Finally...photos!

Below I have added a few photos from various parts of our trip, there will be more when Ian adds them from his camera too. Hope you enjoy!

Still no photos!

I spent over an hour this afternoon doing updates for all the places we have been in the last 10 days, hoping to add a few photos to each one. Unfortunately however, technology is not easy to find in Arequipa depite it being Peru´s second largest city and none of the computers I have tried seem to want to work with the camera! Will hopefully be able to add photos in Lima airport on Wednesday if not before, otherwise will do once home!

Arequipa!

Above, from top - 1) Arequipa central Plaza, 2) Getting ready to bike down Chachani, 3) Biking, 4) El Misti, 5) relaxing with beer at hostel!

Following our trip to the canyon, we were only supposed to have one night in Arequipa before moving onto Pisco. Obviously the earthquake forced us to change our plans and we decided to stay an extra 3 nights in Arequipa before flying to Lima and then home. Along the way we have met a few people who were in Pisco at the time of the earthquake and sound to have had a truly terrifying experience. All, however, have been thankful for the fact that they were able to get out which is more than can be said for the local people - most of whom are now struggling for food supplies and clean water, let alone a place to live.

So...the situation on Friday night was that we had 4 nights in Arequipa and nothing planned. It didn´t take us long to change that and by the time we went out for dinner we had booked another day of mountain biking and half a day of river rafting, leaving us with one day to wander (and possibly shop!) in the city. We had the lazy day on Saturday, giving our bums time to recover before another day of biking yesterday and the rafting today.

The biking was brilliant. We were driven in a 4x4 (cheating or what?!) up to the 5100m point on Chachani, the highest volcano near to Arequipa. We then spent the next 5 hours biking all the way back down to the city, a total of approximately 2500m descent. Much of the route was very rocky and there were lots of sandy stretches which were very difficult so it wasn´t as much of a cop out as it sounds! Most importantly, we did more downhill in one stretch than we would ever get the chance to do in the UK. Best of all, the last 8 miles was all on tarmaced road so we covered it in a matter of minutes. A fantastic day!

We did the river rafting this morning which was also great fun and a great way to see the countryside around Arequipa. Most of the rafting itself was fairly tame, even by my standards but the guides we had made it more exciting whenever they got the chance. Ian is now quite taken with the idea of doing a week long rafting trip next time we go somewhere where it would be possible. He might have to work on me a little for that....

So...we are now almost at the end of our trip and fly back to Lima tomorrow. Doubt there´ll be any more postings from Peru - unless there are dramas to report from the airport! What an amzing time we´ve had, 6 weeks is a long time to be away for but we both feel that we´ve really made the most of it. We´ve done most of the typical touristy stuff but we´ve also seen quite a lot extra that most people don´t see - particularly in the Huayhuash mountains. We´ve also spent a lot of time planning future trips.....

Colca Canyon!

From Puno (nearest aiport Juliaca) we flew to Arequipa, Peru´s second largest city. We arrived in Arequipa early evening so didn´t really have chance to explore before heading out to dinner. The hostel we had booked into is our cheapest yet (at $18 per night for the two of us) but probably has the friendliest atmosphere for travellers and good facilities too.

The day after our arrival saw us being collected at 5.30am and taken to the bus station ready for our trip to the Colca Canyon. It has to be said that we were very sceptical about the trip (supposedly a combination of four days trekking/biking) as information had been very scarce. Nevertheless, after over a week of being typical tourists and doing the sightseeing thing we were looking forward to being ´active´ again and decided to make the best of whatever would be thrown at us. We needn´t have worried, however, the trip turned out to be one of the highlights of the of our time in Peru and we enjoyed every minute.

From Arequipa the journey to Cabanaconde took almost 6 hours and was fairly uncomfortable at times due to the number of people the bus driver let onto the bus. At one point I thought that Ian was going to have half a dozen Peruvian women sat on his lap! Once there, we were met by our guide and during lunch at his house, introduced to the other 4 people in our group - a Canadian couple and a Spanish couple. That afternoon we walked for about 4 hours down into the canyon, wondering all the time how long it was going to take us to walk back out! Our guide, Remi, did not speak particularly good English but we managed to get by - our spoken Spanish does not seem to have improved much but we are now able to understand far more than we can communicate. The ´hostel´ we stayed in on the first night was very basic - a bamboo style hut containing a simple wooden framed bed and blankets. We were all surprised to find there was a solar powered shower for us to share amd that the kitchen sold beer - though at 9 soles a bottle it was the most expensive we have come across! The next morning was spent walking through small villages in the canyon before arriving at our next stop, which even had a swimming pool. The afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool before heading to bed early as we were being woken at 2am to walk out of the canyon.

The climb out of the canyon took around 3 hours, covering almost 1200m of ascent. It was a fairly easy climb, only really made difficult by the fact that it was dark but given that we have been used to climbing at much higher altitude recently, it was quite nice to be able to go uphill at a reasonable pace and breathe at the same time! Once we reached the top we had breakfast at the guide´s house before boarding a bus to Cruz del Condor, where we spent an hour watching several condors glide through the canyon. It was quite a spectacular hour as at times they flew very close to our heads and neither of us had realised quite how big they are.

Waiting for us at the Cruz del Condor was our biking guide, Pedro. From there he took us on the 42km ride to Chivay, where we would spend the night. The ride was along a VERY bumpy track, with a mixture of up and down. Great fun but we both had sore bums by the time we reached Chivay. I think it has to be blogged that all of this (climbing out of canyon and biking to Chivay) was done BEFORE lunchtime so by this point we were feeling fairly shattered. Luckily for us, there are some hot springs 4km away from Chivay, so we were able to spend the afternoon relaxing in them which was pure bliss! The hotel arranged for us was also quite posh so it was a real afternoon and evening of luxury.

The next day was spent doing more biking before heading back to Chivay to catch the bus back to Arequipa, arriving early evening. All in all, we had an amazing trip to the canyon, really unexpected considering that before we went, I am ashamed to say we were starting to look forward to going home!

Lake Titicaca

The day after arriving in Puno we visited the Uros Islands and Taquile Island on Lake Titicaca. From Puno it took around 45 minutes by boat to reach the Uros Islands, which are made entirely from reeds. There are dozens of islands, each one home to 5 or 6 families and we were given a tiny insight into the simple lifestyle of the inhabitants. The islanders live very much from their surroundings and do not believe in killing animals or fish for any purpose other than eating. Everything on the islands is made from reeds - their houses, boats, beds and they had various beautifully made souvenirs to sell to the tourists. It was really fascinating to see how these people live but it did make us wonder what they must make of the hundreds of tourists invading their habitat every day or indeed what they would make of our lifestyle!

From the Uros Islands we moved onto Taquile Island, which was much more developed and more of a village. It took around 2 hours to reach Taquile from the Uros and once we arrived we had a steep climb to the main square. There was much less to interest us there but the views from the top of the island out across the lake were completely stunning. After eating lunch at a small restaurant on the island, we returned to Puno, spending the entire return journey enjoying the afternoon sun on top of the boat!

Of all the cities/large towns that we have visited, Puno is probably the favourite. It lacked the pollution that we experienced in Cusco and also we did not have the problem of being hassled in the street every time we turned around.

Travelling in style!

After returning to Cusco from Machu Picchu we had another couple of nights there before heading to Puno, beside Lake Titicaca, the world´s highest navigable lake. We had booked our train tickets for the trip in advance and had opted to travel in style on the ´Andean Explorer´ - first class treatment without the expense!

The journey took 10 hours amd the scenery was absolutely beautiful, as hopefully some of the photos show. We spent a large chunk of the day in the open air observatory car enjoying pisco sours and just soaking up our surroundings. At lunchtime we were served a delicious three course meal, what luxury!

Machu Picchu

Having spent 19 days trekking in the near pristene Cordillera Huayhuash we were advised that the 4 day trek along the Inca Trail into Machu Picchu would seem like a tourists´ motorway so we took the lazy option of train and bus!

We did walk back along the trail to the ´door of the sun´ to look at the fortress as those on trail would see it, and it was indeed a busy road!

In addition, we climbed the sacred mountain behind - Wayna Picchu - to view the layout of the city from above; whether it looks like a condor or not is open to interpretation?

Update!

Above - (still have not worked out how to put phots where I want them!) in order from top - 1,2 & 3) Some very cute children at last campsit that enjoyed playing with our camera and having their photo taken! 4)enjoying hot springs after hard day on trek, 5) (from left to right) Helen, Kelly, Colin and Val above Lake ???, 6) Huayhuash Villagers, 7) Val handing over school supplies to villagers, 8) Ian with Siula Grande in background.

Apologies for the length of time it has taken to add another entry, but for the whole time on trek we didn´t have access to electricity let alone the internet and in the week since we finished the trek, this is the first opportunity we´ve had! So...lots to catch up on.
The trek was absolutely amazing. We really made the right decision to go to the Cordillera Huayhuash as it is so unspoilt and free from tourists (except people like us!). For 15 nights, we hardly saw anybody else except the people we were travelling with and the locals which was perfect. There isn´t time to go into every last detail but I´ll just give you a brief account of a typical day on trek:

• We were woken any time between 6am and 7.30am depending on the length of day ahead of us. At this time both tea and hot washing water were brought to our tents.



• Breakfast was then served in the mess tent - always porridge followed by either omelette, pancakes, eggs and sometimes even freshly caught trout.



• Soon after breakfast we would begin walking, the pace was quite leisurely to allow for the fact that we were quite a large (15 people) group. Usually the day would begin with us going uphill to reach one of the mountain passes, on bigger days we´d do two passes. Some days, the group would split into two groups and do different routes depending on how energetic people were feeling.



• Most days we finished walking any time between 2pm and 4pm, usually with lunch along the way (sandwiches).



• Afternoons were spent washing, reading, playing scrabble or yahtzee, sleeping and generally chilling out! As we got higher (highest camp was 4700m) we lost heat earlier in the afternoon and usually by 4pm we were wrapping ourselves up in hats, gloves and down jackets!



• Dinner was always served around 7pm. We always started with a delicious soup which was followed by anything ranging from Lomo Saltados (Peruvian Stir Fry) to fresh fish and homemade chips to the sheep that had been made to walk with us for 6 days before being slaughtered - it did make a very good attempt at escaping on one occasion!



• After dinner, everybody usually went to bed around 8.30pm as we were knackered, giving us at least 10 hours sleep most nights - fantastic!

We really did have a truly fantastic time and along the way we saw lots of amazing sights. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Huayhuash (described as a hamlet in the itinerary but in reality it only contained two buildings the size of large garden sheds!) as when we arrived, we were greeted by dozens, if not hundreds, of the villagers from Tupac, the next village down. The villagers were awaiting the arrival of Val (our trek leader) and her crew as they were bringing in hundreds of pounds worth of school and medical supplies. Because we were with them, we were treated also to a traditional Peruvian BBQ and huge celebrations.

Anyway, I could go on forever about the trek but there are other things to mention. We arrived back in Huaraz last Thursday and were treated to our first shower in over two weeks - a bit of an anti-climax I have to say as the water kept running hot and cold! Nevermind. On Thursday night we went out for a celebratory meal with everyone from the trek and then went out ´dancing´afterwards! This was an interesting experience, one which I enjoyed much more than I´d been expecting to. I had imagined a seedy, pokey nightclub in Huaraz and in fact, the place we went to was cosy and full of character, a very pleasant surprise!

From Huaraz, we headed back on the bus to Lima, a journey much longer than it should have been as the driver got lost! To top it off, when we arrived at the group hotel, they had got the booking down for the next night. So, rather try and sort a different hotel, since we were flying to Cusco at 6am the following morning and had to be at the airport by 4am, we decided to head to the airport and spend the night there instead. It wasn´t so bad but by the time we got to Cusco at 7am we were shattered!

We had three nights in Cusco and it is the only part of our itinerary that wasn´t jampacked with tours etc - lucky really since we both came down with bad stomach bugs and weren´t able to do anything for the first two days! On the third day, we visited Sacsayhuaman, Cusco´s most impressive Inca Fortress and also the regional history museum, both of which were very interesting. In Cusco, we stayed at Hotel Ninos, run by a Dutch lady who came over to Peru in 1996 wanting to do something to help street children in Cusco. As a result, she set up The Ninos Project which is now huge - it supports over 500 children in Cusco, providing them daily with a hot meal, help with dental and medical care, sporting and educational opprtunities. The lady herself has adopted over 20 children, most of whom live at either of the Ninos hotels, with the others living in foster care with local families. The hotel itself is full of character and a really nice place to stay.

From Cusco we moved on to Machu Picchu where we are now. The train journey took almost 4 hours, the last two hours of which gave us view of some quite spectacular scenery. We have spent two nights here and return to Cusco later on today.

From Cusco we will head to Puno on Saturday and visit Lake Titicaca. We travel to Puno by train which will take approximately 10 hours but is reputed to be be one of the world´s greatest train journeys - we are doing it first class of course!

We logged onto BBC News this morning - mainly to see what had been happening at home only to see that Peru had been hit by a huge earthquake yesterday, the centre of it being near Ica, with tremours spreading as far a field as Lima. Currently, we are not really sure how this will affect us, we had been planning to visit Pisco (60km) from the centre but don´t think this will now be possible as it has been hit very badly. Large sections of the Panamerican highway have also been badly damaged so we are thinking at the moment that, where possible, we may have to change our travel plans...will try and keep you posted! Photos to follow soon...

Abandoning civilisation!

This is our last posting before we depart Huaraz and the backdrop of the Cordillera Blanca early tomorrow for the Cordillera Huayhuash. Acclimatisation continued today as we drove up a very dodgy road out of Huaraz gaining approximately 800m in height. We then climbed/scrambled another 750m on foot to Laguna Churup at 4485m. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, as you´ll be able to see in the attached photo. We´re now back in the luxury of the hotel preparing to leave in the morning. Carnival in Huaraz tonight so we might manage to stay up later than 9pm!

Huaraz

We´re now on our third day in Huaraz, there should be a picture above or below this post that shows Huaraz (and John - one of our group!) quite clearly - it´s much bigger than we were expecting it to be. Huaraz is a town of contrast, from open markets with dead meat hanging all around to electrical shops selling everything you´d find in Comet! Litter is a huge problem - locals not tourists. We were having a pleasant walk through town across the river last night only to see a local woman hurl a large sack of rubbish into it!

Arrival and Acclimatisation!

Finally we have arrived in Peru! We landed in Lima on Saturday evening after a slightly delayed flight. Unfortunately, we saw very little of Lima as we arrived late and departed early on Sunday morning for Huaraz, a major town at the foot of both the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Huayhuash mountain ranges, based at 3000m. It took almost 9 hours to drive to Huaraz from Lima, with occasional stops from the police who insisted on our driver paying various charges with little reason - apparently it is holiday season and they need beer money! There are 15 of us on our trek plus our guide, Val, who seems to know anything and everything about the area which is great. Huaraz is, so we´re told, one of the best places in Peru for experiencing ´real Peru´ and we´ve certainly felt that today wandering round the town and through the markets. We did a short walk today and will do a longer one tomorrow before starting the trek properly on Wednesday. Whilst many of the buildings in Huaraz are very basic and many incomplete (deliberate apparently as a taz dodge), the hotel we are staying in is quite palacial so we´re making the most of the luxury for the couple of nights that we have here! Other people in our group seem great, a very diverse bunch ranging from students to retirees so I suspect it will be an interesting 3 weeks! Hoping to upload some photos before we depart for our trek but I´m afraid Ian is having a nap and I do not have sufficient technological skill to work out the new camera (don´t think I´ll be allowed anyway!). Should any of you wish to contact us, our email is gillandianbarker@hotmail.co.uk
Speak soon, love Gill

Well...Not really sure whether this blog thing is such a good idea since I created it in March and have only just started to update it! Suppose I have the excuse of getting married since then so obviously more important wifely duties have taken precedence. Have become addicted to Facebook instead!

We're beginning the countdown to Peru now so I thought it might be a good opportunity to begin getting to grips with it - that way at least I might know what to do when we're there. The major problem of course will be finding places to update, not convinced there will be too many internet cafes in the Cordillera Huayhuash but we'll see!

A few wedding pictures above, just to practise, I wanted them below but couldn't work out how to do it!

Maybe I'll get it right with the next ones...

Setting up!

Decided to set up a blog in preparation for our forthcoming trip to Peru in the summer! Will save us having to send lots of postcards hopefully. Just playing around with it for now but hope to get to grips with it soon!
Gill x