Peru - Christmas on a lake, NY on the Inca trail and a "taste of the Amazon"
In short, Peru was wonderful. 3 weeks did not really do it justice but we gave it our best and visited many of the places we wanted to get to and experience. Here are a few anecdotes:
1. For Christmas we stayed with an indigenous "Quechan" family on an island on Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake, more of an inland sea and shared with those crazy Bolivians. the family spoke neither English nor Spanish, only Quechan. Neither Katherine or I took that module at school so conversation was limited to humorous gesticulations and primitive grunts. Must of worked though as we got fed. Rice, chips, soup. Not turkey, chocolate and beer! Great experience but maybe not one to be repeated.
The lake itself is stunning and contains many islands natural and man-made. The latter are constructed entirely of reed, even the houses. The islands are 15 metres deep on average and float on the surface. Even the boats are made of reed whilst they live off fish, meat in the form of cormorants and herons and veggies from trade with the nearest lakeside town.
So, in the middle of nowhere, floating on a pile of reeds, speaking only an indigenous language and yet ... there is a baby named Beckham!
2. New Year was spent on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a trail relatively straightforward and only complicated by the altitude which on the 2nd of 4 days reaches 4,200 metres. The day we completed this was also New Year's Eve and the people we were with really helped to make it memorable compensating for the lack of alcohol and festivity with strange "Happy NY" party glasses, party poppers and hats!
Machu Picchu, for us, lived up to expectation. It wasn't so much the ruins themselves but rather the setting that takes the breath away. It is nestled amongst huge mountains in excess of 5,000 metres with vast drops down to the fast flowing river far below on the valley floor. Covering the mountains are a mixture of tropical and sub-tropical rainforest lending the site a truly wild look that famous ruins such as the Pyramids, Acropolis and Coliseum don't have because of the close proximity of Cairo, Athens and Rome respectively.
3. Having had a couple of days in Cuzco, the gateway town to Machu Picchu and arguably our favourite city in South America for its wonderful mixture of colonial Spainish and past Inca ruins, we flew to Puerto Madronaldo in the Peruvian Amazon. 3 days gave us a taste, or rather the local mossies a taste of my flesh. Katherine emerged relatively unscarred with only a couple of bites. I was forcibly held down and had my blood removed on 33 occasions!!! Still, it was fascinating, despite being waist high in mud - rainy season - and being bitten on the arse by a piranha. No, really. We saw plenty of wildlife inlcuding tarantulas, caiman, toucans, monkeys, macaws, snakes and a piranha. We stayed in an Eco lodge on the banks of a tributary to the Amazon, a real treat to stay in our own cabin in the lodge's grounds surrounded by macaws and a semi-tame toucan that thought nothing of flying onto my arm and trying to remove my watch with its massive beak.
Photos taken at Santa Monica Pier LA. Where Bay Watch was filmed all those years ago!
