from chile to peru
from arica in chile we took a taxi across the border to the town of tacna. we wanted to catch a bus at 8 am to puno. having just arrived in arica on an overnight bus and with very little time on our hands we thought making the bus would not be possible. but there was no need to worry, paying the taxi driver a few extra dollars will get you anywhere you want whenever you want !! we managed to cross through immigration in chile to get our exit stamp, then entered through immigration in peru and got our entry stamp & got to tacna with 10 mins to spare. it was a huge shock to the system. all of a sudden we were catapulted back into the 3rd world. the first thing that hits you is how unbelievably poor everyone is again & then you step onto the bus & it´s back to overcrowded smelly buses although nowhere near as bad as africa ... at least here all the parents keep hold of their children and you mangage to keep your seat for the journey !! it was a pretty cool bus journey though, we had no idea what to expect or what route the bus would take but we spent 7 of the 11 hours driving through the peruvian desert which was so scenic in places. the last 4 hours of the bus really dragged and with all the rushing at the border we didn´t have a chance to change any money which meant we couldn´t buy anything to eat, not even a piece of bread ! so desperate did it get that at one point i looked around and tom & cathy we´re eating mayonaise ... yes mayonaise with mayonaise, it was the only thing that resembled food in our bags and 24 hours after we had last eaten they tried to eat mayonaise !!! yuck yuck yuck !!!
puno
puno lies at 3800 meters above sea level. living at sea level back home its just difficult to adapt. you do adapt but never fully, it always catches you unawares and you find yourself walking down the street gasping for air. i have to admit it´s been nowhere near as bad as tibet but it still affects us all the same. anyway we just put the feet up & totally chilled out in puno. we really took it easy & just enjoyed strolling the streets & going out for dinner without feeling guilty ! it´s so cheap here it´s great, cheap as in about 2 euro for a meal .... bliss.
cusco & bruce peru
from puno we took a bus to cusco. i´m sure you must think we are sick of buses, well yes your right we are !!! ha ha no honestly they can get a little tiring but most of the time the scenery is so stunning you don´t even notice the journey as was the case from puno to cusco. we took a touirst bus which was mega comfy and again had spectacular views of the countryside, just endless rolling hills & outstanding beauty.
we arrived in cusco & found ourselves a hostel for the week & a good irish pub, the highest irish owned pub in the world ¨paddys¨. it wasn´t drink we were looking for but a good old irish meal & that we found in this pub. it was yum .... after which i cut tom & cathys hair ! cathy has always trusted me with the scissors and now tom does too !!!
the reason we were staying in cusco for a week was because we had volunteered to work with a charity for the week in cusco. the charity is called bruce org. the organisation exists to provide education to the quarter of latin american children who are not in school. their mission is to help as many of the poorest children in the third world as they can to receive as good an education as their circumstances permit. bruce org does all it can do all to befriend them, motivate them to want to get educated, to help with their nutritional, medical, psychological, clothing and family well-being: and finally to get them into as good an educational institution as they can find for them. In the places of work many of the poorest children have only a single parent at home, an abandoned mother. the mission includes working to improve the prospects and quality of life of abandoned mothers.
so we all got involved for a week. initially we thought cathy would not be allowed as they don´t accept volunteers under 18 years of age but we managed to get them to bend the rules. on the monday morning we set off to our respective schools. tom & myself went to tica tica while cathy went to huancara. in tica tica we had just 15 students and one classroom although all 15 children never turned up. the parents of the children rarely care for their welfare so turning up to school almost always depends on the child. the age of the children in the class ranges from 4 to 16 and with just one teacher trying to teach all different levels things can be a little chaotic especially as all the children want to do is put their hair clips in your hair or climb all over you. although i must admit the older children weren´t much more advanced then the younger ones, some were even struggling to say the days of the week without help. in the short week we had there we became pretty fond of these young children, it´s just so hard not to. most of them don´t have a father figure in their life and they craved so much affection from tom it was so sad. every child has their own background, each equally tough. one little girl beatriz works for 3 hours before making the hour long journey to school, school starts at 9, she is only 8 years old. another young chap called dante was so malnourished he looked at most 10 years of age, when we learned he was 15 we just couldn´t believe it. then there was another young lad called guida. tom renamed his volunteering experience the ´guida experience´ after guida threw several rocks at his head & then preceeded to throw all his copy books into the open sewer that runs by the school class. this poor young lad is one of only a few to have his father in his life but suffers serious abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. not the most realxing week of our travels but something we felt we wanted to do all the same because of our fortunate position in this world.
the charity also does alot of fundraising during the week. we got involved with the table quiz one night which takes place in a local pub. cathy was nominated to stand on the bar & read out the questions. i still can´t believe she done it, a reflection on how much she has come out of herself in the past year. one other day we gathered at the plaza de armas which is the main square in cusco to welcome into town 3 young english lads who had just spent 5 months horse riding from equador to cusco in peru raising 15000 pound for bruce org. the night that followed their arrival was superb with us all ending up on the dance floor in mama africas nightclub until the early hours !!
gaga comes to peru
this week also saw the arrival of my dad more commonly known as ´gaga´ to peru. having left dublin on the tuesday gaga finally touched down in cusco on thursday after spending one night in miami & another in lima. we were all delighted to see him & once again take him on board our travels. of course we took him straight to paddys for a good feed & a few pints to help him adapt to the altitude !! cusco stands at 3360 meters which resulted in gaga having a few dizzy spells & the usual breathing restrictions. the few days after gaga´s arrival we hung out in cusco & the surrounding area. we climbed up the hill to the cristo blanco which is a huge statue of christ that overlooks the city & also indulged in a little more horse riding. tom & myself had managed to squeeze in a trek earlier in the week and a couple of days after gaga arrived we convinced him it was worth doing even though he said it was at least 50 years since he was on a horse !! we promised no galoping & stuck to our word although gaga´s horse did seem to have a mind of it´s own & kept trying to break free !! all in all it was a great day.
the inca trail
next up was the inca trail. the night before we were due to do this trail we had a pre inca trail meeting. excited & nervous we listened to what lay ahead of us for the following 4 days. after the meeting we thought it was best to squeeze in one more meal in paddys as what we ate for the forthcoming days lay in the hands of someone else. for me this turned out to be a really bad decision, i choose this chicken curry with peanuts which sounded, looked & tasted amazing. but for some reason that little chicken decided it didn´t like me. i woke to some really loud tummy rumbles at 2 in the morning, ran to the toilet & thankfully made it in time & spent the next 4 hours there. every so often betwen tom´s words of sympathy i could hear him bursting out laughing, i think he was just so glad for once it was him & not me !! at 6.30 we got on the bus to the start of the inca trail, a 2 hour journey with a stop for breakfast along the way. needless to say i didn´t have breakfast & was just so glad of the stop to use the toilet .....
so when we reached km 82 we set off on the inca trail after a few group photos. also in our group was 3 girls from sao paulo & our guide george. running on ahead of us were the 6 porters assigned to us for the trail also known as sherpas. this first day was to be pretty easy. for everyone else except me it was. as we walked the trail i just felt worse & worse. as vomiting took over i thought this was the end of the trail for me but thankfully by evening all the symptoms passed and i seemed to bounce back to normal. that evening we camped at huayllabamba. it was here we saw the most amazing sky in the southern hemisphere.
the next morning we were up at 5am to begin the toughest part of the trail. the porters woke us with tent service ! coca tea before breakfast. the coca plant when mixed with other substances gives you cocaine but here they just put the coca leaves in boiling water to help with the altitude sickness. after a 5 hours walking we reached the first pass, named warmiwañiusca or dead woman's pass, at 4,215 meters high it is the highest point in the inca trail. along the way we stopped many times to take in the views and take a few snaps. you would think that the hardest part was over when we reached the top but the down hill was equally as challenging. with rugged paths & steep steps all the way, geting to the camp on the second evening was such a relief !! here at pacaymayo we were well fed again by the cook on the trail before retiring for the night into our tents.
day 3 looked like it was going to rain. as we came out of the tents in the morning we were literally in the clouds. we couldn´t see a thing but thankfully as the day progressed the clouds lifted and the scenery once again was amazing. this was without a doubt the longest day. we stopped to do a cermony on the mountain where each person had to do blessings. darkness was starting to fall as we reached the camp on this our third and final night. for the first time in 3 days we were able to shower & trust me after hiking over 20 miles during the previous 3 days we all needed a shower badly. it was here we all had a chance to thank the porters for all their effort. i have to say it´s the one thing i really didn´t like about the inca trail. seeing these young lads carrying so much equipment & knowing how little they get paid for their work. we carried our own personal stuff even though you could get the porters to carry it but they still had to carry all the tent equipment cooking equipment, food etc ! one guy even had a bottle of gas on his back, it´s crazy !! there was one little porter in our group who we all took a serious liking to, we called him charlie ... on the last night dad & tom kept buying the little lad beer. i´m pretty sure he wasn´t allowed to be drinking as he turned his back and downed every bottle in one go resulting with him stumbling all over the place for the night ......
so our final morning we were called at 3 am, had breakfast & set off on our way in time for sunrise at Machu Picchu. after a one hour walk through the forest towards the inti punku or the gate of the sun, also known as the entrance gate to Machu Picchu you have the most impressive panoramic view of the citadel. it was so amazing. we then walked on down to the site itself where we had a very informative guided tour ......... the setting of Machu Picchu is one of the most beautiful ever seen. we spent about 4 hours here trying to take it all in ........ truly amazing stuff.
with tired legs and some time on our hands we made our way to some hot springs near by where we sooted the aches and pains before taking a train back to cusco that night. it was so hard to believe the inca trail was complete having booked it last january !
return to puno
the next morning we didn´t even manage a sleep in. we were up & out and off back to puno. the 7 hour bus jouney was just perfect, feet up all the way ! we spent just 2 nights in puno when we returned. in this time we took a boat trip out to peru´s famous floating islands. they are built using the buoyant totora reeds that grow abundantly in the shallows of lake titicaca. the uro tribe who live on these islands have their lives interwoven with these reeds which are partially edible and are also used to make their homes and boats and crafts. the islands are constructed from many layers of the totora, which are constantly replenished from the top as they rot from the bottom so the ground is always soft & springy. it´s incredible, every day we see & learn something new.
from peru to bolivia
so that brought our time in peru to an end. from puno we took a bus to bolivia, just 3 hours drive by lake titicaca saw us enter our next country, bolivia. more updates from bolivia soon ..... tom´s photo album is also ready to view .... this time there will be 2 photo album links above for peru ! X
from arica in chile we took a taxi across the border to the town of tacna. we wanted to catch a bus at 8 am to puno. having just arrived in arica on an overnight bus and with very little time on our hands we thought making the bus would not be possible. but there was no need to worry, paying the taxi driver a few extra dollars will get you anywhere you want whenever you want !! we managed to cross through immigration in chile to get our exit stamp, then entered through immigration in peru and got our entry stamp & got to tacna with 10 mins to spare. it was a huge shock to the system. all of a sudden we were catapulted back into the 3rd world. the first thing that hits you is how unbelievably poor everyone is again & then you step onto the bus & it´s back to overcrowded smelly buses although nowhere near as bad as africa ... at least here all the parents keep hold of their children and you mangage to keep your seat for the journey !! it was a pretty cool bus journey though, we had no idea what to expect or what route the bus would take but we spent 7 of the 11 hours driving through the peruvian desert which was so scenic in places. the last 4 hours of the bus really dragged and with all the rushing at the border we didn´t have a chance to change any money which meant we couldn´t buy anything to eat, not even a piece of bread ! so desperate did it get that at one point i looked around and tom & cathy we´re eating mayonaise ... yes mayonaise with mayonaise, it was the only thing that resembled food in our bags and 24 hours after we had last eaten they tried to eat mayonaise !!! yuck yuck yuck !!!
puno
puno lies at 3800 meters above sea level. living at sea level back home its just difficult to adapt. you do adapt but never fully, it always catches you unawares and you find yourself walking down the street gasping for air. i have to admit it´s been nowhere near as bad as tibet but it still affects us all the same. anyway we just put the feet up & totally chilled out in puno. we really took it easy & just enjoyed strolling the streets & going out for dinner without feeling guilty ! it´s so cheap here it´s great, cheap as in about 2 euro for a meal .... bliss.
cusco & bruce peru
from puno we took a bus to cusco. i´m sure you must think we are sick of buses, well yes your right we are !!! ha ha no honestly they can get a little tiring but most of the time the scenery is so stunning you don´t even notice the journey as was the case from puno to cusco. we took a touirst bus which was mega comfy and again had spectacular views of the countryside, just endless rolling hills & outstanding beauty.
we arrived in cusco & found ourselves a hostel for the week & a good irish pub, the highest irish owned pub in the world ¨paddys¨. it wasn´t drink we were looking for but a good old irish meal & that we found in this pub. it was yum .... after which i cut tom & cathys hair ! cathy has always trusted me with the scissors and now tom does too !!!
the reason we were staying in cusco for a week was because we had volunteered to work with a charity for the week in cusco. the charity is called bruce org. the organisation exists to provide education to the quarter of latin american children who are not in school. their mission is to help as many of the poorest children in the third world as they can to receive as good an education as their circumstances permit. bruce org does all it can do all to befriend them, motivate them to want to get educated, to help with their nutritional, medical, psychological, clothing and family well-being: and finally to get them into as good an educational institution as they can find for them. In the places of work many of the poorest children have only a single parent at home, an abandoned mother. the mission includes working to improve the prospects and quality of life of abandoned mothers.
so we all got involved for a week. initially we thought cathy would not be allowed as they don´t accept volunteers under 18 years of age but we managed to get them to bend the rules. on the monday morning we set off to our respective schools. tom & myself went to tica tica while cathy went to huancara. in tica tica we had just 15 students and one classroom although all 15 children never turned up. the parents of the children rarely care for their welfare so turning up to school almost always depends on the child. the age of the children in the class ranges from 4 to 16 and with just one teacher trying to teach all different levels things can be a little chaotic especially as all the children want to do is put their hair clips in your hair or climb all over you. although i must admit the older children weren´t much more advanced then the younger ones, some were even struggling to say the days of the week without help. in the short week we had there we became pretty fond of these young children, it´s just so hard not to. most of them don´t have a father figure in their life and they craved so much affection from tom it was so sad. every child has their own background, each equally tough. one little girl beatriz works for 3 hours before making the hour long journey to school, school starts at 9, she is only 8 years old. another young chap called dante was so malnourished he looked at most 10 years of age, when we learned he was 15 we just couldn´t believe it. then there was another young lad called guida. tom renamed his volunteering experience the ´guida experience´ after guida threw several rocks at his head & then preceeded to throw all his copy books into the open sewer that runs by the school class. this poor young lad is one of only a few to have his father in his life but suffers serious abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father. not the most realxing week of our travels but something we felt we wanted to do all the same because of our fortunate position in this world.
the charity also does alot of fundraising during the week. we got involved with the table quiz one night which takes place in a local pub. cathy was nominated to stand on the bar & read out the questions. i still can´t believe she done it, a reflection on how much she has come out of herself in the past year. one other day we gathered at the plaza de armas which is the main square in cusco to welcome into town 3 young english lads who had just spent 5 months horse riding from equador to cusco in peru raising 15000 pound for bruce org. the night that followed their arrival was superb with us all ending up on the dance floor in mama africas nightclub until the early hours !!
gaga comes to peru
this week also saw the arrival of my dad more commonly known as ´gaga´ to peru. having left dublin on the tuesday gaga finally touched down in cusco on thursday after spending one night in miami & another in lima. we were all delighted to see him & once again take him on board our travels. of course we took him straight to paddys for a good feed & a few pints to help him adapt to the altitude !! cusco stands at 3360 meters which resulted in gaga having a few dizzy spells & the usual breathing restrictions. the few days after gaga´s arrival we hung out in cusco & the surrounding area. we climbed up the hill to the cristo blanco which is a huge statue of christ that overlooks the city & also indulged in a little more horse riding. tom & myself had managed to squeeze in a trek earlier in the week and a couple of days after gaga arrived we convinced him it was worth doing even though he said it was at least 50 years since he was on a horse !! we promised no galoping & stuck to our word although gaga´s horse did seem to have a mind of it´s own & kept trying to break free !! all in all it was a great day.
the inca trail
next up was the inca trail. the night before we were due to do this trail we had a pre inca trail meeting. excited & nervous we listened to what lay ahead of us for the following 4 days. after the meeting we thought it was best to squeeze in one more meal in paddys as what we ate for the forthcoming days lay in the hands of someone else. for me this turned out to be a really bad decision, i choose this chicken curry with peanuts which sounded, looked & tasted amazing. but for some reason that little chicken decided it didn´t like me. i woke to some really loud tummy rumbles at 2 in the morning, ran to the toilet & thankfully made it in time & spent the next 4 hours there. every so often betwen tom´s words of sympathy i could hear him bursting out laughing, i think he was just so glad for once it was him & not me !! at 6.30 we got on the bus to the start of the inca trail, a 2 hour journey with a stop for breakfast along the way. needless to say i didn´t have breakfast & was just so glad of the stop to use the toilet .....
so when we reached km 82 we set off on the inca trail after a few group photos. also in our group was 3 girls from sao paulo & our guide george. running on ahead of us were the 6 porters assigned to us for the trail also known as sherpas. this first day was to be pretty easy. for everyone else except me it was. as we walked the trail i just felt worse & worse. as vomiting took over i thought this was the end of the trail for me but thankfully by evening all the symptoms passed and i seemed to bounce back to normal. that evening we camped at huayllabamba. it was here we saw the most amazing sky in the southern hemisphere.
the next morning we were up at 5am to begin the toughest part of the trail. the porters woke us with tent service ! coca tea before breakfast. the coca plant when mixed with other substances gives you cocaine but here they just put the coca leaves in boiling water to help with the altitude sickness. after a 5 hours walking we reached the first pass, named warmiwañiusca or dead woman's pass, at 4,215 meters high it is the highest point in the inca trail. along the way we stopped many times to take in the views and take a few snaps. you would think that the hardest part was over when we reached the top but the down hill was equally as challenging. with rugged paths & steep steps all the way, geting to the camp on the second evening was such a relief !! here at pacaymayo we were well fed again by the cook on the trail before retiring for the night into our tents.
day 3 looked like it was going to rain. as we came out of the tents in the morning we were literally in the clouds. we couldn´t see a thing but thankfully as the day progressed the clouds lifted and the scenery once again was amazing. this was without a doubt the longest day. we stopped to do a cermony on the mountain where each person had to do blessings. darkness was starting to fall as we reached the camp on this our third and final night. for the first time in 3 days we were able to shower & trust me after hiking over 20 miles during the previous 3 days we all needed a shower badly. it was here we all had a chance to thank the porters for all their effort. i have to say it´s the one thing i really didn´t like about the inca trail. seeing these young lads carrying so much equipment & knowing how little they get paid for their work. we carried our own personal stuff even though you could get the porters to carry it but they still had to carry all the tent equipment cooking equipment, food etc ! one guy even had a bottle of gas on his back, it´s crazy !! there was one little porter in our group who we all took a serious liking to, we called him charlie ... on the last night dad & tom kept buying the little lad beer. i´m pretty sure he wasn´t allowed to be drinking as he turned his back and downed every bottle in one go resulting with him stumbling all over the place for the night ......
so our final morning we were called at 3 am, had breakfast & set off on our way in time for sunrise at Machu Picchu. after a one hour walk through the forest towards the inti punku or the gate of the sun, also known as the entrance gate to Machu Picchu you have the most impressive panoramic view of the citadel. it was so amazing. we then walked on down to the site itself where we had a very informative guided tour ......... the setting of Machu Picchu is one of the most beautiful ever seen. we spent about 4 hours here trying to take it all in ........ truly amazing stuff.
with tired legs and some time on our hands we made our way to some hot springs near by where we sooted the aches and pains before taking a train back to cusco that night. it was so hard to believe the inca trail was complete having booked it last january !
return to puno
the next morning we didn´t even manage a sleep in. we were up & out and off back to puno. the 7 hour bus jouney was just perfect, feet up all the way ! we spent just 2 nights in puno when we returned. in this time we took a boat trip out to peru´s famous floating islands. they are built using the buoyant totora reeds that grow abundantly in the shallows of lake titicaca. the uro tribe who live on these islands have their lives interwoven with these reeds which are partially edible and are also used to make their homes and boats and crafts. the islands are constructed from many layers of the totora, which are constantly replenished from the top as they rot from the bottom so the ground is always soft & springy. it´s incredible, every day we see & learn something new.
from peru to bolivia
so that brought our time in peru to an end. from puno we took a bus to bolivia, just 3 hours drive by lake titicaca saw us enter our next country, bolivia. more updates from bolivia soon ..... tom´s photo album is also ready to view .... this time there will be 2 photo album links above for peru ! X
