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 Peru

Tania Gnecchi, 10 December 2008
 Peru, lima

peru

Day 4:
After returning to the hotel, San Agustin, all I could do was rest. Although today’s tour didn’t involve much walking a whole day exploring Cusco and its surrounding villages is extremely tiring. We began at 8.30 and didn’t return to Cusco until 7.15pm! It was incredible though my only advice to people who may suffer from a little bit of vertigo sometimes, like me, is “don’t look down when your bus is sharply turning up the mountain- trust me, there is a really steep drop”. My Grandma didn’t really seem to help when I confided in her, “If we fell now, you wouldn’t look anything better than a raw hamburger once you hit the bottom” she said laughing. For some reason her odd simile didn’t reassure me. The main focus of today’s excursion was The Sacred Valley of the Incas. I can’t even start to explain the beauty of these places! We visited so many different places that it would take me forever to describe them all and do them any justice. I’ll just have to tell you guys about them in person when I get back, or I’ll write about them later on when I have more time and energy. For those of you who don’t know many people suffer from altitude sickness when visiting Cusco due to the lack of oxygen which makes your body produce more blood cells. The local remedy for this shock change of air density is coca tea or coca leaves which, believe it or not, derives from the same plant used to make cocaine. I must say it does help. I was lucky enough to not feel ill but for the first few hours after our arrival I did feel extremely light headed and sometimes seemed to forget where I was or where I had put things. My head was truly in the clouds. The most important thing is to just relax and take it easy, don’t worry all the other hotel guests are a little spaced out too. Haha

Day 5:
Once again with another early start and serious deprivation of sleep I find myself relaxing in bed for a moment to recover my strengths and just soak in everything that I have done and seen over the past few days. At 5.5g ity5am the Visadom train slowly pushed its way out of the sleeping city of Cusco. Sitting in the front carriage I tried to force my eyes to remain open to capture the gorgeous city as we began to slowly progress towards the mountains. In total the ride took a little under 4 hours since the train has to progress in a zig-zag formation as the steep terrain makes it almost impossible to turn. Although moving back and forward can get a bit repetitive it at least gives you a great opportunity to take photos of the richly green scenery. The view transformed to rocky and dry mountains to moist grasslands covered with corn fields. The train ran alongside the earth stained river which ferociously slide and crashed over huge natural boulders, their surface soft from the constant flow of frozen water. As we approached our new destination, Agua Caliente, our surroundings seemed to transform once again, magically transporting us to a tropical looking forest. Deep green engulfed the train as it progressed through the dense trees only letting the strong sun pierce it’s covering. However, nothing could have prepared me for the beauty of this secluded town. It is defiantly beyond what I had ever expected or imagined.
Mountains surround the tiny town which is positioned next to the river and a large stream which carries warm water through the center of the town. There is so much vegetation it is hard to imagine people ever finding this place which is such well hidden by the embracing mountains. The bright colours, typical to Peruvian clothing and housing, creates an exotic and tropical setting against the green backdrop and the air is sweetly scented by natural incense. Like Cusco, there are numerous markets here where it is absolutely vital to bargen, a talent I picked up in Kenya and Egypt.
Another thing to defiantly try in Peru is papaya juice, If the fruit is ripe, which it normally is, it is delicious!


to check out some pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/tania.gnecchi/MachuPicchu#
ill be uploading photos most days.
post me a reaction so I know what you guys are getting up to and what you think of my travels
ciao

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