Homeward bound

So after a quick consult with Online Banking and a chat about how great Christmas was, we decided it was best that we start heading home. We got onto our flights guy Malcolm in London, and started finding out the cheapest way back to Rio to get home. The worst bit was getting from somewhere on the west of the continent (where we were) to Rio on the east coast. Flights were looking to be about €350 (for some reason, prices for flights in South America vary depending on where you're from. The alternative, a 100hour bus journey. Thankfully, at the last minute, using this handy search engine, Kayak, we found a flight from Guayaquil in Ecuador to Barcelona for €175. Jackpot. That gave us another 3 weeks to get there so we had to get moving.

On arriving back from Macchu Picchu, we decided to spend a few days around Cuzco. It's a lovely little town, and plenty to do. The nightlife is a bit strange however. There's a cluster of about 4 nightclubs in one corner, so competition for customers is very tough. The result is a load of guys running round the square trying to tempt you in with offers of free drinks. Works out well for the customer!

One particular day, we decided to try out the whole lot of Cuzco's nightlife in the famed 12 Pubs of Christmas. Ever the forward planner Mark meticulously mapped out the route before hand.

This involves going around to 12 different bars over the course of a day and having a drink in each one. Unfortunately the beer in Peru is both stronger and bigger, so we only made it to 9 pubs. A good building block for a full 12 pubs next month somewhere.

The team lined out as below.

For the record, the bars were:
1 - Paddy O'Flaherty's (mouth-wateringly good roast chicken and stuffing dinners)
2 - Norton's Bar (nice balcony looking over Cusco's main square)

3 - Rosie O'Grady's (two of the girls got food poisoning here, generally not a good sign)

4 - The Cross Keys (Decorated like an old english manor, bit surreal)

5 - The Crown

6 - The Real McCoy

7 - Los Perros (had a really, really tall bar man)

8 - Zazu (Complete with free Salsa lessons)

9 - La Chupiteria (had some sort of shot here that they set on fire)

10 - Indigo (free popcorn)

11 - Mama Africas (Nightclub)

A lot more exotic sounding than the traditional Ranelagh route!

After a tearful goodbye to our token girl for the past month, Scottish Siobhan, we were off to Arequipe, to the Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. Usually, backpackers do a 2 or 3 day hike around the canyon, but seeing as we were in a rush and still had aching legs from The Inca Trail, we decided to be lazy and just do a one day bus tour. Only after we paid were we informed that the one day actually start at 2.30 am! Pretty much the whole day

was spent on a bus, which, although not as strenuous as walking, was incredibly boring. We did get a break for about an hour to look for condors (thankfully a few appeared).

The Canyon was nice for a few views, but I wouldn't reccomend the day trip.

Michael did make a new friend though.

After our fun day on a bus, we arrived back in Arequipe and hopped stright on a nightbus to Huaccachina. This spot is basically an Oasis in a desert, surrounded by hostels. It's only about 5 miles from another town, but when you're there you really do feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. This town would almost certainly be deserted, but for the weird activities of Dune Buggying and Sandboarding. The desert eroded in such a way as to leave huge sand dunes everywhere, which are perfect for driving wreaklessly around.

The driver seemed to know what he was doing, although the roll cage around the vehicle and the rollercoaster seatbelts weren't too comforting.

Sandboarding is one of those things that we'd never heard of, but turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. Essentially it's Snowboarding, on sand, but as experienced boarders Conor and Mick will testify, it's a lot harder as sand moves easier than snow.

So after a few lame attempts on the smaller hills at standing on the board, we quickly realised that lying on the board and throwing yourself headfirst down the cliff was the way forward. thank god we did. Some of the hills were monsters. About 150m drop at very fast speeds. Great fun though.

Finally back to sea level after 5 weeks at over 2,000m (that's high), we decided to get back and have a look at the sea. Just up the coast was the Islas Ballestos, which is basically The Galapagos Islands for people who can´t afford to do the proper ones. We set off on a lovely speedboat with our latest tag along girl, Australian Mel.

There were a few complaints on the way from certain members of the crew, but they quickly shut up when we got closer to the islands. We weren´t allowed to land, the only people who are allowed on the islands are the people who work there collecting bird droppings - lovely job. The view from the boat wasn´t bad though. Loads of penguins, sealions, pelicans and other birds.

We also saw some Nasca Lines on the way. These were lines that locals made hundereds of years ago, for what god only knows why.

Our next stop was the nations capital of Lima. We ended up staying in Miraflores, which is basically the Beverly Hills of South America. One of the fanciest shopping malls I´ve ever seen, and a very nice waterfront with all sorts of activity going on. We did some crazy shopping here - dropping a Peruvian weekly wage in about 15 minutes at one point. The stuff we bought seems great quality, apparently the back market here isn´t actually fake stuff, just stolen or imported without import taxes paid. The best market we´ve seen on our entire trip I´d say. Guess where all your presents are coming from!

Our last stop in Peru was the beach resort of Mancora, 17 hours north of Lima. The idea was for a week of sitting in the sun and doing nothing, and well, that´s pretty much what happened. Lovely little resort, more like a Canary Islands resort than a South American backpacker spot, but the break was well needed. The place is famous as a surf resort, however the week we were there was very windy, so the waves were dominated by Kite Surfers. We ventured out surfing one day but didn´t last long. The whole place was very quiet, not much nightlife, but it did top up our tans nicely. One more week and we should be back to Asian levels.

After a week on the beach, we had a weekend to get to Barcelona. First up was a day long trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador. The bus was one of those that you hear about in Michael Palin shows; crammed with all sorts of people, a driver that insisted on playing dance music the whole way, and 15 street vendors coming on to sell us all sorts of stuff every stop. Eventually we got there, and found it was quite an American city. Loads of high street stores, the usual fast food places, and they even use the US Dollar as currency. We didn't get up to much here, apart from a trip to the most hectic market we've ever seen.

The trip home began late on a Sunday night, with a 2 hour flight to Bogota, Colombia. We had to change planes here, which involved, 2 x-ray machines, 3 metal detectors, a frisking, our bags been checked by sniffer dogs, and a random complete bag search especially for Micheal. We got through without appearing on "Banged Up Abroad" thankfully and then got on our plane for "Barcelona". At this point we realised that every Spanish speaking country has a Barcelona, especially Mexico and Venezuela, which has quite large cities of that name. I began to wonder if my €175 flight was beginning to seem a little too good to be true and we took off with me wondering which continent we were going to land in. After a 10 hour flight spent thinking I really should have checked the airport code, we landed, thankfully next to an Easyjet plane.

Our final few days of the trip were spent in our fourth continent, and by far the coldest and most expensive, Europe! Barcelona is lovely in fairness, although we were far too under prepared for the cold. We ventured out one day to have a look around Las Ramblas, Gaudi's Cathedral, and of course, The Camp Nou...

3 days later we were going home....

Inca Trail - Following in the footsteps of Yvonne Canning

When we arrived in Cusco we had (thanks to Mark) the Inca trail already booked. We met with the guide the day before we left to discuss the itinerary and the necessary items to bring with us. We all rented sleeping bags and mats while Darragh, Conor and myself took it up another notch and rented hiking boots. We had to look the part on the mountan!

We were picked up at our hostel at 6am and travelled by bus to km82 (start of the Inca Trail). Everything was going to plan until we found out that there was a misunderstanding in the meeting the previous day. The guide had told us the porters (Porters carry the heavy camping equipment for the trek) can carry our backpacks once they do not exceed 20kg.....but he left out the fact that it costs extra. A few words were exchanged with the guide that can't be repeated in the blog but at the end of the day we either had to pay the porters extra or carry the bags ourselves. So we manned up and shouldered the loads ourselves. The average weight in each bag was around 17kg. I know it doesn't sound that much but when you are carrying all this extra weight at altitude for four days it makes a huge difference. We got our passports stamped and off we set on the trail.

The Incas developed the Inca trails to communicate between different towns and villages. The trail meanders through the Sacred Valley up over "Dead Woman's Pass" (4200 M) and down into a rain forest. The trail is made up of stone paths and steps. The guide told us that there was a race from Cusco to Machu Picchu held in 2004 between the Porters. The porter that won the race completed the 27 mile trail in 3 hours 37 mins!! This is really impressive but it is no surprise the way the porters can run up the hills with 20kg on their backs.

The first ruin was Llactapata "Village in the Highland". Pretty epic view from up high!






After 3 hours treking we arrived at our camp. The tents were already set up. We were very impressed with the quality of the food. One of the porters was a chief for the group. I think the crowd favourite was the trout we got for dinner on the first night! At night we slept in tents with two porters sleeping out side for safety. In the mornings we were woking up early to tea in bed which was great! The Coca tea gives you a good kick start to the day.


The first day was pretty easy compared to day two! The is the most difficult part of the trek. The guide told us that it is a steep upward climb for 5 hours until you reach "Dead Woman's Pass" and then two hours of steep downhill to the camp site. This is where we put our bodies to the test. We went for a rotation system at the front for intervals of 15mins (Something like you would see in the tour de France!) with short breaks in between. It took us 3 hours to reach the top. Lets just say there were another few words said as we came near the top of the mountain that cannot be repeated in the blog. We were pretty impressed to be at the front of the group leading the way even with our big backpacks and full of new found respect for Mark's mom Yvonne who had hiked this 3 years ago! That's a gauntlet thrown down for the rest of the parents out there.  There are no ruins to be seen on the second day but it was great sense of achievement to reach "Dead Woman's Pass".

 


Day three it is considered the longest part of the trail but is is not as difficult a climb as the previous day. There are a number of Inca ruins to see so it breaks up the day nicely. We climbed to the second pass where we visited the Inca site called Runkuracay. After we descended to Sayaqmarca where it began to rain. We finally got to use our ponchos! However as the rain got heavier the ponchos didn't hold us to the task. We got soaked! Next up was Conchamarka and the first Inca tunnel which is about 20 meters long. Then we came to Phuyupatamarca where at this stage I gave up wearing the poncho all together. There was no point as I was already soaked to the bone.




On the fourth and final day we saw Intipunku, The Sun Gate and of course Machu Picchu, what was once considered the lost City of the Incas. The fourth day is a short day of treking. It only takes 3 hours to get to Machu Picchu. However, it was raining again for the 3 hours which made it a bit harder to stay on your feet! Eddie tried to keep up with the porters at one stage and took a bit of a slip. Luckly enough he didn't fall over the cliff ....AGAIN! When we arrived at Machu Picchu at 7am in the morning the whole place was covered in mist.

The guide gave us a two hour tour of Machu Picchu. I think the site is up there with the ruins in Cambodia but I think Angkor Wat is number one for me. We learnt loads though from our tour.

Forgive me for stating the obvious but the Inca's were obsessed with mountains.  A lot of their sacred places including Machu Picchu were built at great altitudes and mentioned in earlier blogs they had left child sacrifices at mountain tops in times of change or strive to appease their gods.  Another example that we were shown at Machu Picchu is how they mirror the shapes of surrounding mountains in miniature.  Conor got a good photo of one of these below.

The one story I found funny was the fact they let a beer comerical be filmed up on Machu Picchu. During filming they managed to break part of the Sun dial. I don't think they were left back in!! As the day began to dry we got some better pictures before we headed back to the town Aguas Calientes. We went to the hot springs for the evening (which were well deserved after our four days of treking) and then got the train back to Cusco.