Andes to Jungle

Drugged in Lima after a long flight

 

Drugged at the airport with some strange food??

 We began our journey with a rough and uncomfortable trip courtesy of Aeroleanas Airlines to via Lima Cuzco, Peru. During our stop in Lima we decided to hit the town in the trendy area of Miraflores. We quickly found ourselves lost after looking for some local markets but were quickly saved by a trusty local. He took us personally to the markets followed by a bar a friend of his owned near by to try the famous pisco sour. After 1 glass we were starting to get offered Cocaine and were feeling a little strange. Halfway through the second glass we both realised something was up and decided to bail. Our friendly Peruvian quickly turned no so friendly and tried everything he could to try make us either have more alcohol or buy cocaine. After explaining that we had a plain to catch we were allowed to leave and were sent to the bar to pay for our drinks while 2 large bounces stood around me. At the time I knew I was being ripped off but was just keen to get out. 2 drinks and $100 later Em and I were in Lima airport rolling and giggling on the floor. we managed to get on our flight with nothing more than some foggy memories and our kidney's intact.

Cuzco and Machu Picchu

 Straight away Em and i were effected by the 3500m altitude and found simple walks to our beautiful hostel Quipu a challenge. Staying a Quipu was like staying at long lost grandma's house and at about 20AUD a night very affordable with all the coca leaves and freshly squeezed  juice you could want.
Cuzco is and amazing place with beautiful cobblestone roads and breath taking views of surrounding mountains. The food is average and very Americanised and both Em and I found ourselves sick. We setled in and within a few days were use to the altitude and booked a rafting trip. The rafting was amazing as we cut through the steep valley's of the Andean mountains trying to avoid falling into the freezing water.

Machu Picchu

The next day embarked on our Cameno Inca trek (inca trail). This was a four day trek through the mountains to Machu Picchu. Our guide, cook and porters from Alltrek were fantastic and the traditional Peruvian cuisine was easily the best food we had eaten.Unfortunately for my self i was still not well and my diet mainly consisted of electrolyte replacement fluid. The trek was amazing and reward of walking into the misty Machu Picchu early in the morning before any other tourist arrived was an experience neither of us would forget.

Arequipa and Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon

After getting a feel Cuzco and returning from our trek we booked a first class sleeper bus ticket to Arequipa where we enjoyed Spanish Bingo and 180' lazyboy type recliners. Arequipa was a pretty city made from white Volcanic rock from the 3 active volcanoes that surrounded it. We visited a few museums including one that housed the remains of Juanita the inca ice queen that was found frozen at the top of one of the volcanoes. We booked a 2 day trip to Colca Canyon(the worlds deepest canyon). This trip was a little disappointing as we spent nearly the whole time in the bus and didn't even reach the deeper parts of the canyon as the bus driver ran out of time. We were also surprised by a 5200m pass where we saw the worlds highest toilet where nearly everyone on the bus suffered

d from altitude sickness. On a positive we did manage to see the famous condors that lived within the canyon.

Puno Lake Titicaca


Home stay

We headed from Cuzco in a tourist bus to the town of Puno stopping at various sites an small villages along the way. Puno was a small city that had little to offer except for lake Titicaca. We booked a cruise and home stay on one of the remote islands on lake Titicaca. We stayed with a Quechua couple that lived a sustainable life as the island hand no shops. The house was basic with a mud floor and they looked all meals over an open fire that consisted of mainly potato. That night we dressed up in our host clothing and went to a traditional dance with the rest of the island. The next day we left our guest headed back to Puno.


Peru to Bolivia.

We took a long local bus from Puno to la Paz that crossed the border that consisted of a chain across the road which you had to hop off the bus and and walk around. As we winder our selves around and acrosss lake Titicaca we finally came to our descent into La Paz. La paz is an interesting town as it is biult in a crater like pit amoungst beautiful snow capped mountains. After finding a place to stay for about 15US we found a taxi to take us to the Witch Markets. We were driven to what seemed to be the end of the town and asked to get out. I questioned the driver if this was the right place and he contibnued to ask us to hop out and pointed in a direction for us to follow. We followed the direction he pointed and found ourselves in a small quiets part of outer town late at night with no clue where we were. After a long walk with little direction from the locals we finally found our way back to our hotel. These types of event seemed to follow as we began to feel unwelcome in the town of La Paz as we were ask to leave stores and constantly refered to as ''Gringos''.

Lama Fetus from the witch markets

Our aims in Lapaz were to ride Death road and visit the infamous San Pedro Prison howere unfortunately for us we couldn't visit the prison due to a recent riot and we desided to skip death road after a tourist rode off the edge due to poor conditions. With these events we desided to leave La Paz early so we booked a ticket to Rurrenbaque to visit the Amazon.