Peru

We arrived in Peru on the 4th November. It was a long journey. It consisted of three connecting flights and Emily panicked the whole time. Looking back it was all pretty painless and our bags were the first out!! Unlike bloody Air Canada!

We were so tired as we had travelled throughout the night and our hostel was a bit of a diappointment! The showers were cold. The windows didn´t shut which meant it let all the cold air in at night and there was a hole in the roof of the girls shower. Conviently there were builders working above!

Our first day wasn´t bad. On arrival in Lima we realised that nobody spoke English. Therefore we walked around Lima trying to find a shop that sold Spanish/English phase books. Fortunately we got lucky.

Generally Lima ia awful. It is heavy polluted, lots of traffic and the constant beeping of the cars makes it extremely noisy! Whenever we were in a cab Emily got car sick. It was bumpy and as it was hot the drivers constantly kept their windows open - blowing the pollution into our faces!

Our hostel was made bearable by the people we met. Lucas from Switzerland, Pacca from Mexico and Bacco from Ecqudor. We also met two American guys who were not very nice. They weren´t interested in talking to people and they were very rude. We thought that one of them looked identical to the fat guy in superbad. It was only a few days later that despite the fact we all come from different countries Lucas, Pacca and Bacco had been thinking exactly the same thing and couldn´t stop laughing when we mentioned it.

We took a flight to Iquitos as we had to get out of Lima!! Iquitos is where the Amazon is and it was absolutely beautiful. We arrived in 35 degrees heat and surprising it wasn´t raining. A guide in our hotel named Louis offered to take us around the city. We visited the main square, the first ever church in Iquitos and we took a tut tut to a place where we got overlook the Amazon. It was amazing. Louis offered to take us out on the boat the next day so we didn´t have to pay a lot of money for a tour company.

He collected us the next day at 07;00!! He got us some breakfast and the best smoothie we have ever tasted. On the boat Louis took us to a tribe who lived on the bank of the Amazon. What a crazy experience!!! We honestly thought they were going to kill us!! We had to bang a drum to let them know we had arrived and then they did this crazy dance. These people live completely different lives. Everything evolves around the tribe! They wanted ten soles out of us and then we had a problem! All we had was a 50 sole note and they said they didn´t have change! Out of that we needed to pay the boat man 25 soles so they all stood around in a circle discussing what they would do with us. We just took one look at their bows and arrows and prayed for Louis get us out of this!

I don´t know what Louis said but suddenly they had change!! Funny that! He then took us to see the animals of the Amazon. This was one of the best parts! A monkey came running straight for us but we were reassured that it was friendly. He took Tony by the hand (and tail) and tried to show him off to the other monkeys. One monkey tried to get inside our bag while another one thought it was amusing to pull down Emily´s top. Tony thought it was the funniest thing! Emily soon got her own back when a baby crocodille nearly bit half Tony´s hand off. We saw Lazy monkeys as well. They were funny looking things that hardly moved (hence the name). We saw and held snakes and turtorises as well.

Once back in Lima we decided we would leave early. We spent our last day tying up loose ends. By night Bacco and Pacca attempted to teach Emily Spanish. They loved teasing her for her strong English accent and did impressions of her for most of the evening.

We left Lima for Cusco and what a contrast. Cusco is a beautiful place. There is brillant architecture and all the people are very friendly. Everything is extremely slow paced here which is probably to do with the heat and the altitude.

On arrival we both felt so ill. Tony felt worse as he was dizzy and just wanted to lie down. Emily suffered gradually instead. The altitude is an experience. We would walk up three steps and would have to stop because we are unable to breath. To make matters worse our hostel was even worse than the one in Lima. The beds were uncomfortable, there was constant noise and it was a million miles away. Thankfully Emily got talking to Laura on a park bench. Laura was from the US and she told us where she was staying so we left our hostel for hers. It was a god send. Her hostel only cost us 3 pound each per night with free breakfast and hot showers. It also had cable TV and a lounge and kitchen.

During the first few days of Cusco we just walked around the town trying to get used to the altitude but then we got brave. We decided to climb up a mountain with Esther (a Swiss woman we met in the hostel). Emily was breathless straight away!! We were concerned for the Inca Trail!!!

The Inca Trail - The most exhusting, energy sapping, most difficult challenge we have ever been faced with. In our group we had the Irish, Americans, New Zealanders and the Aussies and they practically run the trek!!! We honestly don´t know how they did it. The first day was easy enough. The only problem Tony had was going to sleep that night. This was a regular occurence for him. Unfortunately on the first night our neighbour was a cockrel.

The second day was terrible. It was uphill for 6 hours climbing up uneven steps until you were 3800 metres high!!! It didn´t get any better once you hit the top! You had to get back down. The steps going down to the campsite were terrible. Once at the campsite we set up camp and it was such a cold night. Again Tony suffered because his sleeping bag was so bad. He was freezing for much of the night. Emily slept like a log!

The third day of the trek was the worse! Uphill and downhill but then downhill for hours. It sounds unbelieveable but downhill is a lot worse. It completely kills your knees. We were trekking on this day from 07:00 until 17:00! However this was the last full day. We were now only hours away from Macchu Picchu! Plus this campsite was where everyone stopped and it had hot showers and a bar. We all headed to the bar!! Emily went to bed with the rest of the group that night but Tony decided to stay near the bar before he headed back to the tent. Unfortunatley Tony lost his head torch and had to make his way back to the tent in the darkness. Unable to see Tony found a tent. He unzipped the tent only to find some girl that wasn´t Emily!!! He panicked, apologized and hurried away. Evenually he found the right tent only to find Emily fast alseep having taken up all the room and having left the dirty laundry bag by his head!

Wow Macchu Picchu. How amazing. The village was so perfect. Each building made out of perfectly shaped rocks. It was only discovered in the 1900´s and the Inca´s left in the 1500´s. The Incas knew the Spanish were coming and didn´t want them to ruin their homes so they fled. Every Inca that was found was decapitated by the Spanish. Nice!! The Incas also had the good sense to hide all their gold and it still has not been discovered! Lucky Peruvians! Macchu Picchu is beyond words.

The Inca Trail in all was tough but amazing. Peru Treks really looked after us. The porters were unbelievable running past you with all the weight on their backs. In addition the food was the best we had eaten since travelling. We had fresh fruit, pancakes and toast for breakfast and for both lunch and dinner we were given rice, noodles, chicken, beef, veg and they even made us a cake on the last night - Emily´s dream come true!

Once we arrived back in Cusco we only stayed a day longer as we were eager to move on. Therefore we took a bus to Puno. Puno is the home of Lake Titicaca. On this lake there are several floating lakes made completely of reeds! People live on these islands and it was so surreal to see. We took a boat to the Island and it was amazing to see their houses also built of reeds. The local people took us out in their boat (guess what that was made of?) and we sailed along the lake. It was beautiful as there were blue skies and it was so warm. One of the little children on the Island took a liking to Tony and couldn´t stop chasing after him and trying to hold his hand.

Our time in Peru is now over. The next blog will be Bolivia!!!! Oh and hi to Paul - See I told you I would give you a mention!