23 October 2009

Act 23 | Peru



I broke up my Central American tour (which does get a bit 'samesy') with a couple of weeks in Peru, mostly on the Inca Trail, with two mates i made in my high school days - the brothers McKay.



Lima (bonus day)

Lief (the older of the two brothers) had been in Lima for almost 24 hours before I arrival and was being considered one of the locals by some of the residents; Huw arrived in a jet lagged state several hours after me.


I ended up with a ‘bonus day’ in Lima as I was incorrectly thinking that we flew out of the city the next day.


Lief assumed the role of guide for the day, taking Huw and I to see all the sights he had seen the day before in downtown Lima.



We both took Huw to the complex high above the Pacific Ocean where we had spent part of the previous evening watching the waves roll in (from Australia).



Later that same evening we made time for a cigar in the central park to celebrate the fact that we were all together again for the first time in a decade, and in Peru of all places.


I love to listen to Huw talk economics while smoking a cigar.


Huw loves to set out his explanations with the assistance of graphs. (The topic for the night's discussion was global diamond prices.)



Cusco

We were given a day to ourselves in Cusco to acclimatise to the high altitude, which we spent wandering the central part of town, seeing the sights and sampling the local delacacies.








I have very mixed feelings about buying from children who are selling things on the street (particularly late at night or during school hours) and so generally avoid buying from them, in this case i was totally undone by the llama puppet on my finger.


Did I mention that the local delicacies are guniea pig and alpaca .?.?.


When in Peru - drink Inca Cola. (Especially if you grew up in Australia loving Passiona.)


Lief may or may not have inadvertently led us into an institute of ill repute in his urgent search for a toilet. (I knew something was not right when I couldn’t find a single television screen on in ‘the pub’ despite knowing that the national football team was playing at the time - now if that's not dodgy in Central America, nothing is).




The Personnel

We booked the Inca Trail though the GAP tour group, as part of the package we got travelling companies (at no extra charge) from all over the world - who were simply fabulous; Allow me to introduce them to you now:

Paul & Kelly,
a couple from England, who do not believe there is really a big potatoe at Robertson, NSW, Australia (seeing will be believing).

Klara & Olivia,
sisters from Sweden, who were easily the most competitive people on the trek, especially against one another.

Sunna & Mads,
a couple from Denmark, who introduced us to the confusing concept of 'the butter-hole'.

Alison & Stuart,
a couple from Scotland, who gave us Huw’s new nickname (Shuggie), and the opportunity to debate the relative merits of medical ‘doctors’ versus PhD 'doctors'.

Paul & Tony,
a father-&-son in-law combo from Canada, who added much needed experience to the team (thereby lifting our average age to a level where I turned out to look almost youthful).

John & Siri,
a couple from Australia, who proved that altitude sickness is no myth nor respecter of nationality.

Tanya
from the United States, who was voted most popular girl on tour after producing a bottle of Scotch while we were playing cards.

Huw, Lief & I
all from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, 'nuff said.

Roddy & Ozzi
from Peru, our assistant and chief guide respectively.

The porters,
all native to Peru, and more than capable of packing up our campsite after we had left, and lugging huge amounts of equipment on their backs past us on the trail, so as to have the campsite set up (and the multi-course meal ready) by the time we finally arrived at our next destination. (They even carried the majority of our personal belongings, and then clapped us as we finally arrived.)


Best of all, they gently woke us each morning with hot water and drinks.



The Inca Trail

Day One of the tour a proper involved little more than being bused to a couple of Inca sites on our way to the beginning of the trail.








As on any organised tour, in any country (organised or otherwise), there is bound to be a visit to the local souvenir market.






Day two was the first day of hiking/tramping/bush-walking (call it what you will).






Before we could really connect over the challenge and beauty of the trail as a unified group, we needed to connect over a round robin series of football games.




The most competitive player on the park was Ozzie, followed closely by the Swedes; There were good skills shown all ‘round, without exception, no country was shamed that day.



Day three included the hardest climb of the hike, up to the highest point of the trail.


We were fortunate to have cooler weather and a spot of rain through the ascent (which gave Huw a chance to done the red robe).


The porters, who wear shoes made from old car tyres, powered their way past us again through the forest part of the track, making all the men in our party feel much more inadequate than we like to feel.


The thin air caused me to run short of breath of far sooner than usual, but i found i didn't have to stop for long before my strength returned as i hadn't acutally done that much work.


Not everyone cared to complete the journey 'clean' (without chemical assistance); Lief was nicknamed 'coco' after the leaves that are used to overcome altitude sickness.


It was very exciting to be higher than we had ever been before - you might say it was 'a mountain top experience'.




Day three was also the day I earnt the nickname given to me by the Swedes, in response to the way I enjoyed leaping down the path from stone to stone: "Legolas". (This was a much preferable nickname than the one Lief gave me for the same reason, that being ‘mountain goat’.)



We reached our destination in the mid-afternoon which gave us half a day sit and enjoy the view.


Later that night we played cards, enjoyed some good spirits, and become better friends.




Day four was a the longest day on our feet.



Part way through the day i seized the opportunity to live (or rather mimic) one of my all favourite paintings (Friedrich, Wanderer above a Sea of Fog). (I could have sworn the cane was on the left .?.?. next time.)







Day five started super early as our guide was determined that we be the first group in line for the opening of the check point. (We were there so early that we had an hour to search the sky for shooting stars before needing to be back in line.)


There was a bit argy-bargy on our way to the Sun Gate (Klara is sticking to her story wherein the girl overtaking her 'tripped' at the same time as she 'lent in her general direction').


We timed our arrival at the Sun Gate – where you catch your first glimpse of Macchu Pichu – to perfection, as the sun was just about to hit the city on what was a stunning cloudless day.


The remainder of the morning was spent posing for photographs and exploring the lost city.





Three things struck me as i moved through the ancient city:


1) The precision of the stonework;


2) The audacity of those who originally proposed building a city on top of a mountain that must have originally looked a lot like the surrounding peaks in the background of the photo below;


3) The devotion of the people who carried fertile soil from the Sacred Valley below to grow their crops in.




It had been a long day and some members of the team were starting to struggle to enter fully into the experience of it all; Fortunately their was a short train trip, followed by a long bus ride back to Cusco that allowed for some snooze time, before we dusted ourselves off and headed out for our farewell event, which included a last cigar in the central park.


Being late and a week night, the best place for our last drink was the hotel lobby, where there was no closing time.




Cusco (Bonus Day)


Early the next morning the McKay's and i arrived for our flight out of Cusco, some 25 hours early (after having less than three hours sleep); somehow all three of us had failed to check the date of our flight against the date of the day.


The upside to our mistake was having another day in Cusco, which is a way cool city.


Most of the bonus day was spent playing card games in our hotel room with the very same people we were expecting to spend the day missing.


The worst thing about our mistake was that we were around to partake in the worst pizza i have ever attempted to swallow in my life.


And of course, there was time for a second stab at a farewell party, which we managed to find a real venue for.


Thinking back over my Inca Trail experience, i recognised that i could have had any combiation of altitude sickness, constant rain or fog, &/or drab travelling companions to sully the journey; But i had none of that, what i had instead was the dream run.



Lima


After flying back to Lima and saying farewell to Huw, it was time to take care of some housekeeping matters and kill a day with Lief before his red eye flight.



Before I could leave Lima I met a couple who were on their first day of an 8 month vacation; As I was simultaneously on my 225th day, I thought it only appropriate that I show them the ropes by taking them on the same tour of the city that Lief took Huw and I on when I first arrived.



TACA


TACA is definitely my new favourite airline on account of them upgraded me to business class on three out of the five flights i took with them, I’m still trying to work out what I was doing right so that i can do it again.