Bolivia and Argentina

Cusco and Lake Titicaca, Peru

I arrived in Cusco prepared for action, as soon as I arrived I got myself booked on the Inca trail (a stroke of luck considering the 2-3 month waiting lists during peak season) with one of the most reputable companies in town. I spent my first three nights there at a hostel called Wild Rover, which, I have to admit wasn’t the perfect choice for someone wanting to keep away from the party scene, but I was also unlucky, or some might say lucky enough to be put in a dorm on my own, so really my first few days in Cusco were pretty depressing. I’d walk around town, catch up on what my travel buddies were up to, and go for a run around the area trying to get myself acclimatized to the altitude. Come to think of it, my first day there was pretty much spent in bed trying to get used to it after the horrific experience of the windy bus from Lima (sea level) up to the ancient Inca city that lies above 3000 metres higher. I remember the guy on the bus saying that the toilet was strictly for number 1’s, but I hope he didn’t mind me bringing up the distinctly average chicken dinner that was fed to me on the bus!

Plaza de Armas in Cusco

Anyway, I diverse, I eventually decided to move to another hostel called Pariwana just 100 metres up the road whilst I awaited my trip. This hostel was great, I bumped into quite a few people I’d met at various points along the trip and overall the place had a great chille out vibe. On one night I mentioned to James and Sarah, a great couple from London who I met in Mancora, that I wanted to try some Guinea Pig, or Cuy, to give it it’s proper term. I hunted down the best place in Cusco and we ended up organizing a grand night out for half the hostel. We headed to a restaurant called Kusicuy (happy guinea pig, gotta love the irony), ordered 8 or 9 of the little things between us and got stuck in. I’ve got to say they were actually pretty good, a little bit like rabbit. The only bit I wouldn’t recommend would be the brains which Harry (another buddy I met in Mancora) and I decided to test out. A bit mushy for my liking.

Dinner with the Pariwana crew.

Sarah: 'Say Hello to my little friend!'

How the bar didn't collapse is beyond me!

After the meal, the 10-15 of us who were still up for it got invited to a local nightclub with the offer of free entry and a free drinks, due to the fact I organised the event I only ended up paying for only one drink that night. I woke up the next still tipsy and a little worried for the fact that I was due to start a 45km hike the next day, but smiling ear to ear from the great times!

The night before our trek was the briefing, where I got to meet the other 15 people signed up for our torturous adventure. We met Raul, and Marshmallow, our two hilarious guides, picked up our equipment and prepared ourselves for our 4am start.

Ready for action!

So after less than 1 hours sleep, I found myself on a bus with 40 or so semi-strangers (there are a lot of porters on the Inca trail due to restrictions on animals being allowed on the path), feeling like I couldn’t even make it off the bus, let alone make it from one side of the sacred valley on foot to the other in 4 days. We had breakfast and set off. What an adventure it was!

A particularly grumpy Llama, went a bit nuts about 30 secs after this photo!

Stunning scenery in the Sacred Valley!

I’d love to go into crazy detail about the four days, but I think I could write a whole book on it. All I’ll say is that the experience changed me in a big way. I found it a tough, some of the uphill routes were  hard, but so rewarding at the same time.  I loved the challenge and the scenery was amazing! We saw incredible Inca ruins topped off by what must be the highlight of my trip so far, Machu Picchu. Something I found almost as remarkable as the scenery however, was how incredibly hard the porters on the trail worked, these guys were machines, with fitness levels to rival Olympic athletes, and most of them do it in Sandals. They prepared amazing food considering the environment, and never stopped smiling throughout the whole thing! I'm glad I chose a great company called Llama Path to do the trail with, it's run by an ex-porter, and as such the guys in this company get treated extremely well in comparison to some of the other bigger foreign run companies.

Machu Picchu!

Upon returning from The Inca Trail, a short meet up with some of the guys on my trip, a bout of food poisoning, some museum visits and more guinea pig experiences with Mark and Jonny, and a short (7 hours) bus ride with Mark, we found ourselves in Puno, gateway to Lake Titicaca and the famous floating Islands made by layers of the locally occuring reed beds. We took a one day tour which involved visiting some of the locals on the hugely touristic floating Islands and a stupidly long boat trip out to one of the islands on the lake called Taquile. Although interesting to see it wasn't as awesome as I'd been led to believe. In fact it was pretty strange. The locals took us on a boat ride which was literally no more than 50ft whilst singing to us 'My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean' in English, and then on Taquile, our tour guide gave us barely any history on the Island, instead choosing to tell us in detail about the hats they made, and which social and age groups wore each hat. Apparently the 20 most important people on the island, essentially the leaders, wore the dumbest multi-coloured hats I've ever seen. But that's their culture so who am I to argue. The highlight of my three days in Puno has to be the meal I shared with Mark and Tom, from Scotland, in a local 'Chifa' (chinese) restaurant. The menu translations and descriptions were beyong belief. I think I ended up skipping the 'Want to miss Noodle Soup', in favour of a rice dish with no other explanation apart from 'Airport'

On one of the floating Islands of Titicaca

The view from our restaurant on Taquile, overlooking Lake Titicaca.

From Titicaca, Mark and I, along with Tom, headed down toward Bolivia, and our next stop, La Paz, to meet up with Kyle 'The man from the mountains' Lindros, for a 3 day tour around the Bolivian Salt flats in Uyuni, and some amazing scenery. But you're going to have to wait for that update I'm afraid. Right now I'm in Buenos Aires, and I've got 3 local friends, Juan, Guillermo and Martin picking me up from my hostel in 15 minutes, taking me out for BBQ. Good times!