November 21st - 25th Avenue of Volcanoes

Having left the cloud forest we started our journey towards the avenue of the volcanoes but firstly we visited the market at Otavalo which is said to be the largest market in the whole of South America. The way to Otavalo involved journeying back towards Quito and then to the north-east and we reached this pleasant town around midday with William “letting us off the leash” for a couple of hours to enjoy the many stalls and do some essential (in S’s case) souvenir shopping. After lunch here we continued to visit the village of Peguche home of the traditional weaving where we were given a demonstration of the different looms still used and where R modelled a poncho and woollen mask which of course resulted in some very amusing photos. Tempted by a wall hanging we then watched the final touches being put to our purchase involving sewing on tassles to the bottom and we are looking forward to seeing it in place in Saffron Walden in a couple of weeks’ time.

Our overnight stop was in a beautiful hacienda (Cusin) which is owned by an Englishman and his American wife, it is surrounded by beautiful gardens and was at one time a monastery which explained the numerous religious paintings and artefacts, we had dinner watched by a painting of Salome holding the head of John the Baptist! Before dinner, we sampled, at William’s suggestion a local drink (Canelaso) which was very nice but a strange pre-dinner drink, as it was hot and served in tea cups. The concoction of a tea made with herbs and fortified with sugar cane spirit was very welcome to enjoy before a roaring log fire as the cold of the mountain night drew in.

Sadly we only had one night at Cusin and we left early the next day after enjoying breakfast in the same splendidly feudal surroundings as we dined. Our route took us back to Quito (where we had an unexpected meeting with William’s wife and 2 young children in a supermarket where we bought the ingredients for our picnic lunch) and then into the national park of Antisana, one of many volcanoes in the region of Quito, but dormant. We drove up through a beautiful valley to a lake from where we did a short walk up to a place where we ate our lunch in sight of Antisana, whose summit was becoming clearer by the minute. Further progress upwards was ruled out on the grounds of altitude (S was starting to feel some of the symptoms she had left behind weeks ago in Puno and R was also conscious of the lack of oxygen). When we left we were able to enjoy a virtually clear view of the summit.

On the way down, R received a text from Mark with the news that Spurs had thrashed Wigan by 9 – 1, a near record score for the Premiership and Jermain Defoe was toasted at dinner for his 5 goals. How events 6,000 miles away in North London can assume such importance, but that is the enduring appeal and addiction of football.
Our destination was another hacienda, La Cienega, another feudal pile, with large rooms and log fires downstairs but curiously spartan rooms upstairs.

The next day also was a visit to a volcano, this time Cotopaxi, the tallest active volcano in the world (5897m). But unfortunately the weather was against us on this occasion and we were only able to glimpse the lower parts of the glacier when the cloud lifted briefly. We had a very pleasant walk around a lake at just over 3800m and were able to see a lot of birds but not much volcanic landscape. We returned for lunch and then spent a pleasant afternoon and evening lazing in front of a blazing log fire.

Monday saw better weather for the continuation of our journey south along the avenue of volcanoes and our detour to Lake Quilotoa, a lake in the crater of an active volcano. The road leads to the top of the crater at 4,000m and a panoramic view of the lake 350m below and apparently 500m deep. The path around the rim takes about 5 hrs to walk, but we opted for the walk down to the lake which took about 30 mins. There we were able to edge along and down a very steep rock face to view at close quarters hot sulphurous gases bubbling up from the rocks and into the lake. We then opted out of the hike back up to the top by hiring a horse (for S) and a mule (for R). This was not as easy as it sounds (although we both had no regrets, given the steepness of the path and the altitude) as there was no saddle and only a rope bridle to hold onto. The animals needed some persuasion to keep going to the top but seemed to respond quite well to a shout of “Vamos!” or “Pasa!” but still needed plenty of stops. We were both quite saddle sore by the time we reached the top and any idea of taking up horse riding as a hobby when we got back to England had totally disappeared from our minds.

We had lunch at the top in a small restaurant in the company of a group of Russians. We had met various nationalities on our travels, particularly Americans, British, Australians, Dutch, Germans and French, but this was our first encounter with anyone from Eastern Europe. Also the Spanish have been conspicuous by their absence, particularly given their link of language and culture, but perhaps embarrassed by their forebears’ lamentable behaviour in this part of the world.

We then proceeded on our journey to the Hacienda Leito near the village of Patate and arrived here enjoying the most spectacular views of the still active volcano Tungurahua from which you can see plumes of smoke emerging from the crater quite clearly – a sight which almost takes your breath away. The volcano last erupted in 1999 and after a period of 4 months the people were allowed to move back into their homes. No one is allowed to climb the volcano now for obvious reasons and the whole area is at risk although we were assured our hacienda was “in the safe zone”! It was a beautiful place to stay complete (much to S’s delight) with two dogs (bull terriers) one of whom was a real treasure and we were given the biggest hotel room so far which contained 3 beds! We were the only ones in the hotel that night but were served a delicious meal in front of a roaring fire.

The following day we were to visit the town of Banos and were about to leave he hacienda when we were asked if we would give an interview (!) to a reporter from the main national newspaper (El Comercio) who happened to be there to talk to the owner about the hotel which made for an interesting few minutes and a challenge to our Spanish. Her photographer took what seemed to be numerous photos of us in various places to accompany the article which was to appear in the travel supplement. The second time on this trip we have felt like celebrities!

Having left the hacienda which was without mobile phone coverage R found that he received a text from Mark asking if we could talk as soon as possible (at the time a bit worrying) and not long afterwards S also received a similar message so R having asked Mark to call then had to ask William (our guide and driver) to pull over so that we could take the call. But far from being bad news, we were thrilled to be told that Mark and his girlfriend Rach had become engaged the previous evening – we will always remember where we were when we were told this happy news – and the rest of the day was spent with the sound of wedding bells ringing in S’s ears.

We then proceeded to visit a couple of beautiful waterfalls just outside the town, one which we took a cable car across the river to see and the other we walked down to and then scrambled through a cave to get even closer to – this one was much higher and the spray from the pool into which the water fell rose high into the air. It was called “The Devil’s Cauldron” because of the face you could see in the rocks next to it, we also got rather wet in the process of viewing it. Lunch was taken in Banos after a quick dip in the hot springs (and a brief dip in the cold pool/shower) and then a relaxing afternoon in the hacienda which boasted a wonderful swimming pool and gym. Finally, another very good meal served by the women dressed in traditional dress before bed in the massive room warmed by a log fire lit whilst we were having dinner.

November 20th - 21st The Cloud Forest

The journey to Mindo from Napo took most of the day, so we did not have much chance to take stock of our new surroundings until the following day. This started at the crack of dawn (4.30) in order to make our way to witness one of the famous local institutions – the mating ritual of the “cock of the rock”, which takes place at dawn every morning and involves the male of the species strutting, dancing and squawking loudly to attract the attention of the female. So at about 5.30, we found ourselves being introduced to Rolando, the local farmer on whose land this ceremony was acted out and the master of ceremonies, and then walking through dark fields and woods to the venue.

Having had some exposure to the semi-professional end of the bird-watching business over the last few days, it was a bit of a come-down to find that there were no facilities at all to assist the observation of the ritual, such as a hide, and with the thick forest cover, the process of seeing anything at all depended on our guides creeping up and down a narrow path and then pointing out the occasional glimpse of some red feathers that were barely visible even with binoculars. The birds made quite a lot of noise but only one allowed us any real sight of the dancing ritual and then only fleetingly. The action, such as it was, was all over in about 15 minutes, a lot shorter than usual, apparently. As anti-climaxes go, it was difficult to beat, but the walk through the cloud forest in the early morning sunshine was far superior and even went some way to justifying the brutally early start.

Then back for breakfast and then more walking along the forest trails in the grounds of the lodge for a few hours before lunch.

The owners of the lodge had given it the ambitious name of Septimo Paraiso or 7th Heaven and it was clear to us from an early stage that it was never going to live up to its name. Although it has a superb position and grounds, the whole place smacked of having seen better days and in need of some TLC. It had a large outdoor swimming pool, which could be really impressive, but the pool was not kept clean (lots of flies on the water surface) and the area around the pool had broken tiles and in need of some weeding.

The building was virtually all timber with gaps in the walls, floor and ceilings so that noise permeated the whole building. Our room was directly above the dining room and we could hear almost every word spoken below. Also, there was no escaping the noise made by the groups when they left the lodge, normally at some incredibly early pre-dawn hour. The lack of any sound-proofing enabled us to find out how many serious anoraks were sharing the lodge with us. There were 2 birding groups, one British and one American but they both participated in the same end of the day ritual in going through the guide book to the birds of Ecuador and identifying (by number not by name) the birds they had seen that day. We found this reduction of a day’s experience in a beautiful foreign country to an exercise reminiscent of bingo pretty appalling and a warning about the risks of getting too closely involved with the birding community. It was all S could do, not to shout out “clickety click 66 !”
We also found ourselves for the first time marginalised by not being part of a group. Dinner was prepared en masse to be ready for the first group at whatever time they requested and then kept for everyone else. This made for some very unappetising and sometimes cold food. One redeeming factor in all this was the area in front of the lodge given devoted to the many species of humming bird to be found here, there were feeders with sugar water attracting these beautiful birds who dart around at great speed and all you can hear is the sound of their very fast beating wings. But all in all this was not a place or an experience we would wish to repeat, although the sights and sounds of the cloud forest were a memory that will remain longer in the memory for the right reasons.

November 16th - 19th - Napo Wildlife Centre

Our trip into the jungle in Ecuador involved a short flight from Quito to a town called Coca in a propeller plane which was bigger than we expected and after an hour’s delay we arrived to temperatures in the 40s and around 80% humidity.. Coca is a very busy town on the Napo River and our lodge was quite a journey from there, 2 ½ hours in a motorised canoe and then another 1 ½ hours being paddled up a beautiful creek where there were many birds and animals to admire on the way including an anaconda asleep in a tree.

We were on the same flight as a large party of American “birders” all staying at our lodge so we felt slightly in awe of these serious ornithologists but our guide Juan Carlos who introduced himself at dinner soon put us at ease, each group is assigned a bilingual guide and a local guide too – in our case Hugo who is a member of the local Anangu community who are now the sole owners of Napo. His eyes out in the jungle were amazing, he spotted night monkeys asleep in the bark of a tree which to all intents and purposes looked like wood carvings amongst many other interesting things.

In spite of the heat and humidity of the jungle we had a wonderful 3 days there, the mornings would start with a wake-up call at 5.30am and after breakfast we would head off in the canoe up the creek always seeing wonderful birds en route to our destination.

One day we were taken to two parrot clay licks – places where hundreds of parrots assemble each day to lick the clay or water which contain essential minerals to help their digestion and neutralise the toxins that they ingest from the seeds that they eat. One clay lick was on a bank on the main river and the other was a short walk inland. The noise from the hundreds of gathering birds was unbelievable. We had to make a return trip to the second clay lick as the parakeets were reluctant to work to our schedule, despite our waiting over an hour for them to appear. The second also involved a long wait (alleviated in R’s case by reading his Spanish copy of the first Harry Potter book) but was much more interesting and we saw hundreds of birds gradually descending down the cliff to approach the cave containing the elixir of parakeet life, but at the last moment they all took flight when a lizard appeared in the cave entrance so we didn’t actually see them licking the clay.

We were also taken on a walk through the forest to the observation tower where we were 100 feet up looking down on the canopy of trees. We saw many birds, caiman, lizards and monkeys during our time in the jungle and S was also treated to the interesting experience of having the bad spirits cast out of her by the local shaman (aka witch doctor) Domingo – a process involving chanting, blowing into her hair and stroking her head with leaves and what sounded like vomiting into her head (deep guttural noises from his throat) so that only good spirits remained! The guiding here was excellent and well worth the long transfer up river, the lodge is beside a lake and there were many trees in the grounds where there were plenty of very noisy birds to observe and a night we were serenaded by thousands of frogs – the only downside were the millions of mosquitoes who still managed to bite through clothing in spite of the repellent we used at every opportunity.

We were also entertained by one of the American group who is a talented amateur harmonica player, who has made recordings and plays in a group. He said he brought 10 harmonicas with him on this trip (which sounds incredible) but we heard him play a couple of pieces for his group while waiting for lunch after the visit to the clay lick and he was most impressive. Shades of the Deep South in the South American Rain Forest.

The American “Birders” were a pleasant group of people, and apart from the harmonicist (?) the most notable was a man who carried everywhere (even on the boat up the river) a tripod and camera with a zoom lens measuring at least 2 feet, the longest that either of us had seen away from a sporting event.

We had an early start again for the 6.30 departure back up river to Coca and the flight back to Quito where William was waiting for us to take us on to our next short visit to the cloud forest in Mindo.

November 15th - Quito

The day began with a beautiful clear blue sky providing ideal conditions for viewing the old colonial city and its white walled buildings, and the banning of traffic from the streets on Sundays gave a welcome break from the hazards of competing with cars and taxis when crossing the streets. Religion clearly retains a significant hold on the Ecuadorian people, judging by the number of people we saw attending church services. There are 29 churches in the old City alone (all catholic, naturally) and those that we saw all had large congregations in attendance. William, although clearly catholic himself, was not as respectful of the services as we might have expected and although we were grateful to see the insides of several churches, we both felt rather uncomfortable about our intrusion into what is an important time in the weekly calendar of the church and its followers.

We then went up to El Panecillo, the hill at the south of the old city with a panoramic view of the city and its setting among the surrounding volcanoes and an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary keeping watch over her flock in the city below.

We then went out of the city to El Mitad del Mundo, on the equatorial line a few miles north of Quito. There we found an older monument, erected to mark the spot, but subsequently found with the aid of GPS to be about 200m away from the real line. We visited a museum which was at the real place and at which they were able to show a few interesting phenomena only capable of being demonstrated at the real line. For example, emptying a basin full of water at the equatorial line (straight down the plughole), 5m into the northern hemisphere (anti-clockwise) and 5m into the southern hemisphere (clockwise), balancing an egg on the head of a nail (impossible anywhere other than the equator due to unequal gravitational forces) and walking along the line with eyes shut and both arms stretched out into each hemisphere (very difficult without staggering off the line and appearing drunk). The other highlight (!) was being shown a shrunken head of a 12 year old boy who apparently died from natural causes, a custom no longer practised by the jungle tribes but it was nevertheless interesting to see the drawings of the process of how this was done – not something to be tried at home!

Once back to Quito we visited the Jesuits’ church, La Compania, baroque style taken to the extreme, with 7 ½ tons of gold leaf. Impressive but an indication of the scant regard had for the welfare of the local inhabitants who no doubt would have benefited enormously from even a small proportion of the expenditure on the church being spent on good causes in the locality.

Then back to the hotel to reorganise our luggage for the rest of the trip. Some to remain at the hotel in Quito until our return from the Galapagos and some to stay with William until our return from the Rainforest. The result was S & R sharing one bag for the first time in their lives and S unsure whether their marriage could stand the strain.

November 15th & so to Ecuador

Spent our last morning by the pool chilling out after a walk around town during which R managed to cash some travellers cheques – a process which took about 20 minutes and included numerous checks and photocopies of his passport and each individual cheque. It seems that banks in the north of Peru are not accustomed to dealing with this sort of thing, but in the light of subsequent experience in Ecuador, they are reasonably advanced!

Our short flight to Lima was in the early evening and we then found ourselves back in the hotel we had left four weeks earlier albeit for less than 12 hours as we were taken to Lima airport at 7.15 for our onward flight to Quito.

One thing we have not yet mentioned is the traffic in the major towns in Peru and more importantly the rules of the road or rather lack of them – it is every man or woman for themselves and zebra crossings although they exist are ignored, so for a pedestrian it is often a death-defying feat crossing the road! This led R to observe that he would never ever contemplate hiring a car in Peru, the nerves wouldn’t stand it! We endured a very laborious 1 ½ hour procedure to get to the departure hall, involving 4 queues, one to check in and drop bags, one to pay the airport tax, one to get through security and the final one to get through passport control.

Finally on our way this time with the airline TACA instead of LAN we spent the flight chatting to a charming Norwegian gentleman who works for the government advising developing countries on the responsible development of their oil industries and who spends about 20 weeks a year travelling all over the world. His knowledge of English was impeccable and if you closed your eyes you would not believe he was not a native - puts us Brits to shame!

Landing at Quito was “interesting” as the airport is right in the city and there are strong currents when coming in to land (Quito is at 2800m and surrounded by mountains) so it was a bit bumpy and it was a relief to land! We were met by our rep William (an interesting name for an Ecuadorian) who will be our driver and guide for most of the time, after checking in at the hotel we took a short walk around the main square once the storm and heavy rain had ceased and took dinner in a charming restaurant William recommended. The owner was extremely welcoming – possibly because we were the only diners! – and showed us the old photos of Quito on the walls, there were several old telephones and even a juke box there too and at the end of the meal he gave us some Ecuadorian stickers and a flag! We have promised to return in 3 weeks for our last night on this trip. (PS we did not……)

Last days in Peru

We arrived in Chiclayo on Monday evening after a long day travelling. The city is not very interesting in itself but from there we could visit the place where Lord Sipan was found, a burial site that in Peru is as important as the tomb of King Tutankhamen was for the riches in gold, silver and ceramics found with him. The quality of the ornaments considering they are nearly 2,000 years old is truly amazing, beautiful head-dresses and ear ornaments etc and the ceramic figures of all sorts of different animals were equally fantastic. We were also taken round the witches market in Chiclayo where you can buy almost any herb concoction you could imagine for any ailment, apparently many people do this before they will visit a doctor and when S asked our guide (the excellent Mercedes) we were assured that there were “black magic” items available but you had to ask for them. There was also the distressing sight of a chained monkey who would apparently tell your fortune.

The hotel in Chiclayo was, despite its 5 star rating, by far the worst we had encountered for the lack of friendliness of the staff and the poor management. The second morning when we came down for breakfast there was virtually no food left, we had to ask for everything in spite of the fact that there were loads of staff running around, and the packed lunch we were given for our journey south was nothing short of disgusting, stale rolls with huge slabs of pork and nothing else inside! However we did have an excellent meal the evening before in a restaurant recommended by Mercedes. The portions were enormous, S had ceviche which is the typical raw fish with lime and R had similar with grilled fish and langoustine, he declared it to be some of the best food he had ever had and the freshly mixed Pisco sour was delicious too!

In Chiclayo , we decided to send some things back home by post and the travel agency responsible for us in Peru (Coltur) were very helpful in making up a large parcel (nearly 7 kg) and then accompanying R to the post office. The parcel included some of the kit used on the trek and it was with some trepidation that R left this in the care of the Peruvian post office and the international postal system. However, all his doubts were unjustified and in fact the parcel arrived at 19 MPR only a couple of hours after we returned on 9 December.

We journeyed south to Trujillo stopping at another archaeological site called El Brujo on the way with coloured friezes still visible and the excellent museum contained the body of the Lady of Cao, a woman believed to be a noble lady on account of the treasures buried with her – the most amazing thing about her body is the fact that her skin is still visible including the tattoos etched upon her. We seem to be seeing a lot of dead bodies on our travels, mummies and skeletons, sometimes we wonder if it is right that these people are on display when they were buried with such care all those years ago.

Trujillo is a very attractive colonial town and our hotel in the main square a huge improvement on the last one, after a short exploration of the surrounding streets we went into the lobby to find the whole place full of Peruvian students of tourism, they were very interested in us and asked so many questions – all in Spanish – and even took photos of us with their mobiles so we felt like royalty! There are not many tourists in this part of Peru and we had the impression they had never met English people before.

Our second day in Trujillo began with the search for some more anti-malarial tablets, S had realized when in the jungle that the number of malarone we had with us was far short of what was needed (to cut a long story short the Gold Street surgery had stupidly only given R his own tablets when he asked for our medication at the desk) and with the help of Mercedes we had been trying to buy more here! Having established that malarone does not exist in Peru she took us first to the teaching hospital in Trujillo to ask about alternatives, then to the main hospital (quite an experience, we were glad we weren’t staying!) where they told us that there were no anti-malarials available in Trujillo, then to a pharmacy who told us the same thing! Meanwhile we visited the temples of the sun and the moon, the latter again containing the most magnificent coloured friezes on several different levels from the Moche period and another temple called the rainbow temple which was equally impressive. S then decided to telephone Gold Street in the UK about the malarone or lack of them and when she asked if they still had some for us was told “yes you owe us £69!” ie her tablets were still in the UK! Having established that the National Health Service were not going to courier them over (!) she then got the name of an alternative ie doxycyclin and the dosage from the practice nurse, finally R decided we should try another pharmacy where we found that yes indeed these were available and we were now armed with sufficient tablets to cover us. Quite a saga and the moral of the story is never trust your GP surgery, count the tablets before you go and make sure you have the correct number, quite how the surgery didn’t have the foresight to hand over all the tablets is beyond us.

Lunch was taken in the oddly named “Big Ben” restaurant in a town called Huanchaco on the seafront, a surfers paradise and also a place where the fishermen still use the traditional reed boats “caballitos” which you can see lined up along the beach. The afternoon visit was to Chan Chan which is the largest adobe city in the world, only one small part of it is open to the public and it was a very impressive sight, diamond shaped bricks and intricate designs – a lot of restoration and maintenance is needed as in all these sights as there is so much danger of erosion and damage from sun, sand rain etc.

The Jungle

After the amazing journey to Machu Picchu a journey of a different kind - after a short flight from Cusco we travelled up the river from the bustling town of Puerto Maldonado (not somewhere you would want to spend much time) to the Inkaterra lodge. A beautiful lodge right in the rainforest and on the muddy river, the bandas complete with mosquito nets and hammocks on the veranda where you could (and we did) swing to the sounds of the jungle, the birdsong in the mornings being particularly memorable. The first afternoon we had a short walk in the jungle with our guide Jesus (!) and two Americans. Much as we enjoy the company of other people, this guy was the equivalent of a 6 year old let loose in a sweet shop. He was obsessed with the life and death aspect of the jungle, and when our guide was showing us how grubs live in seeds he then proceeded to eat the unfortunate creature (like in I'm a Celebrity if you have ever watched this) at which point S turned her back although his wife insisted on videoing it! Each to his own but every question seemed to be about snakes, spiders, etc. and the following morning when we did the canopy walk with the same couple S muttered darkly to R that there might be an accident up there!

We spent time in the afternoon relaxing in our room, the other thing of note that day was the arrival of the obviously "resident" tapir to eat the brazil nut shells prepared for him near the main house and there were several agouti in the grounds (large rodents) who apparently stay near the lodge as it is safer than in the jungle. This enabled R to finish “The White Rock” – Hugh Thompson’s impressive account of his travels in the early 80s to various remote Inca sites in Peru. This nicely complemented “The Last Days of the Incas” by Kim Macquarrie, which records in a very readable way the generally accepted version of events after the Spanish invaded Peru as well as Bingham’s “discovery” of Machu Picchu and the dismantling of Bingham’s theory that MP was where the Incas’ last stand against the Spanish took place. The WR had been bought in Cusco – S having been unsuccessful in finding it in the UK. Unfortunately S was not able to act on R’s strong recommendation to read it because R managed to spill water over it, so it had to abandoned in the jungle. Annoying but perhaps an appropriate end………..

That evening we went out on the river after dark where we saw several caiman (related to crocodiles) on the river banks and a bat flying near the boat plus some amazing lightning on the other side of the river.

On the second full day we arose before 5 to undertake a trip to Lake Sandoval, during the night the lightning we had witnessed developed into a fearful storm right overhead including one clap of thunder like nothing on earth so not much sleep was had. The heavy rain continued during our 1 hour walk to the creek to get into the rowing boat so we were very grateful for our waterproofs. A good 10 minutes were spent clearing out the canoe of the excess water (using a sponge and a cut off water bottle – curiously the hotel had provided no proper means of emptying their canoe of rainwater). Then we headed up the creek to join the calm water of Lago Sandoval. In spite of the fact that we didn’t see the elusive anaconda or have our fingers bitten by piranhas (all of which are apparently in the lake) we did see a whole family of river otters (which are endangered and a rare sight), feasting on fish. We were then chased by the mummy who took exception to our observing her family at close quarters. We also saw a huge group of squirrel monkeys and several beautiful birds including the amazing snake fish which S actually though was a snake! A productive morning and after another fantastic meal back at the lodge we relaxed in the afternoon, S indulging in a cold stone massage and R in some much needed sleep in the hammock!

Although we were promised a lie-in until 6.45 the following day we were unfortunately woken up before 6 as the security guard obviously got the wrong room number – luckily S had checked her watch before jumping in the shower and came back to bed. We were finally off at 8am back up river to the airport of Puerto Maldonado and our onward flights to Lima and then Chiclayo.

Machu Picchu

November 5th – Machu Picchu
After an evening meal in the Inkaterra Hotel in Aguas Calientes (lovely hotel but the town is a bit like a cross between a shanty town and a town from the wild west) we boarded the bus at 7.45am to visit the ruins of Machu Picchu. Most people know the traditional view of the site and it is just like that in real life, an amazing situation surrounded by mountain peaks. Most of the city (about 60%) has been rebuilt since its discovery by Hiram Bingham in 1911. We spent around 3 hours wandering the ruins, with the ever informative and philosophical Dalmiro (whose pre-dinner “briefings” had become a regular feature of the trek and were as much lectures about local history and culture as information about the next day’s walk) leading us.

There was also an optional excursion to climb the peak of Wayna Picchu (visible at the back of the traditional picture of MP and rising dramatically above the main site) which much to S’s disapproval R and his fellow Brit Tim decided to do on pain of being late for the train returning us to Cusco (“ I am getting the train whether or not you are back from the climb!”). Tim’s wife (the other S) and S caught the bus back down to the town and started lunch in the appointed place, and were amazed to see only about half an hour later R and Tim getting off the bus having ascended the peak in 40 minutes! They confirmed that the ladies had made the right decision not to take part in this as it was a hairy climb involving very steep and high steps and scrambling through a tunnel at one point and with nothing between the precarious summit and the rocks below (no health and safety here!!) but the views from the top were spectacular. (Tim’s suggestion to go to another restaurant for lunch and to arrive 1 minute before the cut-off point for boarding the train was applauded for its nerve but immediately shelved on the grounds of 2 inevitable sets of divorce proceedings). WP was an exhausting but very rewarding addition to the visit to MP, which we could see was filling up with more tourists, as the morning wore on. (In the Galapagos we met an American couple who did the “classic” Inca trail, getting up on the final day at 3.30am to get to the Sun Gate and to arrive at MP when it opened but who were unable to climb WP because there were already too many people ahead of them in the queue!)

We boarded the train to Ollantaytambo shortly before 3.30pm having said goodbye to two of our fellow trekkers who were spending an extra night in Aguas Calientes and after a short journey were picked up by car to continue our way back to Cusco, Dalmiro stopped for a chicha break fetching a jug of the local corn beer for us to try in a village in the Sacred Valley and then we were deposited back at our original hotel in Cusco after yet more goodbyes – the end of a wonderful trip with many happy memories which will live with us for years to come – Machu Picchu was a wonderful site to visit but in many respects it was its setting that was the most memorable and the journey there that was the most enjoyable part of the week.
Next stop the jungle – a very different environment!

Mountain Lodges of Peru trek

Mountain lodges of Peru trek - October 30th to November 5th

We met our fellow trekkers on Thursday night in the Casa Andina hotel in Cusco. We are 4 British and 6 Americans plus our head guide Dalmiro who looks every bit the Inca warrior with his long black curly hair and Danny assistant guide who is a real clown and has the kind of infectious laugh you want to bottle up and take away with you. Departure time (on Day 1) was 7am the following morning, quite by chance the Americans were in one minibus and the British in another! We had several stops before we started the first part of the trek, one to visit an indoor market just outside Cusco where the locals were selling their wares and indulging in a hot breakfast – S had the bizarre experience of having her bottom pinched by an old lady who obviously wanted S to move out of the way and this seemed to be the preferred means of communication!

We then had a stop at a big outdoor market held very Friday which although interesting was also quite upsetting, pigs arriving in sacks and then screaming very loudly when let out as only pigs can. Animals are treated here as a source of food an/or money for a very impoverished population and definitely not as pets, even guinea pigs which were of course on sale. The most bizarre and disgusting spectacle of a man with a microphone demonstrating making a potion which included adding frogs to a blender (we didn’t watch this bit!) to make a liquid which is meant to cure all ills – puts a whole new meaning to the frog in a blender joke!

Finally we arrived at the village of Mollepata where the locals were selling various food products made from quinua – a local cereal – and then not far outside the village we started walking. The day was sunny and so extremely hot and, coupled with the altitude, it made the going quite tough. We stopped for a picnic lunch en route and reached the first lodge, Salkantay, at around 5.15pm. The location of all the lodges was amazing, but the first one was particularly impressive, on a plain in front of the magnificent Salkantay and Humantay mountains, each over 6000m. We could see the snow capped mountains from our bedroom and even when taking a shower – an awesome sight. Some nice touches in each lodge were hot water bottles which were very welcome as the nights are very cold and we were always most grateful for a hot shower and comfortable bed at the end of each day rather than a cold tent and cold shower which is all you can hope for on traditional Inca Trail trek.

The following day (Day 2) was designed as a day for acclimatising to the altitude and the mountain conditions. We did a half day hike from the lodge (3800m) up to a glacial lake at 4300m. This was quite a challenge, lots of stops needed because of the altitude, it is not fitness that is an issue but the lack of oxygen. Fortunately the weather was kind – warm sunshine - and the setting of the lake was stunning, with a backdrop of the glacier rising behind up to the couloirs and then the seeming impregnable summit. S quickly found a kindred spirit at the back of the group with a fellow Brit (another S) but didn’t mind that as there was less pressure that way! At the end of the afternoon, we relaxed in the outdoor Jacuzzi, with Salkantay providing a dramatic and unforgettable background.

Sunday dawned, the big day (Day 3) when we crossed over the Salkantay pass at 4600m. A long day but reaching the pass was a very satisfying achievement. By this time we were walking in cloud and hail and had 5 layers on. It was slow going up several hairpin paths when we had to take frequent stops to catch breath – one of our party told us afterwards that we were functioning on 40% less oxygen at this point which S was glad she didn’t know at the time of booking the trek!

This was a tremendous achievement for S after her struggles with altitude sickness of the previous week, where alternative plans had been contemplated if her condition did not improve. Her face approaching the top of the pass was a picture of determination and the photos taken at the top capture her elation. Although it was cloudy at the pass, we were fortunate enough for the clouds to lift for a few minutes to glimpse the snowy peak of Salkantay rising dramatically above us to 6200m. After the inevitable photos we walked down to lunch on the mountainside provided by cooks and staff from the next lodge, tents set up and a three course meal served whilst it rained outside. We reached our next lodge (Wayra – 3850m) by 4pm – Dalmiro told us we were a better than average group as we had done it all so quickly, and to celebrate some of us indulged in Pisco sours\beers served outside in the hot tub – very decadent but very welcome!
Day 4 was a shorter day – a five mile walk mostly downhill into the valley but quite hard work still. We visited a typical Andean house on the way, no windows, everything in one room including the inevitable guinea-pigs underfoot and were given a demonstration on the use of the hand plough to grown vegetables, this part of the Andes is very fertile and many varieties of potato are grown as well as other root vegetables, avocado etc. Life is tough in the mountains. The couple whose house it was looked (to our eyes) at least 20 years older than we were told they actually were (about 45).

Arriving at the next lodge (Colpa – 2800m) we were shown the use of the traditional earth oven. Our lunch was cooked between very hot coals in a covered area, all covered with soil and then earth – a fascinating way of cooking – and it was absolutely delicious. One of the lovely things about this part of the trip is that it is not just about the trekking but about learning about the way of life of Andean people, a way of life that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years. A restful afternoon at the lodge, with a dip in the hot tub in the rain which was somewhat bizarre, we decided not to stay in too long as the lightning seemed to be coming closer and felt it a bit risky!

Day 5 was the longest day in terms of distance covered, more than 9 miles in total and quite a bit of this had to be undertaken in our first rain in the Andes. The path followed the Santa Teresa river valley, but at one point the path had been blocked by construction work on a new road. Huge piles of soft soil now covered the path, and Dalmiro had to offer a young worker some money to dig a new path 100m across the soft soil and on a 60 degree slope dropping about 50m to the river in the valley floor. Traversing the path was certainly not for the faint hearted, and stopping half way across to admire the view was definitely not recommended! But the whole party, even the mule train carrying the luggage, coped admirably with this unexpectedly hairy experience which, from Dalmiro’s request to us not to refer to this in our customer survey response, was not on his agenda either.

The rest of the day took us down in altitude to the jungle and through coffee plantations (the flowers smell divine). Also another fabulous hot picnic lunch cooked by our cooks Roger and Yolanda who followed us for most of the trip. We had a short minibus ride from the river bank to a spot where we resumed the short climb to Lucma Lodge (2100m), the last beautiful lodge, travelling part of the way along the Llactapata Inca trail. No hot tub here but it wasn’t needed as it was baking hot and a real haven for mosquitoes! The highlight of the evening was an impromptu party to celebrate the 50th birthday of Charlie, one of our fellow trekkers, much vino was consumed after the inevitable Pisco sours, there was dancing and each nationality present had to sing their own national anthem! Bedtime was delayed until 11.30pm – a couple of hours after our normal bedtime on the trek!

Day 6 was the final day of our trek. It started with a long climb up the eastern side of the Santa Teresa valley to the Llactapata pass (2700m) which was hard work in hot humid conditions, and then stopped at the eponymous ruins where we had our first view of Machu Picchu. This was from the south east – not the normal view from the “classic” Inca trail but it was spectacular. Throughout the afternoon we had great views of MP as we got closer and were able to appreciate the unforgettably dramatic mountain scenery in which it is set. Descending to the river we arrived at the hydro-electric power station which now is at the end of the railway line (after El Nino washed away the track higher up the valley in 1998). 5 minutes after we arrived at the station, the heavens opened and so we were grateful to be waiting under cover refreshed by cold beers to board the train to Aguas Calientes (1900m). We also said a sad but fond farewell to our assistant guide Danny who was heading back to Cusco.