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...
