Ok... time for more Peru tales!
The second day hiking up to Dead Woman's Pass was definately the toughest day, and I'm quite embarrassed to report that Kat and I were beaten to the top by a 71 year old - the legendary Norm!!! To be fair he is officially the fittest man in the universe (we presented him with an award telling him so!) so I can't be too gutted, although we were also beaten by Paul (a fellow Loki dweller!), who appeared to be suffering from altitude belimia and was so ill he hadn't eaten for about 2 days! Now that is embarrassing!
The porter's carrying the tents, cooking equipment etc were INCREDIBLE!!! They were tiny (most people in Peru are - Kat feels right at home!) and went zooming past us with 10 times more weight on their backs... and then clapped us when we arrived!! Nuts! Maybe the corn beer that they drunk ALL day helped a bit?!
As some of you may have seen in photos self-image went out of the window whilst we were on the trail (that happens when you don't shower for 4 days!)... with the help of her cheap poncho Kat turned into a giant blue tent, Grant (another fellow Loki-ite) started to sport the nutty professor/fagan look, whilst the bags under my eyes got so big I looked like I'd been in a fight. Only Paul managed to reach Machu Picchu with some dignity... so much so that young girls started asking to have photos taken with him!!! Kian from Westlife eat your heart out!! (Paul if you're reading this that memory still makes me giggle!! hahaha).
On the 4th day we woke at 4am to walk to the sungate and see the sunrise over Machu Picchu... well at least that was the idea. We couldn't even see the sun through the cloud let alone Machu Picchu. As you can imagine we weren't best pleased, but as the cloud cleared so did our moods and I have to say that Machu Picchu really is as magical as everyone says. If you ever get the chance to do the Inca Trail DO IT!!!
LOW - Being robbed...
On a night bus from Cuzco to Pisco Kat had her camera and money stolen from her bag. A guy was being overly helpful so we were keeping an eye on him and kept our bags with us all the time but while we were asleep he must have managed to get into her bag. God knows how he didn't wake us up. Kat wasn't bothered about the cash or the actual camera but sadly all her photos have gone - gutting :-(
HIGH - Seeing hundreds of wild sea lions, penguins and various other birds (including the Peruvian Booby!) at the Isla Ballestes.
LOW - The way Peruvian man treated us... no more needs to be said about that!
HIGH - Sand boarding in Huacachina... brilliant fun!
LOW / HIGH.. just generally random actually - Scariest car journey of my life EVER from Huacachina to Arequipa...
I won't go into detail as it might give my parents a heart attack but I'll just say alarm bells should've started ringing when the driver drove us into the desert to roll a giant spliff... or maybe when we noticed the Indiana Jones style knife by his seat... or maybe when he told us he didn't like England becasue "you can't buy the police there"??! We decided to accept to offer of a lift after our previous bus trip ended up costing us a camera but actually ended up paying more for petrol than we would've for the bus and the journey took twice as long because our driver fell asleep for 6 hours! (he pulled over first don't worry!) But on a positive note we did wake up to find that he'd pulled over next to the ocean (it was pitch black when we stopped and we had no idea where we were but the sea was literally 5metres from my window) which is a pretty special view and certainly one you wouldn't get from a bus!
HIGH - Arequipa in general... beautiful buildings, crazy 5 1/2 horse trek with the maddest guide yet (riding up to a bar and ordering beer whilst on horse back was certainly a new experience for me!)
LOW - getting my drink drugged on our last night in Arequipa... but don't worry (as I know you all would!) I saw the guy do it and saw the pill floating in my drink so didn't touch it. Phew!
HIGH - White water rafting!
LOW - All thr bloody road blocks and strikes making it either impossible or really dengerous to travel anywehere. We ended up having to fly to Chile as no buses were crossing the border between Tacna in Peru to Arica in Chile.
I hope this doesn't make it sound like we had a bad time in Peru becasue we didn't, we had an absolutely brilliant time full of action, dramas and learning experiences, and, except for getting Kat's camera robbed, I wouldn't have changed our time there for anything.
It has to be said that our time in Peru had the biggest highs, but also the biggest lows...
HIGH - The Inca Trail...
The Inca Trail was definately one of the best experiences of my life. It was tough at times, mainly due to a lack of sleep (the tents weren't the most comfortable and most nights they were conviently positioned on a hill... actually thinking back I feel very sorry for Manuel who had to wake us up every morning and be the first person to witness my bad moods!) and a lack of oxygen at 4600m above sea level but the scenery was stunning, the group we were with were brilliant and the food was supplied in copious amounts so it made it feel easy!The second day hiking up to Dead Woman's Pass was definately the toughest day, and I'm quite embarrassed to report that Kat and I were beaten to the top by a 71 year old - the legendary Norm!!! To be fair he is officially the fittest man in the universe (we presented him with an award telling him so!) so I can't be too gutted, although we were also beaten by Paul (a fellow Loki dweller!), who appeared to be suffering from altitude belimia and was so ill he hadn't eaten for about 2 days! Now that is embarrassing!
The porter's carrying the tents, cooking equipment etc were INCREDIBLE!!! They were tiny (most people in Peru are - Kat feels right at home!) and went zooming past us with 10 times more weight on their backs... and then clapped us when we arrived!! Nuts! Maybe the corn beer that they drunk ALL day helped a bit?!
As some of you may have seen in photos self-image went out of the window whilst we were on the trail (that happens when you don't shower for 4 days!)... with the help of her cheap poncho Kat turned into a giant blue tent, Grant (another fellow Loki-ite) started to sport the nutty professor/fagan look, whilst the bags under my eyes got so big I looked like I'd been in a fight. Only Paul managed to reach Machu Picchu with some dignity... so much so that young girls started asking to have photos taken with him!!! Kian from Westlife eat your heart out!! (Paul if you're reading this that memory still makes me giggle!! hahaha).
On the 4th day we woke at 4am to walk to the sungate and see the sunrise over Machu Picchu... well at least that was the idea. We couldn't even see the sun through the cloud let alone Machu Picchu. As you can imagine we weren't best pleased, but as the cloud cleared so did our moods and I have to say that Machu Picchu really is as magical as everyone says. If you ever get the chance to do the Inca Trail DO IT!!!
LOW - Being robbed...
On a night bus from Cuzco to Pisco Kat had her camera and money stolen from her bag. A guy was being overly helpful so we were keeping an eye on him and kept our bags with us all the time but while we were asleep he must have managed to get into her bag. God knows how he didn't wake us up. Kat wasn't bothered about the cash or the actual camera but sadly all her photos have gone - gutting :-(
HIGH - Seeing hundreds of wild sea lions, penguins and various other birds (including the Peruvian Booby!) at the Isla Ballestes.
LOW - The way Peruvian man treated us... no more needs to be said about that!
HIGH - Sand boarding in Huacachina... brilliant fun!
LOW / HIGH.. just generally random actually - Scariest car journey of my life EVER from Huacachina to Arequipa...
I won't go into detail as it might give my parents a heart attack but I'll just say alarm bells should've started ringing when the driver drove us into the desert to roll a giant spliff... or maybe when we noticed the Indiana Jones style knife by his seat... or maybe when he told us he didn't like England becasue "you can't buy the police there"??! We decided to accept to offer of a lift after our previous bus trip ended up costing us a camera but actually ended up paying more for petrol than we would've for the bus and the journey took twice as long because our driver fell asleep for 6 hours! (he pulled over first don't worry!) But on a positive note we did wake up to find that he'd pulled over next to the ocean (it was pitch black when we stopped and we had no idea where we were but the sea was literally 5metres from my window) which is a pretty special view and certainly one you wouldn't get from a bus!
HIGH - Arequipa in general... beautiful buildings, crazy 5 1/2 horse trek with the maddest guide yet (riding up to a bar and ordering beer whilst on horse back was certainly a new experience for me!)
LOW - getting my drink drugged on our last night in Arequipa... but don't worry (as I know you all would!) I saw the guy do it and saw the pill floating in my drink so didn't touch it. Phew!
HIGH - White water rafting!
LOW - All thr bloody road blocks and strikes making it either impossible or really dengerous to travel anywehere. We ended up having to fly to Chile as no buses were crossing the border between Tacna in Peru to Arica in Chile.
I hope this doesn't make it sound like we had a bad time in Peru becasue we didn't, we had an absolutely brilliant time full of action, dramas and learning experiences, and, except for getting Kat's camera robbed, I wouldn't have changed our time there for anything.
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