Llamas

Something about Llamas. I'm not sure what it is. So here's an entry for them. Iwas stoked that there is Llamas at MP and spent most of our guided tour taking photos of them.

I figure they own the place.

MP

We wanted to see Machu Pichu but weren't sure how. We decided the cheapest method was best. So we scoured around, talked to some Israelis and found a four day trek for US155. Not bad considering entrance to the site is US40 alone. It is called the Inca Jungle trek. The trek itself was a lot less walking than Choquequirao and wasn't as interesting. But ended up with the right result with us seeing MP.

The 4 day trek involved 1 day of biking followed by 2 days walking with the final day at MP. The bikes were dodgy with me going through 4 bikes in the 3 hour that turned into 4.5 hour bike ride. The walking was OK. This photo above was interesting as it was a massive avalanche that took out the railway tracks and blocked the tunnel on the right. The train doesn't pass through here any more. And this one cool inca trail on the side of the mountain, below on the left.

And a cool flying fox ride across a river.

On the last day we started walking at 4.30am from the town at the bottom of MP. We made it to the top before all the tourist buses arrived, although we had to wait for our guide. It was a cool walk up through the rain and cloud with the ever increasing sunlight.

The cloud.The morning with an empty MP.

Some of the stone work is amazing. Perfectly cut stones sitting together with no mortar.

The earth moves after a while.Something about 3's in the Incan culture.There is a nearby mountain that you can climb called Huayna Pichu. It's a pretty steep climb so it stops some of the tourists. But the views are great.Bella on some floating stairs showing the steepness of the site.Woops. You get the idea. Huayna Pichu behind the site.Then there are the crowds. By 10.30am the place is crowded with treks coming in from all directions plus the day-trippers from Cusco. All crowded around a rock. It's apparently a sun dial/calendar.
They cut stones to fit in around natural rock structures. Amazing.Us in amongst it.

Finally....

After many months in South America I finally got to one of the main reasons I wanted to come to South America, just to wander around the Andes. Having not booked the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu, which is now booked out till November, we were looking for alternative treks. We decided upon a trek to an alternate Incan city called Choquequirao (say that 3 times fast). A much less visited city. So much so, that not all tour agencies offer treks there, and the one's that do normally pool you all together anyway.

After the standard running around, looking for a cook, etc....we left Cusco at 5.30am and drove for about 4 hours to Cachora. We (the guide) then rounded up some horses, horsemen and a cook and we were off. A group of 4 tourists, one guide, a cook, two horsemen and 3 horses. The day starts pretty easy with 11km of flat ground. But then the descent started. 8kms in 2 hours of some steep downhill to our campsite. Knees hurting and toes pushing through the end of our shoes we eventually make it to our spectacular campsite. The saddle in the middle top is where we would be heading to the next day, little to our knowledge.

Some cool, big asparragas (??) looking vegetation along the way (during the flat bit).

The second day was the painful day. By 5.30am we were walking, a quick half hour downhill and then the ascent. 4.5 hours up. About 7km of zig-zagging trails up some of the steepest slopes I've seen. I think we climbed 1500m vertically.

The green patch was our campsite the previous night. We had climbed down to the river and back up again by about 7am. Some exhausted faces after the ascent, but now with the ruins on pretty much the same level (between our heads). We had about 2.5hrs rest along with some lunch and then headed off for the final 4kms to Choquequirao. Below shows us getting closer, with the big agricultural terraces below the city.

Finally we made it by about 2pm. Walking along the terraces, while approaching the city.

An overall impression.

Close ups. Local archaelologists playing football on the sacred site.

The Incans were not great record keepers to so not a lot is known about this site or many others. It was thought to be built about 1200 and lasted through to the 1400-1500's. It was an administrative city as oppossed to the possibly religous Machu Pichu. It is thought to be much larger than MP but has not been excavated or restored to the same extent. Mainly due to its remote location. The best part was there were only 2 other tourists up there all afternoon. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. This is in complete contrast to Machu Pichu as you will see later.

Our group.Stairs to the unknown. Probably more terracing.

We headed up again the next morning. Another 5am start. This time the ruins were covered in cloud and rain and had a whole new feel. We headed down the other side of the city to some terraces that had stone Llamas incorporated in the wall. This is a great example of the Incans foresight in their construction to include such features. Probably some offering to Pacha Mama (Mother Earth).

We then headed home along the same trail. It was 4 days in total with over 64kms covered. A hard trail but well worth it.

The other side

From Peru we did basically the same thing. Except this time we booked a tour (instead of going independently). It was cheap and we couldn't be bothered the other way. So we had one night on the mainland at Puno and the next morning we were out to the islands.

Our first stop was the islands of a tribe called Los Uros. They were tired of the war and feuding around the edge of the lake so they decided to live in the lake. They live on floating reed islands. They build the houses, boats and ground out of the reeds, even eat the reeds and now make gringo merchandise from them. A very unusual but now very touristy existence.

Here they are waiting for the gringo boats to arrive. Cool fort.

Making merchandise. The ground is spongey as you would expect.

Very colourful girls singing us a goodbye song.

Reed boats that move and steer quite well considering the're made of reeds and powered by two guys with oars. Apparently a puma's head on the front of the boat on the right.

We then moved onto another island called Amantani where we would stay the night (above) with a family. As much as i will complain about it being touristy, it is very unique and does give you some insight into how they live. Basically no electricity, heaps of agriculture and vegetarian food.

We did get to dress up in local clothing for a local 'discoteque'. But the next morning we were off to our third island. Kind of the same but different to Amantani.Agriculture is still pretty traditional, including the uniform.

But we did get a nice sunny goodbye from Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca - from one side.

From La Paz it was to the sacred Lake Titicaca. An island ocean situated at 3800m, so yes, still cold. The lake is apparently the birthplace of the first Incan god Manco Capac. This is now very much on the gringo trail and we noticed it. More people trying to sell you everything and trying to get you into their restaurant or hostel. But still, a very nice place. We spent one night at Copacabana (not what the song is about) which is on the mainland of Bolivia and one night on Isla del Sol (an island).

Copa, copacabana. The coldest place south of Havana. Looks nice though.....

A nice sunset over the lake.

Isla del Sol in the foreground with Copacabana being in the top right. Very hilly island. All the lines on the right hand side of the hill are stone walled terracing for agriculture. It is everywhere on the island and must have taken a huge amount of manual labour to build.

Essentially we did about 6 hours of walking on Isla del Sol. This may sound not too bad. But consider it being cold, any slight incline completely exhausted you thanks to the altitude and a complete lack of signs or directions (which means you do extra walking cause you get lost). So although it was a tiring day, it was well worth it. Lake Titicaca is very beautiful once the sun comes out and it did restore my lack of being near water after being landlocked for over 3 months.

Beautiful vegetation on the 3 hour walk up the island. The whole point of the walk, which we were questioning at some stages, was to see some Incan ruins and the birthplace of Manco Capac. Luckily we eventually made it.

This was our first Incan ruins so we were impressed. Although i am sure we will get overdosed in the next month in Peru. The table below is where sacrifices were made, anything from llamas and alpacas to any unfortunate young ladies who were considered beautiful enough.And yes, below is a puma's head with some kind of triangle thing on the right that symbolises something. A little was lost in the Spanish translation we interpreted but this rock is very sacred and is apparently were Manco Capac rose from. Very impressive.A nice sandy but very cold beach.

These steps 'welcome' you to the island. A solid 1/2 hour slog uphill with your packs is not fun. Coming back down is slightly better. So it's goodbye from the Bolivian side and here comes Peru.

(And yes, there are lots of photos cause for once the internet connection is fast.)