Cusco & The Inca Trail

After a few days doing some last minute preparations for our trek in Cusco, we were picked up from our hotel at some ungodly hour (5am!) to head to the starting point of the Inca Trail in Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. We were introduced to our group at a quick breakfast - an interesting bunch of 15 people from the US, Australia, the Netherlands & England. The group included all sorts..... from a father & son team from the North Shore who were the ultimate private school geeks in matching outfits to a dutch hippy who decided to do the trek in a silk dress and fashion boots! We definitely come across some interesting characters on our travels!

The first day was challenging but a good warm up for the days that would follow and involved walking through some tiny indigenous communities and past a few Inca ruins to reach our first camp site at 3,000m above sea level. We were pretty excited to be camping for the 1st time ever and not a bad way to do it with 21 porters who were there to carry the camping gear, cook and set-up our tents! We were kept awake by a donkey munching grass right outside our tent through the night (jeez of all the places!), before being woken up around 5.30am to start the second day's hike.

Ouch is probably the best way to describe day two which involved a 6 hour steep, uphill hike to reach Dead Woman's Pass at 4,200m above sea level. Dealing with the altitude was really challenging and we needed to stop for mini breaks every 50m at one point near the top. The view from the top was beautiful and it definitely was a feat to have made it. But the celebrations started a little too soon! The next section was also tough, going down thousands of steps to the second camp site.

The third day was bearable but l o n g .... around 15kms that involved constant trekking up and down hills. But we survived (just) and made it to the final camp site which was in front of Machu Picchu mountain. It was a relief to know that Machu Picchu was sitting just on the other side of the mountain, only 1.5 hours away.

We had to get up at 3.50am to walk to the entrance of the final section of the trail to reach "Sun Gate" with the goal of watching the sunrise over Machu Picchu. Fair to say that we were a little disappointed to be greeted by dense fog as far as the eye could see as we approached the famous viewpoint : ( After almost 50kms of difficult trekking, sleeping on rocks, no showers and waking up at crazy hours, Pacha Mama (mother nature) wasn't on our side. Thank god, by around 11am the fog lifted and we were so grateful to see the spectacular Machu Picchu ruins.  The only spoiler was the hoards of tourists who had arrived by train and kept on getting in the way. We were very close to attacking them with our walking sticks!

We really couldn't have made it without the porters & cooks from the group. They were tiny but amazingly strong, carrying 25kg packs and virtually running the trek in their sandals! We couldn't believe what the cook was able to prepare with camping gear, whipping up delicious pizza, pastas and even a cake on the last night! Each section of the trek was so much easier knowing that there was a delicious, hot meal waiting for us.

Reaching the highest point of the trek on day 2 with our group

  

 

 Trying on one of the porter's packs

Our first night camping, the amazing cake our cook prepared and the porters

I think the guy on the left sums up how we were feeling when we finally reached the fog-covered Machu Picchu sunrise!

 The postcard shot of Machu Picchu!

 We were smelly, sore and sleepy by the end of it, but the Inca Trail was an incredible experience and completely worth the effort.

For the next week and half we spent our time enjoying the beautiful city of Cusco with it's fantastic food and cheap massages.

In Cusco's main square enjoying some sun

Viewpoint of Cusco from a nearby mountain

The hole in the wall lunch spot that we became obsessed with! Best value food we have had so far

Cusco by night (P.S. Not us getting married!!!)

Lake Titicaca

After our tour of the Salt Flats we decided to get out of town ASAP and boarded the 1am train to Oruro and then straight onto a bus to La Paz. In La Paz we were in heaven with a really lovely room, hot shower and tons of great restaurants and cafes within walking distance. We caught up on some much needed sleep and food for the next couple of days before continuing on to Copacabana - the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.

The lake is enormous (it takes 3 hours driving just to get from the Bolivian side to the Peruvian side) and is the highest navigable lake in the world at around 3,800m above sea level. 

Copacabana was a very chilled out little town with just one main street and beautiful views of the lake. The main tourist attraction is the Isla Del Sol - an island around 2-3 hours away by boat which holds great significance to the locals as they believe that the sun god was born here. We arrived at the northern point of the island and then hiked to the southern end, around 3 hours away, but a beautiful walk. At points we could definitely feel the high altitude as we puffed our way up the hills!

In town - the local church and by the water

Just another day on the island taking the pigs for a walk

Very funny sight - our huge bus crossing the lake on a not so sturdy boat. Glad that we weren't on board

 The following day we caught the bus to Puno, our first stop in Peru! From here we took a tour of the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, visiting the famous floating reed islands and the natural island of Taquile. Although SUPER touristy, we got a great taste of the unique way of life for the locals who use the reeds from the lake to build everything from houses to boats. There are even floating hospitals and schools!

On the island of Taquile we had a lunch at a local restaurant before heading back to the mainland.

Uros - the most famous reed island

Taking the scenic ride on the reed boat

Uyuni & the Salt Flats

From Sucre we took a bus to nearby Potosi, a small mining town around 3 hours away and spent the night there before continuing on to Uyuni. Potosi is one of the poorest places in Bolivia and has a very sad history with many people dying in the nearby mines (which have been exploited and over-mined for centuries) from accidents, dust inhalation and poisoning. If you have a few hours to kill it is definitely worth seeing the documentary "The Devil's Miner" which follows two young kids who work in the Potosi mines. Unfortunately the reality in Bolivia and other places in South America is that many children are put to work to ensure that there is food on the table for their families. 

Anyways, on to the less depressing stuff!

When we arrived in Uyuni, we tracked down an agency and booked a 3 day 4WD tour of the salt flats and surrounds for the following day. We were pretty keen to get out of town as soon as possible as it looked like a bomb had hit it - definitely one of the ugliest towns in South America!

The first day of the tour started with a visit to a nearby 'train cemetery' for some happy snaps before continuing on to the largest salt flat in the world. When we arrived we were blown away by the blinding white flats as far as the eye could see. We were so surprised to hear that despite the salt that they keep on taking from the flats for Bolivian use and exportation, the flats are actually growing every single year. After lunch, we continued on to "Fish Island", a natural island in the middle of the salt flats that is famous for it's enormous cacti which grow as high as 12 metres tall (1cm every year). There was a cactus there that was more than 1,000 years old. The entire place looked like another planet!

After two flat tyres, we called it a day and arrived at our accommodation for the night - a hotel made entirely from salt - beds, tables, walls and all! It was quite a novelty but soooooo bloody cold with temperatures well below zero and no insulation or heating. We really froze our culos off!

The following day we headed further south through the desert to visit different lagoons and landscapes of the region. The landscapes were crazy - deserts close to 5000m above sea level with snow and unusual shapes carved out of rocks by the strong winds. The lagoons were of the most amazing and strange colours - reds, purples, greens and white due to the minerals in the earth. It was really like nowhere else on earth. The animals also were so unique and it was hard to believe that they survive in such extreme conditions - flamingos, foxes, chinchillas, llamas and vicunas.

That night was by far the coldest night of our lives with temps around -20 and once again no heating or insulation! We slept in our clothes for the following day to avoid having to get dressed in the freezing cold!

The next morning, we were up at around 5am to head to the nearby geysers to watch the sunrise but had a bit of a slow start due to the doors of our car being frozen shut. We refused to get out of the car to see much of the geysers as even our hands were numb with the cold inside ski gloves but eventually ventured out for our breakfast and to take a dip (and defrost) in the natural hot springs nearby.

All in all, the trip was amazingly beautiful but we were more than happy to escape to warmer temperatures!!

Train cemetery & Ben being a stuntman for the morning

 Salt!

Fish Island

At the Salt "Hotel"

Frozen lake

Blood-red coloured lagoon with flamingoes

Famous stone tree

Random pics from the tour including our flat tyre in the middle of the salt flats!

Potosi and at the thermal springs on our last day of the tour

Sucre

The original plan was for us to meet up again in La Paz but I absolutely fell in love with Sucre, Bolivia and was reluctant to leave so soon! So after around 10 days in the US, Ben hopped on a flight to meet me in Sucre.

Sucre is a little like the Antigua of Bolivia - not quite like the rest of the country, but nonetheless a beautiful city  to spend some time in, with gorgeous white colonial buildings, great (and super cheap) cafes, vibrant markets and mountainous surroundings.

Elise found a small but fantastic not-for-profit Spanish school with a small but fantastic teacher called Yashira! She is actually way beyond small and made us both look like giants everyday! We had classes together for a few weeks and were amazed by how much we learnt in such a short amount of time. During Elise's second week at the school she ran some marketing classes for the teachers in Spanish which was a sign of how far we'd come with our Spanish.

During our time at the school we had an awesome time playing Wally (indoor volleyball with walls) with the teachers and other students on weekends and taking part in cooking classes at the school to learn some delicious Bolivian dishes. It doesn't get much better than deep fried potato balls filled with cheese!

After spending a fair amount of time in Sucre it was difficult to leave - the teachers at the school were so sweet and even arranged a little farewell for us with icecream and gifts.

 Mini Yashira in the middle!




A week or so before we left we spent an afternoon at one of Sucre's most famous sites - the dinosaur park. From the centre you can see real dinosaur footprints (there are over 6000 tracks in total - some of which measure up to 80cm in diameter - from over 150 different species of dinosaur.) A pretty nerdy thing to do but we actually found it really interesting!

Chicago & Miami (Ben's Birthday Treat)

Watching the NBA Playoffs wasn't quite in the itinerary, but with our strong dollar, closeness to the US (relative to Australia) and a special on the US-Ecuador flights how could I resist! Back to the US I went while Elise headed to Bolivia to do some more Spanish study.

Note: the following may bore non-NBA fans (the majority of readers)

After a 3 hour pat down by US security (I am now on the watch list for sure after they didn't believe that I was in the US just to see the basketball!) I arrived in Chicago to see Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Bulls and Heat. It turned out to be an incredible game and well worth the side trip to Chicago! Miami won the game so I headed down south to Miami to watch Games 1 & 2 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

Luckily enough, both games were fantastic with Game 2 being one of the most incredible come-backs in NBA history by the Mavericks. I managed to sneak into the lower section ($2,000 seats!!) for the start of the 4th quarter and all was well for me and my scalper friend but unfortunately with 9 minutes to go, 2 rappers with more money than sense decided to show up and finally claim their seats - back to the nose bleed section for me : (

It wasn't easy on the wallet but it has always been a dream of mine to see the NBA Finals so I'm definitely pleased I took the plunge and made this little detour - it was AMAZING!!