Today was a nice easy day! As Michal did the Lares he finished before the others, he meet us at the train station to get the train to Aguas Calientes, aka Machu Picchu Town.
Andre and myself went for lunch, Michael went for a shower and we’ll deserved sleep. It started raining while we were out so we decided to stay in the hotel and chill.
Second day of just Andre and myself, we had a walk around Cusco, had another set menu for lunch and then I went in the cathedral and saw the last supper painting but peru style with guinea pig and corn!
That evening Andre and myself joined another group out. Latest I have stayed out with getting back to the hotel at 2.30am. Had 3 cider and 1 big beer and onto water much to everyone’s disappointment lol was a good night and we danced in a club too.
While all the rest of the team head off on their Inka trek I was the only Cusco stay.
Started in the morning looking at the Ollantaytambo ruins..
The majority of the stones were from the same place the site was built. However, for the temple on top, the stone came from the mountain opposite. When they cut the stone, they then had the issue of moving it over the river and up to the site of the temple. To get round this, they moved the river itself. So once they had all the stone they needed for the temple, they created channels and redirected the river so the rocks were then on the right side. They then built an incline road up (which is no longer there)
The Alcoves in the temples are facing the sun for offerings.
The main part of the site was farming but they stored it in thebl mountain opposite and high up as the cold air would come from the glazier 15km away and make it a natural refrigerator to keep the food fresh.
Peru only started focusing on tourism in 2000 which is when machu picchu and areas like this started being managed. It wasn’t before that and rubbish, vandalism etc were common and it was only 2007 machu picchu had restrictions put in place.
Moray archaeological site
These were terraces for farming and each level had a slightly different climate.
They would travel to gather different seeds and produce and plant it depending on where it would grow. They also made hybrids hence why they have so many types of potatoes and corn.
Maras Salt Mines There are 4500 pools at this salt mine. Natural salted water feeds into all the pools.
It takes less than 6 months to create the salt
Only work during dry season as the rain would ruin the process. All the pools are owned by people in the local towns and they pass them down to their children, so they are never sold.
Posh lunch As the guys had lunch on the trek included we had a set menu at a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere lol we were the only ones there.
Our menu was: Chicken with cheese and quinoa, Beef with wine and mash potato, Pork with red chlie and sweet potato, Warm milk with quinoa, Strawberries, pineapple and papaya.
Chincheros Ruins Our last stop was the Chincheros Ruins and here we saw how they make Chuño, which is a dehydrated potatos. This method means they can last 10-40 years.
They leave the potatoes in sun and overnight its freezing, in the morning, they come and step on the potato to squeeze out the water and let them dry in the sun.
This is an inka method, and they use them in soup, especially on inka trail as it keeps you warm.
Today on our way to Ollantaytambo we stopped at the Ccaccaccollo women’s weaving Community, this is one of the projects that G-Adventures supports. We were greeted with kind words of welcome and drums.
The ladies were twirling yarn all the time, they learn to twirl the yarn from 4 years old and they do it all day.
She went through all the differnt type od yarns they have. They wash the wool with sachaparacay to clean it. They also use this for their hair and alot of the older women still have black hair rather than grey.
Then they dye them with different plants, stones and fruits and get a range of colours.
The women work in the weaving community, and the men are mainly porters on the inka trail
80% of women especially in the Anders are overweight due to the amount of carbs they eat. However all the food is natural and therefore they are healthy and live way into their 90s
The kid in the hotel we were staying at was great entrainment, he was whipping us, dancing and just being a kid.
When starting this trip especially for Peru I had 3 big fears
1. Altitude – if I’d feel sick
2. Sharing a room – I paid for a private room on all my tours but there are certain parts of the trip where that is not an option, including Cusco.
3. Rainbow Moutain– if I would even be able to do it depending on how I feel from altitude and being able to breathe!
Thankfully for me they have all been fine! I have been fine in the altitude with only a couple of headaches if that. The group I am with are great and the girls I have had to share with have been supportive and caring and I have managed to sleep and lastly I did manage to do Rainbow Moutain.
Where we walked around Cusco the day before we walked up alot of stairs, my breathing is not the greatest back at home in terms of using my lung capacity. So here it is even worse. Our guide had mentioned they have horses are rainbow mountain. Of course my first thought is I am too heavy and do not want to hurt the horse, but I was assured that there would be a horse that could carry me fine. Our 3.30am bus arrived to start out your tour (early!)
When we got to Rainbow Moutain there was a steep start, then a long slight incline, followed by a steep summit.
I struggled on the first bit so with the guides help we did find horse to take me though the middle section. I probably could have walked it but being part of a group it would have taken me twice as long as them so this did feel the better option. Also the horse was fine, the man with the horse was more tired!
I then had a time advantage on the rest of the group and used it to walk 10 steps and rest. Rainbow Moutain is 5,200ft so the highest altitude we will do in Peru. I finally made it to the top, there was an even higher part but i decided I had done enough lol
The rest of the group arrived shortly afterwards and we queued for the iconic photos. Lucy was having issues with her wrist and hands due to a circulation issue, so Ameera, Lucy and myself started walking back at a nice pace. Clearly down is alot easier than up!
We had breakfast and lunch as part of the tour (nothing fancy) but in the evening had pizza at the hostel and it was yummy. Was an early night after the early start.
The rest of the group had an extra stress that I did not, as everyone else is doing the inka trail they had to pack their packs, which could only be 2.5kg for the porters, they then add in the sleeping bags and air mattresses after this. That is not alot I can tell you after watching 5 girls go back and forth to the scales! Anything else they take is in their day pack and will be on their backs the whole hike!
Today we arrived into Cusco from an 11 hour overnight Bus that was truly awful and hot!
We went out for breakfast and a couple of hours walk around the city to see some of the highlights, at the altitude of 3,400ft it was tough doing all the stairs with the walk! Deep breath!
The covered market San Pedro market, it first was built and designed in 1925 by the French architect Gustave Eiffel, the man who built the famous Eiffel Tower; it was the largest covered area built in the city of Cusco, and it still is. You find stalls for everything from fruit, veg, meat, souvenirs and more.
I had pre-booked this cooking class before I left the UK and I was the only one, so a solo class for me!
We started off making a Pisci sour, this was actually my first one! We tired Pisco previously. The Pisco sour includes Pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup, aromatic bitters. It was yummy! Though some of the guys have had bad ones out.
First of all we started with a Quinoa salad. Quinoa is very popular and grown here. I got to add all the ingredients and then present the plate in a professional way with a mold. It was really yummy, the vinaigrette was tasty.
For main we did a kind of Beef stiry fry with rice and chips. As you will see from the photos we added a shot of Pisco and burnt off the alcohol. The flames were huge!
Lastly finished with chocolate ice cream and a coco tea. It was all really nice and fair to say I didn’t need any dinner!! Which was good as I didn’t sleep alot on the bus so had an early night!
Our day 8 was a rare day of doing nothing! Even better we had our hostel rooms all day! Before another night bus!
In the evening of day 7 we got back from Colca Canyon and we went to this lovely Thai place for dinner.
Last night most of the guys went out to a club but I decided to stay in as I didn’t really sleep the night before so was becoming a zombie!
One thing we did as a group was the shit shirt game, we set a budget and pulled names out of a hat to get each other a shit. There was some great entries!
Before we left on the night bus we went to see the sunset in a roof top bar.
Day 8 ends with a night bus, this was my second one and it was horrible!! So warm and uncomfortable.
Our second day at Colca Canyon was all about the condors and a tour of the Canyon.
Our guide gave us the history of the cayon and explained that there were two tribes before inca, even as they joined the inca, however they kept their traditions.
These were: Cabanas – short heads -Over the Canyon and Collahuas – long heads – Over the valley.
Women have kept the tradition with hats, instead of changing shape of head, which was how you could tell the new tribes apart.
Their moto was: Don’t lie, don’t steal and don’t be lazy
They are still using 85% of original terraces
Broad beans, potatoes, corn, and quinoa.
Colca Canyon is now officially the deepest cayon in world, at 4160m deep (though not the longest). It is a Volcanic glazier Canyon and has a few micro climates that mean they can grow more and keeps the condors coming back!
Condors are the biggest and heaviest scavengers in world with a 3m wing span
The differences are that males have a crest on head and have yellow eyes and females have red eyes.
They can survive a month without food and in Colca Canyon they have the biggest population of condors, with approx 120 x Anders condors living here
Condors choose partner for life and in their lifetime only about 7-9 babies from female.
Colours:
Brown – Young
Black/white – adult
Nice early start to get on the bus to venture to Colca Canyon. We are returning to the same hostel in Arequipa so we only took a single overnight bag with us.
As we will be reaching our highest altitude today we stopped off at a coco leaf shop. I brought some leaves and candies and looked forward to trying the tea. Just in case I did take anti altitude tablets to be safe as well, been pretty stressed about how I will react in altitude so today was a big test as we are going higher than Cusco, in which I am there a week!
With the coca leaves in anything I would now fail a drugs test for 9 days lol we didn’t try the leaves yet but there will be time for that in Cusco. The mint sweets I brought are OK and when we stopped along the way we tired Andean Tea, which has coca leaves in as well as other herbs too. I actually quite liked it!
After this pit stop we continued through the national park and saw plenty of Alpacas and llamas. We got the chance to stop and have photos as well!
I didn’t dare touch them with being allergic to wool in case but some of them clearly didn’t want to be touched so worked out anyhow!
We then continued to our highest altitude yet of 4910m! This is higher than Cusco as mentioned but with the help of the tablets and coco leaves I was ok. Yes feel abit breathless but able to walk around fine. I felt abit like a rush of adenine where your legs feel alittle shakey but you get through it. The relief to not be sick was huge!
We then arrived in Colca Canyon and to our hostel, which was really nice! Altitude After a short break we got our swimming things ready and it was time to head for the hot springs!
To get to the hot springs we had to cross this bridge! It had bits of wood missing or weirdly placed and I didn’t think I was scared of heights or things like this but I was very mistaken. It even wobbled abit, I clearly did manage to get over but it took some coaching from Brad on the way there and Taylor on the way back. For me this was on pare with the dune buggies in terms of fear!
Loved the hot springs as you would expect we stayed 1.5 hours before going back to our hotel.
Colca Canyon is the same altitude as Cusco at 3400m, I decided not to drink but had a coco tea instead as it doesn’t have caffeine in. Had a terrible night sleep but found others did too so was more likey the altitude, let’s hope it doesn’t keep affected me when we arrive in Cusco, I will need my sleep lol
This morning we arrived into Arequipa after our first night bus of the tour and my first one ever. It was ok did manage to sleep abit which is great but with the seats reclined you are in one position for 10+ hours, was awake for sunrise!
As we got into the city we all went for breakfast at those lovely place round the corner. It was then time for my private (as I was the only one that booked it) City tour!
We started at Yanahuara Scenic Overlook, might have mentioned before the red and white decorations are in preparation for Perus independence day at the end of the month. Here you get a great view of one of the three volcanos that surround Arequipa. Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu.
We went to different view points around the city including the Chile bridge (blue one) and river
We walked round the main square and even though some of the poorer streets that used to be used for horses and travellers in the past but are now rented out to the poorer community but they have no windows but are full!
Finally the tour ended with a tour of Santa Catalina Monastery. They have restricted tour guides to only the women from the monastery so I had a different guide for this part.
In the evening we went out for dinner and I had alpaca steak. It was delicious and juicy, would say a cross between beef and lamb!
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