ideas for cheap stuff

Maybe I should make this alliteration thing a new title theme. Its just annoying enough to work!
So I´m about to leave Peru, and therefore guess its time I got around to updating the site. Sorry for the delay to those who´ve emailed me. Glad to see though that people are reading. Wow, just listening to a version of ¨Enjoy The Silence¨ by Tori Amos, very beautiful, thank god for Phantom FM online, a little taste of something different to what ya get here!
So first spot I stopped in Peru was Puno, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. I was supposed to stay in Copacabana with Lids and Dee, but decided last minute to go on to Puno so I´d have time to appreciate the floating islands of Uros properly. In all fairness, I was a bit disappointed and shouldn´t have bothered to put so much time in. About 3 hours for the tour would have sufficed. I did the full day tour and the floating islands were interesting enough with why and how they were first created (the Inca said the Uros people could be free of Inca rule only on the waters of Lake Titicaca). I made the most of my time in Puno anyway and met some CouchSurfers to go out for a drink and a bit of music as Tonge had already gone on to Arequipa for a day or two. It was a grand night and then it was on to Cusco where the locals were a bit freaked as it rained thg day before I got there and again that morning and it was the first time any of those I spoke to have seen this in their lifetimes during August, which is traditionally the driest month of all the dry months there. Bloody climate change! So I hung about the city waiting on Lids, Dee, Fee and Colma to arrive from Copacabana (where they´d a great time doing a hike and visiting Isla del Sol), and also tried to find Colma´s boyfriend Paddy, turns out he was fast asleep all day after his long journey. We went out for dinner that night, and just could not manage partying due to extreme tiredness. Seriously, we all felt like old women going to bed! Next morning I was up bright and early to surprise Jonathan at the airport, this was Friday 8th and it turned out to be a waste of a 5am wake up time because his plane arrived around 09:30, but sure it was good when he got there to great him with Kermit the Frog in hand. Jonathan was wrecked as he´d attempted to sleep at Lima airport and his stomach was in a jock too, so I went out for a bit of a walk around Cusco and then everyone met up around 18:00 for dinner. We went out to a very posh restaurant, the Witches Garden, which was also very cold, but the food was gorgeous. Lids, Dee and Fee were set to go on a mountain bike tour the next morning so we´d an early night yet again. Tonge turned up on Saturday morning and the girls went on the bike tour, Jonathan, Colma and Paddy were all feeling the effects of altitude so we stayed at the hostel till the afternoon when Tonge, Jonathan and I went to the Inca museum in town. It was a brilliant museum, and our guide was ridiculously informative, but we were all a bit shattered. Afterwards we headed back to meet the guys. The mountain bike tour was apparently fantastic, and I really missed out there, but such is life! After dinner Colma and Paddy headed back to Loki hostel and the rest of us tried going for a drink or two, and actually managed to get a second wind and do a bit of dancing. Seriously, I was really proud of us! It was getting to the point where I doubted we´d manage anything past midnight again! Poor Jonathan got a bit wrecked though so we´d to bow out a bit early, the girls were real troopers though till about 03:00…hmm, I feel old! That Sunday was the day before the Inca Trial began, so we all decided to take it handy enough. Jonathan and I did the city tour of Cusco, which visited sites including an Inca temple that was used as base walls for a Catholic church, a defense and religious site, and also the site of Puma rock, which was where bodies were mummified the organs being wrenched out through the ass, and the bodies put into the fetal position, as Incan people, and numerous other tribes and predecessors, believed that people were reborn into the afterlife/a new life. Jonathan and I picked a restaurant at random and luckily it was the same that the lads were sitting in. Its a small gringo world! We all got our last minute bits and pieces for the trail and headed to bed early.
So we started the Inca Trail on Monday 11th August, I hadn´t slept well at all the night before we started, and was pretty pissed with myself as I was worried about how I´d manage the first day of the trail, though I´d heard from friends that the first day wasn´t too bad. After setting off at 06:00 we had breakfast in Ollantaytambo, which was near our starting point of km82 at 08:00 and then after a short drive we got all our crap together that we planned to carry for the first day. None of us had thought to book an extra porter, which I would now recommend, for our personal packs with extra clothes, supplies, sleeping bag and mats attached. I´d just bought a cheap big new bag especially for the trek, but some of the guys packs were pretty small, so it was difficult enough to attach stuff to their bags. The funniest was Jonathan´s little bag cos there was nothing to hang stuff off of, but sure we had the help of our guide William, and the 12 porters and 1 cook that were going to be accompanying us on our 4-day journey carrying our tents, food, shelters for dinner…jaysus, there was such a lot of shit that they brought man! We get some photos taken on the way down to the official Inca Trail desk and as we´re heading down Dee utters the funniest line, ¨Well this is easy so far!¨, ah Dee, ever the optimist! After we got our passports stamped we crossed the bridge and learned the first important rule of the trail, if ya hear or see a porter coming up behind you then get and stay to the mountain side of the path as the porters get so in the zone and move on so quickly to get to the lunch stop, or campsite before ya that they may not see ya, and if you´re on the edge, that might not be too safe! It was amazing, and humiliating to see these guys pummelling by ya carrying such big heavy bags! We all had our loads but most of the first day was quite easy going. The first time we had a steep climb most of us were struggling an panting at the top in need of a break, but we knew it was mostly flat that day, which kept our spirits up, which came in handy the next day. We saw our first Inca ruins that day, and William was explained the different routes to Machu Picchu, we were walking the religious route, and on the other side of the river was the noble route, which was flat and took about 5 hours to reach the base of Machu Picchu. I thought to myself for the first time right then after looking at the steep altitude climbs we´d cover the next day, ¨Who´s idea was this?¨, it wasn´t to be the last time to think that, and I´m afraid that the answer I´ve come to is that, though it was a consenses, it was probably mine. Our first lunch stop came, and we knew one thing for sure, we certainly wouldn´t go hungry on this trek! There was so much variety of choice, and actual food! It could´ve fed an army, but there was just 9 of us. We made the effort to seriously dent the amount though! I´d a few minutes siesta after that, being wrecked from lack of sleep and then we started off again. I found it so much harder to walk after lunch. I was so tired from food, and the lack of sleep was making its presence felt, plus my bag felt way heavier. The guys rallied me favourably and when we got to camp we all had one well earned beer and then I went for a snooze while the guys went to watch Paddy play soccer on the gringo side against the porters. Well done to Paddy for managing to score a goal there!!! After dinner Jonathan stayed a while in the dark looking at the sky, the clouds came and went so quickly, it had spit a bit of rain that day during lunch, but we turned out to be incredibly lucky for the rest of the time, other people had gotten really drowned on their walks during this unexpected weather change.
Tuesday dawned with a mixture of dread, excitement and determination for me. Practically the whole day was going to be uphill, but thank the lords of Kobal that we could hire a porter each for this day and the next. We were all awoken at 06:00 to get up, breakfasted and on the road. William was going to stay at the back to make sure he got us all herded up. We agreed that everyone would walk at their own pace and we broke out the coca leaves in earnest. Our guide had told us the most important thing was to stay positive and encourage each other. We all paired off enroute, funny how it worked that way! The way I approached the day was to build it up as ¨hell on earth¨ walk, so anything easier than that would be a bonus. The approach worked quite well for me as it really wasn´t that bad! Make no mistake it was tough going on all fronts, but taking it at my own pace, which happened to be Jonathan´s pace too, made it work out fine. The hike was completed in 3 stages, and that made it all very manageable as we all regrouped, shared and moved on. The last bit up to Dead Woman´s Pass was by far the most difficult. It wasn´t as steep as what had come before, but we were all more drained from our exertions already that morning, and coupled with the altitude walking became much tougher. This was where Jonathan and I broke into Abba tunes and Lids called encouragement down to us from her and Fee´s vantage point. Once we were all at the top we took photos, though I missed the chance at funny photos of us playing ¨dead women¨ cos Dee and I only thought of it on the way down to camp, and we certainly weren´t going back up that bastard! We all got a laugh out of Jonathan´s fastidious personal hygiene. He threatened to freeze himself to death and have a glacial water shower at one stage! The fact that he´d be frozen and more than likely sick afterwards finally deterred him from this objective. I washed my feet at the river before dinner, which was quite nice as there was no one else around. Then it was another beautiful dinner and a few games of Shithead before bed. Poor Tonge felt vitimised as she was the Shithead for the first 3 games, but she got into her groove after that!
We were told that Wednesday would be an easy enough day, but I had my doubts when I looked at the mountain we´d to climb first. Unfortunately, I was proven right that morning, and you all know how I hate to be right! The first part was particularly hellish because we were just finished breakfast, and going directly from breakfast into a steep climb does not a happy hiker make! We stopped for breath at some Inca ruins, and headed for the top. The scenery was spectacular I have to say, but it was really steep, and we all found it tough. We´d been the last group to leave that day, probably because our campsite to get to that night was the furthest away from our goal the next morning of Machu Picchu, so it wasn´t like we needed to rush or anything. After a rest at the top of the mountain on an astrological viewing point we descended for the next hour to another watch site, which is where the last Inca ruler passed on his way to safety in the deep jungle. On the way here my back start giving me trouble, which freaked me out cos I´d another day and half to walk, but luckily it sorted itself out after our lunch break where we finally got to know the names of our porters´, William having kept leaving that off. We´d a nice enough flat walk from there on out to our campsite. Dee tried to scare Lids, Fee and I in a tunnel through the rock at one stage. She failed that time, but managed to get me the next day at Machu Picchu, when my plan to scare her backfired on me. Trust her! We got to our campsite and then learned that there would be no beer or party that night as we were camping in the most desolate and isolated site imaginable. Beautiful setting on the side of a mountain-top with only one other small group of 2 staying there with us, but 4.5 hours walk from our goal of Machu Picchu. We´d kind of had an idea from just before starting that we wouldn´t get to see sunrise at Machu Picchu due to our late booking of the trip in April, but this was when it really settled in that I wouldn´t get there in time, and I have to say that was a big disapointment to me. We all dumped our bags in the tents that were set up by the porters for us (everything was always ready by the time we got there), and headed down some steep steps to view another religious site with a large alter and excellent irrigation system. William described the site´s history and then left us there to explore on our own. After dinner we discussed whether we´d get up at 03:30 and start walking at 04:00 or get up at 05:30 and start off at 06:00. We all voted and the later start won out 5 against 3, which I´m glad of now because we were all so grumpy & stupid the next evening waiting on the 21:00 train that those extra few hours probably would have had us all at each others´ throats! Then after heated games of Shithead we headed to bed, like good old folks.
Our hike to Machu Picchu on Thursday was tough enough because it was a steep descent for about an hour and half, before it levelled out somewhat and became Peruvian flat, i.e. up and down. It was a steep climb up Monkey steps to Inti Punku (sun gate), from which we could look down on Machu Picchu. Suddenly, upon reaching here, and I feel I can speak for everyone, we were all so physically and emotionally drained, and we lost that adrenaline buzz that suddenly we were all shattered! We managed to pull ourselves together after hugs and congratulations all round to get some amazing pics of us with the background. Us being the most fabulous part in our unwashed and unkempt states! William gathered us and marched us down to get more pics, Jonathan and I tried to get some jumping photos with the site in the background. We went down to use the toilets and then have a celebratory beer, which cost an absolute fortune in comparison to normal, especially considering the price of entrance to the site in the first place! Following this we had our tour around the site. God, it took so much energy to get up and about, listen interestedly and ask questions. It was all so overwhelming! After 2 hours William left us to make our own way around the site before meeting him in Aguas Caliente for dinner. We all sat down to rest and everyone start taking off their boots and lying down. I was sat between Paddy and Colma and didn´t want to subject them to my awful smelly feet, but they insisted it was fine. It would´ve been fine if Paddy hadn´t leaned down just as I´d taken them off. His reaction was of the ¨Oh Jaysus!¨ variety! Poor man, felt bad for him, but good for my smelly toes. Freedom! After our rest we mustered the strength to explore, and then to impersonate Indiana Jones adventuring about. Jonathan and Paddy were delighted to see their first llamas grazing around the ruins. We got the bus down to Aguas Caliente and ravenously fell upon the food that we ordered the second we got in the door. We bought some photos of the group and ourselves that had been taken by the company for keepsakes and then Jonathan and I headed up to enjoy the hot spring baths, which were divine. So nice to get clean in the hot showers we finally found! We met the guys back in the restaurant and played cards very badly due to exhaustion, before getting the train to meet our bus back to Cusco.
Next morning was sad because everyone was heading to get planes. Lids and Dee made me cry by being sweeties, little brats and around 13:30 Jonathan headed off. Tonge went to do the city tour and I stayed in the hostel recouperating, vegging in the dvd room and having a few drinks with the utter nutters I met. Next morning Tonge and I did the tour of the Sacred Valley and then on Sunday we went our separate ways for a few days. Tonge headed straight to Nazca and I went to Arequipa, but I´m a bit wrecked now to finish this. I started this post in Peru, and now I´m in Vilcabamba, Ecuador. There´s a mariachi band playing out on the square I´d like to watch, so I guess I´ll keep the rest of this for later. I really have to start updating each week. Its such a chore to recap so much, and I´m sure ye are bored! Hope all that went to Electric Picnic this weekend enjoyed themselves and went to see CSS and My Bloody Valentine! Can´t believe August ends tomorrow!