reluctant traveller

I only spent one evening in Puno so I dont have much to say about it. Puno (3800 m) is a small town in the mountains and the central area (main square, bus station, port etc) is small enough that you can walk everywhere. Cheap taxis or tricycle rickshaws are also available. It mainly serves as an access point to some of the islands in this side of Titicaca. (The other half of the lake is in Bolivia.)

Got to Puno late 2nd night. Was nice to get off the ultra crappy bus. Given how terrible my living and travelling conditions were the last couple of days (wasnt all that bad, but you know me), decided to stay at a nicer place. So went to a 3 star hotel, Plaza Mayor and being the low season we got a room for $30. we could have probably gotten it for $25. Staff was incredibly helpful.

Lago Titicaca islands (2 D/IN trip):

Lake Titicaca at 3800 m is the higest navigable lake and is part in Peru and part in Bolivia. Most do a 2 day 1 night trip to either Amantani or Taquile or both islands, stopping in Uros along the way. There are no hotels or hostels and you would normally stay with one of the families on the islands.

The Lonely planet said I should arrange my own trip and travel using local boats (instead of using a tour agency) so the islanders can see most of the money. Plus I had gotten in too late the previous night to book a tour. So I went down to the docks and paid for a trip to Amantani. The captain was supposed to take us (me and other passengers on the boat) to Taquile and then back to Puno the next day (thats another story). Chinni decided to stay in the city and watch the festival celebrations and visit the islands the next day.

day 1-
We stopped at Uros (floating reed islands) for a half hour on our way. Is a fascinating island made from totora reeds that grow in the lake. As the lower layers rot away, they just add new layers to the top! So felt a little funy to walk on. The natives belong to the Uros tribe and speak Ayamara. Some of them also spoke Spanish I guess as they seemed to understand what I was saying. Same with the natives on the other islands. They are all pre Inca tribes.
I also got to ride on one of the reed boats. I could have been on it all day but the capitan was in a hurry to get to Amanti and didnt let us stay too long. I had to use all the Spanish I knew to plead with the capitaan and the boat islander to even get a ride.

We reached Amantani after a super bumpy 4 hour ride during which we also picked up 2 other people from the nowhere on a tiny boat. The lady whose family runs the lodge I was going to stay in was there to receive me and show me the way to the lodge. There are roads on these islands, but no maps or vehicles. The book said they spoke only Quechua but they seemed to understand my Spanish just fine. After a lunch of sopa de quinoa and rice and cheese I feel asleep. The nice lady woke me up to take me to the main squire to view the festival celebrations. After a bit, I decided to walk up to some ancient ruins Pachumama and Pachutata. After the climb up, I was tired enough to sleep really well.

day 2-
woke up to be told by the nice lady that there were no boats to Taquile that day (usually there is one at 8 and there's all the boats for preorged tours) and there was only a boat going back to Puno (disaster!!!!). I kept insisting that I had to go to Taquile and she kept saying there was no boat. We went to the port anyway (different from the one going to Puno) and found more than one boat going to Puno. The tour boats wont take us because we didnt come there with them but there was local boat willing to take us to Taquile and then to Puno for 10s.

So reached Taquile at 9 and we had 3 hours on the island before the boat left to Puno according to the capitaan. I followed the others (a couple and a middle aged lady) up the hill and down through the village to the main square. Once we got back, the capitan refused to leave till we got a few more tourists. Again I had to use all the spanish I knew to get us to leave and we left an hour later only to stop a couple of hours later. We were rescued by the tour boat (i had to hear the operator talk about how local boats were unreliable and how he really couldnt give us ride because he couldnt take responsibility for us grr). We then found out that the capitaan had the same trouble the day before. I felt really bad for him because the others who got off the boat didnt pay him, not even for the Amantani to Taquile part.

In all, I loved being on the islands and riding on the blueee waters on lake titicaca. definitely a trip highlight for me.

Next stop: La Paz, Bolivia. 7:30 AM bus from Puno today.

Took an overnight bus from Cuzco to Arequipa (south of Cuzco), getting here around 6:30 AM, yesterday
(Jan 31). Bus ride (CIAL, 40s) was very pleasant and they showed License to Wed which was not bad at all. I had a bad headache from the San Pedro but was gone by the time I woke up.

Arequipa (2800 m) means white city and is called so because most of the buildings are built using volcanic ash giving them this whitish color. The volcano here (not sure if its dormant or what), El Misti where all the ash came from. There might be another volcano too. Though the Incas lived in the surrounding area, Arequipa is not an Inca town and didnt exist then. The Spanish built this town and is now the second largest town in Peru. According to my guide this morning, it is called so because the Spanish built the city for themselves and the city came to be known as the city of the whites.

Day in Arequipa:
It´s a regular town and you can find decent hotels/hostels to stay for $15. Public transport is probably not very good as I saw very few buses and millions of taxia. We spent some time booking a trip to Colca Canyon and then got lunch.

In the afternoon we visited a museum that showcased the research into Inca human sacrifices around Arequipa. Though it is believed to have been a rare practice, they found bodies of children buried in the peaks of the mountains around Arequipa. The belief is that during natural disasters (volcano eruptions, earthquakes), the Incas offered children (ages 10-14ish) as a sacrifice to the gods.

Watched Michael Clayton in a mall later in the evening and got food at the same mall.

Trip to Colca Canyon (2 days):
The Canyon (3600 m) is the deepest in the world at 15 miles depth at one point called Cruz del Condor. Here, you can also view condors early in the morning.
Most tours organize a 2 day trip for $20 where you spend the night at Chivay, a village in Colca Valley where Colca canyon begins. I think they do this so you can reach Cruz del condor (1-1.5 hr away) by 8ish as that is when you can view the condors. We could have taken a one day trip which would have begun at 2 AM in Arequipa and costs the same. Not sure why, but we chose the 2 day trip.

I think the one day trip would have been better. With the two day trip, we get to Chivay in the afternoon and visit Colca canyon the next day. So was stuck in the very run down town of Chivay. You could go to the hot springs in La Calera nearby but I was not interested. Plus it was really cold outside. The internet cafe was surprisingly large with 9 computers. But the connection was really bad. Lunch was a buffet for 15 soles. Was okay food but I ate a lot (you know me and buffets). So for the night, we just got street food and some candy.

The drive up was amazing, passing mountains, volcanoes (not active), cactus forests, villages, animals grazing, a vicuna reserve and finally the canyon itself. But when we got there the second day morning, it was misty and we didn´t see anything. It may be the deepest but doesnt look as striking as the Grand Canyon. But the drive up is well worth a day trip.

We took a bus going to Puno mid way on our way back. The weather turned a bit stromy with strong winds, light rain and slightly freezing temperatures. So was not fun waiting for the bus. But the nice police/patrol officer kept looking out for the bus and flagged it down (not a regular stop but we didnt want to go all the way back to Arequipa and take the bus from there. The travel agent arranged this for us) when it passed by around 4:30 PM. Bus was super crappy (=smelly amongst other things) and ride would last about 4.5 hours.

Day after I got back from MP:
Dropped off my clothes at the laudry and then went to the San Pedro market (huge local market - you can get everything here - clothes, food, fruits, vegetables, spices, other random crap) with a guy I met yesterday and his friend. We seemed to get along pretty well yesterday but I am not sure we got along so splendidly today. I got some mosambi juice (3 soles) but it was very tart. Then got some San Pedro (more on that later) for 4 soles.

Then visited a few museums on the BTG and then ran into a few people staying the hostel. They were coming back from eating a guinea pig and were feeling pretty sich and wanted some vegetarian food. We got lunch (the lunch menu) for 5 soles at this great vegetarian restaurant near the city center. I dont even know what I had... some yellow goo with rice but it was awesome. The food here is not spicy but very flavourful. Lot of potato and pumpkin.

We then went up into the mountains to visit the temple of the moon and the temple of the monkey (some claim its a puma, but it is known as the temple of the monkey : ) ). I choose not to carry anything for the likely rain and was completely drenched by the time we came back. Was good hike up though (I almost gave up a few times). The temples were really some natural rock (either moved or already exisiting) up the hill. The moon temple was this cave like structure with a hole in the top. Temple of the monkey had this carving of what could be a monkey or a puma.

San Pedro tomorrow. So had a light dinner (Tuscan soup at Jack´s Cafe) and picked up my laudry. The folks I went up the mountain left for Copacabana and I watched some Ally McBeal at the hostal. Yeah, the cable tv here has a lot of english channels. Was fun to watch Ally McBeal after all these years.

Last day in Cuzco:
Pretty much everybody who stays at Casa de la gringa makes a trip to the house of San Pedro to drink some San Pedro. It is a cactus believed to have healing powers and I got positive feed back from pretty much everybody. So Chinni and I decided to do it as well (150 soles/person). I pretty much only ended up with a headache. email if you have questions.
Was good to be back at the hostel. I was too tired for anything so just hung put playing games, talking etc. Taking the overnight bus to Arequipa, Peru.

Aguas Calientes pretty much exists for serving tourists who want to stay here the night before they visit the ruins on Machu Pichu. Tiny town with the train station, some arts and crafts stores, a couple of internet cafes and many restaurants. Almost every restaurant here seemed to sell pizza. It also has some pools with the water from the hot springs. Actually Aguas Calientes means hot springs. A river runs through it.. I am not sure if that was Aguas Calientes (river)or Urumbamba or both. I had gotten here the night before on the Backpacker noche train.

Because it was so cloudy the day before I figured there wasnt a good reason to get the site by 6 AM like the guide books suggest to watch the sunrise etc. So I took my time waking up and then had breakfast with Vamsi and one of his Inca trail trekking buddies for breakfast, after which they head to the hot springs and I got on my bus to MP.
I also went to the train station before boading the bus and managed to change my train ticket back to Ollayantaytambo from 5 AM the next dat to 6 PM today (yay! because I wasnt looking forward to spending a night in Aguas by myself).

You have to take a bus for ($12 round trip) to get to the Machu Pichu ruins site. There are no bus timings. You line up and the buses leave as they fill up. There is some food after you get up there but its kind of expensive, so I got some cake, sandwich and water before I boarded the bus. The bus ride lasted 20 minutesish. I also managed to lose and find my camera (the nice folks on the bus found it). And then a little hike (10 min) up to get to the actual site. I joined a larger group for an English speaking guide (20 soles).

Machu Picchu means old mountain and the ruins of an old inca town were discovered by Hiram Bingham in the early 1900s. The peak behind the ruins you see in most photos is Huayna Pichu and also has some ruins on top. It takes an hour to get up there and they allow only 400 people per day. I was feeling lazy and didnt climb. Plus it was raining. But I am told its a great view from there.
All (or most) of the artifacts and bodies found at the site are now in the Yale museum as they lead the exploration at the time. But it seems that the President of Peru has requested that they be returned and are supposedly coming back to Peru in 2010 and will probably be displayed in a museum in Cuzco.
Also it seems that about 10 years ago, celebrities were flown in via helicopters and that drove the condors away. So helicopters have now been banned and the condors are slowly beginning to come back.
Nobody really knows what the town was built for. My guide said it was meant for nobility, priests and scholars and that 500 people lived there. My cousin´s guide told him 36 families lived there. Most online content seems to suggest that about 1000 people lived there and it was meant to be a religious site. Also, it is said that the city was not entirely deserted and people were still living there and a local showed Hiram where it was.

I wont say much about MP other than that it is a whole town out there and you can spend many fun hours exploring it. The tour with the guide lasted 2.5 hours and I hung out for a couple of hours more. It was drizzling the whole time but was still ok. It is beautiful up in the towns and its pretty incredible to walk around in a 500 year old city. Most of the city in intact and only 30% (according to my guide) was rebuilt.

for more read http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/latinamerica/south/sites/machu_picchu.html

The train back was delayed by many hours but the wait wasnt too bad as I was waiting with some of Vamsi´s friends and we played cards the whole time. We also managed to play poker using some seeds for chips : )
After the late train, the bus from Ollantaytambo to Cuzco took forever and we (Vamsi and I) finally got home around 1 AM.

Sacred Valley is a region about 30 km north of Cuzco with some old Inca towns/villages and ruins. I think its called so because this region in the Andes was very fertile and rich in natural resources. Either that or one of the rivers that flows through was called sacred valley : )
The popular tourist spots in this region are the towns of Pisac, Chinchero and Ollayantaytambo.

Fried eggs and coca tea again for breakfast. Some talk at the breakfast table about ayahuasca - a drink made from a medicinal plant found in the Amazonian jungles used by Shamans (and others?) meant to heal/connect with your spitirual self and many other things. I was going to hear a lot more about it during my stay here.

We took a taxi for 130 soles to the towns in the sacred valley. We were going to take the bus (<10 soles) but we wanted to visit all the towns in one day and had a late start. Worked out well because it started raining after some time.

First visited the town of Pisac which has a good market for Andean and Inca art, clothes etc. There is also a Sunday market for fruits and vegetables where we got some corn (the corn here is ridiculously large). There are also some ruins here but we didnt visit them because it going to be an hours worth of walking and neither (Chinni and I) of us was feeling like it.

We then went to Chinchero, passing through Calca, Urumbamba and Yucay. People in Yucay continue to live in many of the original Inca houses so was interesting to pass through. We also saw a lot of kids playing football - every little town had a small football field. Chinchero has a nice church on top of a hill and an interesting Sunday market. The locals seemed to be really enjoying themselves shopping, eating or drinking this pink (i think alcoholic) brew made from corn. I tried many of the snack foods at the market... not bad but nothing that I liked too much.

Last stop at the fort at Ollayantaytambo. Amazing fort - I had a great time exploring it and figuring it out. The town itself is a smaller Cuzco with tons of hostels, resturants, internet cafes and similar looking streets. Chinni and the taxi went back to Cuzco. I got dinner (I had some great Quinua soup) and found my way to the train station.

The train to Aguas Calientes was more or less on time and took about two hours to get there. The french guy sitting next to me spoke English so was good train ride.

Met Vamsi (he had gone on the 4 day Inca trail trek which ended in Machu Pichu and was staying that night in Aguas Calientes) at the train station and stayed the night at Wiracocha Inn. It cost us $40 but was a good room with a private bathroom.

Cuzco (the former capital of the Inca empire) is a great little hill station (3500 m) with a lot of museums, churches, markets, restuarants, bars and cheap taxis. And a lot of tourists! It felt a little crowded; wonder what it is like in the high season. There are really only 2 seasons here - the wet season from November to April and the dry season from March to November and the temperature is kind of the same (60-70?) year around. It can get a little chilly at nights.
If you walk up in the mountains or some parts of the city you will find a lot of the old Incan foundations or walkways. There are many colonial buildings which make up the museums and cathedrals that are worth visiting but I didnt really enter too many of them.

Internet cafes: everywhere (1s/hour). will copy photos to CD for 5s/CD. most hostels have free wireless and a computer in the lobby you can use.

Laundry: everywhere. kinda expensive but very convinient. 4-6s/kilo. will deliver if you ask. you can get your laundry the same day. more expensive if you need it sooner

Stores: have everything you can think of for the same prices as in the US. So if you forgot to pack something you should be able to get it here.

Food: plenty of restuarants (interestingly lot of italian places), many with vegetarian food. food is cheap and you can get a good meal for 3 to 20 soles. During lunch and dinner, most places offer a set menu (with a soup and/or appetizer, a main course and dessert) for 5-10 soles.

What else? if you walk to the center, you´ll find somebody trying to sell you massages, pedicures etc for as less as 25s. I was told they werent very good.
Plenty of nice sweaters (llama or alpaca) for 20s

day1:
Reached Cuzco around 10 AM. Aero condor $85 (I could have taken a bus but that would have taken a whole day, but am told the views are magnificent). Took a taxi from the airport to Casa de la gringa (15 soles but probably costs a lot lesser). Casa d l g also had tiny rooms but is a very pretty place little up the hill in an area called San Blas. San Blas has a lot of art stores so am guessing it was/is an artists´ district.

I went to the Wanchaq train station and got my train tickets for Machu Pichu ($62 for the round trip from Ollayantaytambo to Aguas Calientes). Normally you´d have to reserve them weeks in advance but it being the low season it was pretty easy to get them the day before. I was pretty happy to get the 8 PM train from Ollayantaytambo (about 40 km northwest of Cuzco) to Aguas Calientes (city closest to Machu Pichu and as far as the train will go) instead of the usual 9 AM ish train. There isnt much to do at Aguas C unless you want to soak in their pools with the water from the hot springs there. I then got my entrance ticket to MP as well (122 soles).

Chinni got back from his 8 day trek to MP sometime early evening. Sounded like a good time except for the last 3 days when it rained the whole time. We didnt do very much... just walked around San Blas and got dinner at this place run by a french guy. Great food for 10 soles.

day2:
Had eggs and coca tea (supposedly good for dealing with altitude sickness) hostel for breakfast and went out to return Chinni´s gear and write a CD with all his trip photos. The same tour operator was offering a 6 day jungle trip for $300... tempting but figured I´d go another time. Being the wet season, we would not have seen any wildlife plus this trip was only upto the cultural zone and didnt go deeper. Would have still been fun and I might have gone but Chinni had just gotten back from his trek and wasnt all that interested.

The weather was a bit cloudy with the sun coming out every once in a while. Later in the afternoon, we got the BTG - this ticket for 70 soles that gets into some of the museums in the city and some of the attractions around it and then got a taxi to visit some sites around cuzco.

First stop at the fort (ruins) at Sacsayhuamán about 2 km from Cuzco. We enjoyed exploring what was remaining of this Inca fort - looked like it was double walled. We didnt have a guide so had to use our imagination to figure it out, so was fun. Most impressive was the size of the stones used to build some of the wall.

We then went on to Tambomachay (passing Pukapukara and Qénqo which we would stop at on our way back) which was this structure with water spouts. I am not sure what it was meant for, but the book said it a site for worshipping water. (I am still reading up on some of the places I am visiting). I took some photos of a llama and a peruvian lady sitting next to it... I realized later that you had to pay them and they were there for just that. I almost didnt pay them because I couldnt understand what they were saying. I should have learnt my spanish. Such a shame not being able to talk to the locals.

Next stop at Pukapukara (means red fortress) which was a small fort. This was really close to Tambomachay and they say it was a check point for Tambomachay. We didnt explore this every much.

Final stop at Qenqo which is this maze through natural rock. The rock was not carved out in anyway but they were possibly moved here to form the maze. Not sure what its purpose was, but was really cool to go through the passages.

All the sites close around 5:30 PM so we had to rush a bit but I was happy with what we saw. We took the taxi back to San Blas and then walked over to the center (Plaza de armas) and got some Indian food. I just had to check it out : ) and it was actually pretty good. We then got some cake at an Italian resturant (tons of them here). They never seem to bring your bill here unless you ask for it.

Got out of the airport around 1 AM on the 24th. The taxi was waiting (arranged by the hostel for $15) and took me to the hostel. hostel was a bit disappointing but was probably fair given the price ($15/day). was tiny and ok clean. had a weird smell. but was ok after i got a table fan. i was pretty tired anyway.

Lima is just another big city. nothing special worth visitingish. buildings, restaurants, bars, people. The guides listed plenty of buildings to visit but i was very uninterested. just like you really dont need to visit rippon building or st thomas mount in chennai : )
But i walked around quite a bit. The city is well organized and all the roads are marked but there are many diagonal streets and they fork a lot and it was easy to get lost. Was hot during the day with a cool sea breeze after 2 PM ish. the food was all fast food (chicken and pizza everywhere) or kinda expensive (>30 soles. $1=2.9 sole) in the city center. so not knowing where to hang out when it was so hot out, i watched ¨soy legenda¨ (very unwatchable. but only 3 soles. was a crappy theatre though. no AC. poor sound etc. otherwise a movie would cost 10-15 soles)
I got something to eat after the movie and headed back (1 sole by bus. either the state bus or the mini ones run by private companies.) to Miraflores district where the hostel was. lot of art and jewellery stores here. good restuarants too. the beach was all pebbled and so i missed the sand and didnt stay to long. lot of surfers. and paragliders. earlier in the day, i got my ticket to cuzco for the next day. i wasnt staying the whole 2 days planned in lima.