into Bolivia...

Defying all odds, we made it from Cuzco to Copacabana in one day! Whether it was worth the stress involved is another matter... We arrived in Puno, the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, with plenty of time to get to the border control area before Bolivia shut up shop for the day. What we didn´t count on was a local bus taking an hour longer than expected, stopping for every large-skirted lady with a bundle on her back that happened to be near the roadside. In the end, we resorted to paying a few soles extra for the bus to take us right to the border, and with five minutes to spare we literally ran from Peru to Bolivia. But at least we made it to Copacabana for the night!

Copacabana is a laid-back, pretty little town with a nice vibe. It´s also bereft of any ATMs or establishments that accept plastic, which unfortunately wasn´t a priority as we made our sprint to Bolivia with 200 soles in our (Mauro´s) pockets. This wouldn´t have been such a problem had we known how much our trip to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) was going to cost. It´s not that the locals manning the travel agencies lie to you - it´s more that they don´t offer information that could prove to be very useful (or indeed crucial).

I was really excited about spending a night on the Isla del Sol - where, legend has it, the sun, moon AND the Inca dynasty were born. So imagine my disappointment (read: foul mood) when we stepped off the boat only to be accosted by two men charging us for setting foot on their sacred land. Then informing us that the return boat journey costs double. Then finding out that deigning to walk further north of the island would incur another charge (or two, as we found out). Add to this the fact that all foodstuffs were about twice the price and half as good, and that we had about ten dollars on us, and we couldn´t have cared less where the sun and moon were created. Don´t get me wrong - the scenery was incredible, but as Mauro and I sat on top of a hill, sharing a bread roll, with a 360-view around us of snow-capped mountains peeping above the turquoise lake at sunset, we both realised we´d hit natural beauty overload. It was probably the culmination of being ´ruined´in Peru, having a full day´s travelling, barely resting before hopping on a boat to see more of the world´s marvels, AND to top it off, having hardly any funds at our disposal. Either way it was here, watching a beautiful sunset, that we decided that despite what the guidebook said, nothing was ´unmissable´if we weren´t in the mood for it (even if it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

With that one resolved, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and began ´The Incas´Sacred Route of Eternity´ - a stunningly beautiful hike across the whole island. True to its name, it took an eternity and was made only slightly less sacred due to being charged seemingly random amounts twice along the way. It was a great day however and got better when I found a 20 pound note and 12 US dollars in my passport wallet.

As excited as we were at the prospect of going to La Paz and drawing some money out, I wouldn´t have missed seeing the locals bringing their cars to be blessed at the Moorish Cathedral in Copacabana. Apparently this is a weekly occurrence and keeps their vehicles safe from accidents. Luckily the bus drivers we´ve encountered so far haven´t resorted to this (although they´ve often chewed coca leaves to stay awake).

This may come as no surprise, but it really sank in that Mauro and I are urban types at heart, and it was brilliant to be back in the big city. Any barely-thought thoughts of one day moving to the countryside have been banished, and we made the most of browsing the Witches´Market, eating salteñas (spicy empanada-type pastries) and drinking Paceña beer. Bolivia might not have the best infrastructure for tourists (the buses...argh!), but from what we´ve seen so far, it´s a fascinating country. So much so that I´m gonna log off now before the midday salteñas run out and leave Mauro to expand upon our fascination next time.

some final thoughts on Peru

I found a surprising (and heartening) amount of solidarity shown towards Chile in the wake of the recent earthquakes. Pretty much every time I told a Peruvian that I was a Chilean, they immediately asked if I had had any family affected and expressed their sympathies. They clearly have first-hand knowledge of living through earthquakes and their aftermath...

They´re a taciturn bunch, Peruvians. This may be mainly true of people in the highlands rather than people from the coast (eg Lima) or from the jungle areas, but generally they're polite also - even the guy who tried to nick Becka´s handbag was polite about it!

I didn´t get to decide conclusively whether Peruvian pisco really is better than Chilean pisco (as is claimed). Basically, you get pisco more or less thrown down your throat in Chile, whereas in Peru it's more of a refined thing, more expensive and marketed more as a high-class drink. That said, they both have top-quality brands so I'll declare it a draw. (There, will that do??)

Peru was the first country we hit on our travels where we had the problem of fake currency. Fortunately we never had any problems ourselves, especially as the drill for telling a real note from a fake one was so complicated and frankly difficult, that we would´ve been buggered!

They have a strange relationship with their political leaders. Alan Garcia was practically hounded out of Peru back in the 80s when he left the country bankrupt. He´s now President again. As for his predecessor Alberto Fujimori, he's now been convicted of human rights abuses, although his daughter Keiko is running for President next year so she's likely to pardon him (!). A surprising amount of Peruvians remember Fujimori with fondness, despite the fact he was rumoured to have given his wife electric shocks when she threatened to lift the lid on corruption in his government...

We´ll miss Cruz del Sur and their comfy buses. And of course the strangely flirtatious girl on their onboard video who would tell us, in her saucy way, that the toilets were strictly for urinary purposes, and that for "any other needs" we should let the crew know...!

There's a lot of really terrible Latin pop around. Enrique Iglesias is probably the creme de la creme, as it goes. This of course isn't just related to Peru (in fact I would blame Puerto Rico for most of it - this may be unfair of me, but sod it), it's just that we were subjected to a lot of it, and having come straight from Brazil, we definitely noticed it. We were also subjected to a lot of really poor quality Andean stuff, like the buskers who followed us around Huanchaco bellowing their terrible songs at us while we tried to eat, and then expecting us to pay them for this. Also, far too many easy listening panpipe versions of "Imagine", "Hey Jude" or even "Ze Vind Of Change" played everywhere... Enough already!!

We never got tired of llamas, though.

They have some entertaining celebrities in Peru. On top of metalhead Oscar nominee Magaly Solier, they have Jaime Bayly, who appears to be a cross between Jonathan Ross and Pete Doherty only with Presidential aspirations, if you can imagine such a creature. He's also having some kind of outrageous affair with a taboo-busting 22 year old novelist (whose name escapes me, sorry).

There's no shortage of cab drivers in Peru, and they absolutely love tooting their horns. And in Trujillo, where cabs are the ONLY form of public transport in the city centre (nope, no buses), they will honk at you to try and catch your attention if you even look like you're slowing down your walking pace. Of course this means you can always get a cab, but it can get pretty annoying after a while! We never got to try one of these, sadly (the tricitaxis) - they looked brilliant.

They´re still really into timbales of rice.

"El Peru". This is how Peru seems to be referred to by Peruvians, which seems slightly grand (you don't get "La Argentina" or "El Chile", after all), but fair enough, if it's a national pride thing...?

Talking of which, considering the huge amount of history and culture they have, Peruvians on the whole seemed to have strangely low national self-esteem (compared with the countries we'd been to so far, anyway!). One drinker in Barranco told us that a foreigner is more likely to get hired for a job in Peru than a Peruvian, though I don't know if he was just being drunk and melancholy. That said, his mate did declare that Lake Titicaca meant "Titi for Peru, Caca for Bolivia", so maybe the national self-esteem isn't THAT much of a problem...

Navel of the world

That's Cusco/Cuzco, by the way, or as it's known in Quechua, Qosq'o (I think I'll refer to it as that from now on cos it's great fun to type!). Anyway it was very nice to have FINALLY acclimatised to the altitude, and been able to enjoy Qosq'o and the Sacred Valley around it without constantly feeling like a lie down. Of course, it's proved impossible to entirely avoid gringos around here, though Lord knows we tried (I told Becka there was about as much chance of getting me into one of the local Irish pubs as going on the World's Most Dangerous Road in Bolivia - that one hasn't been entirely settled yet, by the way). Perhaps only here would you hear over-excited Americans raving about how this is the "fuckin' cultural capital of the Americas, man!" (if you discount the McDonalds and the places where you can get your curry and your Sunday fry-up).

That said, it's a very quiet time to be here, as the massive rains back in January caused such damage that a lot of the area's been closed off since then (Machu Picchu included, of course) and tourists cancelled their trips in droves - good for us, pretty bad for Qosq'o, though. I had expected greater numbers of child beggars, and while there was still a depressing amount, it was mainly street sellers attempting to flog paintings/massages/pictures with llamas, all of whom seemed to have a pretty strong grasp of English (or the phrase ":maybe later?" anyway).

So as far as missing out on Machu Picchu (or "MaKKHHHHchu PiKKHHchu" as our guide back in Chavin de Huantar would have it - either that's the proper pronunciation or he was trying to psych me out), I was pretty much OK with it. Especially having seen Chan Chan, Huaca de la Luna etc, which predate the Incas by hundreds, even thousands, of years! Anyway, it's been tremendous to witness the Inca capital and its amazing walls up close - the more I hear about the Incas, the more incredible they sound. We particularly enjoyed visiting Ollantaytambo yesterday - not just because it remains the hardest place name on our whole trip to pronounce, but because it was where the Incas whupped the Spaniards' asses back in the 16th Century (this ultimately was a false dawn though, and the Spanish were soon back in force). The Incas only had three rules, it seems - "thou shalt not lie", "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not be a lazy bastard", or something, which I guess means they were free to kill and/or shag each other to their hearts' content!

We found out a lot of this today, when we visited Pisac and trekked uphill for what felt like half a day. After a couple of tense moments early on (perhaps when we realised quite how much effort would be entailed) we got into the spirit of it, helped along by the amateur guide, name of Amaru, who we encountered halfway up. We missed out on Sacsahuayman as it would have entailed shelling out even more than we already had to visit it, but at least we found out that the name means "satisfied falcon", which was fantastic news. Anyway, we were both pretty much "ruined" by this point, if you get my meaning. (This is us near the top of the Pisac site, by the way):

Anyway, after a farewell pisco sour, we're leaving Peru tomorrow (sadly), heading for Lake Titicaca and the town of Copacabana - not to be confused with its Brazilian namesake. This is the ORIGINAL Copacabana, apparently! They said it couldn't be done, and it was impossible to get there from Qosq'o on the same day, something to do with Bolivian border guards being a bunch of lazy-asses who only work till 7pm (what kind of border is that?? The Peruvian side is open all day!), but we're damned if we're gonna be stuck in Puno for the night, so we're gonna get there by hook or by crook. Well, that's the intention, anyway... Guess you'll find out next time!

White City

Arequipa is known as "White City" because of the colour of the volcanic stone found here, though thankfully it bears no resemblance to its London counterpart (it`s actually very attractive). The arequipeños are known for being fond of intellectual debate and for their independence from Lima - they´ve even designed their own flag and passport! It´s true that the locals look just as cool and urban as any limeño we`ve come across. There´s also a lot of very good restaurants and coffee outlets - whether this is to cater for all that intellectual debating I´ve no idea, but we certainly made the most of it. Unfortunately, the cuy (guinea pig) wasn´t the highlight of this gastronomic paradise, but when in Peru....

I´m not too sure about that one, but when in Arequipa, a visit to the Colca Canyon is a must. We took a two-day tour with an overnight stop in Chivay, one of the villages near to the Canyon. It´s a few hours´drive from Arequipa but we were kept entertained on the way by a whole host of camelids - llamas, alpacas and vicuñas. I posted a picture of a llama last time, so here´s a couple of vicuñas (my favourite camelid du jour).

To ease our muscles after the 2-hour trek that never happened (because of a massive ominous cloud ahead), we visited yet more hot springs. They were fantastic - they made up for the brown, tepid, fully-clothed affair in Huaraz. Also enjoyable were the folclorico show in the evening and the company of some fellow travellers in our group. But the highlight of the tour was, unsurprisingly, the Colca Canyon itself. While it´s not the deepest in the world (as the entrance ticket falsely claims), it comes pretty close. We walked along the edge (less vertiginous than it sounds) until we came to the ´Condor Look-out´. It was incredible to see these enormous birds gliding overhead. I recorded some footage on my camera, but to be honest you had to be there.

Back in Arequipa, we had a taste of the lively weekend nightlife but reluctantly retired back to our hostel before midnight as we´d been up since 5:30am seeing all that nature. We celebrated our last day in culinary paradise, and Spurs´win over Stoke (apparently this was an important win) by having lunch at one of Gaston´s restaurants. (Remember Gaston is the Peruvian God of food.) The fact that we´d just seen a preserved Inca child who was sacrificed in the mountains 500 years ago didn´t dent our appetites! And so for the price of a meal at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, we tried an array of top-notch local dishes, like sarsa de patitas, escribano, ocopa, solterito and adobo. It doesn´t matter what it means, it was delicious! The only downpoint was when I mistook a very hot chilli (called rocoto) for your bog-standard red pepper. I put a huge chunk in my mouth and couldn´t taste my seafood pasta for about ten minutes.

So we leave Arequipa satisfied - it definitely didn´t disappoint. Cusco, however, might well disappoint but I eventually decided that I wanted to check out the former capital of the Inca empire, even if we´re confined to Gringo Alley and its environs!

back on the juice

Much as we loved being high up in the mountains, it was good to get back to sea level again, if only because the headaches were becoming tiresome! We quickly settled into big city life again in Lima, this time staying in the Barranco district, which we soon twigged is the capital´s bohemian/alternative party hot spot. A lot of this partying seemed to go on in our hostel, but fortunately we were up for it again after several days of early nights and no drinking (if it wasn´t the malaria tablets, it was dodgy stomachs, or the altitude), so it was almost like a weekend back in London!

Having said that, it was undoubtedly friendlier (the Andean reserve we encountered in Huaraz definitely doesn't apply to Lima!), and we made a bunch of new friends, the majority of them gay (Barranco, and our hostel in particular seemed particularly gay-friendly by Latin American standards). A Brazilian guest knocked everyone up feijoada and caipirinhas on the Saturday, as a preamble to the hostel basically mutating into a house party, which the hostel's owners seemed only too happy to join...! This went on for a while, till the party for some reason got moved nearer our room (where Becka had retired for the night), at which point I had a gentle word.

We made our journey to the place which serves the "best ceviche in the world" before leaving Lima, despite the warnings about the neighbourhood - and glad to say, it didn't disappoint. In fact, it was so excellent that I don't think either of us will bother eating ceviche again on this trip, as it would inevitably suffer by comparison. Chef Wong ("El Chino Wong" as he is affectionately known locally) did all the prep in the corner of the dining room, in an extension to his own house, it seems. We spent most of the time watching him and his incredible knives in action, awestruck. The ceviche was sole and octopus, and the "main" (which basically is whatever he feels like cooking that day, and whatever the catch has been) was a superb sole and Chinese mushroom stir fry in black bean sauce. Becka was totally starstruck when he agreed to have this photo taken with us!

It's got to be said - not just at Chez Wong, but in general - that Lima has perhaps the best restaurants of any of the cities we've visited so far on our trip, and will probably end up the overall winner (maybe Cochabamba or Iquique will make a late stab for glory, but I doubt it somehow). The fact that one of the country's biggest celebrities is the portly chef Gastón Acurio probably says something about the importance and prestige placed on gastronomy in Peru. The other biggest name at the moment seems to be the actress Magaly Solier, the star of the film nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars (La Teta Asustada - a big deal here as it´s the first time Peru has ever had a film nominated), who we´ve taken to as she speaks Quechua AND did devil horns on the red carpet for all her metalhead buddies back home!

Having thoroughly enjoyed our time in Lima, we´ve now headed to Arequipa - the town itself is very pleasant and seems more well-to-do than other Peruvian cities we´ve seen, although that doesn't stop it being very noisy, or people hassling you to buy stuff on the street all the time. Still, it's Colca Canyon country, so we'll go and check that out tomorrow, and hopefully not get hassled by any condors. The sharper-eyed among you may have noticed I am currently rocking a beard. Becka is very keen on it, though I´ve told her to enjoy it while it lasts as it may not last much longer...

two miles high

We had just one night in Trujillo, arguably Peru´s second city, so it was a shame we didn´t get round to trying the local duck or goat stew specialities. Neither did we make it to the cinema, which we were planning on doing because Trujillo´s cinema-goers have quite a reputation for being vocal and participatory. Actually we did make it to the cinema but all the films looked rubbish so we played air hockey instead. What we DID manage to do was visit some more ruins (we're big fans now) and stock up on some Trujillano sweet specialities, like pecado de lucuma (lucuma is apparently called´eggfruit´in English) and the brilliantly-named Kingkong - a brick-sized biscuit filled with fruit and various sugary things, for our overnight bus trip to Huaraz.

We needed more than some Kingkones to make this Movil Tours bus trip bearable. Our favourite, Cruz del Sur, doesn´t offer this route, but we now know better than to casually experiment with different companies. For over an hour we had to endure very off-key religious songs. This was followed by two loud films back-to-back, which didn´t finish until 2am. The bus was due to arrive in Huaraz at 6:30am, which left us with a whole three hours´sleep (the fact that we´d already seen Tears Of The Sun on the bus three nights earlier didn´t help matters).

So imagine our relief on our arrival when we were allowed to check into our room early to sleep. A gorgeous room with a lovely bed at that. Mauro suggested that this was one of the finest moments of our trip so far (in fact he almost wept with gratitude).

Despite a little altitude sickness, we really made the most of the breathtaking scenery around here (Mauro didn´t fare so well initially but felt better after drinking 15 cups of coca tea a day). Huaraz is nestled right beside the Cordillera Blanca, which features the highest mountain in Peru. We got a fine view of all of this from our hostel. It´s a constant reminder not just of the beauty of nature but of its power. This region has had more than its fair share of natural disasters, and the devastation caused by the massive earthquake of 1970 is still very present in people's minds. Understandable seeing as it killed 50,000 people. A couple of days ago we went for a long walk through the countryside to see some ruins, passing various pueblos, and Mauro ended up chatting to a very old lady who´d lost all her children in the 1970 earthquake. Some very sad stories to hear (but we could only understand the gist because she spoke in Quechua half the time).

By this point we´d got used to the local dress that the ladies wear around here - woolly cardigans with large, bright skirts and a taller-than-your-average top hat. They´re usually carrying something, some branches or perhaps a baby, tied on their back in a blanket. We´d also got used to the fact that the locals really do not like having their photograph taken! In fact, we were really struck by how quiet and reserved the people are. I´m not sure if that applies to Peruvians in general or just those from the highlands, but it´s hard to adjust to coming straight from Brazil! I had an uncomfortable half-hour in some hot springs. Not only was I the only gringo (Mauro doesn´t count), I was the only one in a bikini. Some of the women entered the pool fully clothed, in long skirts and blouses. We couldn´t believe it!

That said, everyone´s been really friendly and helpful (just in a reserved way). Yesterday we felt the benefit of another local guide´s in-depth historical knowledge when we visited Chavín de Huántar. It´s a site from the ancient Chavín culture, which predates the Incas by over 2,000 years (one of several reasons why we´re totally over not seeing Machu Picchu...hmmm). It seems the Chavins liked to get off their face a lot on hallucinogenics so they could talk to their gods and predict the future. We saw lots of their brilliant sculptures, like daggers and heads and obelisks, and I also found out that Cruz del Sur is more than just a bus company.

Speaking of which, we´re off in a couple of hours for an overnight bus back to Lima. We had another day full of spectacular scenery and walks at over 3,500 metres, so we´re about ready to get back down to sea-level. Hopefully bohemian Barranco will provide us with inspiration as to where to go next. We've heard that Cuzco has been declared a disaster area after yet more heavy rains, so we're not sure whether to go. Seeing as Mauro was more upset that Cafe Andino in Huaraz was closed than Machu Picchu (it supposedly has the best coffee in Peru but come on..!), he's not too put out by this. I'm much more disappointed, but would rather not go at all than visit a disaster area. At the moment it's in the hands of weather-gods...

ceviche and Inca Kola

Having spent our last night in Brazil in Sao Paulo airport, trying to grab an hour´s sleep here and there on table tops, it was a massive relief to get to Lima and discover that we had managed to book ourselves amazingly nice and comfortable accommodation! So nice and comfortable, in fact, that we had a hard time tearing ourselves away from Hostal El Patio, though within a day or so, we'd eaten some ceviche and drunk some Inka Kola (OK to try once, probably won´t be bothering again, depends how much you like drinking bubblegum really), and foiled a robbery attempt, so you could say we were straight in there with the full-on Limeño experience!

The robbery was definitely of the "sneaky" variety, as I gather they are here, rather than the "give me your cash or I'll stab you" variety - well-dressed types sitting at the next table in the restaurant and trying to distract you with ostentatious comings and goings, that kinda thing - but Becka's wise to this restaurant lark by now and had her bag strap firmly wrapped round her leg, thankfully.They left pretty sharpish, too sharpish for us to have words, which is probably a good thing, I guess! The food is definitely looking promising here anyway, possibly more exciting than anywhere we've been yet. In fact we were slightly surprised at how much we enjoyed Lima, though we have mainly confined ourselves to the more salubrious neighbourhoods like Barranco and Miraflores.

There's no shortage of cab drivers in Peru, though most of them aren´t actually cab drivers, they´re just chancers who have stuck a "taxi" sign up on their car. It´s more or less a question of choosing a car that looks like making it to its destination, and then haggling over a price before the journey starts, then settling back and relaxing while the driver beeps his horn all the way there. (Peruvian cabbies LOVE beeping their horn)

We´re now up in the north by the coast (it seems just the other day we were gazing out over the Atlantic Ocean, and now we´re looking out over the Pacific). The views on the bus journey from Lima to Trujillo were spectacular. There was onboard bingo - I very nearly won us tickets for another trip with Cruz del Sur (by far the most expensive and best Peruvian bus company, we´re having no truck at all with bus rides from hell with drivers falling asleep at the wheel or random passengers getting on board to rob people so we´re sticking with them wherever we can!!)

We're spending a couple of days by the sea in Huanchaco, which "hasn´t entirely lost its intrinsic fishing village appeal" as our guide book says several times (I liked this quote enough to repeat it to Becka numerous times while wandering around). Lots of surfers, and fishing boats like this (which locals have been using for 4,000 years!):

More importantly, it`s the site of Chan Chan (which we visited yesterday), the biggest city in Peru before the Incas turned up and took over. Our guide gave us a wealth of information about it all, including lots of gruesome stories about human sacrifice, we both enjoyed the visit hugely.



Unfortunately it looks like we won't be able to compare it to Machu Picchu as... it`s closed until at least mid-April. Becka was close to inconsolable when we found out. Still, there's plenty more of Peru to enjoy over the coming weeks. And after getting used to Brazilian prices, it feels like we can actually afford things again, as well, which makes a nice change!!