My last week in Peru ... for now!

I've now been back in Oxford for just over a week, and I'm slowly re-acclimatising, but it all feels a bit weird! For those mad people who are still following this blog, sorry I've been out of action for the last few weeks. To make up for it, here's a bumper entry on my last week in Peru which was spent whizzing round the country with Claire, another CCS volunteer.

You may need to have a look at a map to appreciate what we managed: from Lima, we headed for Cuzco, then into the Sacred Valley and down to Machu Picchu, then to Puno and Lake Titicaca, the Colca Valley, and finally to Arequipa, before flying back to Lima, and then home - all in a week!

I'd be very happy to fill you in on lots more detail in person and show you more photos (I have hundreds!) if you're interested, but for the time being, here's the short-ish version ...

Cuzco
I met up with Claire and Steve, CCS volunteers, in Lima, and even though their flight from Ayacucho had been delayed because of bad weather, we were lucky enough to still catch our Cuzco flight, which was moreorless on time. It was good to get back up in the mountains, and Cuzco is even higher than Ayacucho, so it was lucky that my body hadn't forgotten what altitude was like after being down in Lima for a week! We checked into our hostal, drank some coca tea to help with the altitude, and then it was straight out for an organised city tour for the rest of the day. It was a good way to visit a lot in a very short space of time, but I must admit that being herded around in a tour bus didn't really suit us! We weren't too good at being tourists; we'd got used to being volunteers!

We started off in the centre of Cuzco, in the main plaza, for a tour of the cathedral. The colonial style of the square and buildings reminded me a lot of Ayacucho, but it's all much bigger and grander here.

Cuzco's main plaza

This was followed by a visit to Coricancha, which was once a huge Inca temple, then a colonial church - though the Inca walls have better survived the earthquakes!

Coricancha (see Inca walls through glass)

Then we headed out of the city and managed a tour of a number of other Inca ruins - Qenko, Sacsayhuaman, Tambo Machay, and Puca Pucara - all in one afternoon!! The highlight for me was Sacsayhuaman (or 'sexy woman', as it's easy to remember like that!), up on the hill overlooking Cuzco. It was once a giant temple and zig-zag-shaped fortress on three levels, but sadly the Spaniards removed a lot of the stones to build houses down in Cuzco ... what's left is still very impressive though, and the view of the city from the hill is stunning.

Sacsayhuaman - what's left of it

One of the entrances to Sacsayhuaman

Steve, me, and Claire on hill overlooking Cuzco

Cuzco - the Incas built it the shape of a puma, but I couldn't see it!

That evening we went out for dinner (I had my first Alpaca steak - very tasty) and said farewell to Steve who was off to do the Inca trail very early the next morning. And I headed for the chemist to get anti-histamines, as I'd been eaten alive in Lima and was starting to swell up and could stand it no longer! At least the foot was now fine, fortunately.

Sacred Valley
The next morning we were up early, not quite as early as Steve, but it was early enough! And off on a tour of the Sacred Valley and more Inca ruins, with some shopping in markets thrown in ...

The Sacred Valley

First stop was in Pisac, first for some market shopping, and then to visit the Inca ruins just outside the town. We walked up a hill for about 20 minutes and enjoyed some very impressive views of Inca terracing. And then, soon after we reached the top and started to look at the ruins themselves, the heavens opened, and guess who had left her raincoat in the bus?! It was the rainy season afterall, so I was very stupid and I got drenched, and spent the next hour or so wringing out various garments in the bus!

Pisac and Inca terracing

Next stop was lunch, which was a pleasant surprise as we didn't know it was included in the tour, and the sun came out, so I managed to dry off.

Then another hour or so into the valley to Ollantaytambo, our next stop, and where we were to part company with the tour and do our own thing! We first went on the tour of the ruins though, and enjoyed yet more terracing, temples, Inca stone work ...

Ollantaytambo ruins

Ollantaytambo fountain

Ollantaytambo town

Then we said goodbye to the tour bus which was heading back to Cuzco, as we were planning on getting the train to Aguas Calientes that evening, so that we could visit Machu Picchu early the next morning. This was the first stage of the journey that we were to do on our own and it didn't exactly go to plan! We headed straight for the train station at the bottom of the town, to find that the evening train to Aguas Calientes was already full and that there wasn't another available train until 9.00 the following morning! Very frustrating as we'd got a hostal booked for us in Aguas Calientes that night, and we'd been planning on getting to Machu Picchu very early in the morning. But there was nothing we could do; the only way up to Aguas Calientes was either on foot or by train (no roads) so we were stuck! We cut our losses, found a cheap hostal near the station, and headed back into the town for longer than we'd originally planned!

In the end it all worked out fine, as it was good to see the town once all the tourists had left - after about 5.00 the buses departed and the town became quite serene. We had a drink in the square, and I then left Claire for a while to write her diary in peace and went for a wander round the old streets, still all laid out as in Inca times. We managed to find an internet cafe, but it was painfully slow, so then headed for a warm cafe to relax in, before heading back to our not so comfortable, not so warm, but very cheap hostal for the night!

Ollantaytambo plaza, nice once tourist buses left

Old Inca street

Inca entrance put to modern use

Claire enjoying our luxuriously warm hostal

Machu Picchu

The next morning it was up not so bright and early, but in time to catch the 9.00 train to Aguas Calientes, which is as close to Machu Picchu as you can get by train. It was a really scenic journey through a green valley that gradually got deeper and greener as we approached the jungle area.

View from train on way to Aguas Calientes

At Aguas Calientes, we had to go into the town square to buy our Machu Picchu tickets and then get a bus up the steep and winding track to the top of the hill, about another 20 minutes. The views on the way up were stunning in their own right ...

And by about 11.00 we finally arrived - not quite dawn, but never mind! And after a short climb, this was our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, peeking out from the mist ...

I'd seen so many photos before, that I kind of knew what to expect, so I can't say that the initial sighting was particularly powerful. But after spending a few hours walking around and appreciating the whole setting, the scale of it all, and the effects of the clouds and mists, I must say that it all grew on me - it was a fantastic experience!

One of the highlights for me was the climb up Huayna Picchu, the mountain that was initially hidden in the mist, but it appeared later on in the day. It's quite a scramble, and as it's on the edge of the jungle here, it was very hot and sweaty - I was, anyway. But the climb was really worth it, as from the top, where there is an unfinished temple (mad place to try to build it if you ask me!) you get a fantastic view of all the ruins and the shape of the eagle that they were built in ...

View from top of Huayna Picchu

Just to prove that I was actually here!

And I know you've seen photos just like this, but this one is mine!

If you agree that Machu Picchu should be one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, then go to http://www.n7w.com/ and vote! I reckon it stands a good chance!

By about 3.00 we had to head back to catch the afternoon train back to Ollantaytambo, followed by a bus back to Cuzco, where we had a hostal booked for the night. We managed a short walk round the plaza and stopped in a nice cafe that Francisco had recommended, but we were too tired to do anything else - maybe it was a good job we hadn't got up at dawn!

Puno & Lake Titicaca

The next morning we had a tourist bus booked to Puno and we were under the impression that we were to wait for the bus to pick us up from our hotel at 7.30. We waited until about 8.00 and then enquired at reception to find that in fact we should have been waiting somewhere else and that we had probably missed it! What was really frustrating was that I'd specifically asked the night before at reception if the bus was coming to collect us and we told that it was! Several phone calls and a mad taxi ride later, we reached the bus terminal to find that we had indeed missed our bus and that we couldn't have our money back as it was classed as a 'no show'. We weren't impressed!

In situations like these, it's impressive as to how much assertive and fluent Spanish seems to materialise from my mouth ... and I managed to persuade the bus company that they should pay for a taxi to get us to the first stop the bus was making so that we could catch up with it there! We squeezed into the smallest taxi ever (only just larger than a moto taxi) and suffered a very scary ride with far too much overtaking on bends and squeezing between other lanes of traffic, as the tiny taxi belted along trying to make up time and catch a very large and fast bus that had left an hour before! Luckily it was a tourist bus (for once I'm glad!) and so stopped to visit places along the way, so we caught up with it just as it was about to leave again after its first stop. We were very lucky!!

The bus was very luxurious and we slept most of the 9 hours to Puno, waking up for the various visits en route - all the excitement of Machu Picchu the day before had tired us out! And the road from Cuzco to Puno is very straight and paved, which was a bit of a novelty - it strectches across the high plain, with lovely views of mountains on either side. But it does get a bit monotonous, and seems to lull you to sleep!

By the time we reached Puno, we were in the middle of a massive thunder storm, it was very cold, grey and wet and our initial impressions were not good! At 3,800m, Puno is prone to extreme weather and we were experiencing plenty of it!

The next day, however, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Lucky, but weird! We had booked ourselves onto a boat trip for the day, to explore some of the islands. At the first the lake was a murky green colour, not too healthy ...

But soon out of Puno bay, the water cleared and things became much more scenic, and we soon reached reeds ...

... lots of reeds, which are used by the Uros people to make floating islands! Here is a man chopping reeds - they have to regularly add more reeds to their islands, to keep them dry!

Our first stop was at one of the floating islands, which was a very bizarre experience! They are only about an hour's boat ride from Puno, but it's another world. The Uros people were itinerant Aymara-speaking fishermen, and up until about 18 years ago, just built very temporary islands to fish from, and then moved on. Then they decided to settle more permanently near Puno, mainly because they saw the potential of tourism, and now for the last 18 years, more permanent islands have been built, housing between 3-10 families on each, and now they are over 3o islands in the community, with a school, clinic, museum - and all made of and built on islands of reeds!

We spent about an hour on this island, which is about 2 metres thick! I was a bit concerned by the water that I could see seeping through, but we didn't seem to sink, and it had been there about 10 years, apparently, so I had to trust it!

And what a bizarre mixture - with basic reed houses, but with solar panels!

And I was extremely impressed with everyone's teeth - sparkling white! The rest of Peru could do with some of these reeds; they chew the white part from young reeds every day to keep their teeth clean ...

And we were given a ride across to another island on this reed boat - I was very comforted to hear that there were 4,000 empty plastic bottles inside the frame!

And Ana and Maya waved us off, as we headed off in a much safer boat for our next destination, Isla Taquile ...

Isla Taqulie was another few hours' boat ride out into Lake Titicaca, and at this stage we were out of Puno bay and right out into the main part of the lake, which no longer felt like a lake as it was so vast. You could only just see the edges, with a lovely backdrop of distant Peruvian and Bolivian mountains. And did you know that Titicaca is Quechu for grey puma, the shape and colour of the lake? The lake was a very special and sacred place for the Incas, and when the Spaniards invaded, legend is that the Incas threw one of their most scarded gold chains into the lake, to ensure that it was safe from the Spaniards, and it's never been found ...

We walked across Isla Taquile, and climbed up to the top of the island where there was a small village and a restaurant for lunch. Here the people are Quechua-speaking with a tradition of weaving and knitting - nowadays mainly for tourists. In the old days they only used to weave and knit one outfit a year - that was all they needed! And the men knit these woolly hats - I had a feeling they only wear these outfits for the tourists nowadays though ...

Unfortunately we had a bit of an argument with the tour guide and restaurant owner as we'd been told lunch was included in the tour price when we bought the tickets, but they were trying to make us pay again when we got there. We weren't having any of it, and my Spanish came into its own again, fighting for the rights of all the tourists who'd been ripped off in the past! We eventually won the argument, but it was only after the restaurant owner followed us to Puno, threatened to get the police involved, and eventually escorted us to the tour office where the manager sorted it out ... all a bit stressful, and made us want to be volunteering back in Ayacucho again, but we've put it behind us now!!

We tried not to let lunch spoil our day though, and we manged to enjoy the island scenery and the lovely boat trip back. It all reminded me a bit of Greece!

The path up to the top of the island

And back down again on the other side

Colca Valley

After our boat trip we had a very nice dinner in Puno, complete with live music, and the we took the night bus to Arequipa. Unfortunately, the paved road now makes this quite a fast jourmey and so after hardly any sleep as the bus was packed, and the journey bumpy (even thouh the road was paved), we were deposited in Arequipa at 3.30 in the morning ... or rather in the middle of the night! We should have arrived an hour later and I was hoping that this being Peru, we'd be late and arrive in time for an early breakfast! It was pitch black and cold, and definitely too early for breakfast! We took a taxi to the hostal where we were picking up a tour later that day and staying there the day after, and luckily for us they let us in and we paid half price for a room and got a few hours sleep. Then after hot showers and breakfast we were feeling quite civilised again! At 8.30 we headed off for our next adventure in a minibus to the Colca Valley ...

It's desert all around Arequipa, with high snow-capped montains and volcanoes - so our drive into the Colca Valley was very dramatic.

We drove through a huge nature reserve and managed to spot lots of vicunas, llamas, and alpacas - apologies for the not too exciting wildlife shots - not my forte!

Lone vicuna

Llamas

And we climbed up to a stunning 4,900m, and some people in the minibus had to take oxygen as they were suffering from altitude sickness! Then we descended into the Colca Valley and stayed in a lovely hostal in a little village near Chivay, and managed a trip to some outdoor hot springs in the evening, which was very relaxing.

The next morning, we were woken upn at 5.00 and had to be ready to leasve by 6.00 as we needed to drive into the Colca Canyon to be ready to spot condors by 8.00! All a bit of a shock to the system, but this view from the hostal of early sunshine on snow-capped montains and the valley helped me along!

By about 8.00 we had driven for about 2 hours into the canyon and along very unpaved and windy roads, which had certainly woken me up, and we reached the Cruz de Condor, an impressive viewpoint. If you're lucky, you can see condors here, as they nest down in the canyon below and glide up on the thermals in the mornings. I'm not much of a bird watcher, but this was fun, and it was a lovely spot to sit and watch the world go by.

After about half an hour we spotted our first condor, gliding up from the valley - very graceful and impressive as these birds are huge! We spotted 3 in all, and although they weren't really in the mood for much gliding, I did manage a few blurry photos ...

We then drove back through the valley and this time had time to stop and enjoy the scenery, in particular all the Inca terracing and irrigation channels, which is why the valley is so green.

And a special mention of our stop in Maca for Phil, whose father was born here. Phil - here's proof that Claire and I (and our new friend the donkey) were here. I asked an old chap in the village if there were any Apaza families here and he said there were lots, so you need to get down here and do your research; I'm sure you'll find plenty of distant cousins!

And another feature of this area is all the intricate embroidery on women's hats and dresses - there are various kinds of hats for different areas of the valley, and I can't remember which this one was, but it's very pretty!

Arequipa

We then drove back to Arequipa that evening, which was to be our last evening in Peru! We went out for a nice meal and even managed a trip to a bar after that, but we were too tired to stay out partying, and to be honest we were feeling a bit sad and subdued about leaving, and a bit nervous about going home!

The next morning we walked around the centre of Arequipa, which is very grand and attractive. The cathedral spans the whole of one side of the main plaza, and the plaza is very attractive and popular, full of people. It's known as the 'white city' as so many of the buildings are built of white volcanic rock.


Arequipa's cathedral

Main plaza in Arequipa

And we had time to climb up the hill a bit and admire the view of the Misti volcano that sits over Arequipa. And then we found a great place for our last lunch, to enjoy some sunshine, pisco sour, and ceviche before heading off for the airport early afternoon to catch our flight back to Lima ...

Last Peruvian lunch

And then followed the tedious 24 hours or so of journeying home, not getting any proper sleep, almost missing my connection in Amsterdam (but thank-you to the wind which delayed take-offs, so I was ok). And many thanks to Liz who heroically came to meet me at Heathrow - it was lovely see a familar face at arrivals!

And so that's it for now! Better get back to my unpacking and sorting my flat and life out ... will probably just start on the flat for now. And you never know, there may be a few post-Peru entries, if I get the urge to blog. I've already heard that there are some primary school developments to report on, so watch this space!

Thank you for reading this stuff - hope you've enjoyed it!

Putting my feet up in Lima

Or just the one foot, to be precise ...

I got to Lima on Monday night - the journey took 10 hours rather than the official 8. Nobody else seened bothered; I still have a few things to get used to here in Peru! This was because we had to drive very slowly through hail and rain in the mountains ... and now I'm in a heat-wave in Lima - it's a country of extremes, weather and all! And since I've been here in Lima, my foot has become red and swollen again, which is a pain ... literally. I don't think it's yet recovered from the stingray and it's probably infected or having an allergic reaction to whatever the fish left in my foot. I am really paying for those 2 minutes in the sea!!

Luckily I'm staying with some very lovely friends (Ana and Francisco) of my friend Natalia from Madrid, and they brought a doctor friend of theirs round to inspect the foot on Tuesday. After much poking and squeezing, the doctor announced that he wasn't going to need to cut my foot open (I hadn't been expecting anything of the sort!) and he has prescribed cream and a further load of antibiotics - I probably didn't take enough the first time round.

So I'm now having a day 'at home', catching up on e-mails and blog. I have finally added the missing photos and tidied up my blog entries from Christmas 0nwards, so take another look, if you're not yet too tired of all this. And I'm trying to not to move the foot so that the cream and antibiotics can do their stuff. I want to be fit for next week's tour of Cuzco, Puna, Arequipa, Colca Canyon - it's going to be a bit of a marathon! Luckily, for my foot, I'd decided not to walk the Inca Trail! There wasn't really time, and January is one of the worst months to pick as it's so wet. I definitely want to come back and do it sometime soon though, so let me know if you want to join me!

So I haven't really seen as much of Lima as I'd have hoped, but it's also been nice to have a few quiet days after all the rushing around in my last week in Ayacucho. It's also giving me a bit of time to start to think about life at home, and to acclimatise to the concept. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone, but am a bit apprehensive as to how I'm going to feel when I'm back in Oxford without my job ... though I haven't been missing the job at all while I've been here!

Meanwhile, back in Lima, which is a huge sprawling city with very crazy traffic, lots of pollution, never a clear sky, and it's surrounded by desert on 3 sides and coast on the other. There are some obviously very rich parts in the centre and along the coast - some parts very modern, others colonial, and after Ayacucho it's been odd seeing such a concentration of shops, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, tower blocks, etc. There are also loads of very poor suburbs that have sprouted up as more people have migrated here, and things have expanded at too fast a pace and the city's infrastructure can't cope. There are huge problems here with lack of sanitation, water supply, jobs ... the basic necessities.

I've managed to see a bit of the city - Ana has very kindly driven me along the coast, the Costa Verde, and around Miraflores, San Isidro, and Barranco - very nice neighbourhoods near where I'm staying, in Magdalena.


Along the Costa Verde - where surfing started in Peru


Looking out to sea, from Parque de Amor in Miraflores

And on Tuesday I met up with 2 other volunteers from Ayacucho - Phil, who was en route from Arequipa to Quito and then home to the US, and Celisse, who's here until the weekend before she goes home. We met up for a drink in a bar where I put my foot up for a few hours, followed by a trip to a sushi bar for dinner where my foot got another rest, so not much sightseeing, just catching up!

Wednesday I went to the Museo de la Nacion for the morning and tried once again to get my head round all the different ancient civilisations - there's a whole lot more than the Incas, who didn't last long at all! And in the same museum, there's also an exhibition on the findings of the Truth Commission that was carried out in 2000, after the Shining Path horrors were finally stopped. It was especially moving to see all the photos as I recognised some of the places. I think I can appreciate now a bit better than before how totally horrific it all was, after having got to know Ayacucho and to have talked to people about their personal experiences during the time of the Shining Path.

Then I met up with Phil, Celisse - and also Marisol from CCS who's conveniently (for me) in Lima on holiday - and we all managed a quick lunch before Phil rushed off for his 18-hour bus trip up to Tumbes, on the Ecuadorian border. Phil's going back to live in Ayacucho for a while in March, and he's going to keep an eye on the primary school for me!

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with Marisol, and we later joined her family down on a surfing beach. I, sadly, had to sit and watch the swimmers - even though there are apparently no stingrays along this part of the coast, my foot isn't ready for another dip in the sea as yet. And even sadder, I then had to say goodbye to Marisol, who's been absolutely fantastic to work with, an inspiration, and a really lovely person. I'm going to miss you, Marisol - please keep in touch!!


Last afternoon with Marisol, in Miraflores


Marisol, with her son Sebastian


Sunset at Playa Makaha (the black blobs are surfers)