The Point.

So as mentioned before I have successfully become a bar man at the point in Peru. This has been a great experience so far as I am thoroughly enjoying my time there. The staff are great and I've gotten the hang of the drinks. Every night is never boring, there is something always going on; weather it be game nights, fancy dress nights or ladies night. All 3 I have had the pleasure of working during. So for the game night, poker and beer pong was on the agenda, being staff I was obliged to play. For the fancy dress night it was a super hero theme and luckily they had a spider man costume, a very very small one. However being the smallest and in need of a costume, I claimed this. It was quite funny to see everyone dressed up, john as an Inca and some of the other staff as Rambo, cat woman, super woman and a cowboy. Now, the interesting part. Ladies night, now this wasn't the usual kind of ladies night, the catch was it was that the men had to dress as women. So bra, blouse and make up on I had to serve customers, which was fine for the ones that knew it was ladies night. This lead to many strange looks from guests for the whole night. The whole of Cuzco during both the day and night have been alive with music, dancing, parades, floats, live music. It has been great out in the city every day with something different always there, as i write this I can hear the flutes playing from the band currently performing in the Plaza De Armas. Last night there were hundreds of people dressed as Incan's with burning torches and carrying a man dressed as a leader up on a hand held float. It was great to watch this from a window on the second floor balcony on the plaza. I plan to enjoy the rest Cuzco has to offer ad the week of festivities continues.

Cuzco far.

 

Since My last post myself and john have been getting to know Cuzco, an awesome city filled with beautiful buildings and a lot of history. The longest inhabited city in the whole of Peru it was initially used by the Incas until the invasion of the Spanish. Last week I truly put on my tourist shoe in Peru, myself and john visited several museums providing history of the Incas and the history of Cuzco. They were interesting, with mummy displays, scale models of Inca sites including Machupichu and saqusaywaman and the usual collection of metalwork’s and textiles.

The mentioned Saquasaywoman is an Incan fortress located on the outskirts of Cuzco. This provided a great day out with a walk through the city and then up its slopes to the site and then the day spent exploring the routines. It was quite strange to see such a large site so close to the city after the 4 days it took to get to the remote machupichu, however I wasn’t complaining as the fortress being on top of a hill there was great views of the city and several nice view points on the route around the site. The routines called saquasywoman, or as the gringos know it "sexywoman" was great to walk around as the weather was nice and having visited the Inca museum the previous day I was able to appreciate the history attached with the fortress.

Another site overlooking the city that I visited was "christo" like Christ the redeemer looking over rio but smaller. I have wanted to go up and see it since arrival to Cuzco as at night time it is fully illuminated up on the hill top looking over Cuzco. It was quite a climb up to the Jesus taking us through caves that me being an adrenaline junky was tempted to do abit of free style rock climbing, quite fun, especially when the caves were pitch black. My good deed for the day was when myself and john were climbing the hill we came across a n elderly man in need of help, he was trying to push his drink stall up the hill. He explained he had broken his legs when he was younger and so needed our help. We pushed it up, getting to the top of Christ completely satterd. The views from Christ was amazing, to the back of us we can see saquasywoman o our front Cuzco, Viva el Peru in the distance carved into the hill side.

As mentioned the opportunity to get a job working as bar staff arise, this is the perfect opportunity to try and balance out my budget deficit arising from the overpriced nature of south amerce so far, as well as being valuable experience. The bar we were supposed to be working in strung us along for a weekend only to tell us he had given away the jobs, Great guy. Never the less barmen are sought after all over the city and so I have secured a position at a hostel called "the point", starting tomorrow. The job doesn’t provide a wage however free accommodation, dinner and discount on anything else in the hostel is the norm. so starting tomorrow ile have the days to explore more of Cuzco and some of the evenings making drinks, should be interesting as the bar manger seems like a cool guy.

The splitting up of the Gvi group was sad as myself and john made some great friends so it was great to be able to meet back up with some of the other volunteers, Claire returning from nazca and Colca. I hope to also meet back up with Sandeep who is also in Cuzco at the moment on returning from machupichu. Similarly the other day when exploring the city with john it was great to spot 2 familiar faces, Olivia and Emma from the teaching group of gvi volunteers on their way to their next gvi project. it always amazes me when I run into people I have met along my travels. The food in Cuzco has been great, with a range of different restaurants from local small eateries to large restaurants. One place ive been meaning to mention is un nammed however it has been a great regular eating hole for myself and john during our time in Cuzco. A tiny restaurant with about 4 tables’s serving traditional Peruvian food every day of the week for a very reasonable price of 5 soles for a soup, main dish (consisting of meat cooked in various ways, rice and veg) as well as a drink. Now this in relation to other restaurants is about a quarter of the price in any other place we have eaten and so a great find. The woman cooking our food has come to know me and john as the "amigos” a thoroughly lovely woman, I shall give her a good tip the last time we leave as i don’t understand how she is providing such good food so cheaply! Other places to mention would be the restaurant called Kormasutra, an Indian restaurant with great interior, music and amazing food. Considering that Claire was only back in Cuzco for the weekend we decided to check out a cafe called jacks, the food was pretty western however it was a nice treat after cooking for myself for the past week. Apple and cinnamon porridge, chunky chips and 2 mojitos at 9.30 in the evening, the waitress must have thought I was a right weirdo. For the evening relaxing on beanbags enjoying happy hour was pretty chilled.

Now for the past few days there has been a large festival going on in Cuzco, Hundreds of children from 6 to 18 dressed in traditional clothing dancing in formation with sticks for the boys and feather things for the girls, this lasted 3 days and nights. This was great to watch in both the daytime and evening as the colors of their uniforms was great in the sun and the misty lighting of the main square at night gave the dancing an eerie feel to it. This has been great however the dancing starts from 5 everyday, constant drumming has become my wake up call.

I am excited to be starting as a barman tomorrow and hope to enjoy more that Cuzco has to offer in the coming week.

Machupichi

A 4 day jungle trek to the ancient inka city. As doing this trek solo is illegal me and john were forced to settle with a tour provider, Condi tours. On arrival to Cuzco with the GVI crowd it was soon decide that myself and john were going to do the trek one day behind the rest as we were still recovering from out epic travels into Colca canyons.

So wakening up at 6 in the morning to be greeted by our guide half a hour late was a awesome start to a trek but never the less we loaded u}our stuff up and were off. On the agenda for the 1st day was biking down to the beginning of trail in a small town. I’ve done quite a bit of biking on this trip to know when it was bad. And it was. The beginning part being on asphalt it was incredibly frustrating having to cycle slowly and in formation. This I hated, being a hardcore death road veteran. At the bottom we all got back into the van only to be delayed by a good 2 hours which meant we got lunch late. Thank god I had stocked up on snacks for the trek. Lunch was good, traditional Peruvian dish of soup made from some super vegetable that only grows at a certain altitude (looked like a truffle with the consistency of a potato. Not to bad. The accommodation was average, but after a day of biking any bed is a good bed.

Day 2. This day was great; we trekked through jungle paths where we came across traditional farmers who were drying out coffee beans. We were also able to see the coca plant growing wild and eventually try it. Now I'm all for experimenting but this was just rank. I rolled up a few leaves and placed a small charcoal looking rock in the centre then began to chew; the taste was sop disgusting I had to spit it out after 2 minuets. The coca leaves did leave me with a slightly numb mouth so it wasn’t all doom and gloom. At the same house that we tried the coca leaves I was also able to try coie, or as I usually know it, Guinea pig! Yes it was a fluffy little Guinea pug cooked up. It tasted very nice, similar texture and taste to chicken. Afterwards we were able to see some of the Guinea pigs brothers and sisters living wild in the kitchen, there escape hampered by a very large door step. So back on the trail we descended down onto a rived bed where we were forced to climb up over large rocks, tough going by normal standers. The days trekking was rewarded by 2 hours in a natural hot springs, this was awesome. After a good old soak it was a short drive to the next town. Where we ate slept and generally recharged out batteries for the next day.

Day 3. The trek continued, through jungle and mountain sides as we came closer and closer to the foot of machupichu. having got a good nights sleep I was full of energy and vigor, however john had injured himself in the hot springs, jumping in after being told it was under 70cm deep, he decided top jump never the less and paid the price, a cut foot. So the days trekking was a leisurely one at most as I hung back with john taking it easy, this I don’t mind as I arrived in agues caliente not to tired. I eventually managed to get online at the foot of machupichu to post the colca trek as the access to internet had been severally limited in the towns along the way. Another early night for me as we were supost to be up at 3 in the morning to begin the assent up to the famous inka city.

Day 4. I woke feeling like I hadn’t slept at all. not the best feeling when you know you have a grueling climb ahead but still I got dressed and was downstairs in time for the departure. a 40 minuet walk to the entrance for machupichu in the pitch black dark. Luckily john had brought his light as I had forgotten mine back at the hostel. arriving, we qued up until opening time and then 400 plus people began the climb up the steps, just like ants as out guide had correctly described it. This was HARD. I had to grit my teeth and mentally push myself to keep going and make it to the top, by this time my thighs were burning and my bum thoroughly toned. More queuing at the top then entrance, due to my amazing stamina i was able to be in the 1st 20 to make it into machupichu and so was able to get some good pictures of the city empty.

Walking around the city it was amazing to think this was all built well before the times of technology and all the other modern building tools. Our guide gave us a good insight into some of the techniques that were used and showed us around all of the sacred buildings, such as the temple of the sun and moon. So 2nd on the agenda after exploring all the streets and crevices of the city was to conquer winapichu. The large mountain you see in most machupichu pictures. This was an amazing climb, up minute inka steps each hand carved out of local stone. Apon arrival to the summit the views were spectacular, being able to see a full 360 degrees around and look down upon machpichu and see how huge it was and the way it was positioned on a mountain side. Now. the climb down was particularly hard for john, those tiny rock steps, fine going up but became torture for him and so we got down kind of late but never the less we were determined to climb half way up the other mountain looking over machupichu, that being machupichu mountain. Half way up was the sacred sun gate; this apparently providing an amazing light display once a year, however by the time we got there it was getting latish. The climb up was equally as difficult as winapichu but the views and the sun gate itself was a complete let down, just a couple derelict walls and so we descended back to the city, and got the bus back to agues client. Here both me and john made executive decision to go and spend a hour in the hot springs ready for the train back to some small town where we would be making a bus connection back to Cuzco. Now this is a ridiculous side effect of having a name that doesn’t sound like its read. At the train station we were told to look out for our name on a piece of paper. Mine was no where to be found. strange i defiantly have a bus out of here. This was when I noticed a name I had herd plenty of times in SA. Spelt cian cox. Yes cian. That was how they spelt my name. Fail. anyways the bus ride back was fine, got to loki checked in only to find out it was the last night I would be able to see Luke, Sam, Joanne and jess. This meant no sleep for me and we swiftly headed to the bar for a night of dancing on bars and general revelry. Great end to an amazing 4 day trek.

For a comprehensive colection of machupicchu picutres folow the below link.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150212583470956.332859.734175955&l=8a28dd0581

And for Colca Canyon: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150209706705956.331870.734175955&l=1225fd4d56

2 men and a Canyon.

So this post is going to be slightly late but i need to get it down before i forget!

So despite all of the horror stories me and john had been told about those that hiked into the Colca canyons solo (without a guide) we were determined to do it solo as my friends Timo and Roy told me it was thoroughly terrible with a tour. So minimal planning and we were off. we got the bus to a small town called cobanaconde (like copa cobahna with anaconda). the 1st night we arrived it was the evening so we went to the nearest hostel to check in. we realised when we arrived that one of the things we didn’t plan was accommodation......I know, amateur mistake. Never the less there was plenty of choice. 2 hostels. One called valley of fire and another that I can’t remember the name of. We went fir the latter. Very decent hostel, and for 10 soles a night, good value. so the morning came and we set off, at around 7 ish.

With my tourist map in hand and local directions now and then we were able to make it into the canyon. Colca being the deepest canyon in the world it took 7.5 hours for me and john to trek down into the canyon and over a ridge, then descends into an oasis. Along the way down the heat was blazing and we frequently had to move aside as the paths were small to make space for the locals coming down with their donkeys. One point to mention was the trail of donkey poo that reassured us that we were on the right path. So the scenery was amazing and the best reward was finally arriving at the base of the canyon at the oasis, named Eden, with is a pretty good comparison. Palm trees, waterfalls, swimming pools in the middle of a semi desert canyon. Pure bliss. For the night me and john stayed in little bamboo huts, and whilst john swam I slept.

For most of the canyon trek I was going full out, getting my trek on good and proper, john found it slightly harder to keep the pace as for many parts on the way down he was hampered by his fear of heights. Several times there was an extremely narrow path and a sheer drop, pretty scary for him ime guessing, but never the less we both made it down. Frequently getting "lost" as john would call it. I call it the scenic route. So for the 2nd day we began out hike out of the canyon back up to the town of cobanaconde. This route up was only 4 hours but from an elevation of 1000m to 2000 in 4 hours. The trail was completely vertical.

What we didn’t know was that usually people who do this route leave at 4 or 5 in the morning, this was too avoided the mid day heat. Me and john left at 8 in the morning and didn’t make it back up for 5 hours. We ran out of water and almost came to as crawl as we got to the top. It was purely mental strength that got us out of that canyon! But never the less I survived. So, this is where it gets ridiculous. We make it back, and have lunch. I order the steak and john orders the alpaca (lama steak) but the order gets mixed up and I get his, we then swap when the waiter tells us were eating the wrong food, but still neither is shore if he is right as both dished tasted and looked identical. So that mini crisis over we went out in search of a bus.

The time being 2.20 pm. the bus left at 2. We missed it by 20 minutes and so had to wait till the next one, at 9 in the evening. So with lots of time to kill we went to the internet cafe where john played games and I talked to Alice. We were both quite disappointed with the evening as we had planned a night out with the rest of the GVI volunteers but with a 6 hour bus ride ahead of us at 9 in the evening that was off the cards. Finally arriving back in Arequipa we were relieved to be back on familiar ground. The trouble hasn’t finished yet. So on arrival at our usual hostel we find the front desk deserted and every bed full. Middle of the night fully loaded up with our bags we went in search of another hostel; luckily there was a wild rover in Arequipa, a usual haunt for the gvi crowd. Having stayed in this hostel in La Paz I knew it would be easy to get a bed, and so we were settled for the night. Finally. We slept and the next day began the planning for our next move onto Cuzco with the rest of the gvi team that had finished and were off in the same direction. Tickets bought we enjoyed a final night out in Arequipa and then the next morning the 10 hour bus ride. Sunday, Bus day.

Stress head moment in the bus station. I had a bottle of drink in my bag that I was holding for Joanne as she had no space in her bag; this bottle was my down fall. we were running late and my bags were brought inside as I was searching for the others, this being the bag with the glass bottle in. it was dropped down on the floor and so all of my stuff got covered in liquorish smelling alcohol. Then we had to rush for the bus only to find my bag containing dinner and snacks for the trip was in the hands of another volunteer on another bus. I. was. Stressed. The bus ride was cold and i arrived in Cuzco sleep deprived. Never the less we got settled into a very nice hostel and spent the day recovering from Colca and the bus ride. Me and john decided to stay in the rival hostel to the one previously mentioned (wild rover), staying in Loki. This hostel was pretty awesome and if possible me and john are considering getting jobs there as bar men for 2 weeks. Ime shore it would be a great experience and really help john and myself to become more open people. That’s all that’s happened up to the beginning of Cuzco so far, minus the face me and john are currently 3 days into a 4 day hike to Machu Pichu, currently at the base of the mountain. I will blog all about it when we’ve visited the ruins and got back to Cuzco. Pictures to be added to this post at a later date. Hope you enjoyad this post. =]