Wow has it been some time since I’ve last updated this blog. Firstly; apologies on the massive delay. After being so meticulous with the first 6 months, I’ve really let the final 6 months slide faster than Australia’s world class test cricket ranking. By the stage of my writing now I’ve already been home for a month (man does it really fly that fast???), but I thought it about time to begin some more reflection and fill you in with the remainder of my trip. Last blog I left you with was after arriving and spending my first two weeks at the volunteer relief organization in Pisco, Peru called Pisco Sin Fronteras. What most of you probably already know if you had been following some pictures is that I ended up staying on as a volunteer in Pisco for 5 months. Well beyond what I initially imagined, but worth every second of the experience.
For now, however, I’m not going to write about my experience volunteering in Pisco. I’m saving that for the grand master piece finale. It’s going to be the read of the adventure. A work in progress, currently sitting at five pages, I’m hoping to get that finished in the next month. Where my adventures starts now is right after I left Pisco and am sitting on the 17 hour bus ride from Hell taking me from Ica to Cusco. Having stayed at Pisco Sin Fronteras for so long I now only have 2 ½ weeks to get myself from the middle of Peru right down to Buenos Aires, Argentina for my flight home. It is here that we’ll pick up the adventure once again….
As I board the bus from Ica to Cusco I take some time to bid farewell to an area that has provided me with such life long memories and experiences. A place I not only called home, but a place that really felt like home. Tomorrow morning, when I next step off the bus, I’ll be a world away from the people, places and life that I lived with for 5 good months.
It takes me very little time to remember just how unpleasant these long bus rides can be when the air-conditioning fails to work during the day while it’s stinking hot, and then at night it suddenly decides to kick in just as the outside temperatures plummet like an Enron stock. Add that to the fact that the longest stretch of straight road is probably only a few kilometers, and you’ve got yourself quite an experience. The ride to Cusco was non-stop twists, turns, ups and downs, and for the first time in a while I started to battle with motion/travel sickness. Either that or the elevation in sea level, coming from ground zero in Pisco and climbing up to 3,800m in Cusco, was adding to the cause as well.
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| Main plaza in Cusco |
This ride is a pretty stock standard South American long distance bus trip. You get fed questionable, yet somewhat satisfying, food; they play a selection of really inappropriately rated movies considering the young audience on board; when the movies finish the music occasionally begins; and you are never able to successfully direct your aim into the toilet bowl given the amount of deviation on the road. And just when you finally settle into all the elements that make this bus trip seem sketchy you turn one of the millions of corners to Cusco and see a bus half hanging off the highway cliff. This makes for an interesting attempt at a nights sleep.
Once arriving in Cusco there wasn’t a lot to do but catch up on some sleep and have a few down days to a.) adjust to the sudden change in altitude; b.) debrief from my time in Pisco; and c.) have a few touristy ‘me’ days after volunteering for the last 5 months. I also wasn’t feeling the best at this stage having, what I assumed to be, a cold for the past few days. Even though I was on a tight schedule, a few days were hopefully going to do me wonders.
The few days that followed were spent cruising around Cusco taking in the sights for the first time in a while. I’d almost forgotten how to be a tourist. I must admit, it was nice to get around at a leisurely pace and just drift. Cusco is an amazingly beautiful city, and I would have to say my favourite looking place by a long shot. The careful mix of ancient craft and colonial architecture really made for an impressively designed and set out city. Quite like many cities in Latin America there were the trademark plazas and churches, however Cusco pulled them off with an element of class unseen to date. You could tell the city was desperate to hold onto aspects of its ancient Incan past, but what saddened me is that I couldn’t determine if that was for them, or for us. Although to be fair, for a place that is listed as the capital city of tourism in South America, there were many aspects left untouched that pleased me. Once you got out of the tourist district you saw flashes and hints of old style living, but unfortunately I didn’t get out as much as I’d wished.
After a couple of days around Cusco, still feeling relatively unwell, I got the news from volunteers back in Pisco that a typhoid breakout was occurring within the volunteers and that many people were being diagnosed. Interesting to note here; that although receiving the immunization it is still only 50-80% effective against the virus. Thanks for letting me know that. Having not felt the best for the last week I thought it safe to go get a quick check. After a recommendation from the lady at the hostel myself, and a fellow volunteer who I was with at the time, decided it best to check ourselves out.
Now here is the part where I am honest against my will. What I would love to say is that I wasn’t nervous at the doctors, but to be fair, I am a bit of a baby when it comes to visiting the doctors. Don’t really need to go into detail here because most of it involved me being a scared rabbit waiting in the headlights, but after a nervous hour (where I must add that the Clinica San Jose was highly efficient and effective in treating us…or perhaps it was the German doctor?) we were both cleared from typhoid. Not such great news for a bunch of friends who were unfortunately diagnosed.
With confidence in my health re-established I felt it time to get onto what I wanted to do most while in Cusco; visit the ancient Incan site of Machu Picchu. After exploring a few options and tour agencies we finally came across one that sounded good. Actually it didn’t sound exceptionally good, but after listening to half a dozen tourist agents we soon realized that they were all selling the same tour so it didn’t really matter who we went with. A 4 day/3 night tour that had biking, hiking and the Machu Picchu trek on the final day. It was an early night before we left due to the earlier start than usual the next morning.
I woke the next morning feeling slightly better, which was good because the next couple of days were fairly active. It began with a drive up a mountain to the starting point from where we would all mountain bike down to our first resting place for the night. Being early in the morning and sitting at over 4,500m above sea level it was cold as we disembarked the bus and got aquatinted with our bikes. Fog spread across the horizon like a blank painting canvas and all that could be seen beyond a few meters in front of you was blending shades of white and grey.
We took off and within a few minutes hit a nice patch of off-road downhill. Feeling confident of my biking abilities almost proved costly here as I rattled down the bumpy, slippery track at full speed. The wind busted into my eyes, the fog clouded my vision and by this stage I was going too fast to hit the brakes. I just had to ride this one and hope for the best. I managed to survive that section and got a bit of a wakeup call to taking it easy. Unfortunately one of the girls on our tour wasn’t as lucky as she toppled off the track on the way down. Thankfully she was alright.
The remainder of the track was pretty straight forward and it gave us all a good opportunity to take in the local scenery as we descended the highway into the town below. After stopping for the day it was a quick snack, a bike ride to our accommodation, a trip to the river for a swim and then dinner. After dinner we watched the locals partake in a game of soccer that was highly amusing. We cheered for the underdog we appropriately named ‘Smiley’ for his keen and robust attitude, but unfortunately his skills did not match his enthusiastic approach.
The next day we woke to rain bucketing down. The day was planned as a hike through the jungle across parts of the original Inca trail for 7 hours. Even though advised I’d packed no rain cover so I donned a cheap poncho that I was lucky to pick up at some of the stores. I wasn’t the only one who’d arrived unprepared so once we were organized we set off with our multi-colour mixture of ponchos across the track. Occasionally we’d stop and our guide would talk about the plants or something, but we all quickly realised that our guide was fairly ordinary. As the day progressed we continued to walk through the jungle and got some really nice views of the valley. Our guide had now turned from fairly ordinary to fairly useless, but we persevered. We were rewarded at the end of the day with a trip to the hot springs to relax and soak. It was here I also randomly bumped into a friend from volunteering so we had a nice catch up over a cold beer in the natural hot springs. Once that was over it was a short walk to our accommodation, the assembling of a mini-tron with quite possibly the most hilarious blanket even seen (a picture of two dogs and the randomly printed slogans; ‘Good Colleagues’, ‘Romantic Lovers Dog’ and then just ‘Good, Good, Good’), dinner and then bed.
The next day a few of us decided on a spur of the moment change of plans and ditched the mornings walk for some seriously wicked zip-lining. After breakfast we hit the canopies and smashed across 6 awesome flying foxes zipping between mountains and over valleys and rivers. After this we caught up with the rest of the group for lunch and then embarked on our walk to Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of the Machu Picchu trek, along the train tracks. Once arriving in Aguas Calientes we had dinner, probably a few too many beers on my behalf and then an early night in preparation for a very early start the next day. We were getting up at 3am in the morning to get up to Machu Picchu before the swarms of people flooded in.
The morning journey was both exciting and tiring to the Machu Picchu gates. It involved a 45min walk to the bridge gates and then a solid hour hike up hill to the main gates where we waited for half an hour till they opened. Our tour began and luckily we’d been given a new tour guide after ours ditched us, no real loss there. For the first couple of hours we cruised around with the guide as he explained the ancient features and theories of the mysterious Machu Picchu. Still argued among scholars there is a mixture of theories regarding the use and purpose of Machu Picchu. Theories range from astrological centre, agricultural centre, university of scholars, kings resort, sacrificial grounds and such; either way it is a really amazing place and overall was an incredible experience.
Being the beginning of the rainy season we were unfortunate not to receive crystal clear skies and perfect views, but the foggy overcast helped add elements of mystery and intrigue to this wondrous landmark of the Incas. The site was more than I could imagine, and looking back now I realise how much I appreciate my time up there. The architecture, the structures, the designs all added elements to the Incas class and dominance as the ruling culture of the time. They were geniuses of their time in the predicted planning and organising of structures and ideas.
One of the goals of visiting Machu Picchu is to get up the adjoining mountain named Huayna Picchu, where only the first 400 tickets are distributed to the thousands of daily visitors, to get a perfect bird’s eye view Machu Picchu. The fog at this stage was struggling to clear and we put it off to the very last moment to get within the gates to ascend Huayna Picchu. On the way up we saw some friends on the way down who had unsuccessfully obtained a clear view of Machu Picchu from the top. Slightly disheartened we decided to run the gauntlet anyway and proceed with the additional hour hike to the top. Upon reaching the top we were greeted with a cloudy foggy view. However patience is a virtual, and within waiting 15mins we were welcomed with a perfect clear view of the ancient site below. We awed in amazement for the next half hour and just appreciated the beauty that lay below us. We talked about theories, came up with our own theories and just absorbed the beauty and experience presented to us.
The climb down was one mixed with both satisfaction and fatigue after walking up and down hills for the last 10 hours. After doing another lap of Machu Picchu we were satisfied with our exploration and decided to call it a day. Standing at the gates about to head home I took one last backwards glance at the site before me. For a moment I could almost picture it in its original glory. Hard edged labourers ploughing or working the agricultural fields; Alpaca’s roaming freely unaware of their inevitable fate; children running and playing wilfully amongst the ancient stone structures; and all sorts of beautiful and brightly woven garments adorning the people and houses. They don’t call it a wonder of the world for nothing.
After the eventful 4 days to Machu Picchu the next couple of days in Cusco were very low key. I managed to organise a few catch ups with friends I knew were going to be in town. We hit up a nice burger place for dinner one night and I sampled some Alpaca meat; quite delicious actually. After that there was a little bit more site seeing and then organising the final part of my trip. A had, at this time, a little over a week before it was time to go and I wanted to slip into Bolivia quickly to cycle down the infamous Death Road. In the next part of my adventure there is my time in Copacabana, Bolivia at the amazing Lake Titicaca, my time in the capital La Paz, Death Road and then homeward bound. Stayed tuned, almost over now...
