Nazca.... there's not much to do! 23rd Mar

With the Inca trail finished it was time to head off on the next part of our journey through Sth America. The next stop was Nazca. This is where they have all these drawings in the desert. We were going to take a joy flight over the Nazca lines and check them out for ourselves.
An overnight bus was taking us from Cusco to Nazca and we picked a pretty good one for the overnight 13hr trip. We caught the bus at 8pm and after the in service meal, which I had all of mine and most of Jo's, I fell asleep watching and English movie, dubbed in Spanish, but with no subtitles.
I woke at 6ish, still on the bus and reached passed Jo to open the curtains and revealed nothing like I had ever seen before. Australian dessert at least has some plants and scub, but this place was devoid of anything. We were still at 3000m, according to The Watch, and over the next two hours we dropped 2500m down into Nazca.

You've seen it before, but its a cool shot.

It was hot in Nazca, after Cusco, so we went outside in the sun in search of some breeze. We had booked a flight through the hostel to fly over the lines at 2 pm, a taxi would pick us up at the front of the hostel at that time and the girl on the front desk would let us know when he got there. Lucky for us that we were back at the hostel at 12.30, because the car was waiting to take us out to the local airport.
Pulling up to the airport, well across the road from the airport, we were taken to an office where we paid the $50us, for both, and told to wait. We were starting to get a bit worried after half an hour, plus we hadn't seen the guy we paid the money to since we paid the money to him, when another guy came up to us and said ' come with me'. He happened to be the pilot and he was leading us to a very small 4 seater plane.
It was at this time that Jo decided to tell me that small planes freak her out. Great..... I tried to explain to the pilot that I wanted to go up with someone else, but his English had deserted him and I couldn't get my message across. We piled in to the plane, and headed off down the runway. As soon as we were airborne, the pilot started to explain the Nazca Lines to us, and since I don't speak great Spanish, just four words, he must have remembered how to speak in English.


This one was the hummingbird.

The Lines themselves are truly amazing, the condor has a 120m wing span. Nazca is one of the driest places on earth, which is why there is so much still left for us to see. We also got to see Nazca's only other attraction, the biggest sand dune in the world. And since it was dwarfing the nearby mountains, I wasn't about to dispute their claim.
That was the problem with Nazca, in about 35mins we had seen just about all there was to see. We headed into town to check out the main drag. Nothing happening down there, so we went to get a bus ticket for the next morning, only problem was that the only buses out of there were night buses. The prospect of spending all the next day in Nazca was too much so we tried getting a bus that night to Arequipa. We wanted to get the hell out of Dodge, that was the feeling that we got from the place, a frontier town that probably hadn't changed much in 100 years.
A bus station was found but this is where our next problem was. We walked into the station only to be told ' no, no the computers are down '. We walked into the next place, only to be told ' no, no the computers and mobile phones are down '.The power had been going on and off all day, and right then it was off. So maybe Nazca had changed in the last 100 years. I found it a bit strange though that they were reliant on computers to book us a ticket out of there.


When the Guinea pig runs out......?

So we walked up the street in search of dinner, we had been told to try again for a ticket in an hour. I saw a guy clinging to a ladder scraping something off the side of a building. What made me look twice was the fact that he was all tangled up in the power lines, but since he wasn't doing a funny little dance, I concluded he wasn't the cause of the power problems. I wished I had got a photo of that.
The computers were still down when we got back, but the guy there had managed to get through and book us on a bus for 11pm. We went back to the hostel to tell them that we weren't saying after all. The girl on reception didn't seem surprised she just shrugged and said with a smile ' there isn't much to do in Nazca'.
So we arrived at 8am and were on a bus out of there by 11pm having seen all there is ( not quite true ).

I think the slogan should read........ Come to Nazca, there's not much to do!

Inca Trail Day 4 The Final Push

Day 4 The Race To The Sun Gate

5 km of gradual descent to 2400m, 280m down.

What a day Day 4 turned out to be.

We all got up at 3.45am, Jo could hardly move, we all could hardly move. But breakfast was cake this morning, so that made it easier to rise. The plan was to be first to the checkpoint, which opened at 5.30, to be first in line in the race to the sun gate.

We didn't actually make to the checkpoint first, we were second, that was ok, it wasn't raining and we only had 40 mins to wait for the checkpoint to open. There was a misty dampness in the air, so we had our wet weather gear on and I also had a jumper because it was cold.

The clock slowly ticked off the seconds. The checkpoint guards came down at 5.20.

Tick 5.28.

Tick 5.29.

Tick....... We were off. The gate was opened, our tickets checked and stamped, through the checkpoint and on to glory.

Well it might not have been quite that dramatic, I seem to be more excited about it than I remember being on the day, but it was good to be at the final hurdle.

A good pace was set, but after the last 3 days it wasn't too quick. The path was level so I was able to keep my place in the line. I soon got hot in my rain jacket and jumper. I wasn't about to stop and let anyone else get ahead of me. A few in front of me stopped to tie shoe laces or take off clothes and each time I passed one, it moved me closer to the front.

We were probably about two thirds the way to the sun gate, about 1 hour front the mornings checkpoint. We had had a couple of slight uphill sections and I was once again falling behind. Everyone was starting to string out along the trail. There was Quannah ( pronounced Conner ) form our group, closely followed by Roy, I was 10-15m behind Roy and Ouray ( Quannah's brother ) behind me, but out of sight from me.

I watched Quannah walk around a corner in the trail and then Roy just seemed to put his foot onto..... nothing and just toppled over the cliff......... yes TOPPLED OVER THE CLIFF.

It is one of the strangest and funniest things I have ever seen. You couldn't make this stuff up if you wanted to. Roy didn't make a sound, in fact he didn't say anything through the entire episode. I just heard the rustle of his poncho.

Roy's predicament.

Quannah later said that one minute Roy was talking away and then nothing, not a sound. He spun around and no Roy.

I watched it happen from 15m away, like it wasn't actually real. Then thought.. gosh.. mmmm not quite. Quannah said it was the fastest I had moved on the whole trek, I didn't put a stopwatch on it so can't claim otherwise. But we got to the spot where Roy went over and looked down to see him clinging to some grass and shrubs.

I had a rented walking stick, so that was useless, but Quannah had an illegal cane one, nice and long. Roy had to scramble back up the grass so that he could reach the walking stick held out at full stretch by Quannah. He grabbed hold of it and when there was enough stick I grabbed hold and we pulled Roy back up. We hauled him onto the path and plonked him down feet first, lucky for Roy he only weighed about 65kg.

It seemed like a long time but in reality probably took no more than 30 sec, because Ouray only saw us standing together on the path, he thought one of us had lost something over the edge..... we did..... his name is Roy.

As I said nothing was spoken by Roy and if either Quannah or myself said anything, i have forgotten. The tree of us just dusted down ourselves and resumed our march to the sun gate. We hadn't even lost a spot in the queue.

I don't think Roy realises how lucky he was, we hadn't gone more than another 150m along the trail, where if he had tried his stunt here, there would be no coming back, just straight down no grass.

Roys problems were over, but unfortunately mine were about to start.

Lifting Roy up hadn't done me any good, in fact it had severely aggravated my hernia. Those that don't know I developed one about 5 or 6 years ago. It isn't a bad one, and until now hadn't had any problems at all, and I was fine again 3 days later. But right then I wasn't. Straight away I didn't notice, or was still nice and warm, so it didn't worry me. I thought that it was not too bad. I just had some pain, so I continued to the sun gate. That was probably the best, because as you reach the gate, there are about 100 steps and they are almost vertical. It was of course slowing me down and I wasn't too happy to see others pass me along the way.

I made it to the sun gate, but as we rested up there I knew that I wasn't very well, as we cooled down I stiffened up. I couldn't stand erect, i was at about 10 to 15 degrees doubled over, to relieve the pain.

Our view at the sun gate.

I told Marko and Casiano what was going on and that all I need was to put my feet up. So Casiano sent Marko and I down to Macchu Picchu on our own. We got down to the guard house before anyone else, form our group, and set up shop just above the ruins. I had a great view of the place and Marko pointed lots of things out while we waited for the others. At one point Marko turned to me and said that Macchu Picchu would be gone soon. I didn't know what he meant until I saw the clouds roll in. I just hoped that the rest of the group had gotten there in time.

The mist just about to obscure Macchu Picchu.

They had, just, where i had about 15 mins looking at Macchu Picchu they had about 5, just enough time to get the group photo's out of they way.

I had walked 4 days to sit above the ruins for 20 mins, was it worth it? At least I have a good story to tell. And if i get the chance I will come back and walk around the ruins. That's right, no need for me to hire a porter, because I'm catching the train next time.

What I got to see in town waiting for the group.

Inca Trail Day 3 19/3/07

Day 3. It is 5km of flat walking followed by a knee jarring 1000m drop to camp. Overall distance 9km.

It rained pretty hard during the night and only finished at about 4am, we had been lucky with the rain so far and our luck was holding. The clouds and the mist rolled over the mountains so we didn't have the best of views, but it looked rather spectacular anyway. It was to be a short day, where we were stopping for lunch was also our nights camp, before the assault on the sun gate early the next morning. There was also the promise of a hot shower, for only 5 bone ( bone is the currency of the day when you can't remember the actual currency. Thanks Andy R and friends for that. Soles is the actual currency of Peru. )

Descending through the cloud forest.

We got into camp around 1.30pm, after descending through some more Inca sites. The further we went along the better they were getting, and strangely enough it was inversely proportional to our care factor. We were absolutely jiggered. Casiano announced that we had free time, siesta time, until 4pm. So I retired to the tent, to sort out all the gear..... ok someone woke me at 4, and I could smell the popcorn that the staff was preparing. It had become a regular thing before dinner and signalled the end of the days march, I can't describe that it is like to walk into camp to the smell of popcorn. Those who worked at Wiluna during a certain popcorn era will understand.

The last Inca site before Macchu Picchu, complete with stone terraces for crops.

We had a short 15min walk to our last Inca site before Machhu Picchu, by now I was starting to think we had taken a wrong turn somewhere and the guides were going to come up and say ' er we have to tell you guys something..... ' The site itself was the most impressive one we had visited and we couldn't wait for the next day.
But first, we had to stop off at a bar and have a beer. Yep one day out of Macchu Picchu is a place where you can have a drink, nice to see that the priorities are in order, even up here. A round of drinks was bought, downed, and then some roadies for the night ahead. I didn't buy any, and I still can't believe it, but at the time I didn't want to be hungover for the final push.
It was dark by the time we made it back to camp, we were able to find our way simply because the porters had come down the path looking for us. You see we were late for dinner and Casiano had said we wouldn't need torches, we would be back while it was still light. Either his grasp of English wasn't what I thought it was..... oh I know Irish, Pub. Yep that was it. Dinner was accompanied by cheap cask wine, supplied by the tour group and dragged up the trail with the rest of the gear.
Roy's day was much better, he wasn't sick any more and had a relatively incident free day. I say relatively because he lost his walking stick, rented from Llama Path, ( it cost him 40us to replace), we think he left it at the pub. Its funny because it was the first time he had used it, it had been strapped to his bag the rest of the trek.

Jo having a bit too much fun I think.

After dinner drinks were flowing. But it was also time to make speeches to thank the porters, they would be leaving us in the morning and heading back to Cusco, jogging probably. So there was lots of hand shaking and some dancing, for the girls anyway. None of the porters wanted to dance with me.

After all that James ( one of the Americans ) got sloshed. We were all singing ( I think the high altitude had something to do with this ) songs form god knows where, but were left absolutely awestruck when James sang both parts of a duet from Les Miserables. It was one of the most impressive things I have seen or heard.
I left the party a 11.20pm, we had an early start the next day 3.45am, we needed to line up at a checkpoint which opened at 5.30 and we wanted to be first to the sun gate. I wouldn't know what time the rest went to bed.

Inca Trail Day2 18/3/07

Day 2 was supposed to be a lot easier, after all it was only going to be 14km long with an immediate 400m climb to the top. This is followed by a 620m descent, a 420m climb and a 400m descent to our camp for the night. Easy hey!
We had two guides with us, because the group was so large, and I am thankful for that otherwise we, and I mean Jo, Steve and myself would have kept the rest of the group back a bit. Casiano was the head guide and Marko was the second guide who's main job was to round up the stragglers.
Marko was supposed to wake us all up with a cup of tea in bed at 6am, I couldn't sleep, so at 5am I got up and watched the sun rise. There was a bit too much mist in the morning, so it was hard to see the glacier where the sun was coming up over. It didn't matter too much because we had a clear view the night before.

The highest point 4200m, we made it.



We had our breakfast and headed off for the highest part of the trek, dead woman's pass, 4200m, a 400m climb to start the day. I won't say we were all eager to start out, but we tackled the pass with the knowledge that the hardest part would be over. Well that's what we were told, and we believed them. The pamphlet we had said it should take 2hrs to reach the pass from where we were, and when Jo, Steve and I crested the rise it had taken us 1 and a half. Yes I know the rest of the group go there before us, but they are freaks.

Going down the other side was much better, at least we could appreciate the scenery without worrying where our next gulp of air was coming from.


Lunch day two


We had lunch at Pacaymayu, elv 3580m, a pretty little valley which i didn't take any photo's of. Lunch was another 12 course extravaganza, but i had learnt from the first day and only had the soup and nibbled the other dishes. After lunch our next ordeal was the second pass, this one was only 4000m a mere 420m up.

Roy, another troublesome Aussie, was starting to feel a bit sick. He had a bit of a head cold and when we stopped at each Inca site for a look around he was getting really cold and fidgeting all the time. The last time was when we were descending into our camp site for day two, we could see the site from another Inca ruin, which we were told once housed 60 families. Yeah whatever, they may not be tall but you try and get pass one of the local woman when she is standing in the isle of a bus....... not possible. Anyway Roy was doing his ants in his pants routine, but I didn't think too much of it at the time.

A watchtower, used to signal dangers



We left the Inca site and headed for camp. Oh, I must mention that the Inca site was called Sayaqmarka ( meaning inaccessible) and it sure was, we had to climb a very narrow set of steps to get up to it. So we were heading to camp for the night, and there was a slight uphill section and was a bit behind the group. As I crested the rise I saw Roy staggering along the path in front of me. Something was very wrong, I hadn't seen him on the trail since........ well the start actually. He said he was ok and we were within spitting distance, so I made sure he made it the 20m to camp and went to dump my stuff in our tent, which I have to add is also put up by the porters.

The next thing I knew there was a crowd around Roy's tent, with Casiano and Marko speaking in Spanish. I thought it was a bit serious when a oxygen bottle was produced, but Jo sorted him out with regular checkups through the night and making sure he was kept warm. Lets face it there really isn't much that can be done where we were.

The rest of us passed the night away playing more games of cards with Marko hoping that the Irish had brought two bottles of Irish cream and had just forgotten to bring one out on the first night, he was disappointed and so was I actually.

Inca Trail day 1 17th mar

We got up very early, 4.30, they came to get us and we jumped on the bus. The night before we had a breifing on what to expect and to meet the others in the group. 5 paddy's 3 of which have been living in Aus for 6 years, 3 more Aussies, apart from Jo and I, 1 kiwi, 1 pom and 2 Americans. So we were a big group, the max is 16. We had over 2 hours to travel by bus, broken up by breakfast, so were able to get some sleep before hitting the trail.
As soon as the bus dumped us at km82, the start of the trek, it started to rain. Not heavy though, and that was the way it was for the whole trek, but enough for us to have to use our rain covers and poncho's in anger for the first time. The trek started out easy, but it wasn't long before Jo and I started to fall behind. We had decided to not use an extra ported on the trek. This was through ignorance on our part more than anything else, and if any of you do the trek hire an extra porter, i will even give you the money for one, that's how important it is. So we were satrting to fall a bit behind, on the uphill sections at least. Our first day started so early so that we could get a jump on the other groups doing the trail at the same time as us. We were to do 16km the first day with an overall climb of just over 1000m verticle. That was designed to put us just 400m below the highest point of our trek, dead womans pass, named I'm sure because this is where you will have had enough of everything and just need to vent and if you are travelling with .... lets say a..... woman for instance...... ok no math needed I'm sure.

Looking back down the valley, you can just make out our porters in red. They caught us in about ten minutes from there. I´m sure they took it easy.

We weren't too far behind the others, only about 15- 20mins by the end of the day. Half way through the day we really started to climb, and were joined by Steve, a fellow Australian, guess what, he didn't hire an extra porter either, the rest of the group did. So as we limped into camp near on dark with quivering leg muscles, to the smell of popcorn, we were buoyed by the cheering and clapping of our group, porters included. Jo picked the trekking company because they apparently treat their staff better than other companies. You don't really know until you are out there, but our porters travelled as a group, all had the same colour clothing on and really looked professional. All porters no matter what tour group they work for do an incredable job and deserve a lot more than they get. You see they a limited to 25kg each, who knows what they used to carry. I had about ten with me and it was killing me. They break camp, race pass you on the trail, we also cheer them on as they go past, set up for LUNCH at the next place and then do it all again for end of day camp, while we struggle along as best we can.

A bit further up the hill, I just needed a rest. It must have been still early in the climb, because we are both smiling.

At lunch, 7 or 8 courses at least, I ate way too much and struggled a bit straight after lunch, but at dinner I just didn't feel that hungry, but there was plenty of food for everyone. It was St Pats day, and the Irish had dragged a bottle of Irish Cream up the hill with them, which they shared out, so we played some card games and hit the hay. I say hill, but just keep in mind that our own highest peak is Kosciuszko at 2228m, aparently you don't start to feel altitude sickness until at least 2500m, we were at 3800m and still going up. But I think we faired rather well and all the training that Jo and I did, didn't go to waste at all.

Cuzco

( View form our bed out the window )


We flew into Cuzco on an early morning flight from Lima. The mountains that surround the city seemed a bit close for me. Don´t get me wrong, I am a great flier and thought the view was incredible. A lot of aircraft have speed breaks on them, these are used to wash speed off a plane once it has reached the ground. The speed breaks on this plane were flaps of aircraft skin on top of the wings. I am guessing that because Cuzco is at high altitude, 3300m, and the air being thin, we were coming in at a million miles an hour to stay aloft. The result. The speed breaks needed to be used while still in the air, just as we were ready to touchdown, causing the aircraft to become a bit unstable. I know this.... because I was sitting on the bloody thing, looking out the window saying to myself 'gee that´s a bit funny using speed breaks while in the air' So we made it to Cuzco. It is a pretty little city, plenty of things to do and plenty of things to see.

( A Cusco street near our hostel )

On day 3 when we final had enough courage to venture outside the hostel we saw these things. We were trying to acclimatise to the altitude of the area, so were planning to have ten days before we hit the Inca Trail.
When Jo told me we were going to Sth America, I told here the only thing I wanted to do was walk the Inca Trail, in hindsight i should have been a little bit more specific, like walk the Inca Trail and walk around Macchu Picchu. Yes that would have done, but i am getting ahead of myself. We went on the city tour, I don´t recommend it, too rushed and with a little knowledge you can do all the same things at a better pace on your own. If however you find yourself with one day in Cuzco to spare, I would suggest the sacred valley tour, we visited some great ruins and the market at Pisac for Jo.

( Pisac Market )

For any guys out there, you only spend forty minutes at the market, which is a shame really, it is not nearly enough time to try everything on, believe me. On the bus you get to travel through

the mountains, and can see to glaciers as well, not being used to this was quite novel for us, Jo seemed equally impressed, until she fell asleep 3 minutes into the bus ride home. She couldn't say she was tired from shopping. So Cuzco was great, great food, great shoe shine boys and great people, trying to sell you a massage every couple of meters or finger puppets or postcard or..... you get the picture, a very safe place, well I felt safe, after all I was a good head taller than everyone esle around me.

( ruins at Pisac )

First Taste

We touched down in NZ, it was my first time and I was excited to be able to finally tick the box on that one. Yeah ok, it was just a 2 hour stopover and yes we spent it all at the airport, but we were there.
Jo was expecting us to be robbed the minute we stepped off the plane in Sth America, so it was a pleasant surprise when we made it safely through customs. We were jet lagged so didn´t really appreciate the driving skills of our driver as he weaved his way through, well everything really, cars, people, dogs, so Santiago was a blur for me. We went to bed early to get up even earlier for the plane the next day.
We did the same in Lima, straight to a hostel, and a well deserved kip. However our first meal in Sth America awaited us just down the road from the hostel, at a shopping complex perched on top of a cliff.






We mananged to have our first meal on a new continent, and boy was it worth the wait.














( Jo looking a little bit guilty me thinks )