Machu Picchu- old post finally posted!

And yes, we finally made it to Machu Picchu. And for some God-forsaken reason we decided to climb another mountain too.... Wayna Picchu, pìctured in the photo below. We were both just tired and having too much fun with the Chavez´s to post this entry. They only let 400 people climb the mountain per day and you have to sign in with your name and passport number. No one´s allowed starting the climb after 1pm and everyone has to be back by 4. Well, when we got to the mountain it was already 10 so we were about the 500th, 501st persons there. But fortunately someone who had gone earlier was there and had held onto their tickets, which we used to gain access. And good news, we did not get stuck on top of the mountain but we did have a great time. It was very peaceful at the top with fantastic views and there were more ruins up there too. Below are a few of the pics of are amazing time in the ruins and on the mountain. Pbbly post more when we get back home.
Wayna Picchu in the back. This picture was taken after the hike up and down the mountain. We were pretty tired by this point.

The dreaded Mt. Putuhusi is in the back.

Wayna Picchu again. Getting closer...

Heres the view of Machu Picchu from on top

We figured out a cheaper way to get out of Aguas Calientes to Cuzco than taking the expensive train ride. It consisted of needing to walk along a railroad track for 2 hrs or so. Then we took a seven hour car ride back to Cuzco. It was a gruelling ride but we made it and we saved a good 50 dollars.

A view of the rainforest along the railway track.

Day ¿? in Peru... 21 days to go!

Yesterday we left Lima after a wonderfully restful two weeks with the loving Chavez family. We watched many many movies, many tv shows, and I learned that my favourite show is the Dog Whisperer with Caesar! He´s amazing with those dogs!

Now we are on our northern trek. Our route is Trujillo - Mancora - Tarapoto - Yurimaguas - Iquitos - Lima . Originally we also wanted to visit Huaraz and Cajamarca along the way, as on a map they appear to be easily visited. Upon more research though we realized that they are located within the Northern Highlands, and to get there and back down to the coast would take many many hours of bone-jarring winding death-defying roads, of which we had our fill in Cuzco and Arequipa. So we´ve decided to stick to the coast, take the easy way up and spend most of our time in Mancora, famous for its beach and surf.

Right now we are in Trujillo, the first Peruvian city to declare independance from Spain. There are many beautiful colonial style buildings, you can see mountains in the distance, and we are fairly close to the coast. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the Chan Chan ruins, and Huanchaco, a beach town for some seafood. We plan on being here for the next 2 days before going straight up to Mancora to have ourselves a tropical vacation full of sun sand and surf!

Aguas Calientes/Mt. Putuhusi

After an expensive train ride from Ollantaytambo, we arrived in Aguas Calientes. We got there around 2pm and decided we would see Machu Picchu the next day. Lonely Planet mentioned another mountain you could hike up for free which had a great view of the ruins of Machu Picchu. Before heading out we bought our entrance ticket to Machu Picchu for the next day and inquired at a tourist info booth how to get to the free mountain, also known as Putuhusi. We were told to follow the train tracks a bit out of town and then we would see the entrance to the hike, and that it would take us about an hour to reach the top. What we found out however, was that it wasn't much of a hike, it felt more like taking the stairs up the CN Tower; uneven, sketchy stairs made out of stone. There were also some really tall wooden ladders we needed to climb straight up. One hour? HA! It took us TWO hours to reach the top! By the time we got there it was 6pm and the sun was setting. We snapped a few pictures of the view of machu picchu, and headed back down again after less than ten minutes, which sucked since we were both super exhausted by this point. But we had no time to spare since we needed to rush down before it became too dangerous on the steps/ladders in the dark.

Dave on top of Mt. Putuhusi with Machu Picchu in the background

After a quarter way down it was clear we were not going to make it and we had just enough light to grab a few twigs for a fire, and miraculously we found a dead tree to burn. It was pitch black before we had time to scout out a safe spot to camp for the night and to make matters worse it started to rain. We were stuck on a 3 foot wide pathway and couldn't go more than 10 metres in either direction, since one way led to steep steps back up and cliff drop offs, the other way to the treacherous ladders. We had to resort to falling into the brush on the side of the pathway to keep dry. After 15 minutes or so the rain stopped so we began building our fire, where we sat. Fortunately we had a lighter so getting the fire started wasnt a problem, but finding wood/kindling was quite difficult in the dark. For the first hour or so, our nerves were on edge. We could hear bats squeaking all around us and at one point some unidentified animal (lol maybe a possum?) started screaming at us. We both jumped to our feet, ready to fight it off, but it stopped and went away before we got to see it.

Our fire

Things got better after that. We discovered that the place we had fallen into was covered in super soft moss, and after a few hours of us sitting there it had formed into a comfy couch complete with armrests. Sleeping was difficult though, since the fire would die down and it would get too cold. We tried sleeping in shifts but once all the good firewood was burned it took both our efforts to keep the fire alive. One of us scavenged for more wood, the other kept stoking the fire. Finally dawn came. Around 5:30am we headed down the mountain, arrived at our hostel at around 6:30 and went to sleep.

Chillin by the fire

Leaf-Stick!!

Dawn. Finally we can get off this bloody mountain!!

Well, after the night we had we were in no shape to climb Machu Picchu that day. So instead we went to the hot springs to soothe our aching muscles. Then afterward we went out for dinner and drinks. Restaurants in Aguas Calientes are quite aggressive for your business. We were on a pedestrian street with restaurants on either side of it and at one point we were approached by three different owners who actually took hold of us and gently tried to pull us in to their respective establishments. We went with the place that offered us the best deal and had a great dinner. Then we went to bed nice and early, filled with the excitement that we would finally be getting to see the cherry on top of our trip to Peru: Machu Picchu!!

Day ?? Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo was our first (and so far only) stop in the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo is home to some very important Incan ruins.... one of the last strongholds of the Incan Empire (versus the Spaniards). The Spaniards first attempt to attack did not work - they were showered with arrows from above by the Incans in the ruins, and the Incans flooded the valley with water... the Spaniards retreated, chased by the victorious Incans... check out the pics and imagine how effective this fortress was! The Spaniards came back later with many more troops however and did conquer this site. The fortress is built into the side of a mountain... there was another smaller fortress on another mountain on the other side of the valley.

The view from the top of the ruins, looking down.

It was SO WINDY at the top of the mountain! Dave was holding on to his hat.

My hair was wild with the wind.

Standing on top of Ollantaytambo... you can see more ruins behind me on the other mountain.

Now these are some pictures from a hike we took around the valley... do you see the pig laying on the ground next to the horse? Those are 3 Peruvian children by the way approaching the horsey.

Dave's fake smile is due to this being the umpteenth picture!

Okay these are more pictures of the ruins... sorry the order is messed up, but it takes too long to fix!

Now these again are pictures from our hike.

Here´s Dave by a huge cactus octopus.. there are many of these of various sizes here. In the background you can see the enormousness of Ollantaytambo in comparison to the village.

This is the railway line that runs to Machu Picchu, straight through the mountains in the distance. This is the "only" way to Machu Picchu - by train. We found a cheaper way out though!!! :) More later.

Remember the pig from the start of our hike? This is what it looked like at the end of our hike, when we returned to this spot. I snuck a picture of the pig, but I didn't take a picture of the villagers for fear of offending them... I'll describe it - there was about 12 people by the water, children and adults, and they were all going through the process of preparing the pig meat. Some women were washing out the intestines by putting a hose in one side and spraying the water through it.. the men were chopping the torso of the pig.. the kids were half playing half helping. It seemed like a very natural scene - I'm sure much less disgusting than our factory farming!!

Pictures from Huacachina

An older post explains more about the town.. we were here weeks ago now!

A church in Ica, rocked by the same 7.9 earthquake that hit Pisco.

The main square in Ica.

A kitty at our hostal!

Huacachina is featured on the back of the 50 soles bill.

Our hostal, our room was on the right. COLD water! :(

We climbed the sand dunes around the town a few times.

The view of Ica from the Huacachina sand dunes.

A Peruvian ¨dog man¨, who came up the dunes followed by several dogs... he sat and meditated for about an hour with the sunset and his dogs, before running back down the dunes with his dogs barking and playing after him.

Peru - Days 24 - 26

An extra day in Puno!

We were going to go straight to Cuzco, but decided that we had to see more of Puno, since we´d taken the awfully long bus ride to get there. So, we took the least expensive tour... a tour of Islas Flotantes... exactly as it sounds - floating islands! Otherwise known as Islas Los Uros, they are islands made entirely by humans with reeds.

The reeds are bundled together and form the ground of the islands... depending on where you step, you might get a bit wet if they have rotted through in that spot. The reeds are replaced with new ones on top as the bottom reeds rot away. It makes for a really cushy ground.. way better than regular ground! :) The islands were originally created by the Uros people to get away from several threatening tribes on the mainland that would have killed them. The islands continue today as a very strange place, supposedly unique in the world! People live in huts made of reeds on the islands, and go about in reed boats... Dave wants to bring a houseboat there and live there with the Uros people. We found it very relaxing.

That night we watched a movie called Stripper Zombies. Yes, it´s exactly what it sounds like, it´s pretty funny and horrible. What we found funny was that after commercials there would be an ad for the station and it would say, ¨Puno TV - culture and education¨. Then it would return to the stripper zombies. Our television in Puno had no english subtitles or english movies, so we had to watch movies that were less about plotline and more about action!

The next day we set off for Cuzco very early in the morning.. (p.s. buses here are so el cheapo, we paid 15 soles per person for a 7 hour bus ride thats $5 Cdn). I (Carol) somehow managed to attract another little girl on the bus who hung out with us for almost the whole ride. She did my hair a million different ways and she played with my camera and took pictures of her mama and tia back at their seats for us to see. (tia = aunt)

Cuzco has been interesting... the thing I hate about it is the touts, the people who try and sell you things just because you´re white... you can´t walk anywhere without people trying to get your attention, I´m almost at the end of my rope. It´s worse here than anywhere else, which I can understand why - there are more tourists here than any other spot we´ve been. I miss Arequipa where we were only approached one single time the whole time for a sale!

I also feel like giving lessons to these tourists... they are super super ignorant of safety practices here. Dave and I walked past the police station and we heard a British woman trying to explain to 5 Spanish officers in English that her purse had just been snatched in the main square. My thought was, why the heck were you wearing your purse?? People must come to Cuzco with a one week vacation itinerary and not realize anything about the dangers here. I see tourists walking about with their wallets in their back pockets and their thousand dollar cameras hanging aroung their necks - hellooooo these people don´t make that much money here in a year! It´s just a gross display of wealth. Any way, enough of my ranting, David and I just feel very fortunate to have been taught in the ways of safety by Daniels father, a retired police sergeant, we are much wiser now!

This morning David and I hiked to the top of a mountain (high hill) here for a beautiful view of Cuzco. Cuzco is in a valley, surrounded by mountains, so some of the town has breakneck stairs and steep steep narrow roads.

We also stumbled upon Quorikancha (sp?) what we thought was first only a church, that actually was first the ancient center of the Inca empire here in Cuzco.. it was a sacred place, and the foundation is all Incan built. The Spanish built a church on top of the remains, after stripping down the gold and silver that used to cover the walls. All the remains now of the Incas is the awesome stonework of theirs from beneath the gold... it remains unshaken through hundreds of years and several awful earthquakes that have taken down the colonial built bricks around it. It was amazing, we spent hours there. They also had beautiful paintings from 15-18th century Cuzco Christian artists.

Food here in Cuzco so far sucks - it´s twice as expensive and the two first meals we had here actually had rotten food in it. The restaurants around the Plaza make their living off of tourists who never come back so they don´t need to be good. Luckily we found a place by Quorikancha that was unassuming and had locals in it, we couldn´t get in there fast enough. For half the price, we had an amazing meal.

Anyway, that´s enough, tomorrow we´ll post some pictures, not of Cuzco yet, but of a few weeks ago on our trip - of Huacachina, the desert lagoon city!

Pictures are here, sooner than expected!

We ended up staying another night in Puno, and we found a place that transfers memory cards onto CD so... here are some pictures!!

This is a church in Pisco. Remember, Pisco was in ruins because of the 7.9 earthquake a couple years ago - a beautiful old colonial building next to this church completely came down in the earthquake.

This is the harbour at Paracas, just outside of Pisco. This is the day after the sandstorm - beautiful skies for our Islas Ballestas tour.

The Islas Ballestas. A chain of islands, covered in birds.

Penguins!

A ladder for Peruvians to climb up and collect the guano (bird poop).

We saw many seals!

This was a long beach, FULL of seals. The birds flying through the air were common - hundreds were constantly streaming to these islands from over the ocean.