Peru

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Saturday the 10th of January

I know I said previously that I thought Peru would be a real culture shock and boy was I right. After stepping off the plane at Lima airport it became apparent just how different Peru, or at least Lima, was from anywhere we have been so far. Even though it was 10.00pm at night the airport was packed and it seemed to be mainly people offering you “free” tourist advice or taxis. We had one women in particular who would just not leave us alone, it did not matter how many times we told her that we did not need help, she would just not stop talking. Even when we got into our taxi she was there whispering in the taxi drivers ear. On the way to the hotel the taxi driver decided to try and drop us at a different hotel than the one we requested which both Lou and I are sure was due to the tourist lady telling the taxi driver to bring us there. She was so persistent that it did not even end there, as she spent the next two days phoning us at our hotel to offer us some more “free” advice.

We have just spent the last couple of days exploring Lima. We are staying in an area called Miraflores, which is just outside the center of Lima. Yesterday we took a walk down on the coast and I almost had a go at paragliding but the wind decided to stop blowing so they all packed up and went home. In hindsight this was probably a good thing as running off the side of a cliff with a parachute is probably not the smartest thing to do.

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Today we visited the center of Lima, which is the old quarter with its fabulous Spanish buildings and churches. The highlight was a visit to the Monastery Of San Francisco, which is a wonderful old Franciscan Monastery complete with a 17th century library and bats in the belfry. It also has a vast catacomb underneath which contains the remains of 25,000 Peruvians. It is basically vast pits where they would just fling in the dead bodies and now today all that remains are the bones. It still has a very musty and strange smell but I imagine that in the day the smell must have been awful.

I have to say my first impressions of Peru are good. It seems to be a very busy and lively place. Although on the downside the pollution is quite bad and also people are constantly bugging you to go here, buy this etc etc. Basically anything that will part you from you cash. As a fool and his money are easily parted, I really don’t need any extra help in this area.

Tonight is our last night in Lima as tomorrow we fly to Cusco and then onto the Inca Trail. Although we might well return as we have over six weeks until we fly out of Quito and as such might well pass back through Lima on our way to Ecuador.

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Monday the 12th January 2004

Hello peeps. Hope all in sunny blighty are well and starting the year as they mean to go on? We are in Cuzco - the old inca capital. Its much prettier than Lima which was so polluted and noisy. Here we are still getting bugged by people though which can be a but irritating. I am finding it almost impossible to be polite and have resorted to a simple but effective no - as no gracis must signify hope.

Cuzco is one of the top tourist destinations in South America so obviously is teaming with other tourists. This is both good and bad, good as there is a wide range of yummy food to cater for all the international tastes - for instance pancakes with fruit and good Mexican but bad as well tourists are annoying. So I am annoyed by myself? yes that makes sense!

We are going to do the inca trail in a day or two once we have got used to the altitide. We are about 3500 metres above sea level and feeling a bit breathless and have a headache. I was informed by my dear friend Katherine that this makes for a good conditions to get pissed as you only need about half your usual quantity. However we will not be not be drinking before the hike - that would be silly!!
Lou x

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Wednesday the 14th of January

Well I am sad to report that I dont really like Cusco, which for me anyway is quite sad as it is the first place so far that I have not liked. It just seems that this whole place is geared up to try and get as much money out of the tourists as possible. If you take a picture and somebodys elbow happens to wonder into frame next thing you know they are over asking for 2 dollars as you took a picture of them. Everywhere you go there seems to be crowds of people jumping on you trying to seperate you from your money. It is so bad that everytime I go to the toilet now I first have to check that there is not a small Peruvian boy crouching in there waiting to jump out and try and sell me a postcard.

Although to be fair to Cusco I am not sure if this has anything to do with the Peruvian Robinhood. By this I mean the little F**ker who decided to help himself to my wallet. I say him but in reality I am not sure who stole it. All I know is that it was in my back pocket when leaving the resturant but 2 minutes later after passing through a crowd of people hassling us about shoe shining, free drinks, buy postcard etc, it was gone. As you could imagine I was not the happiest man in town and I did mutter a few words that would have made a Russian Sailor blush.

The following day we headed off to the tourist police who quite frankly were crap. On arrival I was told to write out a report myself, then I was told that I had to go to the bank and pay three sols to then return tomorrow to pick up a copy of the report. So basically they were going to charge me for the report I had just written. Lou and I got ready to leave when suddenly another police officer came over with the contents of my wallet to ask if they were mine. I was slightly baffled by this as it had taken over half an hour for this police officer to realise that the Ruairi Thomas Redmond who was sat in his office was in fact the same Ruairi Thomas Redmond whose wallet contents (minus the wallet its self and the cash) sat on his desk. Does Cusco have a high rate of people called Ruairi Thomas Redmond getting their wallets stolen I wonder or was this chap just a complete cretin? I then had to write a second report to get all my property back. You may be thinking I am sounding a bit miserable and I should be glad to have got the contents back at least. However as I had already cancelled the cards and the cash was gone getting my cannons gym card back really was scant concilation.

Anyway now that you have heard my tale of strife you might well be thinking the reason that I dislike Cusco is centered around that and quite frankly you might be right.

Anyway tomorrow we are up at 5.00am in the morning to do the Inca Trail up to the Machu Picchu. We have ended up changing from the 4 day trek to the 2 day trek because of all the hassle with the wallet. It is a bit of a shame but equally it will be less hard on the old lungs. At 3500 metres even getting dressed seems like hard work, what will La Paz be like at a 1000 metres higher? Anyway I am looking forward to getting out of Cusco and seeing the old ruins, even if slightly aprehensive that I will not be able to get my shoes shined there.

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Monday the 19th January

Well we did the inca trail and survived. As Ruairi mentioned we opted for the 2 day trail instead of the 4 days and we were both glad of this decision, mainly due to the rain. We had to wake at a stupid time in the morning and complete with plastic poncho we got the tourist train to 104 km, which is where we got off and begun our walk. (The 4 day trail starts off at either 82, 84 km). It rained pretty much all the 1st day but the sights were beautiful in the cloud forest. It was a bizzare feeling actually being above the clouds. We then stayed in a lodge half way up a mountain and just watched the clouds pass below us. Then we spent the night in a mixed dorm with beds 3 high. I was dreading this as I thought the inevitable chorus of snoring would keep me awake but luckally after waking at 4.45, I was so tired that I went straight off to sleep, and had a brilliant nights sleep. I did however think the people brushing their teeth loudly in the middle of the night was a bit inconsiderate until I realised that actually they werent getting ready for bed and it was infact time to get up.

Yes at 4.20! Ohhh.

Waking at this time is not so bad though with the prospect was to finally see Machu Picchu. So after a shortish hike we arrived at the sun gate expecting to see the view below us but all we saw was pure, thick cloud. We could tell that this was a disappointment to the people who opted for the 4 day trail but we went too fussed and felt quietly smug. They even had blisters too ha ah.

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Well infact the day cleared and we proceeded to see the old ruins, brillient stone constructions, surrounded by the beautiful mountains. The Inca gods were the moon, sun, stars and anything au natural/ cosmic as evidenced by the various temples. Our guide mentioned that most of the precious goods like gold and silver buried in these temples have unfortunately found their way to Yale University.

The guide then gave us the option to climb the mountain Huayna Picchu. It looked so high from where we were standing but we thought the view from the top would be too good to miss. I was not exactly filled with confidence when the guide casually mentioned that 3 people died climbing the mountain last year. I was scared to say the least but we went ahead. On route we passed people decesnding who told us of the tunnel we would have to pass through and the 20 ft section we would have to absail! It turned out not to be so bad, and when we reached the top there were some great views of Machu Picchu which made up for missing the views at the sun gate earlier.

Well thats about enough about that. We are now in Puno by the Lake Titicaca and its good to get away from the billions of tourists of Cusco, but sad to leave Jacks, the best cafe ever! Shallow... moi?
x Lou x

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Wednesday the 21st of January

Well I have to say that I am glad I am out of Cusco. I just never seemed to warm to the place and really was glad to get on the coach and head off to horizions new. Although having said all of that I am glad we went to Cusco as it was worth it to see the Machu Picchu. I won’t go into too much detail as Lou has already given you the low down but lets just say it was worth the 4.30am starts. I especially liked climbing the Huayna Picchu Mountain and that alone made up for Cusco.

I have also come up with another theory why I disliked Cusco. Obviously the wallet being stolen was a large factor but I also think it was to do with the amount of tourists and the fact we all seemed to be the same, let me explain. I was sat in a café with Lou one night when this dawned on me, I looked up and noticed that every person in the whole café was dressed identically (including me.) It was like somehow I had inadvertantly joined some strange cult, but unlike the HarryKrishnas with there orange robes, my cult was the cult of the Tourist which seemed to entail wearing a fleese, hiking boots and trousers that zip at the knee to make shorts. I kept on thinking somebody was going to hand me a triangle and make me start chanting lines from the Lonely Planet. It was not just the clothes that made me feel like I was on a tourist conveyor belt that I could not get off, it was also the fact that everybody seemed to be doing the same things as well as dressing the same. It really did feel like the Cult of Cusco as we headed off to join the line of western tourists (in their Zippy trousers) who were off to climb the Machu Picchu. Ulimately I think it was just that I felt I had no choices in Cusco and that I was part of a tour of which I did not remember signing up for.

Anyway that is enough moaning about Cusco, now it is time to moan about Puno! Only joking, I am happy to report that I quite like Puno. Their is not a great deal to do here but the atmosphere is so much nicer. Yesterday we headed out onto Lake Titicaca to visit the Floating Islands. These are an incredible collection of islands that have been hand made by people weaving reeds from the lake together. Then on top off these beds of reeds they have built their houses, schools etc. Although it was a good day you kind of got the feeling that the islands have changed from a floating village to more of a floating tourist park.

We were going to leave Puno tomorrow but as there is a bus strike we will now have to leave on Friday. We have decided not to go to Bolivia but instead head back up Peru to Ecuador. The main reason for this is simply we felt that if we tried to jam in Bolivia we would be pushing time and thus not be able to truly appriciate any country as we rushed around trying to see too much. So Friday we head north to Arequipa and for now it is adios as I have practice my triangle.

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Monday the 26th of January

Hello folks. Just a very quick entry as we are off to get a bus soon. We are in Arequipa at the moment which as described in the guidebook is a beautiful town surronded by snow capped mountains. Quite frankly I dont know if this is true or not as it has been so cloudy and overcast that we have not been able to see anything, hence the lack of pictures.

We have not really been up to much in Arequipa, as simply there is not to much to do in Arequipa. In fact I am starting to get the feeling that all of Peru is like this. If you dont want to climb a mountain or see an old church then you are out of luck. Somebody should build an old church on mountain and then you can do both in one day.

Tonight we move on and head back up the coast to Pisco, which is just below Lima. Hopefully I will have more interesting stories when we get to there.

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Thursday the 29th of January

Welcome to Pisco, the home of Pisco brandy, Pisco sours and crap food!

We arrived in Pisco at about 6.00am on Tuesday morning. Well in truth we did not actually arrive in Pisco, as Lou and I were the only two people getting off the bus at Pisco (it was headed for Lima) the bus driver decided he could not be bothered to actually drop us in Pisco. So instead we ended up standing on the side of the Pan-American highway, 4 miles from Pisco, at 6.00am in the morning. We then headed straight to our hotel to try and get a few hours of sleep, which due to the fat lump snoring next to us on the bus, had proved impossible during the journey.

After a few hours sleep we decided to go and book our boat journey around the Peninsula (flamingos, dolphins, penguins etc.) We then jumped in a taxi and headed out to Paracas for a nice seafood dinner on the beach while watching the sunset. We arrived back at the hotel at around 11.30pm and Lou being sensible headed straight to bed to catch some zzz's. I say this was sensible as we had to be up at 6.00am the following day for the Peninsula tour. Unfortunately sensible and Ruairi are two words that are seldom found in the one sentance and thus as Louise sleep I ended up getting involved in a football match in the street. This then turned into after match drinks and to cut to the chase, ended up with a rather drunk Ruairi finally getting to sleep at 4.30am in the morning.

Surfice to say that when the alarm clock sounded at 6.00am, dolphins or no dolphins, I was not getting up. So although Lou headed out and had a great day watching dolphins, I and my digital camera (hence no pictures of dolphins) lay snoozing. Later on that day when Lou had returned and we headed out for dinner, I was slightly surprised to have 10 guys, ball in hand, awaiting me to join them in another game of football. With my head still a bit whoopsy chupsy from the night before I made my excuses and headed off to find some solice in an ice cold coke.

Today is our last day in Pisco as the plan is to head to Trujillo tomorrow but not before I cook up a treat. For some strange reason I have been craving worcester sauce and as our hotel has a kitchen and I have found a shop that sells worcester sauce, I am planning to indulge my cravings. I am not sure what I shall be covering in worcester sauce as of yet (the meat here looks slightly rank) but I can assure you that something is going to take a whooping from Lea and Perrins finest!

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Thursday the 29th of January 2004

Hi there. Well as Ruairi (sleepy head) did not take the tour of the national reserve I thought I would have to fill you all in.

It started early hense Ruairi not coming, and we begun the day by taking a speed boat to the Islas Ballestas, which is home to thousands of birds including 'Boobie birds', penguins, and plenty of sea lions. It was good seeing the wild life but all the bird poo stunk. It does however make great fertilizer and was at one time Peru's most profitable export to Europe. Little consellation to me who was increasingly starting to feel sick. The boat was ok when speeding along but when we stopped to marvel at the pregnant sea lions balaced on the rocks, the waves just took control of the boat and we swayed and got bumped around. Thus I could not fully appreciate the experience and wished and prayed the tour was over so I could get back to land. It was too late however and I have to confess I was sick. Luckally I had a bag otherwise it would not have been pretty for the other passengers due to the problem of spray! I thought I was over travel sickness. Oh well.

When we got back to land, I was glad to take to the road to explore the Reserva de Paracas. The reason it is a reserve is due to the abundance of wildlife, comprising of many bird species and sea weeds, fish and mammels. It is weird as the landscape is so dry, like a dessert but with mountains of sand, which happen to be red due to the presence of the mineral, iron.

The high light of the day for me was seeing about 6 dolphins swim and jump out of the sea, it put a big smile on my face and definately beat seeing the dolphin show in Madrid Zoo.

Well must dash to the port and make the most of the fresh fish and eat them, and perhaps take a swim too. Love to all, Lou x

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Monday the 2nd of February

Well there goes another month, almost 3 months since we left London. Well OK not really 3 months more like 2.5, but still the point is times flies. Well it has been flying for us anyway, not sure about you?

We are on the Atlantic Coast at the moment, about 300 miles north of Lima, in a charming place called Trujillo. We arrived at 4.00am on Saturday morning which I can assure you, is not the nicest time to arrive in a strange city. Things were made even worse by the fact that Trujillo hosts an annual fiesta at the end of January, this invariably means that all the hotels are booked up.

On the plus side is the fact that we get to see some of the fiesta. Well that is what I was telling myself at the time, although I was soon to change my opinion on this. You see I was thinking fiesta equals dancing, music, street parties, food, beer and on the whole just a good crack. Unfortunately Trujillo was not thinking the same, no their idea of a fiesta is ballroom dancing crossed with morris dancing. Now to say I am not a very big fan of either style would be a slight understatement. To say that I would rather poke my own eyeballs out with rusty nails than spend 5 minutes watching the aforementioned prancing would probably be closer to the truth. Alas is was all to late, we had already paid our money and had entered the arena before I realized quite what the “fiesta” entailed! So there I found myself, stuck in a giant arena, watching grown men prance about like somebody had set fire to their underwear. Unfortunately Lou was enjoying it which meant that the quick escape was not an option. After 2 hours of complete and utter tedium I was dribbling and had lost the use of my legs, so Lou kindly allowed use to leave and I got a stretcher straight back to the hotel.

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The following day we just headed down to the beach and stayed there all day. It was a highly relaxing day, which quite frankly I needed. We just set there and watched the sun going down and apart from the occasional flashback to the fiesta the previous night, everything was perfect.

Earlier today we visited the Chan Chan ruins, these are ruins of the imperial city of the Chimu. They consist of various halls and temples all made out of mud bricks and up to 10 meters high. I am not sure how old they are but as the Chimu were defeated by the Incas in 1471 they have to be at least 600 years old.

Today is our last day in Trujillo as tonight we move on again, in yet another night bus. Tumbes is our next stop and then it is bye bye Peru and hello Ecuador. I am looking forward to Ecuador as compared to Brazil, Argentina and Peru it is tiny. As you can travel almost the whole length of the country in one day it means adios night buses. Which is fantastic as trust me ladies and gentlemen, I hate night buses! Although I would still take 15 hours on a night bus over 1 hour of watching the fiesta, any day of the week, any week of the year, any year of my life, any life of my…………

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