Quick last bit of Bolivia
Ok, so I should be filling in on the rest of Bolivia in this post, but, to be honest, I have forgotten most of the finer details, given that we left some 2 months ago now. From what I do remember was all positive: We dressed up and danced at carnival in Oruru (involving ourselves in many 'espuma' (read 'foam) fights), checked out Cochabamba and spent a great week in La Paz, a city that we loved. I took some Spanish lessons and Ash completed 'The World's Most Dangerous Road', leaving me a gibbering wreck while I waited for his return. We spent our time in the capital with Paige and Lloyd and managed to fit in beer drinking at our micro-brewery hostel, visits to coco leaf museums and general partying. After La Paz, we ventured to Isla del Sol on the border of Bolivia and Peru with P and L staying a hotel that must have one of the best views in the world over the majestic Lake Titicaca (one side looking out over Peru and the over Bolivia).
Onwards from Isla del Sol was the next destination of Peru!
Peru
The last couple of weeks in the South American leg were spent in Peru. Unfortunately, given the amount of time spent in other locations, we only ended up with a brief 10 or so days to discover the 5th country on our journey. With this in mind, we decided to concentrate our time in Cusco, the ancient empire of the Inca’s, the last ruling group to fall at the hands of the Spanish. With Paige and Lloyd still by our side, we set off from Copacabana on the rather uncomfortable journey to Cusco (seemingly having been downgraded from ‘cama’ to ‘semi cama’..grrrr…).
My first impressions of Peru, (and maybe this was due to prior influence from guidebook), was that it was a lot more ‘tourist-ready’ than Bolivia. There were more English speakers, more flyers being thrown at you and more people trying to lure you into buying their tickets/ tours/ bus seats etc. Even after you had walked past, you could still hear the continuing ‘Machu Pichu’, ‘Bus to Lima’, ‘Tour to Amazon’ taunts following you down the street; you certainly couldn’t knock them for trying! I also found it notably strange that there were no searches crossing the border from Bolivia into Peru. Compared to the border crossings into, say, Chile, where they would shoot you for having an apple in your bag, this procedure (or lack of it) seemed rather lax. Perhaps, we reasoned, both countries had reached a point of saturation with regards narcotics, general contraband … and apples…that there was no need for control anymore.
In any case, we arrived safely into Cusco and checked into the notorious ‘party hostel’ Loki. I had wanted to check out this place since Brazil, mostly due to have being informed of the weekly pub quizzes hosted in the bar. The other 3 were less unconvinced. Our first foray into the bar confirmed their fears…huge crowds of 18-24 year olds (the age bracket below us!) flooded the dance floor, adorned in fancy dress and falling all other the place. Drunken young men line danced on the bar and cigarette smoke engulfed ever corner of the bar space. It couldn’t have been more perfect… just what the doctor had ordered!! We got into the party spirit with a few beers and bumped into our old friend Herman, which was great.
As we found out over the next couple of days, Cusco has a lot to offer to the tourist: world-class eateries, culture coming out its ears and an interesting and beautiful mix of Incan and colonial architecture decorating the town centre. Add the nearby ruins of Incan fortresses and a plethora of great shops, and Cusco proves itself an enjoyable and stimulating place to spend your time. As Liverpool was awarded the European city of culture, Cusco took the crown for the Americas, and you could see evidence as to why as you walked the stone paved streets. Many of the walls in the city are Incan originals (having withstood two earthquakes in the past 400 years) and the Spanish style arches around the main plazas are strategically lit up with dramatic effect.
Whilst in Cusco, we visited Sexy Women (ok, it’s not spelt like that, but that’s what it sounds like), the Incan fortress, shopped, went to the most AMAZING restaurant called Fallen Angel (never seen anything quite like it in terms of décor) and set off on our trip to Machu Picchu, the ‘lost Incan city’. Whilst most people chose the 5-day trek to this spectacular archaeological site, we chose the less demanding option of hopping on the train, spending a night in Aguas Calientes and bussing up in the morning. At least we thought this was the easy option…. Our driver was late on picking us up to take us to the train station meaning that we were in for the ride of our life in attempts to make the train on time. We bombed down winding roads, took detours to avoid traffic and ran a final stretch down a stony path to try and catch the train that we were already 30 minutes late for. As predicted, we missed our transport and the company ended up having to pay for us to be upgraded to the more expensive train (with food and everything) to take us through the Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes. The scenery en-route was nothing short of spectacular, with steep cliff sides, cascading rivers and lush greenery covering everything the eye could see.
Aguas Calientes, itself, was also not as bad as we’d expected. A small town set among two massive mountains with the roaring river intersecting at a steep gradient made for an impressive initial impression. It was soon, clear, however that the town existed for one reason only (as the entrance to Macchu Picchu) and the people were even more ‘tourist ready’ than Peru in general. Despite this, we managed to have a pleasant evening, tucking ourselves in early for a 3.45 start in the morning!
Getting up at quarter to 4 in the morning wasn’t much fun, but was deemed necessary if we were to catch a bus up to Machu Picchu in time for registration for the walk up Wanu Pichu (the mountain often seen in the background of the Macchu Pichu postcard shots). We also started our guided tour early so as to avoid the crowds coming in later. Machu Picchu is one of those things that, despite having been seen on postcards and in guidebooks so often, did not fail to impress me. The very location of this famous site was as much of a charm as the ruins itself and almost magical with the green mountains poking out from the blanket of mist and clouds. It almost felt as though you were walking round a city in the sky and I half expected a Jetson to drive past in a jet-car, or a character from Galaxy High to appear besides me. Below are some pics that, once again, will do the site better justice than any of my words can:
We actually ended up stranded in Aguas Calientes for another night, due to a landslide that had fallen onto the train tracks. Luckily the situation wasn’t as bad as it had been previous years, when helicopters had had to be sent to pick us the tourists, and we were able to move on the following day.
After two more evenings in Cusco, we sadly said our goodbyes to our friends Paige and Lloyd with a final night out on the tiles, and bussed the 20 odd hours to Lima, another unpleasant journey on what seemed like the world’s most windy road, albeit with good scenery. We made up for the treacherous journey once we arrived into Lima with a gorgeous meal in the rather upmarket cervicheria, where we gorged on some beautiful seafood, pisco sours and white wine. The next day, the final day in South America, was spent with our friend Herman site-seeing around the centre of Lima (much nicer than expected) before flying out later on that evening. The fact that we didn’t know whether our flight was confirmed until that morning all added to the excitement of the day (mmm….think we’ll be having words with STA Travel when we get back).
We arrived into San Francisco early the next morning, after a comfortable flight, and I could hardly contain my excitement as I made my first ever steps onto North America soil. Another continent ticked off the list with just Antarctica to go now…not bad going for a 25 year old eh?
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