Peru, in passing

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...

More pics

See

wikipedia for

some writing on the subject.

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.

La Paz & Lake Titicaca

La Paz

28/7 Sightseeing, including getting excited about shops selling hardwood flooring, and the price of a sack of potatoes.

Ivette & I are doing own thing for the day, so I take the opportunity to catch up on some flirting. I pop into tourist information and chat to the bored but pretty young girl working there, and collect some useful information like her name, phone number, and where to buy a second-hand 4x4.

More pics

Buying a bus in Bolivia

29/7 Next day Ivette & I head off to a market out of town to look at vehicles for sale...

I spy a gas-guzzling bus for only 5 grand, it looks solid as a tank just what you need in South America. And I'd probably have lots of fun turning it into a mobile home (though maybe not mobile unless i learn some mechanics). Definitely an option if i decide to escape Europe again, though I think it'd be best done with a partner or group.

More practical maybe the open-top 4x4, I think someone was buying it while I was there (or pretending to)

Failing that there's the donkey.

But the pipe-dream would have to wait - I'd made a plan to meet some friends in Bogota in 2 weeks time.

Later I cheer myself up by visiting tourist information again, and kidnapping Silvana, the attendant. We go to a cafe and drink something traditional and purple. Chicha or Api, i guess, it's first hit on googling "traditional purple bolivian drink".

Later we meet a group of her friends, which pretty much screws my chances with her, so I decide I may as well play sociable and invite Ivette along too.

I write in my diary "i wanted to melt into Silvana's lovely lovely breasts but hard with all the people, and her need to work at 7am next day"

Most the group goes home early, working next day, so I say goodbye to Silvana with a quick snog, then move onto a club with Ivette. I'm getting drunk, dancing silly. Ivette is putting on quite a show (she's a dance teacher)

The evening becomes blurry. Another trainspotting moment - I spy a tempting dose of the drug known as feminine form, briefly talk to the owner and ask her if she wants to come home and sleep with me. This is too easy she thinks, so she plays hard to get and challenges me with a question: "What's my name?". She'd told me two minutes earlier so I had a headstart here. I utter the magic password and off we go to some grotty residencia.

We're done before dawn and each slip off our separate ways. Back at the hotel Ivette has locked me out of the room. I had left her in the club without saying goodbye, pretty rude I know, but she's a big girl and had one of Silvana's friends to chat to (he too had been hoping for some action, poor bastard). Anyway she doesn't answer my knocks at the door, nor does the hotel have a spare key. So I prepare to wait out the morning in the breakfast room. Suddenly a couple of girls emerge from a room, backpacked up and ready to leave, and in contrast to my earlier behaviour I politely ask if I can use their room since they are vacating it. I collapse onto a still-warm bed and pass out.

Copacabana

30/7 in the morning I'm worried Ivette is going to crucify me for abandonning her last night and running off with another girl, but she seems calm. Anyway we talk about it, I make my apologies, and things seem cool. I have half a mind to stay behind and try it on with Silvana, but she seemed like a nice girl and anyway momentum was moving me on.

We head onto Copacabana, not the one in Rio, but a small town on a lake called Titicaca.

I amuse myself pondering and taking photos while Ivette looks for a place for us to stay the night.

I think back to the bumpy 4x4 ride through the desert and imagine there must be a smoother way. The idea of the "wheg" comes to mind, a wheel-leg, and when I google this later I'm disappointed though not surprised to find the term already exists, though not in the application I'm thinking of. I make a note anyway, after all it's my job - at hotels I've been completing the profession box with the word "inventor", and it's printed on my business cards. Eventually I may convince myself.

Isla del Sol

31/7 catch the morning boat to "Isla del Sol" (sun island). We have a lot of fun walking across the island, and generally getting lost. The plan is to head to the northern end and find somewhere to camp.

It's getting late, and still no camp and we're out of water. Ivette is getting tired so I leave her with the bags and I head off solo in search of a spring. I head down to the coastline and follow it around looking for craggs. It's looking pretty dismal, the terrain is arid, there are no trees only scraggy bush. But eventually some algae-covered rock appears and from this the tiniest trickle of water emerges. It takes a few minutes to collect just half a bottle but it's enough, and there's a beautiful beach round the corner we can camp on. Triumphant, ug-man returns to cavewoman with water and good news.

Its getting dark so I setup tent quickly and get a fire going, which is tricky as there are no trees nearby, just some dry scrubb that burns too quickly. But there's an old peer nearby maybe used by the occasional fisherman. I'm sure they won't miss the odd loose plank. Ivette cooks up a great stew.

It's a one-person tent so pretty tight. Maybe it would have been fine if we were a couple, but we weren't. Ever since the jumping-out-of-bed-at-thought-of-one-eyed-snake incident in Northern Argentina, I'd sort of lost interest anyway. So it was a cold and unconfortable night, and I was glad when dawn broke.

One-man tent, on beach

Inca ruins, and ruined peer

Washer-woman

I'm pretty shattered and make the mistake of sleeping on the beach, forgetting we're on "Isla del Sol". I'm ready to move to the nearest village but it's an hour away and I'm knackered. Ivette anyway wants more punishment so we stay another night camping. I'm sunburnt but the night is not too bad, maybe this keeps me warm.

Return to mainland

2/8 yet again relieved to get up early, this time in some pain from the sunburn. I hobble to the village, Ivette bouncing ahead full of energy.

A floating island, and Ivette, going loco with a Llama skull I found on the beach

Back at Copacabana there happens to be a bus about to leave to Puna in Peru so I endure another 3 hours of pain, but it's my limit. Ivette, still on duracell continues directly onto Cusco so we say our goodbyes and I stay in Puna to pass out for a couple of days.