Puno, southern Peru
3/8 Still recovering from sunburn I got on "Isla del Sol" - Sun Island! In my diary I write about saplings and philosophise - I must be feeling pretty fragile and sorry for myself:
"you see a sapling, you don't expect to receive shelter from it, or to gain any firewood. Likewise with under-developed humans, this includes all children but also adults with a 'child-like' int____ [cannot read my handwriting] At the edges of society we see the 'children' we've told "Sorry, we don't have the energy to support your growth, goodbye" and not surprisingly the reaction is child-like in its protest but deadly adult in its form. It's clear you can never blame anyone for any pain you see, only looking into your heart gives peace."
Back to the world around me. Puno is a very dull looking town near the border with Bolivia. It has more internet cafes than street corners, filled with teenagers plugged into virtual reality games. It seems that the locals have already voted to move into the Matrix, they are just waiting for the technology to catch up. Maybe then they will be happy and save a fortune on rent.
I sleep badly. Perhaps I awake from a nightmare where I'm stuck in a one-person tent with a frigid girl on a freezing cold island. Oh no, that was yesterday.
Cusco
4/8 Great relief in finally squeezing out a difficult blog entitled How not to fall in love about some time I spent in Buenos Aires.
Catch the overnight bus to Cusco. I'd have taken the train, but the Peruvian state-controlled railway authorities are complete knobs - they only sell luxury tickets for 200USD.
Leave suitcase in Cusco left-luggage and continue with light rucksack. I recommend the suitcase/ left-luggage/ rucksack / side-trip combo, though I'm surprised I've met no-one else doing this in South America, everyone just laughs at my huge suitcase. "It has wheels!" I protest, but they don't get it. Let them empty their whole rucksacks to find the last pair of clean knickers.
Anyway plan is to pop by Machu Pichu and take some pics.
Ollantaytambo
5/8 Cunning plan: avoid Cusco tourist trap and go straight onto the village of Ollantaytambo (Ollanta for short!) which is nearer to Machu Pichu (but still not very near, as I soon found out). It's actually a very pretty village, an Inca site in itself, and a lot cheaper to stay than Cusco.
Less cunning plan: walk to Machu Pichu village along railway track.
At the train station I bumped into someone I'd met on the backpacker trail down south in Argentina. He was queuing for a ticket but they were sold out (did I say the Peruvian state-controlled railway authorities are knob-heads?) Well I can't really talk, since a group of 4 of us had the knob-headed idea to walk instead.
Well, we started out in keen spirits, first obstacle to get onto the railway tracks without being spotted by the knob-headed state-controlled railway authorities. This we achieved by slinking across some fields until clear of the village, keeping torches mostly off to avoid being spotted by any rifle-wielding farmers, then hopping onto the railway line.
From here it would be easy we thought - just follow the line to the next station, hopping off occasionally whenever a big bright light approaches from either direction.
But then some other obstacles started to present themselves. Firstly our estimate of the distance - the trains were passing at a fair speed (and half empty, the lying bastards), and took 2 hours to reach the next station, so our 4-6 hour walking estimate was looking unrealistic. An hour down the line I reluctantly dig up my irritating Nokia, boot up the GPS, and get a rough idea of how far we have to go. It's looking bad. One in our group drops out, for health reasons. Three stubborn idiots remain.
Another hour down the line we find a hotel, and not surprisingly they're armed with plenty of "don't try it"advice, like "there's a checkpoint a few km down - you can't pass it" or "there are 4 narrow tunnels to pass through with no lighting" or "you've got 35 km to go".
So that's it, we admit defeat and turn back, joining a road instead and then hitching back. And the driver has some good info that came a bit too late - you can walk it but requires an earlier start; you can pass the checkpoint by leaving the railway line before being spotted then re-join it after; and in the tunnels when a train passes you find a crevice in the rocks to hide in. Piece of cake.
Agua Calientes
6/8 Plan B: get ripped off and catch the morning train to Agua Calientes (aka Machu Pichu village).
Visit the thermal baths ("aguas calientes") but leave straight away (stopping for a refund) the water looked like shit.
Surprised to find a comfortable place to stay, and sleep nearly all day. I needed the rest, and would need it the next day for Machu Pichu.
Dream. I'm *censored* out a girl but can see people through the window below. Can they see me? Then I see my mum and remember she has come to visit and we are travelling together the last few days but I forgot. I had 'abandonned' her. Later I find her walking the streets and she blanks me, apparently upset. I ask her about her plans to see Machu Pichu, that I am going up tomorrow.
Reminds me of a quote from a great aussie philosoher "it's funny, you come out of a cunt, then you spend the rest of your life trying to get back into one" K M Dixon, c. 1995
Machu Picchu
7/8 R
ise before dawn for an early climb up to the site. This gives me the chance to get to the top before the first buses arrive, and guarantees one of the limited 400 tickets to see Waynu Picchu, another set of ruins even higher up some vertical-sided rock.
I arrived with no expectations, just passing Peru sort of thing, might as well pop in. So I was pretty impressed. The scenery itself is spectacular, the hillsides drop almost vertically into the valleys below, so it seems incredible that anyone would think to build a city in such a remote location. Anyway, they did, and here it is...
My recommendations on doing Machu Picchu:
Either, do a trek as it's all-inclusive will save the train fares and you won't get stuck in unpronouncable villages etc. Else, worth doing 2 nights Agua Calientes, get up early to do the dawn climb and enjoy the whole day at the site. Take picnic & sunscreen.
Cusco
1pm Back into town to catch the early afternoon train t
o cusco.
I didn't do the trek as I had a flight to catch to Colombia. But before that I stopped at one of the new-generation hostels dotted around most of South America. This one, called Loki, had the usual set-up (bar, quiz nights, card-playing kiwis, gap-year students etc) basically a club 18-30 venue with rotating backdrop. It makes travelling pretty easy, and many outdoor activities become more accessible, but it also shields you from the local culture and takes away some of the adventure of travel.
It's BBQ night, I join in, chat to a gap year student, then head out alone and hit some local bars. A local couple, complete loons, invite me to a club, I'm already getting drunk when a bottle of rum arrives, and we get wasted. The loonies leave early and hand me the bottle, more than half full. I'm knackered and feeling wasted so leave the club with only the bottle for company. But apart from carrying her home, that's it I don't touch her, she sleeps on the floor and I give her away the next day.
BBQ bug
8/8 hungover & sick. Seems the BBQ was dodgy. For months I'd been travelling and eating street food and no problem, then this f&cking hostel bbq knocks me down.
Take it easy with a delicious soup at Sabor de Casa in town before catching the night bus to Lima. How I survived a nightbus I don't know, the bug I had took a week to clear.
Lima
9/8 arrive in Lima in a withered state. Crab a cab to the posh coastal neighbourhood of Miraflores and ask the driver to show me a few places to stay. Checkin to a quiet private room, my sick-bay for the next day. Just missing a nurse, so I call up a local girl I'd met on an airport bus back in Buenos Aires. If ever a girl oozed sex-appeal, she did, and I wasn't going to let some bug stop me on this one. Well just my luck she happened to be about and agreed to come round. Well maybe I mailed her before I can't remember.
Anyway we go for a little walk to the coast, that's about all I can manage in my state, and she seems happy to head back to my room so off we go. Upto this point I hadn't made any move, being more worried about my stomach than anything else. But once she's on my bed I go straight down for a nibble, a flick of the magic switch and we're on. I've never had so much fun whilst being ill.
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