3 days after my last beautiful experience, I did Machu Picchu and yes, it was beautiful, a perfect end to my hike. I did it slightly more unconventionally and had the place to myself. It was perfect. I dont know how to explain the experience, other than, imagine sitting totally alone on a mountain top surrounded by clound in the morning light, patches of distant hills appearing and dissappearing through the silent mist. It begins to rain and you wandered down 2000 steps to mingle with ancient stone walls and buildings, the edge of this world dropping hundreds of meters to cloud forest and a twisting river that encircles this peninsular. The first place you come to is a huge carved funeral rock, with a top flat surface that would have held the dead bodies of kings as they were mumified. A few meters more and an eerie sentinel house, the hut of the care taker of this rock, looms over the whole complex, narrow and tall, vague in the mist.
More wanderings amoungst the un-prepaired, cheap poncho clad tourists brings you to beautifully aranged buildings with intricate stone work, temples for wind and sun and moon and water. Perfect channels taking a trickle of water under, through, down and around rocks and paths and walls.
I exhausted the sights at mid day and headed back down the 400 meters of spets and paths to the river below, pack up my life again in to my backpack and set off walking down the train tracks to Cusco, to save me the insanely expensive train ride. The following day i complete the journey on buses and arrive at the belly button of the world, to stalk the fusion of inca and spanish streets, neetly cleaned and de-personed for the tourists.
Now I am on my 15 day excurtion to Santiago in Chile to meet up with a frind there for 2 and a half months, my route takes my to the Isla de la Sol on Lake Titicaca, down through the Bolivial Salt Flats, in to Argentina, desserts, mountains and wine growing country, before crossing west to Santiago. Hopefully all hitch hiking. A bit faster paced traveling now! x
Thursday 22 September 2011
Sunday 11 September 2011
Choquequerou to Machu Picchu
Im walking in the cool after-rain morning. The sun sieved through the after-rain clouds. The mountains he now rests on one of many green and laden in the unscorched hours, that dissapear in turn in to the distant blue haze, way down the valley.
The path Im on, a wet dirt road coils through the cloud forest, above a stoney maountain fed river. The tributarys, some rushing down from steep floow washed valleys, others tubmble in a tangle of branches and thankful plants through pools and waterfalls.
From the road margins spring grass and docks and weed plants, digesting the sun and road clearing brings to them, but just a meter in, the forst floors autumnal, homely in its brown leaf coating, tantalised by the smell of cooking fires and wet earth. From the lef mound shoot the lanks branches of coffee, sparingly adourned with leafs and closely held red and green berrys. The classic torn banana leafs thrust up above these, and draped with velvet purple fibonachi chandeliers. And just there, a quiet reminder that this is a jungle sit in their infinite wisdom, old growth canopy trees, protective and towering, hung with ferns and moss.
The air around always filled with the rivers flow, upstaged by the chirps from the undergrowth, chatter from the canopy and infected with shrill song from goodness knows where as parrots dart in florecent groups from tree to tree. A cockeral adds its odd announcement to the mix. And behind me my back pack creaks rhythmically as i search the skyline for The Lost City Of The Incas, after 2 1/2 months, now not half a day away.
The Eden Project in real. Small wooden houses peek from the shading and a motor bike putters past me, school uniformed girl on the back. No Smiles, too many tourists here, but I imagine at least the chickens are smiling as they scratch in the forests leafs. x
The path Im on, a wet dirt road coils through the cloud forest, above a stoney maountain fed river. The tributarys, some rushing down from steep floow washed valleys, others tubmble in a tangle of branches and thankful plants through pools and waterfalls.
From the road margins spring grass and docks and weed plants, digesting the sun and road clearing brings to them, but just a meter in, the forst floors autumnal, homely in its brown leaf coating, tantalised by the smell of cooking fires and wet earth. From the lef mound shoot the lanks branches of coffee, sparingly adourned with leafs and closely held red and green berrys. The classic torn banana leafs thrust up above these, and draped with velvet purple fibonachi chandeliers. And just there, a quiet reminder that this is a jungle sit in their infinite wisdom, old growth canopy trees, protective and towering, hung with ferns and moss.
The air around always filled with the rivers flow, upstaged by the chirps from the undergrowth, chatter from the canopy and infected with shrill song from goodness knows where as parrots dart in florecent groups from tree to tree. A cockeral adds its odd announcement to the mix. And behind me my back pack creaks rhythmically as i search the skyline for The Lost City Of The Incas, after 2 1/2 months, now not half a day away.
The Eden Project in real. Small wooden houses peek from the shading and a motor bike putters past me, school uniformed girl on the back. No Smiles, too many tourists here, but I imagine at least the chickens are smiling as they scratch in the forests leafs. x
Sunday 28 August 2011
Huancayo and Ayacucho
Much much to catch up on! A good few strong days walk over a couple of biiiig hills and down in to a huge flat bottomed valley sporting boulivards of eucalitus trees and green irrigated fields brought me to the city of Huancayo, my half way point in time and physically on the route too. I had arranged to Couch Surf with someone there for a couple of days before heading on, but I got on rather well with my host and ended up staying 11 days - the limit I calculated that would still allow me to complete my trip by foot.
I really enjoyed wandering around a chill city in the evenings wiht company and snacking on sweet treats from street vedors, it was very nostalgic of London, and great to have a frind. My time passed making biscuits and wandering in to the city and sittign my little rivers in the sun and relaxing, but my day came to move on and calculated 6 days to the city of Ayacucho, given I would had a couple of hills and the rest was straight down a valley. I was wrong.
The two hills were ok, and lasted a bit longer than I though, but they dropped me from about 3500m down to 2300m, the lowest I have been on the whole trip, and in to a massive v shaped valled with the Rio Mantario at its centre. There was no path, just one gravel road that wound (and I mean wound) its way excrutiating slowly down the very curvy bank. One minute walking west, the next east as i headed south, sort of. I spent 3 days doing 30km on each to get out of valley, but it was an intereasting place in its self. There where, then the vast steep sides permited, small farms growing a wonderful range of beutifully named tropical fruite, including avocardo and bananas and mango and papaya! I love the feel of those tropical trees and the climate they are in, my first experience here with that, and one night i camped amoungst Chirimoya (sp?) trees uinder the stars by a river on the land of a small family. Very beautiful.
The valley exited not in to more tropical forest, but in to dry dry dry desolate dessert, with every variety to leathally spikey plants mother nature has produced. And it was, on my 8th day, a days walk from Ayacucho, descending a steep loose path one to one of these wonderfully defended plants, I fell. With the weight of a 20kg backpack and unfortunatly aided by gravity. I retrieved an impaled hand and plucking spines lodged in to my palm, rapidly realised that a quick exit was necessary by other transport means and to get to Ayacucho as quickly as possible. This I did and sought the hospital as it felt like I still had a point grating down my ligament in my palm. The hospital was usless and I left with out tretment or useful diagnosis of the pains to find a private practice.
I was instructed after repeted journeys to the pay desk and after being prodded to wait a day to see how my body reacted. And it didn´t, which is very good news because it means i don´t have wood stuck in me. I have had 3 days here now and found some other travelers to spend time with and enjoy the company of, but today I must move on, 4 or so days and I start my final 9 or 10 day trek in to Machu Picchu, im really excited for this section because the route descends in to could forest and i really miss trees - there arent too many up here. And of course Machu Picchu signifies the end of my trek here, and the start of another section of my journey in Chile. The next blog will be from Cusco I expect, and I will have finished! x
I really enjoyed wandering around a chill city in the evenings wiht company and snacking on sweet treats from street vedors, it was very nostalgic of London, and great to have a frind. My time passed making biscuits and wandering in to the city and sittign my little rivers in the sun and relaxing, but my day came to move on and calculated 6 days to the city of Ayacucho, given I would had a couple of hills and the rest was straight down a valley. I was wrong.
The two hills were ok, and lasted a bit longer than I though, but they dropped me from about 3500m down to 2300m, the lowest I have been on the whole trip, and in to a massive v shaped valled with the Rio Mantario at its centre. There was no path, just one gravel road that wound (and I mean wound) its way excrutiating slowly down the very curvy bank. One minute walking west, the next east as i headed south, sort of. I spent 3 days doing 30km on each to get out of valley, but it was an intereasting place in its self. There where, then the vast steep sides permited, small farms growing a wonderful range of beutifully named tropical fruite, including avocardo and bananas and mango and papaya! I love the feel of those tropical trees and the climate they are in, my first experience here with that, and one night i camped amoungst Chirimoya (sp?) trees uinder the stars by a river on the land of a small family. Very beautiful.
The valley exited not in to more tropical forest, but in to dry dry dry desolate dessert, with every variety to leathally spikey plants mother nature has produced. And it was, on my 8th day, a days walk from Ayacucho, descending a steep loose path one to one of these wonderfully defended plants, I fell. With the weight of a 20kg backpack and unfortunatly aided by gravity. I retrieved an impaled hand and plucking spines lodged in to my palm, rapidly realised that a quick exit was necessary by other transport means and to get to Ayacucho as quickly as possible. This I did and sought the hospital as it felt like I still had a point grating down my ligament in my palm. The hospital was usless and I left with out tretment or useful diagnosis of the pains to find a private practice.
I was instructed after repeted journeys to the pay desk and after being prodded to wait a day to see how my body reacted. And it didn´t, which is very good news because it means i don´t have wood stuck in me. I have had 3 days here now and found some other travelers to spend time with and enjoy the company of, but today I must move on, 4 or so days and I start my final 9 or 10 day trek in to Machu Picchu, im really excited for this section because the route descends in to could forest and i really miss trees - there arent too many up here. And of course Machu Picchu signifies the end of my trek here, and the start of another section of my journey in Chile. The next blog will be from Cusco I expect, and I will have finished! x
Monday 1 August 2011
Lago De Junin
I feel very lucky in my experiences over the last few days as i seem to have collected a group of friends!
It started with loosing the Carmino Inca whilst on very gently rolling barren open grassland. I ended up diverting to a town i didnt want to go to, in the wring direction to pick up food, and sleep a night in a church, before catching a bus to a town a bit more on route, here I was told to sit and wait in a restaurant by a couple of locals whilst they fetched their american friend. And there turned up an american girl living in the town of Vicco for a couple of years as a PeaceCorp volunteer! So of course i spent the whole of that day chatting in blissful English and relaxing before falling ill that night and spending the next day with her very generous host family recooperating and watching school children marching disturbingly in their Independance day parade.
To my total suprise and enjoyment my new friend (Briana) decided she would join me for a couple days walking as she was due in a town just south in a few days anyway. SO I have had my first propper company on this trip and we headed off down the west side of Lago De Junin or Lago Chinchaycocha. This lake is a nature resrve and is very shallow supporting vast areas of reeds perfectly suited for migratory and local birds, and i had the wonderful pleasure of seeing my first wild Flamingoes (i think - unless there were some in Africa).
I am now in San Pedro de Cajas after joining two other PC volunteers who live around, so I have spent the last few days with some wonderful people, but tomorrow I head off on my own again to Tarma and on to Hauncayo, so for now I am going to go enjoy my company! x
It started with loosing the Carmino Inca whilst on very gently rolling barren open grassland. I ended up diverting to a town i didnt want to go to, in the wring direction to pick up food, and sleep a night in a church, before catching a bus to a town a bit more on route, here I was told to sit and wait in a restaurant by a couple of locals whilst they fetched their american friend. And there turned up an american girl living in the town of Vicco for a couple of years as a PeaceCorp volunteer! So of course i spent the whole of that day chatting in blissful English and relaxing before falling ill that night and spending the next day with her very generous host family recooperating and watching school children marching disturbingly in their Independance day parade.
To my total suprise and enjoyment my new friend (Briana) decided she would join me for a couple days walking as she was due in a town just south in a few days anyway. SO I have had my first propper company on this trip and we headed off down the west side of Lago De Junin or Lago Chinchaycocha. This lake is a nature resrve and is very shallow supporting vast areas of reeds perfectly suited for migratory and local birds, and i had the wonderful pleasure of seeing my first wild Flamingoes (i think - unless there were some in Africa).
I am now in San Pedro de Cajas after joining two other PC volunteers who live around, so I have spent the last few days with some wonderful people, but tomorrow I head off on my own again to Tarma and on to Hauncayo, so for now I am going to go enjoy my company! x
Saturday 23 July 2011
Hauri to Yanahuanca
Very very shortly after posting my last blog (10 minutes) I saw a group of gringoes/ white people strolling through the town. Never to miss an oppertunity, I went right over and started chatting. It turned out they were an American family of missionarys living in Peru for a couple of years, and they had also for that week, other missionary friends staying with them. With out a blink they invited me to a game of basketball and netball they were just heading to, not before they had offered to wash my clothes and drop my bad off at their house.... The game of basketball turned in to a week with the 5 of them and their 5 frinds, doing sight seeing, teaching at a local school, playing many many games and chatting wonderfully (in English), cooking and baking and just being as entertained and cared for as I could possibly be! Even when I spent the night being sick... Refreshed to my soul and loaded with yummy food they kindly dropped my at Hauchis, to start on the Inca Trail propper!
This is my 10th day since leaving the Bredbenner family and I have crossed an amazing amount of valleys and rivers and towns and people and experiences allready. I have spent 3 nights with local familys (and of course being fed their wonderful food), had milk straight from cow 3 times, been asked for money by a man with a gun, been asked for money by a man wiht out a gun, had my hand shaken and had beautiful smiles more times than I can count. I have met with extrodinary kindness at every turn, and everything seems to be working out beutifully.
Right now I am an hours walk or so from Yanhuanca at a school where they invited me in to use their brand new second hand computer sweet and internet... And was also given food here... Food is very graciously and easly given.
About ah hour back I crossed a pass (4500m exact) where I had views to the north and south for AT LEAST 200km in each direction. Those are my favourite moments on the trail. I just LOVE topping out on a hill or a pass or rounding a bend, for me they are magical and aweinspiring and breath taking. I alwasy take the last few steps to the top with anticipation, where the new view inevitable pops in to sight, and I can say goodbye and many thanks to valley I have just walked through, from one area and set of experiences to another welcome unknown one. Often i can trace my trail for the next few hours untill I loose it round a bend, the two rows of stones that mark the Carmino De La Inca, what remains of the cobbled and steped 1000km + route.
Another little point to wonder over is that every bit of water i cross, every lake or river or stream is flowing just 6,500 km East to the mouth of the Amazon, how can water possible run down hill for that long? That is a 1:1625 average gradient... wow, beat that river Dart.
As for where my thoughts lie, they are still very scattered, I am more in the moment and enjoying whats around (like sunrise this morning wiht a heavy frost and light low fog, next to a peaceful river on my own was breathtaking as the orange glow crept down the hill to my tent) but I am still dreaming of England, Devon, walking there, being with family and frinds, but it isnt taking me away too much from the now.
I am trying to obtain the WWOOF list for Peru at the moment incase there is somwhere near I could rest at for a week, but otherwise I head to Cerro De Pasco! Love for now x
This is my 10th day since leaving the Bredbenner family and I have crossed an amazing amount of valleys and rivers and towns and people and experiences allready. I have spent 3 nights with local familys (and of course being fed their wonderful food), had milk straight from cow 3 times, been asked for money by a man with a gun, been asked for money by a man wiht out a gun, had my hand shaken and had beautiful smiles more times than I can count. I have met with extrodinary kindness at every turn, and everything seems to be working out beutifully.
Right now I am an hours walk or so from Yanhuanca at a school where they invited me in to use their brand new second hand computer sweet and internet... And was also given food here... Food is very graciously and easly given.
About ah hour back I crossed a pass (4500m exact) where I had views to the north and south for AT LEAST 200km in each direction. Those are my favourite moments on the trail. I just LOVE topping out on a hill or a pass or rounding a bend, for me they are magical and aweinspiring and breath taking. I alwasy take the last few steps to the top with anticipation, where the new view inevitable pops in to sight, and I can say goodbye and many thanks to valley I have just walked through, from one area and set of experiences to another welcome unknown one. Often i can trace my trail for the next few hours untill I loose it round a bend, the two rows of stones that mark the Carmino De La Inca, what remains of the cobbled and steped 1000km + route.
Another little point to wonder over is that every bit of water i cross, every lake or river or stream is flowing just 6,500 km East to the mouth of the Amazon, how can water possible run down hill for that long? That is a 1:1625 average gradient... wow, beat that river Dart.
As for where my thoughts lie, they are still very scattered, I am more in the moment and enjoying whats around (like sunrise this morning wiht a heavy frost and light low fog, next to a peaceful river on my own was breathtaking as the orange glow crept down the hill to my tent) but I am still dreaming of England, Devon, walking there, being with family and frinds, but it isnt taking me away too much from the now.
I am trying to obtain the WWOOF list for Peru at the moment incase there is somwhere near I could rest at for a week, but otherwise I head to Cerro De Pasco! Love for now x
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