Saturday:
Leaving the girls in charge of moving hotels and trying to find a laundry as we haven’t done any washing in a while, I set off for Kuelap.
I was in a minibus with all Peruvians and no one who spoke English, including the tour guide so that wasn;t great but the scenery was spectacular. It was a three hour drive along dirt tracks clinging to the edges of mountains, I did wonder if I would live to tell the tale at times! Along the way there were little hamlets with such basic dwellings, tiny children playing in the middle of the roads, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs wandering around miles from anywhere. Lots of those Peruvian old ladies that you see in pictures sitting outside their homes doing their washing, I felt like I was watching a documentary!
When we arrived we had about a kilometre steep walk to 3000 meters, which was hard going! Kuelap was built about 600 years AD and used as much stone as used for the Egyptian pyramids. Each piece of stone had to be carried all the way up the mountain and was carried by hand. The community was ruled by the Shamans and everyone was buried up there (we saw lots of bones!)
Machu Picchu gets 4,000 visitors a day Kuelap gets 4,000 a year and is very unspoilt. It isn’t spectacular like Machu Picchu but the views are amazing. Luckily there was another group there and there was an English guy who had a guide who spoke English, I asked my guide if it would be possible to swop and that was fine, so not only did I actually find out about the history but also was able to chat to someone who was English.
When I got back the girls had spent the day chilling in the new hotel and found someone to do the laundry!
Sunday:
I was in a minibus with all Peruvians and no one who spoke English, including the tour guide so that wasn;t great but the scenery was spectacular. It was a three hour drive along dirt tracks clinging to the edges of mountains, I did wonder if I would live to tell the tale at times! Along the way there were little hamlets with such basic dwellings, tiny children playing in the middle of the roads, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs wandering around miles from anywhere. Lots of those Peruvian old ladies that you see in pictures sitting outside their homes doing their washing, I felt like I was watching a documentary!
When we arrived we had about a kilometre steep walk to 3000 meters, which was hard going! Kuelap was built about 600 years AD and used as much stone as used for the Egyptian pyramids. Each piece of stone had to be carried all the way up the mountain and was carried by hand. The community was ruled by the Shamans and everyone was buried up there (we saw lots of bones!)
Machu Picchu gets 4,000 visitors a day Kuelap gets 4,000 a year and is very unspoilt. It isn’t spectacular like Machu Picchu but the views are amazing. Luckily there was another group there and there was an English guy who had a guide who spoke English, I asked my guide if it would be possible to swop and that was fine, so not only did I actually find out about the history but also was able to chat to someone who was English.
When I got back the girls had spent the day chilling in the new hotel and found someone to do the laundry!
Sunday:
After a rubbish nights sleep, I think we were actually sleeping in the local disco! and for some reason Mili decided to be so full of static electricity everything she touched was lighting up, there were sparks coming off of all the bedding and when she went near the light which was off it started flickering… we weren’t actually that sure what to do about it, I wondered if she was about to spontaneously combust! Jo reckoned that she needed to be touching rubber so in the end we made her lie very still in bed with her rubber soled walking boots on either side of her and eventually in the early hours of the morning she went to sleep still flickering… apart from a numb tongue in the morning?? She survived the night!!!
We got up early to set off for Gocta waterfall, supposedly the third highest waterfall in the world. We had another hair raising ride there through a spectacular canyon and arrived at the starting point of the trek. I knew it was a trek of at least a couple of hours but I hadn’t figured on how tough it would be. We had a young Pervian guide who spoke no English. We trekked up mountains sides, along precarious tracks and it was very difficult, it was also extremely hot! We eventually made it but all felt exhausted with the altitude we were over 3000 meters and the heat. The waterfall was amazing and the jungle on the way was beautiful. Coming back it was even more exhausting and Jo really struggled, there were horses available to hire but she didn’t want to go on one. Mili went on ahead and managed to make it, although had some scary encounters with locals on the way. Things were getting worse for Jo and I was getting pretty concerned, she was displaying more severe symptoms of altitude sickness and just couldn’t continue. Eventually we managed to get her a horse for the last bit. Even for experienced trekkers it would have been tough so I was proud of the girls for doing so well.
Tomorrow if everyone is feeling OK we are heading further east and if we can manage to get transport moving from the Andes and into the Amazon basin.
No comments:
Post a Comment