Your Not So Lucky House Hostel

So back to Puno and why it's my least favourite place.....

We arrived in Puno a little later than expected and we hadn't booked a hostel so we went in search of one, our first stop was Your Lucky House Hostel, not so lucky it turns out, it was a complete dump and there was no way that we were staying there, I don't think the woman who answered the door to us was staying either as she'd left before we'd got our back packs on.

Anyway after a short walk we found what appeared to be a perfectly good hostel a street away and negotiated the room rate down from 110 Soles per night to 140 Soles for two nights.

I quickly logged on and we had an email from Steve inviting us for dinner at his hotel, considerably more upmarket than our hostel so we jumped in a cab, it was later than we'd planned though and so when we arrived they'd already finished their dinner, which was fine we ordered our customary Pisco Sours (they took 20 minutes - more upmarket but way too slow....). After dinner we split a bottle of Peruvian red, it was ok a little heavy and a bit port-like but fine.

On Saturday we were up and out at 6:15 for our trip to the Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca - whilst the islands are completely over run with tourists the concept of the Islands and the way of life which still exists today is extraordinary.

Uros

We visited Uros an island made entirely of reeds including its foundations inhabited by five families. I do wonder how much longer these villagers will be living this primitive way of life, I suspect not for long.

When we got back to Puno at 5pm we collected our bus tickets for Copacabana on Sunday and after a quick beer en route to the hostel and dinner it was another early start which is when my dislike of Puno was cemented. Over all it's just a completely non-descript and charmless city which became even more charmless when we tried to check out of Hostel Monterrey. At 6am we went down to breakfast to be told there was none and then when we paid the night watchman went to our room and returned telling us that we had broken the toilet in the room and would need to pay - the toilet in the room was broken and we had asked them to fix it on three occasions - a dreadful scam.

Looking forward to Copacabana.

See you there.

Raine x

Our Tune

On Friday morning we took a taxi to Chivay, the next town on from Yanque, we had considered staying here and I'm so glad that we didn't as it was tourist central, a real contrast to Yanque where it felt like we were the only people there.

Our bus left for Puno at 13:15 and I don't know why but to date this was my favourite bus journey, which is a little ironic as Puno, our destination was my least favourite place - but more of that later back to the journey.....

The scenery was wonderful and we saw one of the best sunsets that I've ever seen but I think what made this my favourite bus journey was the music. I started the trip making random selections from my iPod but an hour or so in I started being much more selective, listening to tunes that reminded me of people and places.

I got quite emotional listening to Wires by Athlete, although this song wasn't published when Harriet had her accident when I've listened to it since it makes me think of her then.

I listened to She's a Rebel by Green Day and I was transported back to my Sky Dive with Tony, one of my most unforgettable days.

Ordinary World by Duran Duran got me thinking about Stu as I often do. 

Telephone by The Gaga & Beyonce had me back on the dance floor of The Shadow Lounge with Marc. 

A stroke of genius by someone at Wandsworth council a few years ago convinced me that Starlight by Muse is without a doubt the best piece of music to use for a firework display - I'm sorry to have missed this years display at Battersea park which Caroline and I usually go to.

We Found Love by Rhianna got me thinking about Adrian, not because we found love, obviously, but it was one of the songs playing when we went to the club after my 40th birthday dinner last year - I was so chuffed that you and Ian were able to be there.

Forever Autumn from The War of the Worlds is a sad song that I know my Mum loves, Come on Feel The Noise by Slade would have made me smile more than this one but there are limits to what I'm prepared to have on my iTunes account! (Ab's doesn't have the same reservations so I smiled when we listened to Sylvia's Mother by Dr Hook last night).

My Dad got an entire albumn, and a two CD one at that - I listened to A Night on the Town with The Rat Pack from end to end - they don't make them like they used to.....

A bit of HardFi, particularly Feltham is Singing Out got me thinking about the driest county in England and some of my favourite road trips round the M25.

Oh and JT, for the same reason that I don't have Slade on my iPod I also don't have 'I've got no Strings' by that little wooden boy that we both know and love but trust me if I'd have had it I would have listened to it and thought of you.

So, I guess it's obvious really it was my best bus journey to date because I had some quality time to think about you all - please know that I do a lot and whilst I wouldn't swap this trip of a lifetime for anything I'm so looking forward to seeing you all next year.

Raine x

Oh and I have a late addition, Abs has introduced me to Ben Howard and from the amount that we're playing his albumn I have no doubt 'Keep your head up' will become our tune.

Condor Spotting

The reason for travelling to Arequipa was to visit Colca Canyon - it's the worlds deepest canyon, twice the depth of the Grand Canyon and famous for its condors. We looked at the tour options and whilst we are of course tourists ourself the trip really did look too touristy and so we arranged with the tour company to do an edited version.

We arrived at Arequipa bus terminal a little before 11am, to the sound of the panpipe version of  'When a child is born' by Johnny Mathis blasting out around the terminal. Our bus journey to Yanque was uneventful though longer than expected. The landscape had changed again, lower, browner and even more baron hills.

The bus stopped in a fairly remote looking place and we, along with a local young mother of two, were the only people to disembark we clearly looked lost and she kindly offered to walk us to the Plaza de Armas.

Killawasi, our hotel was perfect - with stunning views from our room so perfect in fact that we arranged to stay for another night.

The view from our room in Yanque

At 6:30 on Thursday we were picked up by the tour group, as anticipated it was very touristy stopping repeatedly en route to Colca Canyon to allow us to photograph local children dancing, local children with pocket sized versions of sheep and alpacas and adults with condors - these were not pocket sized by any stretch of the imagination.

A pocket sized alpaca

Not a great shot but a condor none the less

I wasn't feeling great when we got back, fairly sure that it's the altitude so I went to bed for a few hours - Abs walked in to town and was 'mugged' by four 4 year olds, the story she relayed was hysterical......

Next stop Puno to visit the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca - see you there.

Raine x 

Amigas?

We got back from Machu Picchu at 7pm and after narrowly missing a hailstorm, picking up our backpacks and showering we were on the overnight bus to Arequipe at 8:30. 

The majority of travel across SA is done by bus, they're comfortable and the experience is much like travelling premium economy/business class with some airlines. We had a hot meal of chicken which was good then cold drinks - while we were eating we watched an episode of Downton Abbey and then it was time to sleep, well it was for me as when I'm tired I can sleep through pretty much anything but Abs had to endure the SA bus journey phenomenon that is an action movie played at full volume for three hours!

I woke up at 5am about an hour before we arrived at Arequipe, the sun was up and the landscape had changed dramatically, the green rolling hills had been replaced by much lower hills which were yellow and brown in colour.

We arrived at our hostel at 6am and surprisingly we were able not only to check in but to have breakfast as well  - located 10 minutes from the bus terminal and 10 minutes from Plaza de Armas in the centre which was perfect.

Arequipa really isn't much to write home about although we did have very good meal at ZigZag, the number 1 restaurant in the city, Beef Carpaccio and a 'Sexy' Salad with a couple of glasses of red. We also had an  hysterical and slightly stilted conversation in Spanish  with a lovely man and his family as we waited to be seated, we talked about where we'd been and where we were going and he enthusiastically reinforced our decisions "ah, si muy bonito', before comically trying to establish whether we were friends or 'friends' - we weren't even wearing our lesbian walking trousers or matching jumpers!

God I miss wearing a skirt and heels :-)

Raine x

What Hiram Bingham saw......

We travelled to Ollyantaytambo by minibus on Tuesday morning to catch the train to Aguas Calientes which is the town closest to Machu Picchu. We travelled in 'Vistadome' class, one down from the Orient Express and a couple up from Backpacker.

The train to Aguas Calientes

The views were amazing and the anticipation was building for all of us knowing that we only had one night to go until we arrived at the City of the Incas.

We were up at 4am on Monday as we were keen to be on one of the first buses that drives you the 30 minutes up to Machu Picchu and after a fried egg roll and a cup of coca tea we were on our way.

When we arrived at 6am the cloud was low and the sun wasn't up - when we walked through the entrance gate I had the same feeling of anticipation and expectation that I'd had since 4am but so far it felt like a tourist attraction without much going for it - and then bang!

Not a word I use often; awesome!

For the next two hours the clouds rise and fall exposing and then concealing various parts of these fascinating ruins. Hearing the story of their discovery and getting a better understanding of the history of the Incas is both sad and fascinating. 

Hiram Bingham an American explorer discovered the ruins in 1911. I was surprised at both the size and the completeness of the ruins which only became a tourist attraction in 1980. The ruins are approximately 60% original, 30% reconstructed and 10% in need of renovation. Without a doubt there's still more to be discovered in the vegetation of the lower lands but apparently this will be left for later generations to discover.

"All things are impossible until you've done them" - Fransisco

4:30am felt like a very early start after our night on the Pisco's..... but we made it to the bus for 5am.

We drove for an hour or so from Cusco to get to the start point of the trek and before we set off Cirillo our chef set us up for the day with the most amazing breakfast of pancakes, fruit salad and quinoa porridge.

The first day which is supposed to be the easier day was made considerably harder by the persistent rain, which by nightfall had turned to snow - thank goodness for our co-ordinating alpaca jumpers, hats, gloves, socks and for the playing cards that Francisco our guide brought with him. After a few rounds of 'Shit-Head', which was quite funny and 'Nervous' which was hysterical we'd forgotten how cold it was and that we had to be up at 5am!

Time for bed..... I hope no polo playing argentinians see this!

Day two saw us reach the summit of Sicllakasa Pass at 4,750m - it was hard work in the cold and the altitude - I'm not sure whether the coca leaves have a physical or psychological effect, but I chewed them at every opportunity and when I wasn't chewing them I was drinking tea made from them.

Although I found the walking hard I really enjoyed it, unlike the Inca Trail which sees 500 walkers set off each day we didn't see one other walker for the duration of our trek. We were however regularly mugged by the children from the local communities that we walked past - who on seeing us from afar ( to be fair I was hard to miss in my electric pink 'Mac in a Sac'!) - ran some significant distance up hill to meet us and ultimately beg for sweets, unfortunately we didn't know that this was going to happen and so the best that we could do was give them our snacks of apples and granola bars - which were received with varying levels of enthusiasm. I love this picture that Abs was able to capture - caught whilst Abs was trying to make her smile - without the smile this is one of my favourites (the granola bar was swiftly stuffed up her jumper as soon as she got it).

Can you spot the granola bar?

We were so lucky, not only with the group that we travelled with but also with the team from Llama Path, the tour company we used. Using just one calor gas burner, Cirillo our chef prepared some incredible food, each meal consisted of three of more courses ranging from wontons and apple puffs to steak & special fried frice and even a beautifully iced celebration cake for breakfast (there is a god) on our final morning.

Mmmmm, cake for breakfast......

The Lares trek is a great alternative to The Inca Trail (which you have to book six months in advance), it's a shorter trek which goes higher; you don't experience the 'thrill' of walking through the 'Sun Gate' and descending to Machu Picchu but the scenery is spectacular and there's something special about only seeing locals and not hundreds of other tourists on the build up to seeing one of the worlds most amazing sights.

See you in Machu Picchu!

Raine x