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PERU
After Galapagos we flew to Lima to meet up with mum Gladstone who joined us from a holiday with friends in Chile. A day of catching up over pisco sours and a meal of fantastic seafood at Al Fresco before catching another flight to the oldest city in the Americas - Cusco. This beautiful place stands over 2400 metres above sea level and is surrounded by the Andean mountains, an important city not least because it is the gateway to the Inca ruins of Macchu Picchu.
We checked in to the old and beautiful Hotel Monasterio, a former monastery. On arrival they gave us welcoming cups of mate de coca (coca leaf tea) to help fight the tiredness brought on by high altitude and at night they pumped extra oxygen in to our bedrooms. The following morning we caught the train to Macchu Picchu, a stunning 3.5 hour ride through the Andes.
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The unfinished city of Macchu Picchu is amazing, not only for the building techniques and phenomenal amount of work that went in to its construction, but for its breathtaking setting; amongst mountains and valleys of humbling proportions. The Incas were expert astronomers and the orientation of the major buildings is in reference to the summer and winter solstices. They were also into human sacrifice in a pretty big way, but not basketball courts where losers heads were given the chop a la Mayan style. Following a guided tour, a few of us decided to climb the mountain overlooking the ruins - Wayna Picchu. Very steep and at points pretty tricky climb of an hour and a half in high altitude, we often stopped and pretended to wait for each other as we really were just catching our breath back... the summit rewarded us with an amazing view of Macchu Picchu from above and a little extra magic from a big eagle flew by and landed by us. No condors though despite incessant Simon and Garfunkel remix...
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That evening we spent the night at Macchu Picchu Pueblo, a beautiful guest lodge on the outskirts of the town where Dad Gladstone when for a dip in the freezing hotel swimming pool which had been unused for many years and the staff were as impressed as concerned. Next day we headed back to Cusco to spend a couple of days enjoying the City. It was at this point the Alpaca 111 shopping craze began and didn't finish until the holiday ended... the alpaca looks like this:
It's kind of half sheep, half camel. Its wool makes great clothes and its meat makes good steak (MG liked it anyway). There are 4 types of alpaca animal, and a shawl made from the Vicunya which produces the finest wool (finer than pashmina) costs over a thousand dollars. We found a shop with some good designs and one little jumper for me and a hat for you turned into damn this is cheap I should really get two and in fact, you just can't get this in London at any price and wouldn't that be a lovely gift for so and so. Lots of wool garments and lots less cash later, we decided things were getting ridiculous and we stumbled back with our numerous shopping bags.
2 more days in Cusco, we then boarded the Vistadome train to Puno - a stunning 10 hour journey through the Andes to Lago Titacaca, the highest lake in the world at 3400 metres. The journey took us through villages, snowy mountain peaks, and sunny flat plains, made all the more remarkable by the open air viewing carriage at the back of the train.
In Lake Titicaca we visited the Uros reed island people, an amazing race of Indians who avoided the Spanish by hiding in the huge lake on man made reed islands and get around in Viking style all reed boats. as with all peoples, they have their arguments and when severe, they can be resolved by cutting off part of a floating island and allowing that part to drift off to some other part of the lake. Very touristy but fascinating nonetheless. We also visited the enchanting island of Taquila where men wore hats coloured according to whether they are single or married and are producers of the finest stitch work in Peru. Not too sure what the women do, but they looked kind of busy too.
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