Got picked up at the hostel at 9am by mini bus for a tour to the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. It was a fairly short boat ride out on the lake to a huge area of reeds with the community of Uros which was made up of many islands made from reed mats with from 5 to 40 families living on each with a total of about 1200 people. We stopped on one of the islands and were given a display of how the islands were made and then the stalls came out and the women offered weavings and jewellery for many times the amount they would have sold for on the mainland. This particular island was quite small with 5 families. It smelled like rotting reeds and was quite squishy in parts where the reeds were level with the water-line. Quite amazing to see how they have lived that way for generations. There were some modern things like I saw a few solar panels on some of the islands and larger islands had buildings with corrugated iron roofs. Some painted yellow to better fit in with the thatched huts. We stopped on the main island on the way back and they had a restaurant, general store and even a “hotel”, three very basic rooms you could pay a ridiculous amount to stay the night in. (The insects would eat you alive!)

Back in town we had time for lunch before catching a bus to Bolivia. It was a three hour trip to Copacabana (no, not the one from the song…) on the Bolivian side of the lake. We filled in our customs forms for Bolivia and listened to the lone American on the bus whinge loudly about how she didn’t know she needed a Visa for Bolivia and how unfair it was she had to pay $135USD for it when no one told her and would she have time to get it at the border etc etc. The USA started making it hard for Bolivians to get US Visas a year or so ago because the Bolivian Government wasn’t doing enough to stop farmers growing Coca. So the Bolivians simply reciprocated and US citizens have to jump through the same hoops coming to Bolivia.

At the border we hopped off the bus and took our bags through the police station to get the police cards we were given on arriving stamped that we were leaving Peru, then next door to the customs to get our passports stamped as leaving Peru. After a 300 metre walk up a hill across the border we then needed to wait for half an hour for the sole officer processing all the incoming and outgoing people. Only took a second for him to stamp the passports when we got to the desk. Didn’t even look at our passport photos, just the Peru exit stamp and our transit card.

Outside we once again hopped on the bus for a short trip to Copacabana where we found a Hostel up a dark street in the rain. (After consulting our trusty Lonely Planet of course.)


Peru Photo Album link

Happy New Year!

New Years Day. Had a very lazy day sleeping in and staying in the hotel room watching TV for pretty much the whole day! Sarah sent me out to get some lunch about 2pm and I turned right out the front of the hotel to go to a Chicken shop half a block up the street.
It had the doors open but grill closed so didn’t seem open yet but had chickens on spits waiting to go in the grill, possibly the same ones that we had seen there the night before!
I walked on down the main tourist drag and there were very few shops open. Just a few restaurants which didn’t do take away. Walked back to the hostel around the market and found an open and very busy chicken shop two doors from the hostel.
I should have turned left out the door.

Woke to the alarm at 5.30am and finished packing our bags before having breakfast and checking out at 7am. We had booked our bus through VIP Travel Service and Elena had been very helpful and had arranged for us to be collected at the hostel at 7am to be taken to the bus station for a 7.30 departure.
Until 7.10am I wasn’t concerned as most things run on “Peru Time” but when no one had arrived by 7.15am I was starting to worry about making the bus. The man on the front desk tried to ring the agency but couldn’t get hold of anyone ( I was a bit surprised that Damian was getting worried about missing the bus. I felt like saying “Damian haven’t you learnt anything about patience since we have been travelling, I mean the bus would not leave with out us -Sarah) so I rang the bus company and gave them our names and was told they had no record of us on the bus (which was due to leave in about 2 minutes.) I told him we were on our way and we flagged down a taxi to take us to the bus office. There we showed the “receipt” the agency lady had given us and after a few hasty phone calls including to the bus which was currently heading out of town we jumped in another taxi for a mad dash to catch the bus.
Safely aboard we vowed to purchase bus tickets directly from the bus companies as we had been in the past because for the $10USD Elena had charged us for commission she seemed to have done absolutely nothing! And while missing the bus to Puno would not have been a total disaster, we would have been charged for a nights accommodation we booked in Puno and probably would have had to sleep on the streets in Cuzco as everywhere was booked out for New Years Eve.
VIP Travel Service has a nasty email coming their way tonight.

After the brief morning drama, the bus trip was very pleasant. Our first stop was in a small town at a rather tired looking church called the “Sistine Chapel of America” which had some pretty religious murals on the walls and roof and very impressive looking gold plated and solid silver altar.

Second stop was the ruins of an Inca City which was a trading post between Cuzco and southern cities in Bolivia and Argentina. The walls were built with stone and adobe so not much of the mud brick was remaining but the field of remains of the 120 food silos that were once there was impressive as was the central wall of a once massive 14 metre high temple.

Third stop was a lunch break at a restaurant where we had a delicious buffet lunch looking out at a grazing Llama and over the fields to snow capped mountains.

Fourth stop was at the highest point on the road to Puno at 4330 metres ASL. Very pretty mountain vista with a few stalls selling the usual trinkets and some children posing in costume with Llamas for money.

Fifth stop was in a small town to visit a museum with artifacts from some nearby ruins which would have been more interesting than the museum.

The last couple of hours were driving across the “Altiplano” which is a high altitude plane between a couple of the Andes ranges. No trees at all and lots of small communities of farmswith herds of Cows, Sheep, Llamas and Alpacas. High mountains in the distance, some with snow on top.

The last city we passed through before Puno was the city of Juliaca. I think it must have been our guide’s home town because he was raving about how wonderful the place was the whole time we drove through. He pointed out the “international airport” as we passed and mentioned it twice more. (Big deal, so it has twice daily, 1 hour flights to La Paz in Bolivia?) The town wasn’t too different from other towns we had been through. Dry and dusty looking with no parks or vegetation apparent. But the guide kept on. “We have the black market and the smuggling from Bolivia so the city is growing. Is more cheap than other places in Peru.” He also was quite proud of the 25000 taxi-chulos the city had which were bicycle tuk-tuks.

After Juliaca we got our first look at Lake Titacaca before arriving in Puno. From the bus station we took a taxi through town to the Hostel. It was a really nice room with private bathroom and the best shower since Ecuador. After we booked in we walked into the middle of town to get some dinner. Heaps of people around being NYE but very few tourists. We had a nice pizza for dinner in a restaurant with a fish tank with tiny turtles swimming around. Went back to our hotel room and had a few (or more!) drinks while watching cable TV and chatting with friends on Skype and listening to the fireworks being let off in the street below. Had a good chat with Jasper and Jeanie who were sweltering in 35 degree heat back in Sydney. Puno is at 3900 metres ASL so gets pretty cold at night!

Matchu Pitchu

Had a quick breakfast at the hostel before walking 20 minutes to the train station to catch the 6.50am train. We were on the cheapest “backpacker” class train but it was quite comfortable. Just like any train really. Even had a trolley pushed along the carriage to sell drinks and snacks. The more expensive trains just have gourmet meals served and tables with fancy lamps and butlers and stuff.
The train was a little late leaving the station ( but early for South American time -Sarah) and took a while to leave Cusco as it zig-zagged up the hillside through the suburbs. It was a very scenic trip to the town of Aguas Calientes (Spanish for “Hot Water“!) which is 20 minutes by bus from the ruins. Deep in a valley with massive cliffs above beside a fast flowing river. The Lonely Planet gives it a really bad rap describing it as “the ugliest, most overpriced small town in Peru” which I thought was a bit unfair. Sure it’s overpriced but so is Cuzco and the town was quite cute and the setting is spectacular. We were considering spending one night there to visit the ruins early in the morning and in hindsight I wish we had.
Off the train we were forced through a marketplace with every stall selling the same tacky souvenirs before getting on a small modern looking bus for the winding trip up the mountain. By the time we got to the entrance of Matchu Pitchu it was 12.10pm There were hoards of tired and dirty looking backpackers waiting for the bus back to town who would have just completed one of the several-day “Inca Trail” hikes ( and that’s why I am glad we didn’t go on a trek. The people waiting in line looked hideous and the sad thing is I knew that they would be getting the train back in the evening with us so they had to wait around all day -Sarah).
Inside we headed uphill to get a good view of the site. From pictures I had seen it looked like they keep the open grassed areas mowed but we quickly found out who was responsible for the short grass. Llamas! There were lots of them grazing on the terraces on the hill including some every cute babies ( So Tikal was run by spider monkeys, Tulum by Iguanas, Chichen Itza by “One Dallar!” Zombies and now Matchu Pitchu by Llamas ( well I think they were Llamas we don’t know the difference between Llamas and Alpacas) -Sarah).
We spent a couple of hours wandering down the hill admiring the ruins until we arrived at the “check-point” for the climb to the temple of the moon which is at the top of the mountain overlooking the site. I really wanted to go up but there was a 400 person a day limit on numbers and they only let people in at 10am and 11am. Another reason to have visited first thing in the morning.
Walking back to the entrance we took another bus back to the town and had a late lunch and then a hot drink overlooking the river before getting on the return train at 6pm.
An hour later we disembarked at Ollantaytambo and hopped in a taxi for the remaining distance to Cuzco. We could have taken a bus but after our long day we were pretty tired and even with the taxi fare we paid less than that train leg would have been..
Arriving back in Cuzco around 9pm we had dinner and went back to the hostel to pack our bags for tomorrow’s bus trip to Lake Titicaca.

Cuzco was the capital of the Inca empire which at its peak stretched from Columbia to Argentina. It is the oldest inhabited city in South America and is the ‘gateway’ to Matchu Pitchu which is the most visited tourist attraction in South America so needless to say it is full of tourists. And it seems the people on the streets who aren’t tourists are touts. I have never seen so many of them! The streets around the central square are full of people trying to get you to come into their restaurant, get “tourist information” from their tour agency or come and get a massage. And a few people trying to sell you drugs as well. And the prices are ridiculous compared to what we have been paying elsewhere in Peru and Ecuador ( for accommodation and food etc, not drugs. We never asked a price for offered drugs. -comment by Sarah) Food is expensive, accommodation is expensive and the tours and associated travel is just outrageous. The cheap train to Matchu Pitchu is $48USD one way for a 3 hour trip. (The most luxurious one is $500 USD!) Travelling the equivalent distance in Ecuador was around $4.50 USD. On top of that there is also a bus fare from the station to the ruins and entry fee as well. But you can hardly come all the way to Cuzco and not go and see them.
One thing that was cheap was massages. There was one street with about 6 massage places that were pretty aggressive seeking business. I had a very nice one hour massage for 15 Soles ($5AUD) which was very memorable due to the unusual relaxation music. None of the usual hippy dolphins singing and wind in the trees, this was pop hits of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s on Pan Pipe! The session started with Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World”, followed with The Scorpions(?) “Wind of Change”, Toto's "Africa" and various Beatles songs including the despised “Hey Jude” (I once spent a day at Dreamworld amusement park and they played “Hey Jude” all day on the PA system. Just “Hey Jude“, continuously, on repeat for 7 hours!)
Mat and Harriet are going to do one of the “Inca Trail” 4 day hikes which Sarah is not keen on doing so we are going to part ways after a few very enjoyable weeks travelling together. We will probably run into them again somewhere on the tourist trail.
We got super organised today and booked the train to Matchu Pitchu. It seemed very complicated to buy them and supposedly you need to book days in advance, so we went to the ticket office to find 200 people waiting to buy tickets. We took a number (#750, they were paging 550 at the time) and then walked into a room they had set up for people to buy tickets online and they would print them out. So it took us maybe 10 minutes to book and pay online and we were out of there! What’s with the poor suckers sitting in the waiting room for 2 hours?
The train trip is about 4 hours each way. There wasn’t a return to Cuzco available so we would return halfway to Ollantaytambo and catch a bus from there.
After the train tickets were sorted we stepped into a travel agency and booked a bus for the 31st to Puno on Lake Titicaca, 8 hours away. After the last bus trip we have splashed out on a tourist bus which has 5 stops at historical sights and lunch on the way. Should be a lot nicer than the last bus!

Christmas, Nazca Lines and a horrible bus trip.

Christmas Day in Lima was very nice and relaxing. We slept in for a while and then had a late lunch at the hostel with Mat and Harriet. Lev was staying at a different hostel but he came over after lunch and celebrated with us as well. We seemed to be the only ones staying there as we had the kitchen and common areas to ourselves so we took over the front courtyard and played music and cards and drank until past midnight when the guy on reception who was very grumpy switched off the inside lights. I think he wanted to go to sleep himself and was unhappy we were keeping him up.

The next morning we had a bit of difficulty getting up and packed by the 1pm check out time. Mat, Lev and I took a taxi to the bus terminal and got tickets to Nazca leaving that afternoon. Back at the hostel we collected our bags from the rooms and after lunch nearby took a taxi back to the bus station.
The Bus was scheduled to leave at 4pm and we were all loaded on and ready to go by about 4.30pm but just sat there for a while in the stifling heat until we had to get off to cool down. The temperature was in the mid 20s outside but on the bus it was 38! Some tinkering was done with the bus engine for a while and we finally departed at 5.30pm. The aircon was supposedly on but only managed to get the temperature down to 29 degrees.
The bus was a large double-decker and we had a great view out the front which was really nice while the sun went down as we drove along the pacific coast, later on in the night it wasn’t such a good thing as the driver made up the 1.5 hours he was late by overtaking every bus and truck we caught up with at great speed!
We arrived in Nazca around midnight and walked a few blocks to a cheap Hostel “Friend’s House”. After a quick walk to a corner store to get some water we easily fell asleep.

Woke up with the plan of trying to book a scenic flight over the ‘world famous’ mysterious Nazca lines and then try and get a bus to Cuzco. We had the idea that flights had to be booked a couple of days in advance but the reception at our hostel said he could ring a van to pick us up in 20 minutes and take us straight to the airport. $55USD each and we could go any time of the day.
With that planned we walked through town and found a bus company with seats available at 6pm to Cuzco. Bus trips had been getting more expensive the further south in Peru we got but these were 90 Nuevo Soles each! (about 45AUD) The trips were getting longer though. Lima to Nazca was 8 hours, this next leg would be 12. We booked the seats and headed back to the hostel and checked out and waited for the van to pick us up. While we waited we watched a documentary about the “pathway to the gods” Nazca lines.

They date from between 200 BC to 700 AD and went unnoticed by the modern world until the 1940s when people flying over saw them. A crazy German woman lived by herself in the desert for 60 years studying them and ’removing centuries of debris’ to reveal complex patterns and images. (Or maybe making some of them herself?) She was reviled as a crazy witch by the townsfolk at the time but is now revered as almost a Saint. (Well when they charge $55USD for a 30min flight, surely there is a patron saint of capitalism they can name her after.)

The trip to the airport was only a few minutes but then we had to wait for almost 2 hours to get a spot on a plane. They have 4 and 6 seater Cesnas and as we were a group of 5 we had to wait for one of the few 6 seaters.
Once we were on board the Pilot gave us a ’map’ of the flight route with the images marked which we would be seeing. We would fly past each one and he assured us we would see them from both side of the aircraft. Shortly after take-off we found out this meant a very sharp banking turn around each of the geoglyphs which quickly made those of us with weak stomachs queasy and at least one person on the plane needed to make use of the supplied barf bags (name withheld to protect the embarrassed.)
The flight was a lot of fun and the scenery incredible. Difficult to take photos through the glass as the plane was pretty bumpy as well but we took enough that we got a few good shots.
Back at the airport we had to wait again for the bus to take us back to town so in the end we spent over 3 hours at the airport to take the 30 minute flight!

Back in town we went and got some lunch, collected our bags at the hostel and arrived at the bus station at 5pm as we had been asked to in case the bus was early. (hah!)
We checked in our bags and were advised the bus would be arriving at 6.30 so headed over the road and had a drink at a restaurant.
Back at the bus station it wasn’t until 7.20pm that the bus finally arrived and then two minutes after leaving the station it pulled into a very unpleasant bus stop for a dinner break for the people who had been on since Lima! Half an hour later we pulled out once again only to stop another 100m up the road at the market where the driver touted for more passengers for another 20 minutes!! And then just after leaving town he stopped again for several minutes for no apparent reason!!!
After that I just stuck my head in a book and tried to not pay too much attention figuring we would get to Cuzco eventually. However at 3.30am when he stopped for an hour and a half and there was hammering going on at the rear of the bus I was a bit concerned whether we would make it there at all.
I woke up again at 5.30am and we were travelling through a very pretty ravine beside a river with massive snow-capped mountains above.
About 8.30am the bus broke down/stopped at a mechanic for another hour and a half while they tried to weld something to something else. After an hour they started the bus and drove two metres before the weld broke and they had to have another go. Half the passengers were on the road by this time trying to flag down taxis. We tried as well but it was still going to be 4-5 hours to Cuzco and they understandably weren’t keen to drive that far.
Finally the bus started again and creaked up the hill and over another enormous mountain range. The rest of the trip was no less horrible than previous but at least we didn’t break down again.
We eventually arrived in Cuzco at 2pm after almost 18 hours on the road with the only breaks being break-downs. No food breaks apart from the one 2 minutes after boarding. No toilet breaks. There was a toilet on the bus but it was so disgusting that I stopped drinking water after having to use it a second time. The light was broken so I took a torch and boy do I wish I hadn’t!
If anyone reading comes to Peru and considers using the Palamino Bus Company, I’d strongly suggest you reconsider.