Machu Picchu

Cusco was one of those places that everybody seems to quote as the favourite on the gringo trail, so I was itching to get there an see what all the hype was about. Famous for being the capital of the Incan empire, before the Spanish invaded and smashed it to pieces, this very old city not only boasts some amazing architecture, but is also located next to one one the wonders of the world, Machu Picchu.

Being 12 days in to a stomach bug picked up in Bolivia(very common issue amongst fellow travellers) I was happy to avoid some of the party scene at Pariwana hostel and instead take the opportunity to relax in on of the most comfortable beds I have stayed the whole trip, catching up on a few episodes of Breaking Bad. The hostel itself was a great example of Spanish architecture with all the rooms situated around a big courtyard, filled with beanbags and backpackers throughout the day.

It took until the night before I was due to leave for the trek that a group of Australian nurses who checked in to my room strongly suggested I start a course of antibiotics, couldn't hurt to boost my chances of not defecating all over one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Booking a Machu Picchu trek comprises 3 more popular options;
Inca trail - the traditional and most famous trek that cover 45km of the most popular trail, with various ruins along the way
Jungle trek - the easiest option that comprises a day of trekking, a day of zip lines and a day of mountain bike riding
Sulkantay - the longest option that covers 85km ranging from 1,500m to 4,600m  and was recently names one of the best 25 treks in the world.

Given that the official Inca Trail needs to be booked months in advance, I opted for the increasingly popular Sulkantay trek, which also boosts the benefit of having about 1/5th  the number of people doing the trek at any one time and attainable at a far more reasonable price. There was no issues arranging this tour for the following day, however you may need to book tickets to Wayna Picchu mountain as they only allow 400 people entry per day (spread over two admission times).

Struggling through another early morning wake up as the bus collected me at 3am, I was pleasantly surprised to find Tom and Elyna whom I'd met on Isle de Sol waiting in my transport (they are roughly due to arrive in Mexico around the same time as me in early march, travelling also overland) along with another Aussie bloke Dion who I'd met on the boat Copocobanna. The idea was to get a few hours rest on the winding road up to the trail head (Mollepata) where we stopped for a quick breakfast and met our guide crew before the journey began.

Included in the trek price was a horseman who would pack 5kg each and carry them up until the second last day, my bag was smack bang on the limit. Previous warnings were adhered to as the trek started off at almost a painful pace, the group was stopping to rest around every half an hour which was setting us up for a long days walk. Frustratingly one of the Canadian birds who had joined the group had never been in high altitude or a multi day trek in her life, definitely a dead weight in the group as it was clear that we would be constantly waiting for her to catch up.

After lunch I powered ahead with Tom to reach our camp before the rain came belting down and persisted for most of the night. Luckily our tents were already set up inside a large tarpoleon shelter that kept the wind at bay whilst we munched down hard on the platters of biscuits, hot chocolates and Coca tea. It wasn't until speaking with a mate back home recently that I realised how unusual it was to be drinking tea made from fresh Coca leaves, apparently its effective in fending off high altitude sickness.

Waking up early to a clear morning was a welcome relief as we set off towards the mountain pass for Sulkantay, our highest point at 4,600m. The approach was nothing short of spectacular after rounding the first corner and having the brilliant white peaks standing tall in front of us. For me this made the Sulkantay trek option preferable as we forgo some smaller trail ruins to see the mountains up close, not that any of the smaller ruins would come close to the impressiveness of Machu Picchu.

At the pass itself our group assembled for a quick group shot, the temperature had very quickly dropped to freezing in the strong wind. Three of the trekkers who were from Peru had never seen snow in their life and were snapping endless photos as they got caught up in the moment. It really was an impressive point along the trail, especially with the piles of spiritual stones alongside the snow edge as the view tapered off into the lush jungle behind.

Next we began to descend through the grass lands and down towards the Jungle where our camp at Chullay would be waiting, cold beers and assembled hammocks prepared. Tom and I raced off again, missing one of the turnoffs in the early jungle stages that wound us up the mountain instead of down towards the river. We recovered quickly and were back on track after some minor bush bashing.

Deeper in to the jungle we wound along side a river that swells in early months to levels that force the trail to be closed, coinciding with the time they also close Machu Picchu for annual regrowth. Along this section we passed lots of wild fruits including jungle strawberries, passion fruits, mangoes and even the Ayhuasca flower.

Our third camp included a visit to the nearby hot spring which dissapointigly would not let beers be taken anywhere near the waters edge, also a dismal 29c. Back at the camp a bonfire was set up where we drank the night away with a local Inca Tequila brew, the guide getting a little too involved and ensured laughs all round with an impressive display of drinking skills, leaving him a little worse for wear the next morning as he trailed well behind the group.

Winding our way along the train tracks with glimpses of the famous Incan city high on the mountain top, we ventured in to Aguas Calientes for the final nights stay in a hotel, this being the closest accommodation's to the ancient ruins. It was Halloween and a horde of children burst in to our dinner celebration to scam candy off us, unfortunately they had not quite mustered up the traditional dialogue as the simply continued to repeat "Halloween.. Halloween.. Halloween".

In order to make it up to Machu Picchu for sunrise we departed at 4am, inspired by the guides offer of a free pizza should I beat his record time of 45 mins up the few thousand stairs to the entrance, I never did get rewarded for my 39 minute feat. Being first through the gates meant that we managed to get a few rare snaps of the deserted ruins before hoards of lazy tourists were bussed up from the town below, apparently now they are even talking about building an airport in Aguas Caliente!

We were given a walking tour of the city that outlined some of the amazing architecture and farming methods invented by the Incans. The city consists of over 600 terraces that not only served for agriculture, but also helped to prevent landslides. Stones were carefully carved by master stonemasons so they fit together without the use of mortar, special concave sides fit in to the convex side of the next stone and angles of windows and doorways ensure the structure is earthquake proof. There is even an advanced drainage system built in to the city that is the key to its longevity.

After a quick photo shoot with a friendly Llama I made my way up Wayna Picchu which is the smaller of the two side mountains next to the ruins (the bigger being Machu Picchu Mountain). This epic onslaught of steps added to what was definitely the hardest day of the trek. Upon slugging it out to the top, we were rewarded with an unbelievable view of the archaeological sight from the mountain top temple.

Back in Cusco I rewarded all my hard work with a very mediocre all you can eat Indian feast, again tempting fate with the buckets of slosh that looks well past serving date. Machu Pichu is an amazing feat of human ingenuity, its one thing that everybody should visit at least once in their life to see what the Incan elite so carefully preserved from the Spanish invasion by destroying all trails and evidence of its existence.

Copacabana

As my Bolivian adventure draws to an end, the hippie draw card town of Copacabana is the final destination before entering Peru. Lake Titicaca which lies 3,812m above sea level and has a surface area of 8,372 square kilometres, borders Peru and Bolivia. A mate back home said I would be eating trout for breakfast, lunch an dinner, he wasn't wrong either. Here the menu of the day which usually consists of a soup choice, then a main (which is primarily grilled trout) and a small desert, will set you back less than $3 Aussie, all in an idyllic lakeside setting.

I'd decided to stop here to visit the largest island on the lake, Isle Del Sol which lies in the Bolivian territory. This ancient Incan holy site is said to be where Viracocha, the bearded god who created the universe, once rose from the waters and created the sun at this location. Feeling tired and uncomfortable from a developing Bolivia stomach bug I hastily checked in to a hotel room, not noticing the multi level mattress that was propped up on various angles from sacks of local produce below, easily the least comfortable bed I have ever slept in. At least the trout at sunset ended the day on a high note.

There's two options to get a boat over to Isle Del Sol, the first boat leaving at 8:30am followed by a second at 1:30pm. With no need to pre book tickets I wandered down and positioned myself on the roof top bench with another Aussie as we  cruised over on the surprisingly chilly ride thanks to the wind which had quickly picked up. We decided to walk from the North to the South of the island which is generally the most popular route taking around 3 hours, from there you can either take the 4:30 boat back to the mainland or spend the night at one of the many hostels, including a magnificent view of the lake.

At the northern point of the island there's a few Inca ruins including an Inca table once used for spiritual ceremony's, a puma rock that is supposed to look like a puma from a certain angle (obviously not the one I was looking from) and some ruins that were once used to contain various gifts including gold, silver, virgins and Llamas to stored and sacrificed.

After  very hilly walk, we bid farewell to half the group who was heading back to the mainland(tackling the 1,000 Inca steps on their way down) and checked in to our hostel to sample a few glasses of local red as the sun crept down to the horizon. Upon my suggestion of the Las Velas restaurant that I had heard some good review we begrudgingly headed back up the hill for a mediocre candle light dinner, redemption for my advice came in the form of an amazing sunset view across lake Titicaca.

La Paz and biking Death Road

La Paz is another one of those towns that lived up to its reputations along with the nightly organised events at the well known Loki hostel. I had come here with plans to only spend a night or two, however ended up staying on for 4.. unfortunately being made aware on my last day of the easily accessible Wyana Potosi next door, a good chance to climb above 6,000m and shut those smug bastards up from the EBC outing once and for all.

My first coherent morning was spent taking part in the red cap tour, a 'free' walking tour of the city centre that relies on donations if you think they are worth it. We started at the famous San Pedro prison, its notoriety gained from the international best seller Marching Powder, which details the extraordinary prison life where inmates run the prison itself; purchasing cells on the open market, owing various business and producing some of the purest cocaine in the world. Although you cannot officially tour the prison anymore due to recent events and publicity, you can scour the small unseeing city block which looks nothing like a prison at all.

Next we toured a few of the market streets, each famous for their particular goods; whether it be paints, clothing, vegetables (there's over 1,000 types of potato!!) and the witches market where all kinds of bizarre ingredients from Llama foetus to plants which will cure any ailment can be purchased. Our last stop was the city square where a brief description of the violent political history was revealed, right under a light pole where the body of a murdered prominent political figure was hung.

For me the main draw card of this city was to mountain bike down death road.. of course I had my hesitations as I am yet to experience down hill mountain biking before, though how hard could it be. There are plenty of tour agencies around town with the most expensive Gravity being almost twice the price of anybody else. I decided with the middle tier Vertigo, they had a good reputation online and seemed would provide me a reasonable chance of no ending up at the bottom of the 600m drop that makes an exciting border alongside our single lane 'road'.

After being collected in the wee our of the morning, the van which was filled with riders from accross the globe,, with varying degrees of experience, dropped us at our starting point situated a little above 4,000m. Here we were given a quick safety demonstration in the light refreshing now snow (what an idiot I was dressed in shorts an a t-shirt). A few of the girls were definitely starting to show their nerves as I heard "scared shitless" mentioned a few times.

The first 20km section of the ride was on an easy paved road where all you had to do was glide in and out of the cars, stopping occasionally for the customary happy snaps. Things started to get interesting as we reached the first loose rock section of the track, my gears did not want to change and my front braked failed, not a huge issue as long as the back brakes still worked.. although I no longer had much confidence in this supposedly 'quality' bike. The support team made some temporary repairs which lasted a short while, not that I was going to let a few minor problems ruin my leisurely ride.

The death road is a dirt track barely wide enough to fit a car and is littered with loose rocks amongst its sharp turns, at least the company was kind enough to provide knee pads and a helmet incase I hurl off the edge (mandatory insurance cover to include repatriation costs for your remains). Its not really as dangerous as they make it sound with most of the deaths occurring in the early 1900' when the road was being built by Paraguayan slaves, although there have been over 20 cyclists deaths added to the fatality list.

We were off to a great star with a double collision on the first bend, surprisingly not including myself. The rest of the descent which required minimal pedal power was stretched though a luxurious green landscape. At times was passed through waterfalls and stopped to dangle our legs over the looming cliff side while waiting for some of the slower group members. A winding section at the end gave our group a chance to build up a bit of velocity with my single near miss being a fallen away section of the road that had escaped my line of sight while I was busy admiring the scenery.Finally reaching the end in a little under three hours, our team sat down for a buffet lunch to banter off the hype and swap a few travel stories.

If you have visited La Paz and were wondering why most of the houses seem unpainted, if not still look to be under construction; there's a lower tax charged for a house that is not 'completed' and leaves a rather unsightly architechtual theme.

Into the wild

An adventure to a place that many of us have dreamed of visiting since a child was finally coming true as I boarded the small twin prop plane, bound for the little Bolivian Amazon town of Rurrenabaque. Due to my procrastinating I had missed out on the cheaper tickets with the military airline TAM, settling for Amazonas, a return flight costing around $150. The 45 minute journey was about what you would expect from a light aircraft flying over the Andes mountain range in thick cloud cover,  visibility a non existent. With some sort alarm constantly going off in the open cockpit in front of us, most people opted to try to sleep off their anxiousness rather than deal with the turbulence. The landing was certainly up there with Lukla as we caught a gust of wind that slid our plane across the runway.

All worries were forgotten as we ducked out of the plane into the warm inviting jungle, a welcome change after the high altitude couple of weeks prior. With birds cruising over head and a sense of adventure beckoning us, we bundled into the transfer van and were dropped in to the centre of town, conveniently located on the Beni river. Tour offices are in plentiful supply, I made my way over to Max Adventure which had great online reviews and was rated #1 on Trip Adviser. The company focuses on a back-to-basics jungle experience, geared towards more of a wilderness adventure, rather than being based in an eco lodge like most other tours. Whilst most hostels and agencies will urge you to book your Amazon experience before flying in, this is not at all necessary as I managed to lock in a tour for the following morning with no issues, my choice confirmed when the super helpful owner Tereza shouted us ice cold beers while we looked over tour pics.

In this part of the Amazon you have two main options; Pampas or Jungle. With the jungle tour there was only one company who had exclusive rights to the Madidi national park, until this year when it was opened up to other operators. On this tour you will have more of a 'genuine' Amazon experience and find yourself more active during the day, albeit with less larger animals , more vegetation and a crazy nighttime choir to keep you entertained. If you would prefer a more laid back outing that involves plenty of wildlife spotting then the Pampas (meaning lowlands) is the better option, although both are great choices.

Feeling right at home in the Australian owned Nomads restaurant, we treated ourselves to a delicious fish wrapped in banana leaf, then after a few cocktails  two of the lads and I realised that we had in fact met at a bar back in La Paz during my first crazy night. Just after sunrise we boarded our low riding transport boat that's sides were almost at water level (in the rain, which luckily subsided) for our journey down in to the Amazon. Even though I had heard that the Pampas was the place to see all the animals, I had expected to see more on the two hour ride. Upon arrival, Sven lived up to his soon to be donned reputation as king fuck up, ruining our game of 'shoot the bottle with the arrow', his strategy of aiming towards the sky was always deemed to fail, the arrow hopelessly floated down the river.

George, Greg (the two Poms) and I had done some last minute shopping at the same store only minutes before departure, after being warned of the need for a long sleeve shirt to fend off the swarms of mosquitoes. These quickly became standard jungle attire for the whole trip, no they did not get washed. I had imagined our first nights camp to be a little more baron than what we stumbled across, they had already set up wooden beds with mattresses (what luxury in the Jungle) and a tarpaulin to keep off the rain, our construction skills were to be put on hold until the second night.

The prepared camp was a beneficial  head start as were able to set out to the Jungle with our guide Ronaldo, hacking and slashing a path through the undergrowth. We were shown various jungle remedies such as flowers to settle a bad stomach, leaves that work as an antiseptic (serious face tingle when chewed) and a plant thats stem could be stripped in to a rope like material, perfect for making a drink bottle holder. Back at camp that evening we were treated to a ceremony to honour Pachamamma (mother earth spirit); involving music, singing and drinking rum that had been distilled under the jungle floor.

Ronaldo took us up the river the next morning to an area inhabited by a local parrot population nesting in the cliffs, there were also a few jungle turkeys flapping about, refusing to stay still long enough for a photo. Our hard work was rewarded by a refreshing tropical shower, my jungle survival skills impressed the others as I prepared a small shelter out of banana leaves, just big enough to keep me dry. We were then initiated with war paint, created by rubbing special green leaves together with a little a little water which turned out a red paste, although I'm not sure how tough a game of noughts and crosses on one of my cheeks made me look.

Instead of taking the boat back to camp, we all hopped in tyre tubes and floated leisurely in the sun. Your probably thinking that floating in an Amazon river may not be the safest idea, but our fearless guide assured as that it was unlikely to be bitten by  Piranha. I'm pleased to announce that I still have 10 toes and all other important bits attached.

After a quick pack up we ventured off in to the Jungle for a real camping adventure. Our 3 hour hike landed us in a small clearing where we had to cut down logs and create the frame for a shelter that was then covered by a tarpaulin shelter where our mosquito nets could be hung inside. Sven decided he was going to sleep in a hammock that he had been carrying around for two months, its initiation lasted about 5 minutes. During dinner we were treated to a performance from these little cockroach looking insects, their eyes would light up bright orange or yellow like fire flies as they danced around the jungle canopy.

Deeper inside the jungle the insect choir made almost a deafening roar, although strangely it felt like one of the best nights sleeps I have had in months. Along our treks we came across jungle coconuts (only a small amount  of flesh inside a nut, also contained Widgety Grubs!! tasted like coconut), rubber trees, a vine which when chopped in to a small length contained plentiful reserves of fresh jungle purified water and even a jungle cobra which Ronaldo used his best snake whisperer technique to catch for a quick photo shoot.

Back at camp we used the Boar teeth that we had collected (mine a nice memento for the hole in the bottom of my hiking boot) to make necklaces, there was no disputing we were true jungle adventurers now. Finally may nagging paid off and we fit in a quick sunset fishing session, George was keen to show off his skills by throwing the entire handline in to the water, forgetting to hold on to one end, I don't think he realised the joke when we told him to go in the murky water after it. The fish tally was nil, however a beautiful sunset over the Amazon was a perfect way to top off the Jungle leg of this tour.

To get to the Pampas we had to take a boat back to Rurrenbaque early (I'm talking pitch black early) through a misty sunrise. Tereza kindly provided us an esky full off ice which was packed with beer for the cruise down to our Pampas camp. This Amazon tour is a lot more laid back, after you are driven 3 hours by jeep and loaded in to a small boat, the rest of the afternoon is spent basking in the sun, spotting hundreds of animals on your leisurely cruise. At one point we pulled up to a bank where a family of spider monkeys decided they wanted to come on board and say hello, my camera was maintained by a firm grasp.

Our camp which was a series of wooden walkway connected huts on the bank of the river, including a common room with hammocks and lounge chairs overlooking the water. An Australian family who were also staying there had their 3 kids (all under 10) with them and were travelling their world together, I think one of the kids said they had already been to over 20 countries. Our concerns that we had brought too much booze were put to rest when it was all polished off in the first night, a few sore heads and one very grumpy Spanish girl (who ended up changing groups, much to the delight of our guide) made for some sluggish Anaconda hunting in the morning, only the one small beast bothered to say hello.

We were kept entertained for the 3 days with plenty of activities; night time Camen (type of Alligator) spotting where our torches lit up their glowing eyes, fishing for Piranhas (I was the champ, catching 6 of the little fellas), swimming with pink dolphins (the cut on my toe looked remarkably similar to the bait we used for Piranha fishing). One of the Aussie kids even had her 10th birthday and the chef managed to whip up an impressive cake.

Its hard to say which of the two tour options I enjoyed most. On one hand the jungle was a bit more roughing it and felt more like we were deep in the Amazon, whilst at the same time it was a little disappointing to not have all the animals from the Pampas. Doing the jungle first makes the reward of chilling out for a few days afterwards a perfect combination. The mosquitoes will not be missed.