Galapa-go-go?

We arrived yesterday in a placed called Huanchaco, on the coast about 10-hours north of Lima (another night bus). We've found a great hotel with a pool and our rooms have balconies overlooking the beach. It's beautiful.

Despite this we're thinking of moving on for destinations greater - the Galapagos Islands. The first stage of logistics has been sorted - my mother has changed her flights so she can stay a week longer. We've now got to get a bus to Guayaguil (15 hours north in Ecuador), book flights and try and bag a last minute deal for the islands.

I shouldn't say it's stressful...but it is.

Larks in Lima

In Lima with under 24 hours and what is there to do except eat, drink and shop? It's a vibrant city with everything you need, so it's pretty easy to wile away a day whilst waiting for a night bus. However, there's still the all-persuasive sea mist which makes the entire city smell of fish (nice).

Lima is like any other capital city (big and noisy) and, unfortunately, has lost a lot of its old colonial charm due to the various earthquakes that have rocked and the El nino storms that have ravaged it over the years.

We weathered our short stay in the Larcomar mall, which overlooks the Pacific and is perched on the edge of a cliff. By late afternoon you get para-gliders peering at you from above, by which time the mist has cleared.

A few things about Lima:

1. Cats There's a whole peaceful cat society...sitting in flower beds, climbing out of trees and watching you from above
2. Japan Miraflores looks a lot like a Tokyo suburb
3. Cold The cinema was freezing (we went to see Thor - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thor/ which despite good critical reviews, was pretty pants).

Gemma enjoying 'Thor 3D' with required clothing / equipment (note empty seats)

The anticipation is killing me for traditional Peruvian cuisine - burgers and chips (!)

Pre-restaurant jubilation

Poor Man's Galapagos

Sea lions taking it easy, Islas Ballestas

The first thing you notice when you arrive in Paracas is the strong smell of fish which greets you as you get off the bus. It hangs in the all-pervasive sea mist, which stretches all the way up the coast towards Lima.

Within moments we were met and driven to our hotel by a friend of a friend in Nazca who had kindly arranged for us to have the best room in the hotel - one with a balcony overlooking the sea. Perfect for spending the rest of the day sitting, drinking wine and getting used to the smell.

By evening we were tasting Ceviche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerviche) - a local Peruvian speciality which has apparently won international culinary awards. Raw fish (the sole seems to be the best) marinaded in lemon, onions and a slightly spicy sauce made for one of the best meals yet. A gastronomic highlight (up there with Argentine steaks).

The next morning it was a fairly early start and a tourist speed boat passed an ancient sand geoglyph (a candalabra / cactus etched into the shore) and onto the Islas Ballestas, otherwise known as the 'Poor Man's Galapagos'.

Going here bolsters the South American animal tally considerably. To add to the condors, eagles, hummingbirds, parrots, flamingos, capybaras, coyotes and all forms of llamas and alpacas, we saw Humboldt Penguins, sea lions, pelicans and swarms of cormorants, amongst other animals.

The islands themselves are off the coast of Paracas and despite being quite small are teeming with life...and guano. Masses of it. The stuff is all over the place, covering the ground in metres of white deposit and giving the place a smell similar to a Bolivian bus (see earlier blog).

It's now a nature reserve descended upon by hundreds of tourists in speed boats circling the islands gawping at the array of wildlife. Years ago it used to be a guano quarry, which was once one of Peru's greatest exports, used around the world as a fertiliser.

Abandoned quarry, Islas Ballestas

Flight of the condors

Ancient lines in the desert

Forced smiles seconds before take-off

Light aircrafts are not for the faint-hearted. I can see why they put the sick bag in the pouch in front of you.

Within hours of stepping off the overnight bus from Arequipa we found ourselves a couple of hundred metres up in a six-seater, one-engine aircraft banking to the right to see the lines stretching out below us.

It was the best way to see the huge pictorials below created hundred of years before the Incas, etched into the rocky ground. We saw geoglyphs of a spider, a monkey, a hummingbird, a condor, a tree and even an astronaut(!). The reasons for their existence, however, are still unknown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines).

A geoglyph of a hummingbird in the Nazca desert

The journey itself was pretty bumpy and loud - the sound of air traffic control in our headphones interspersed with the guide pointing out another creature in the desert as we banked sharply to one side and then the other.

A steep left bank anxiously witnessed by my mother

The white city, the canyon and the black bin bags in the sky

Arequipa

Arequipa cathedral by night

We arrived early in the morning after a 10-hour night bus from Cusco. Arequipa feels warmer. We're a lot lower than Cusco and the atmosphere is different - possibly a lot more Peruvian - i.e. there are a lot less tourists (or at least they're diluted by the large local population). The streets are full of taxis, the buildings are brilliant white and there's a huge Plaza de Armas. That's about it. It feels a lot like Sucre, Bolivia.

Nourishment after the overnight bus from Cusco - Plaza de Armas, Arequipa

Santa Catalina monastery

The monastery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Catalina_Monastery) is pretty much the main thing to do here... and that's no disadvantage. It is a walled city of its own, a labyrinth of little streets, courtyards and rooms (or cells), which took a good few hours to get around. Each part filled with flowers, painted a different colour and devoid of tourists. Apparently it's in the book '1,000 places to see before you die'. I can see why.

Up until the seventies it used to be a completely secluded community, just a few hundred nuns until they opened it up. It is still a convent with a section consisting of less than a hundred still living there, isolated from the bustling city outside.

Colca Canyon
The bus ride the following day to the Colca Canyon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colca_Canyon) was an endless expanse of steppe, much like Patagonia - miles and miles of nothing, but with snow capped mountains and volcanoes in the distance extending to deep lush valleys, Inca terraces and ultimately the Colca Canyon - the second deepest in the world (and no the Grand Canyon is not the first).

It's nice to get the local buses when you can - people selling all sorts - soft drinks, sweets, text books, as well as musicians singing traditional songs with a panpipe and guitar in hand. However, it usually takes a lot longer than anticipated and they tend to fit more people in the bus than it can possibly carry (particularly un-nerving when traversing the narrow mountainous roads).

We arrived at our final destination, Copanaconde, by about 8 o'clock once the sun had set and checked into the first hotel / hostel we could find. It had turned what we thought would be a gentle afternoon excursion, into a day's travelling, more or less. We were lucky - the hotel / hostel seemed to be the nicest place in town (although the food was pretty crappy) and the lady running place was mad as a hatter.

The next morning it was an early start, a three-hour steep descent of more than 1,000 metres into the canyon and a couple of hours nursing our legs and admiring the view surrounded by mountains, a swimming pool and a fully stocked bar, before tucking into a square meal of alpaca and vegetables. It was easy trekking but without the early morning start (some tours start at 1am), the crap food and the physical pain.

We then took mules to the top - very much in keeping with our 'take-it-easy' outlook. I was reluctant at first, but came round within seconds going up - it was two hours and the mules didn't stop once, panting and sweating their way to the top. I'd have been panting and swearing my way to the top!

Gemma (G) = happy / mule (M) = knackered ( G = :) / M = :( )

It also meant that you could fully appreciate the beautiful scenery and acknowledge the precipitous drops and precarious footpath.

It was a good day - the weather was great and because we weren't in a large tour group it was un-touristy. In fact, it was only us going down and the odd stick-thin rambler coming up.

The bus trip back the next morning was easy. A public bus to a place called Cruz del Condor to view the birds hovering over the canyon (they have a wingspan of more than three metres) followed by a gringo bus back to Arequipa. My mum remarked that the birds look like black bin liners in the sky...beautiful!

Majestic gigantic feathered creature or bin bag blowing in the wind?

On our journey back to Arequipa we took in a natural hot spring at Chivay, tasted Colca sours (made from the fruit of a local cactus), ate a big buffet lunch and took in yet more barren but beautiful scenery (at a dizzying height of more than 4,800 metres).

Machu Picchu and mini-Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Travelling trio taking the obligatory scenic "I was there" shot

There's not much that can be said about Machu Picchu that hasn't been said before.

It is incredible and unlike anything else I have ever seen - an Incan outpost / temple / imperial hideaway teetered on a small bit of land, untouched by colonialists and perched hundreds of metres above the Urubamba river.

What makes it so special is that it seems so intact compared with other Inca ruins and benefits from the breath-taking natural backdrop behind and all around it - dense, lush cloud forests in every direction. Not even the huge number of tourists who descent on the site can spoil the atmosphere here, which once the tour groups have died down takes on the feeling of a sunny Sunday afternoon in the park. We even found a nice little bit of grass to sit and take in the atmosphere, with llamas munching grass around us. All we were missing were a copy of the Sunday papers!

Professional baby llama posing for the cameras

It is the polar opposite from the town of Aguas Calientes which sits in the valley below. This is a town that has nothing going for it apart from the train station, a string of over-priced tourist shops, bars and restaurants and its location to one of the most beautiful places on earth. I think I've said all that Aguas Calientes deserves. It's horrible. A concrete jumble of breeze blocks and cement thrown together haphazardly.

However, it proved a good place to stock up on a good breakfast, having taken the early morning train from a beautiful Incan town called Ollantaytambo, further along the valley towards Cusco.

We were lucky with the weather - it was sunny but with enough fluffy clouds to make a dramatic photograph (or ten). By about 4pm the storm clouds were beginning to advance over the site. It began to rain literally as we were walking out of the entrance gates, but not before having a good hour, just us and the few others who didn't mind the thought of getting wet.

It was difficult to leave - every minute you want to take another photo to try and capture it - in good weather and bad, from different angles, etc. I managed to rattle out over 200 pictures in just a couple of hours. It's a budding photographer's paradise. The problem will be choosing which one to use!

The walk to the ancient Inca drawbridge was quite an experience. It's only a 15 minute walk but it takes you along a mountain path that is the walking equivalent of the death road near La Paz. At one point there are ropes to hold on to as you hug the side of the mountain, drawing up the courage to peer over the precarious edge - in some places 600 metres straight down. The drawbridge itself is so narrow and isolated, that it's a wonder that any attacker would have ever have dared to venture across it in the first place.

There's no doubt that Machu Picchu is one of the jewels in South America's crown, if not the world's.

Pisac

Inca agricultural terraces surrounding the citadel at Pisac

Pisac was not on the same scale as Machu Picchu. It can't compete with Machu Picchu, which is unfair, because for any other country it could well be the main attraction. Although it covers a fairly large area, it's a mini-Machu Picchu.

We came here two days before and were pleased that we set aside a whole day (rather than pile onto a package tour taking in Pisac, Ollantaytambo and a few other sites in just a day). We took our time. We got up late, and made our own way there by taxi, driving through deep lush valleys before getting to the colonial town of Pisac.

The town is a smaller version of Cusco - a mini Plaza de Armas in the centre surrounded by mini colonial houses with mini colourful balconies and the Inca citadel perched up on the hill. There were also the usual "Alpaca" scarves and jumpers along with Andean rugs, hats, etc. on sale from the stalls in the centre.

Getting to the ruins up the hill above the town meant a short taxi ride, more death-defying mountain trails hugging the side of the slope, walking through a small cave, descending ancient steps and all with the distant soundtrack of panpipes in the background (there was a Peruvian guy playing pretty much the whole way round).

So we had beautiful views, ruins and precarious mountain paths. But there was one thing that Pisac lacked...tourists! There was no one there. Apparently Fridays are good days to go because the big tour groups don't go that day. So we had the place pretty much to ourself, apart from the panpiper, some American students and a lady carrying her two-year old daughter round.

Ollantaytambo

A good choice to stay before visiting Machu Picchu, especially having seen Aguas Calientes. We had a great hostel, cheap and clean, overlooked by towering mountains, Inca terraces and yet more stunning ruins of houses and temples. It's surprising that more people don't stay here and then get the train early the next morning rather than heading all the way to Aguas Calientes and facing the high prices and concrete.

Around Cusco

Cusco wasn't all colonial architecture and churches. We had decided, since we had stayed in Cusco for so long and seen relatively little, that a tourist bus to the nearby Inca sites of Sacsayhuaman (otherwise known as "sexy woman" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n) and a few others would be a good way of cramming in a few sights. However, most of them been destroyed and pillaged by the colonialists and used to build the colonial houses in the town. So there wasn't a great deal to see. It's also frustrating being herded on and off a bus.

However, it was a good introduction to the Incas and their civilisation before seeing the piece de resistance - Machu Picchu.