picchu
There have been many pinch myself moments on this trip. But my biggest pinch myself moment so far was when I was lying on my hostal bed after just coming back from seeing Machu Picchu. I couldn't believe that I had actually seen the lost city of the Incas. I have wanted to see them for as long as I can remember (something to do with a cartoon I used to watch as a child about the Incas, I think!) and they didn't disappoint.
We got up early to catch the bus to the site and arrived just before 6am. The ruins were covered in misty clouds when we first arrived so we waited, seated on one of the terraces, for them to lift. It was quite a magical moment. There weren't too many people, (the day trippers wouldn't arrive by train for a couple of hours yet) it was relatively quiet and the sun was just rising over the mountains as the clouds began to lift, revealing the ruins in all their glory. It was one of those catch your breath, jaw dropping moments.
We spent the next couple of hours exploring the ruins and then climbed the mountain of Huayna Picchu, a one hour scramble up steep paths and even steeper steps (coming down was worse) for an unforgettable and spectacular view of Machu Picchu. The ruins of Waynapicchu are on top of the mountain and how on earth they managed to get the stones up there to build them, let alone create the steps that lead to it, is beyond me!
I was totally in awe of Machu Picchu. Seeing all the ruins leading up to this and then actual Machu Picchu itself, I couldn't help but be in wonder at how and why they built these cities. Built on top of seemingly impossible moutains, it must have taken years and huge amount of manpower. And to think, after all of this, the Inca empire only lasted around 100 years.

see that mountain in the back, well I climbed it to get these...

proof!!

the path up the mountain