Thursday, January 20, 2011

Goodbye 2010 and Peru – Hello 2011 and Bolivia!! The adventure continues …


Following on from our Inca adventures (yes, I have given up on the word smithing now) Joep and I still had over a week of vacation ahead of us! I had left the 2nd week of the vacation somewhat unplanned knowing full well that Joep likes to play it by ear on vacation and Joep HATES being told what to do (especially when you’re giving him ‘rhythm’ advise at 4,200m!).

I did, however have a vague idea of what could be fun to do after we finished the Inca trail. And so, Joep took my suggestions and the morning after we got back to Cusco, we were up bright and early to catch a bus to Puno!

Puno is a town that sits on the banks of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It is the “highest commercially navigable lake in the world” … I don’t know what this really means BUT it does sit at 3,811 m above sea level which is pretty darn high!

Puno sits on the Peru side of the lake and therefore seemed like the logical next stop on our adventure. And so, at 6:30am we arrived at the tour operators offices to get our bus! We had made an executive decision to get the ‘luxury’ bus rather than the cheaper option. It was a great choice! Firstly, when we got to our assigned seats on the bus, my seat was soaking wet! I spoke to the tour operator who promptly moved us … to the big first class seats downstairs! Nice. And so, for the next 8 hours we reclined in comfort in our first class seats (only 1 other couple was sitting first class with us) sporadically listening to the tour guide, napping and occasionally stepping out in the towns that the tour stopped at to explore.

It was a totally different experience to the 4 preceding days because the bus was filled with ‘mature’ people who clearly did not trek the 4 day trail. We figured this out by looking at the people however our suspicions were confirmed when I was getting off the bus at one stop. I groaned as I stepped down due to the severe muscle pain I was in after the trek (hey don’t judge me. I made it to the top but I never said it didn’t hurt.) anyway … the woman getting off behind me also groaned and then said to me ‘I know the feeling!’ Joep proceeded to ask her ‘Oh, did you go to Machu Picchu?’ She said ‘Yes and all those stairs killed me!’ Joep said ‘Yes, same for us. The 2nd day was the hardest right?’ To which she responded ‘Only we only caught the bus up 1 day, not 2.’ Huh? What? Yes. Her legs were sore from getting the bus to Machu Picchu and walking around the ruins!! Joep and I looked smugly at each other and proceeded to tell our war stories about the 4-day trek we had just finished. Modest, we are not.

Basking in the admiration of our fellow bus passengers, we thoroughly enjoyed the day’s journey to Puno with buffet lunch included … the entertainment at lunch was a guy playing pan flute. Joep was disgusted at how poor his pan flute playing skills were and I had to stop him from getting his own pan flute out to show him how it was done. We arrived in Puno at around 7pm and we were met at the bus terminal by a guy from our hotel. The staff at Amaru I had kindly booked us into their sister hotel in Puno for a few nights and it was just what the doctor ordered! That night we had a night of pure R&R and managed to do a grand total of … nothing. It was lovely! The following morning we were awake bright and early and ready to check out Puno! First stop? Downtown. We walked down and our first impressions were not the best. The city is not as clean or as easy on the eye as Cusco. It is also full of a lot more hustle and bustle.

However, the longer we walked around, the more the city grew on us! It really has a lot of life about it. And there are daily outdoor markets all over the place! We wandered through these markets on our way to the harbor. Upon arrival at the harbor we were very quickly ushered onto a taxi boat that would take us out to the Floating Islands of Uros. So these are a group of 42 artificial islands that are made out of the floating totora reeds that grow in the shallow waters of Lake Titicaca. The islands were originally created for defensive purposes because they could be moved if a threat arose and historically people lived on these islands. Some people claim that they still do live on the islands but there is also the nasty rumour going around that the people pretend to live out there for tourist purposes but actually come onto land at night time. The horror!! Either way, the islands have become a major tourist attraction and we felt it as soon as we got near the harbour!

Despite how touristy the islands are, it was lovely to check them out. The boat ride out was glorious thanks to a beautiful sunny day, we got to hear a whole speech about how the islands are made and maintained (we both heard it but only Joep understood it … it was entirely in Spanish … I zoned out), we then got to wander around a bit and some people went on a little trip in a traditional reed boat which Joep and I skipped in favour of eating icecream and vegging out. It was definitely the better option. Once very funny thing we found was that there are solar panels on the huts out on the islands! Imagine how excited Joep was about this!

After checking out the islands and getting a great view of the lake we headed back to Puno in the late afternoon. We had a brief administrative stop at a travel agent before grabbing a bottle of champagne and a whole roast chicken (true story … it was huge … we didn’t realize when we ordered it that we were ordering enough food for an entire family. Lesson learned. But not really because it was delicious!). We then headed back to the gardens in our hotels to eat lunch and play a game of gin. Now this is vacation!

If you have been reading closely you will know that by now it is New Years Eve. This had not slipped our minds and we had dinner reservations at a lovely restaurant on the main street of Puno called Color. After a very relaxing afternoon, we got ourselves glammed up (well, as glamorous as you can look on such a trip) and headed out for an exciting NYE celebration. Why so exciting? Weeeeeell, Tobias & Arite from the Inca trek were in Puno as well! We had exchanged contact details and arranged to meet up for a fun New Years celebration! Exciting!

Joep and I arrived at the restaurant and were pleased to see that it was quite up-market. Within minutes of being seated and ordering wine, we began chatting with an older American couple sitting nearby. The conversations were hilarious and we are both annoyed at ourselves for not getting their names … whoops. They knew both of our names. Ah well. It was lovely to have some laughs and it made us not realize how late Tobias and Arite were. By the time they arrived we had almost given up on them – Turns out they were at another restaurant of the same name nearby! Yikes!

Thankfully they found us though because the evening that following was positively hilarious! We ate a good meal, we had a lot of wine and cocktails and we enjoyed a great street parade right on the street below us!

Afterwards we headed out to a great little bar where beers and more cocktails were consumed and the atmosphere was fantastic!! We kept an eye on the time and at midnight we went out to the street to see how the Peruvians celebrate New Years (I forgot to mention that on Christmas Eve in Cusco, there were literally thousands of fireworks going off in the city … it sounded like a war zone!) … sure enough, there were fireworks! It was actually kind of scary. Even more so because the people in the bar we were at were largely foreigners who clearly thought the right to set off fireworks was just the best thing ever (I have never in my life set off a firework …) so there were things flying everywhere!

I hid down an alley way while Joep danced around fearless. When all the craziness subsided and we had all had a few drinks out of the bottle of champagne that Tobias had in his backpack (go Germany!) we decided it was home time. Tobias & Arite had an early bus to catch and so did we … alas we were going in different directions. But what a way to ring in 2011!

The following morning with a slight (for me) / significant (for Joep) hangover, we had a small sleep in before getting our 7:30am bus heading to La Paz! After a few hours of driving we hit the border of Peru & Bolivia. It was the most hilarious border crossing I have ever experienced. We got off the bus, walked to one office, filled in a form, waited in line, got the form stamped. We then walked to another office, gave them the stamped form and got another form. We then had to walk 5 minutes up the street to cross the border (yes, we walked across the border) where we got our next form stamped, had a chat with the guard about koala’s and wombats and then we were all set for Bolivia. Jeez. Once across the border, our next stop was Copacabana. Not the famous one that the song is about. The Bolivian one on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

We had made an executive decision the day before to go straight through Copacabana to La Paz rather than staying overnight. It was a good choice. The town is really lovely and it was a beautiful day but the 1.5 hour lunch stop we had there was more than enough time to soak up the atmosphere and realize that is it a total tourist town.

Back on the bus, we drove for a bit before disembarking again because we had to cross a river. Us passangers went on a small dinky little boat while the bus drove onto a barge that was POLED across the river by kids! They make them tough in Bolivia! The rest of the bus ride was uneventful and as we arrived in La Paz in the early hours of the evening we were literally speechless. The first glimpse you get of La Paz is from the town El Alto which sits above La Paz on the mountain. The city sprawls beneath you stopping only when it reaches the surrounding mountains. It is just beautiful. We started to get very excited. Especially because we had decided to book a suite in the hotel … we figured we had earned it after doing the Inca trail.

Upon arrival at the bus depot we headed straight to the hotel where we were treated to the first bit of real luxury of our trip … and we loooooooved it. The only problem was that it was January 1 which is a national holiday meaning everything in the city is closed. After wandering around for some time we finally settled on a small, very dodgy looking Chinese restaurant for dinner. My food was delicious! Joep’s was … less so. It also left him feeling a bit worse for wear. Home time. The rest of the night was spent lounging around our luxury suite feeling very spoiled!

Sunday morning we slept in and enjoyed a long breakfast at the hotel before heading out to explore the city. After acclimatizing to the altitude in Cusco we thought La Paz would be a breeze. It wasn’t. We didn’t get sick but boy were we breathless all the time!

OK so a brief geography lesson – La Paz is actually called Nuestra Señora de La Paz which is Spanish for ‘Our Lady of Peace’. It is the ‘administrative capital’ of Bolivia. Not the capital. Sucre is the official capital. The city is located at 3,660m above sea level which is a good 300m higher than Cusco … hence the breathlessness! Even more, the city sits in a "bowl" surrounded by the high mountains of the altiplano and as it grows, it climbs the hills, resulting in varying elevations from 3,000 meters to 4,100 meters. Phew!

So on day one, we puffed our way around the city realising just how thin the air up there was. We had planned on visiting travel agents and planning our week but everything was closed for the holidays so instead we ended up sitting in a restaurant near Plaza de San Francisco enjoying a good meal and a few drinks. Interestingly, this restaurant doubled as a tour agency for Luna Travel a company that arranges bike rides down the ‘World’s Most Deadly Road’ – aka “Death Road”. You can’t make this stuff up. So back a few year ago, this road that leads to the town of Coroico about 3 hours drive from La Paz, was voted ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Road’ because of the extremely high number of fatalities that occurred on it regularly. Literally bus loads of people have plummeted to their death down the 3,000m drop off the side of this road. Yikes.

Since winning the ‘award’, an alternative road has been built that is much safer. However the old road is still there and now tourists go to see it. The big thing to do is to mountain bike down this road. Sounds pretty cool right? I thought it sounded a bit too dangerous. Joep thought it sounded cool and was considering doing it. I then read him the death statistics regarding tourists. He changed his mind. He had also read the brochure at the restaurant for Luna’s which claimed ‘We’re not #1 but we are the best!’ and other gems like ‘Despite what you may have heard, safety is important to us!’ … decision made. No biking. But we were happy to go on a private tour down the road in a car!! In hindsight, I am not sure if this is better than the first option.

Either way, we arranged the tour and then enjoyed a lovely afternoon wandering around the city and some of the more central markets before dashing back to the hotel to change for our evening activity. We were going to watch the wrestling! Yes. Bolivian wrestling. It was held in a hall up in El Alto and we caught the bus up and got settled in our ring side seats. The show was … well, it was kind of weird! It was highly entertaining I must say, but when you see women jump into the wrestling ring and get ‘beaten up’ by huge men it all just feels a bit wrong. The children in the audience didn’t think so though. They loved it! We were entertained and it was certainly a spectacle worth seeing. After enjoying the show we headed back down to the town where we grabbed some roast chicken (again … its delicious!) and reclined in comfort. Relaxed.

Monday rolled around and we had nothing planned except soaking up the city. It was glorious. We headed out to Sopocachi (which is our favourite part of La Paz!) for a long lunch, soaked up the rays, did a spot of shopping and just enjoyed the city and the beautiful weather. After a late evening siesta at the hotel we headed back to Sopocachi for a fancy dinner at le Comedie Arte Café. It has rave reviews – they are well deserved. It was a phenomenal meal.

After a day of R&R, Tuesday was another busy day. We were up early to head out on our tour of Death Road. Yikes. The weather was a bit gloomy so we were glad to be snug inside the car. In addition, the views were just amazing! Once we got onto Death Road we quickly began to understand why so many people die. It is seriously a dangerous road. Our guide was a local guy and he was lovely. We stopped many times away and he would often point out things like ‘This is the Israeli corner. 2 years ago an Israeli girl died here.’ Or ‘This is the Italian corner. An Italian boy died here.’ Jeez. We were glad we didn’t bike. It was, however, really amazing to look out at the views and the surrounding rain forest was beautiful! Still, we were happy to get off the Death Road and arrive safely in Coroico. Coroico is a small town in the ‘Yungas’ which is a stretch of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes mountains from southeastern Peru through central Bolivia. It is a lovely, tiny town tucked into the mountains and we had a bit of exploring time around lunch.

We also headed out to see a few beautfiul waterfalls nearby and some coca plantations. It was great to get out of the city for the day ad we arrived back in La Paz late that afternoon feeling very content.

That night we had decided to get the night bus from La Paz to Sucre. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6:45pm and would take 12-14 hours. We waited patiently at the bus stop for almost 2 hours. We were convinced our bus wasn’t coming but kept being reassured by the company employees that it was on its way. Finally, at 8:45pm we were comfortably seated and ready to go. We had ‘sleeper seats’ which are like a business class seat on a plane. Unfortunately they were a bit too small for Joep but at the start of the bus ride this was no issue. After about 20 minutes of driving, the bus came to a stop. Noone knew what was happening but within minutes there was a teenaged boy belting out pop tunes and dancing up and down the aisle. Huh? While this was happening, a blind man appeared next to Joep tapping his foot with his stick and asking for money. Whaaaaat?? Finally, a very enthusiastic man who smelled very bad was trying to sell us chocolate bars. OK, enough. Joep and I were in hysterics laughing. We had no idea what was going on and as quickly as it all started, it stopped again. It was crazy! Thankfully all the non-passengers left the bus and before too long we were on our way again.

I reclined and fell asleep immediately. When I awoke, 9 hours later, the scenery going past my window was beautiful! I stretched luxuriously and turned to Joep. Joep was glaring at me. His first words were ‘I have been watching you all night and you look so comfortable.’ Poor Joep had barely slept a wink. His seat was too small and he was uncomfortable. I was full of energy and hopped up to go to the bathroom to freshen up. At this point let me just say that ‘freshening up’ in the bathroom of a speeding bus as it curves around mountain roads is quite the challenge. I was falling all over the place and came out of the bathroom laughing to myself like a crazy woman before regailing Joep with the stories of the challenge.

Within the hour we were in Sucre (that is how fast our bus driver was!) and boy was Joep happy to be there. Upon arrival at the bus depot we grabbed our bags and taxi’d it downtown. While in the taxi Joep started laughing and pointed to the front of the car. I looked. Something looked weird. It took a second to register … the steering was on the left side of the car which was correct. But the speedometer and all the other important driving stuff was still on the right side of the car!! Whaaaat?? Thankfully our driver was in better condition than his car and he got us safely to our restaurant of choice. We had picked a spot that served a full English breakfast. It was a great choice! While waiting for our meal we realized it was owned by a Dutch guy which pleased Joep greatly.

After pigging out for a loooong while, we headed around the town to find a hotel for the night. We had thought we might only stay the day in Sucre and then by night bus to somewhere new. Joep’s exhaustion was one factor in changing our minds however the biggest factor was that our first impression of Sucre was REALLY good. The city is just beautiful! We found a gorgeous little hotel nearby and got settled. We freshened up, Joep had a quick nap and then we wandered out to enjoy the town. Great choice. The sun was shining, the city is beautiful and we were in high spirits!

Sucre is all white buildings with clay roof tops. It is like a little Mediterranean town. Delicious. We spent the next 24 hours talking constantly about how beautiful the town was, eating, drinking, soaking up the sun and being completely relaxed. We were also treated to a walk up to the top of the police station which has the best views in the city! This was most definitely a highlight! After the hustle and bustle of La Paz, Sucre was a welcome bit of peace and quiet. We absolutely LOVED Sucre and highly recommend it to everyone!

Unfortunately our time in Bolivia was running out and, having abandoned the whole ‘night bus’ idea due to Joep’s ridiculous height, we booked flights back to La Paz the following afternoon. We inadvertantly booked business class flights which was a pleasant surprise when we boarded!

Our last night in La Paz was spent in a beautiful apartment above le Comedie Arte Café in Sopocachi. That is, without a doubt, our favourite area of La Paz. It is so hip and clean and the restaurants are great as is the shopping … content sigh. We felt right at home. We wandered back to our ‘usual’ coffee shop for coffee and cake before gearing up for a big dinner – There was an Argentinean steakhouse that we had been dying to try. We were not disappointed. It was a total meat fest. Before the meal ended we both had the meat sweats and could barely even finish our second bottle of wine (oh how I love being on vacation ..).

It was a great last dinner in La Paz and, after chilling out in Sopocachi at our usual coffee shop the following morning, we were off to the airport to catch our flight for our last night in Lima, Peru.

During the drive to the airport, our taxi driver spent the entire time fixing his steering wheel. He wasn’t even watching the road most of the time but steering with his knees whilst tinkering with the steering wheel that he was slowly pulling apart – I was petrified yet strangely amused at the same time. Once again, my fears were unfounded and we made it safely to the airport where we boarded our flight to Lima. The views from the plane were, once again, beautiful! I never take photo’s from the plane window but this time I had to.

Upon arrival in Lima we had decided we were going out in style and, after enjoying a cocktail in our hotel bar (wonderful hotel!) we headed out to dinner. Joep had picked the restaurant after discussing with the hotel maitre d. It. Was. Incredible. Amazing seafood, amazing cocktails, delicious wines, and that was all before we even considered dessert! Oh we surely went out in style.

We had a quick dash around the city and decided that, whilst Lima is very nice, the advice I received to not stay very long in Lima was good advice. The restaurants seem amazing (and we had great eating experiences!) but at the end of the day it is just another big city and lacks much of the charm of the other cities we experienced on this trip.

And so, after an incredible last supper and a great night of sleep, we were back in the air and homeward bound. It was, without a doubt, one of the most incredible vacations we have had yet. We are so looking forward to exploring a bit more of South America in the future!

Even more than that, we are so looking forward to what 2011 has to bring for us. 2010 was one of the best years ever. We loved spending the year exploring Canada, we got engaged (!!), we’ve made some amazing friends, we have both had some very big career successes and we are happier than ever! We really are incredibly lucky and I, for one, cannot wait to see what 2011 has in store for us … it promises to be a very exciting year!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Joep’s INCA-redible 30th birthday!


So for the last 6 months I have been very busy plotting and planning. I have spent countless hours researching flights and tours and possible destinations. I came up with a very nice idea early this year and had my heart set on it. I was just about to book it when, whilst on vacation in Banff over breakfast one morning, Joep announced that he knew what the surprise was … I thought that was unlikely given how sneaky I had been. Then Joep proclaims proudly ‘We’re doing the Inca Trail!’ … I paused briefly. And then I burst into tears. It was all very upsetting. Joepinator was shocked and then asked ‘What? Why are you crying? I was just joking! Why? Are we really doing the Inca Trail? Oh that is exciting!!’ After drying my eyes I told him that I had, in fact, been planning on doing the Inca Trail with him but now he had ruined the surprise so I was changing the plan and he was lucky I hadn’t book anything yet!

He proceeded to be disappointed and begged me not to change the plans. I was hardcore and refused. It was actually PERFECT because by him guessing what we were doing and me ‘cancelling’ it I was able to (a) learn that he was dying to the do Inca Trail (which I suspected was the case but you never know for sure right?!) and (b) I could totally throw him off on where we were going! Exciting!

Six months later, I had convinced Joep that the Inca trail was off the cards but that I had planned something else fun for us to do. And so, with everything planned we headed to Ottawa airport early Thursday morning before Christmas. I don’t know who was more excited – Joep or me!! After checking in and getting boarding passes to Miami (our connection city) we went through security and grabbed a table at a restaurant for breakfast.

During breakfast I gave Joep a letter that gave him some hints on our destination (and had some lovey dovey stuff in it of course!) and then instructed him to open his first present … it was the Peru Lonely Planet. He was ecstatic! It was so exciting!! I then showed him the first week’s itinerary. He was so excited about this that he didn’t even register that the itinerary stopped 1 week before we were due to come home. Luckily, I had anticipated this would be the case and encouraged him to keep reading the letter. Before long he came across instructions telling him to open his second gift … it was the Bolivia Lonely Planet! Oh the excitement! Even our waitress was excited!!

And so, now that Joep finally knew the plans, we were able to board the plane and get properly excited about our big adventure!! The flights went by without too much trouble and we landed in Lima, Peru in time for a night of sleep before getting an early morning connection to Cusco. After a brief delay, we made it to Cusco and before we had even landed we were marveling!! The views on the flight into Cusco are incredible. The plane flies so low over the mountains that there are times you feel you might end up as a main character in a movie about plane crashes and people eating each other to survive (dramatic much?) … but there was not much time to be petrified because before we knew it we were landed in Cusco and making our way through crazy busy streets to our hotel.

A friend of mine had recommended a great hotel to us – Amaru. There are a few Amaru’s around town and we were at Amaru I (an important factor to remember as you read this …). It was just gorgeous with internal gardens, views over the city and a beautiful room. Plus the staff were super helpful. We dropped our stuff, freshened up and then treated ourselves to some coca tea to help with the altitude sickness. You see, Cusco is 3,300m above sea level. This is high (but we go higher!) and as a result, I had done a lot of research on altitude sickness before we left which I summarized and gave to Joep on the plane over (organized!!). Altitude sickness is caused by acute exposure to low pressure of oxygen at high altitude (I.e. less oxygen in the air). It commonly occurs above 2,400m. There are a lot of weird things that can happen with altitude sickness such as:

  • Lack of appetite, nausea, or vomiting – We got none of this! We ate and ate and ate …
  • Fatigue or weakness – We already like sleeping so we didn’t notice this.
  • Dizziness or light-headedness – This a little bit but not too bad.
  • Insomnia - No sir! We slept like babies!
  • Pins and needles – Nope. No issue.
  • Shortness of breath upon exertion – Got this one. But I get out of breath walking 15mins to work every day so I am not confident it was altitude sickness that caused this.
  • Nosebleed – None. Thank goodness!
  • Persistent rapid pulse – Mmmm I think Joep got this. I was ok.
  • Drowsiness – See fatigue above … It was vacation. We slept.
  • Swelling of hands, feet, and face – Those of you who have flown with me have seen my club foot from flying so I cannot attribute that to altitude sickness. Nothing else to report on this one.
  • Diarrhea – That’s private.

Yikes right?! That is a LOT of stuff that can happen! But as you can see, none of this affected us severely. The only thing that affected us was Cheyne-Stokes Respirations. Huh? Well, above 3,000 meters most people experience a periodic breathing during sleep known as Cheyne-Stokes Respirations. The pattern begins with a few shallow breaths and increases to deep sighing respirations then falls off rapidly even ceasing entirely for a few seconds and then the shallow breaths begin again. During the period when breathing stops you become restless and might wake with a sudden feeling of suffocation. It’s not considered abnormal at high altitudes but we sure found it abnormal. The noises Joep made when sleeping were positively frightening!

So why were we not as severely affected by the illness as others? Well they say it impacts different people differently but I firmly believe it is because we followed all the advice! We drank a ludicrous amount of water and coca tea on the first day. The Peruvians say that drinking Coca tea, as well as chewing the leaves, increases the absorption of oxygen in blood, which helps combat altitude sickness. We took their advice. We also took their advice to ‘take it easy’ the first few days and just wander around. It was worth it!

Cusco is such a beautiful city and after having a few cups of coca tea we wandered down to the town to soak up the atmosphere. And what an atmosphere it was! Unbeknownst to me while planning this trip, December 24th is the only day of the year that there is a market in the Plaza de Armas (the main square). The Plaza was packed with people selling and buying all kinds of things from food to clothing to pan flutes (more on that to come) to plants! It was so congested and full of atmosphere down there that we decided to eat lunch on the Plaza to soak it all up. After eating lunch and people watching for a while we headed to the Inca tour offices to finalize the plans for the trek. This was unsuccessful because the offices were closed but after asking around a lot of people we managed to contact the guide and he arranged to meet us that evening.

Let me just point out here that Joep is incredibly multi-lingual! We have been taking Spanish lessons from our Argentinean friends here in Canada for a while now. I am lazy about them but Joep is very focused. I didn’t realize how good his Spanish was until we got to Peru and he started chin wagging all over town! Impressive! So with his language skills we sorted out the trek and our ongoing transport before settling in on the balcony of a bar overlooking the Plaza for a game of gin and a few beers. We didn’t go too crazy because we didn’t want to get dehydrated and undo all our good ‘altitude sickness prevention’ work but we really enjoyed the evening sitting there. After nightfall we wandered through the market with the intention of buying Joep his current most prized possession – A pan flute.

Since I have known him, Joep has often spoken about his love of the pan flute and how, as a child, he wished he could own one. I didn’t really take him seriously until I saw how conscientious he was about picking out ‘just the right’ pan flute for his needs. Ay ay ay. It took some time but he eventually found one he loved, haggled with the seller (in Spanish), decided it was too expensive, walked off, got chased by the daughter of the seller, agreed with her to pay his desired price, walked back to the seller, paid for it and gave him a big old tip that brought the selling price back up to the original asking price of the pan flute. Never a dull moment. He was overjoyed with his purchase and we celebrated with dinner at a restaurant right near our hotel before calling it a night.

After an interrupted night of sleep (thank you Cheyne-Stokes Respirations), we slept in a bit on Christmas morning before getting up to a delicious Christmas breakfast (fruit and yoghurt) ad heading down to the churches in the town to check out how Christmas is celebrated in Peru. It was pure madness. Instead of having a long mass and praying, the Cusco people get dressed in costume and dance around!! We were mesmerized and spent some quality time checking them out. After thoroughly enjoying the show, we took the advice of our Inca tour guide from the day before and walked up to Sacsayhuaman (say this out loud … it sounds exactly like ‘sexy woman’). Sacsayhuaman is one of the most famous Inca sights in the world. It sits at 3,701m above sea level which we didn’t know before deciding walk up. The 400m climb in altitude was worth it though because the views of the city from up there were incredible AND we met a few llamas along the way! Sadly, when we got to the site the heavens opened and it began pouring with rain. This doesn’t stop the Peruvian people who just get on with things but we stood under shelter for a while before deciding to head back down. After making it safely back to the town we went in hunt for a delicious Christmas lunch.

Initially we made a very bad decision to eat at an English pub before coming to our senses and heading somewhere more local. It was a great choice! We had a positively gourmet lunch at Cococilli’s sitting out on the balcony admiring the views that you would only see in South America. I even took a few sneaky photo’s of a woman with a llama in traditional costume … they normally ask you to pay to take these so Joep was justifiably mortified (and a little bit entertained) by this. It all added to the festive spirit and we ended up enjoying a very long, very delicious Christmas lunch!

After lunch we wandered around town rehydrating (after wine consumption with lunch) before heading to our Inca debrief. We were heading off the following morning for a 4-day trek through the Andes ending at Machu Picchu. At the briefing we were given a list of things we needed to bring with us and we were also told they would collect us from Amaru II at 6:30am the following morning. Feeling more than a little bit excited, we headed back to the hotel stopping along the way to buy a few things (torch and rain poncho’s!) and to grab a bite to eat (because we were hungry again … what? I told you we didn’t suffer from ‘loss of appetite’!) before crashing for the evening.

The following morning we were all packed up and ready for the trek. As we sat in the reception waiting for our ride we began to get concerned. They were late. We waited a while before Joep asked the receptionist (in Spanish, I’m translating this …) ‘This is Amaru II right?’ Response? ‘No. Amaru I.’ According to Joep, at this point I jumped up and ran in circles with my hands on my head for a while. I hate to admit it but I think his description is accurate. I had spent so long organizing the trip only to have it spoiled at the last minute! Disaster!

Thankfully the Peruvian people are just lovely and our receptionist called Amaru II to get them to find the tour bus and tell them we were at Amaru I. Within 5 minutes a guide was at our hotel grabbing our stuff and walking us to meet the bus. Phew! We didn’t miss it! BUT – When we got on the bus Joep walked ahead of me really quickly and sat down. I got caught by the main guide, Valerio, who said to me ‘You TOLD me Amaru II!’ He was a bit annoyed. I went bright red, looked for Joep (who was nowhere to be seen) and apologized profusely. In front of the whole bus. Great first impression.

It was all forgotten pretty quickly because we were on our way to walk the Inca Trail! So for those of you who don’t know, here is a very brief discussion of the Inca Trail because I learned a LOT on this trip. But I will summarize it for you.

The Inca Trail is basically a trail that leads from Cusco (which was the original capital of the Inca Empire) to Machu Picchu (which was one of the biggest Inca cities). It is not, however, the only trail. The Inca’s had a heap of trails that allowed them to travel and pass communications through the Inca Empire (which was huge!) to the many Inca cities. In fact, some trails go as far as Quito, Ecuador; others go across to La Paz, Bolivia; there are more leading down into Chile and even more to Argentina! These Inca’s were all over the place! When the Spanish arrived in South America (in 1528) they proceeded to conquer the Inca’s a lot of the villages and cities were abandoned as people moved to the bigger cities (such as Cusco). For many years there were myths of the ‘lost city of the Inca’s’ and in 1911 an American historian (a lecturer at Yale University) called Hiram Bingham found Machu Picchu which he announced as the lost city. By found, I mean, he was lead there by local Peruvian people. So there you have it. Machu Picchu was found and excavated. There was no human damage to the site, only natural damage from the site being left to decay over the years.

Nowadays, largely as a result of this find, there is one very famous Inca trail that people trek. This is the one we did! It is a 49km trek over 4 days climbing to a maximum altitude of 4,200m. The trek takes you through the Andes beginning in the Urubamba Valley, continuing into the Wayllabamba valley before turning back to the Urubamba Valley and finishing at Machu Picchu which sits at an altitude of “only” 2,430m.

On day 1 we only knew bits and pieces of the Inca story and we were excited to learn more! The first day is marked on the map we had as ‘easy’ and so we were feeling very enthusiastic and excited! The first stop was a local town at the start of the trail called “Ollantaytambo” where we stocked up on water and bought our walking sticks (I couldn’t have made it without mine!). When we were all stocked up we set off on the walk. Oh, point of note, you can hire a porter to carry your big backpack. I made sure I arranged this prior to departing Canada. Lots of people didn’t have one which you might think we found embarrassing. Ha! Nope. Those people are crazy!! But it was day 1 so we didn’t know this yet, we just handed off our pack and skipped light heartedly to the trail. Before too long we had struck up conversation with various people in our group and the day was just lovely. The sun was shining, the views were beautiful and the walk was not very strenuous at all! There were a couple of up hill bits but nothing too crazy.

After walking for a few hours we stopped for lunch. The porters had arrived at the lunch spot before us to set up camp and cook our food. Impressive! We ate up, had some time to rest in the sun and then hit the trail again. Before too long we also came across our first Inca site (yes, there are a lot of sites along the way and they are all just amazing!) called “Willkarakay”. Let the learning begin! We all hung on every word Valerio had to tell us before exploring the site and checking out the views. Alas we had to make it to camp before night fall so we kept moving. Upon arrival at our camp site, our spirits were still high after 10km of walking but we were ready for some down time. Wonderfully, the porters had arrived early and set up all of our tents plus the eating tent AND started cooking! Glorious!

We had a bit of down time to get ourselves organized before sitting down for afternoon tea (I have never been as excited about popcorn as I was for the first 3 days on the Inca trail) followed by more R&R followed by dinner. Hmmm. The first day actually was very relaxed! As nighttime fell, Joep and I retired to our tent. Here came our first challenge. Joep is very tall. People in Peru are not. The tent was made for people in Peru. So on night 1 of the trail, Cheyne-Stokes Respirations were no longer a problem because neither of us could sleep. You’d think this would make us very cranky and not want to walk a full day the next day. Normally you would be right but for some reason, against all odds, we were up at 5am the next morning full of beans and in surprisingly good moods! It must be the fresh mountain air.

We were, however, feeling quite stressed about what was in store for us on Day 2. It is marked on the map as ‘challenging’ and Valerio had warned us many times the night before that the day would be difficult. He even encouraged people to get a porter to carry their bags because lots of people get half way through Day 2 and can’t go on. You see, on Day 2 you walk another 10km. But it is all uphill. Yup. All of it. You climb 1,000m in altitude in 1 day. Ouch. I was very vocal about my fears in relation to this and subsequently befriended a German girl (Arite, you will become familiar with her!) who was with her boyfriend (Tobias). Tobias was the most stereotypical German ever and looked uber fit. Joep and I joked that he was a robot and at nighttime Arite just switched him off. We told them this later on and they laughed and told us that was actually what it was like. So Arite is not as mechanical as Tobias and had fears too. Bonding time.

I’d like to say that ‘it actually wasn’t that bad’ or ‘it sounds worse than it is’ … but I’d be lying. It was BRUTAL. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Not only are you giving yourself an extreme physical work out but you are doing it in high altitudes with almost no oxygen in the air! We set out at 6:30am and sure enough, it was all up hill. Thankfully, Valerio explained very clearly where each of the resting points were so we could have short-term goals.

By the first resting point, Joep and I were both gasping for air and exhausted. So was everyone else … except for Tobias. We had something to drink and a snack before heading off to the second resting point. Somewhere between resting points 1 & 2 I got into a rhythm. It wasn’t a very fast rhythm but it was a rhythm nonetheless. It involved right foot forward, left foot forward, right foot forward, left foot forward … nothing more. I figured that as long as I was moving forward I was fine.

And so, in my ‘rhythm’ I made it to the second resting point and Joep was shortly behind me. At this point we were 2/3’s of the way up. Almost there. But the final leg was the worst one. A steep rocky climb with hundreds of giant stone steps … there was no time to think about it because as soon as we had regained enough breath to begin chatting again we were heading off. I slipped straight back into my rhythm. Joep was yet to decide on a rhythm.

Approximately half way through the last leg, whilst walking back a bit to find Joep and give him some encouragement to keep going I decided I would let him in on my ‘rhythm’ secret. And so I informed him that he just had to ‘find a rhythm! Find a rhythm Joep! I just go right foot, left foot and I am doing fine!’ If looks could kill, you would all have been invited to a Peruvian funeral. Firstly, Joep didn’t like my ‘rhythm’ advice and thought it was stupid. Secondly, who asked for my advice anyway? Okaaaaaay. I went back up the mountain and kept my rhythm to myself for the rest of the climb.

After some serious hard work, I cannot even begin to explain the elation I felt when I saw the summit! There were plenty of people already up there (I do not profess to be superwoman!) and I couldn’t wait to join them. I ‘rhythmed’ my way up the last steep lot of rocks and stopped at the top step to throw my hands in the air and bathe in my own glory! Made it! To 4,200m!! It was incredible!! Even though I was exhausted and I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs if I wanted to, I was grinning from ear to ear and almost wanted to cry a little bit! What a sense of accomplishment! They should bottle that feeling and sell it.

Shortly afterwards, Joep joined me at the top and I could see on his face the exact same feeling that I had myself. Priceless. It was just incredible. We took a few pics and caught our breath and high 5-ed many times to celebrate our accomplishment. Alas we couldn’t wait up there for too long because it was cold and starting to rain so we bundled ourselves up and began the trek down the other side of the mountain towards our camp.

In comparison to my triumphant climb up however, the climb down was a bit of a disaster. The rocks were super slippery from the rain, they were also exceptionally jagged and I was afraid. I took my time heading down but despite the caution I showed, I had a fall. We were walking with me in front and I took a wrong step so my foot flew out from under me. I had a poncho on so I couldn’t get my hands up to catch myself and before I knew it I was flat on my back. The first part of me to hit the ground was my upper left rib cage and it huuuuurt. For a second I was afraid I had broken a rib and we were going to experience yet another international hospital.

Thankfully, after catching my breath and calming down I decided it was definitely just bruised and I would be fine. I was right. But boy was I in agony for a while afterwards. Moving my left arm was painful with a capital p. Luckily for Joep, there was no time for complaining so we pulled ourselves together and continued the walk down. We made it to camp without further drama and, after eating lunch, I proceeded to pass out cold for a few hours while my body recovered. We had walked 10km, climbed 1,00m in altitude and back down 800m in altitude in just under 8 hours! Hardcore.

Joep spent the afternoon chatting with our new found friends and, when I arose from the dead, playing gin with me. Dinner was another hilarious affair of good chats, good food and all around good feelings before we all went to bed nice and early for another 5am start the following day.

Day 3. They told us it was mostly downhill. They lied. Over breakfast in the morning we were informed that we would start the day climbing from 3,600m in altitude BACK UP to 3,900m in altitude. Imagine our reactions! Ha! We were surprisingly upbeat! What was 300m when we had conquered 1,000m the day before! So it wasn’t easy. But it wasn’t unbearable. My highlight of the climb was when we had stopped for a chat as a group Valerio says to us ‘See the top there? That is not the top. When you get there you will see another top. That is also not the top. Do not be fooled. You are only at the top when you see a lagoon on your left.’ One of our American group members then asked ‘If I get delusional and hallucinate a lagoon on my left I’m just going to stop there ok?’ We appreciated the humour. In my opinion, it was kind of nice to know what we were in for and, once again, when we made it the 3,900m mark we were all in VERY high spirits! The icing on the cake was that the weather was way nicer than the day before! After reaching 3,900m it a lot of walking up and down for a long time.

The uphill bits were rough but I found the downhill bits harder BUT we passed through the Inca tunnels on this day as well as that was super cool! Tunnels literally carved into the side of the mountains. Inca-redible (How lame is this joke? We have said it so many times that it doesn’t sound lame to us anymore). Finally, after lunch it was almost entirely downhill. Joep and I took our time and Joep was super nice about letting me hang onto him whenever I was afraid (best future husband ever!). We were also treated to a couple more Inca sites along the way. It was at one of these Inca sites that Valerio told us that we had a couple of options for getting to the campsite. From where we stood there were 2 options. A short option and a long option. You would think that we went for the short option right? WRONG! But for a good reason. I asked Valerio which option involved the scariest, largest amount of steps … the short option. Decision made. We were going the long option. Luckily, the long option also included an extra Inca site! Bonus! And believe me. It was a bonus. Intipata Inca site was the trip highlight for me (and I think for Joep).

As we turned the last bend, the views were incredible, the sun was shining and there was an amazing site before us! The whole group had decided to take that route and we were almost the only people there so we all pulled up a piece of grass and settled in to enjoy the sun and Valerio’s Inca tales. It was surreal. Every time I think of it I smile to myself. Just amazing!

When we managed to drag ourselves away from this little piece of heaven, we headed down the final few kilometers of our 13km walk that day (yes, 13km in one day!) to our final camp of the trail. The camp on Day 3 is the most exciting camp because there is a stone building to eat in AND you can pay 5 solas for a lukewarm shower! Heaven.

Upon arrival at the camp, Joep and I made a bee-line for the bathrooms, paid our money and cleaned ourselves up. If you asked me to get in a shower like that right now I would be grossed out and decline. At the time, it was pure luxury after 3 days of serious physical workouts and no showers. Feeling all clean and fresh we walked the 5 minutes to the Inca site near our campsite called Winay Wayna (we still were not Inca’d out!), which was so worth it, coz it was really amazing!

It is also notable that whilst at this campsite I realized that my ears were horrifically sunburned. While brushing my hair after my shower I bumped my brush against my ear and it hurt. I asked Joep to look at it for me and it turns out my ears were horribly blistered and pussy. Gross! I looked at Joep’s in return and his were the same! We’d been walking for 3 days and we had been religiously slathering our faces and necks in sunscreen but we had totally forgotten about the tops of our ears. It was so painful and disgusting! Lesson learned: The sun is strong when you are in high altitudes. Put sunscreen on ears.

By the time we had noticed the awful state of our ears we decided that we had earned a rest and so we got some beers, grabbed our German pal and toasted our success on the Inca trail AND Joep’s BIRTHDAY! Yes! I planned it that we would arrive at Machu Picchu on the day of Joep’s 30th! After a few beers and a few rum & cokes (Joep lugged a bottle of rum with him on the Inca trail, that is dedication) we enjoyed a great dinner with the gang. The food was fantastic on the last night!! And the chats were as fun as ever.

In addition, on the last night you get to thank your porters with the group. These porters are amazing. The trek that we walk, they do at running pace carrying at least 30kgs on their back. Yowsers! They are up before us, in bed after us and they don’t stop working the whole time. In fact, Valerio told us that a few years ago there was a race to see who could do the Inca trail the fastest. Professional athletes came from all over the world to compete and the race was won by a porter! The trek that takes us 4 days to do, he did in 3 hours 47 minutes. This is a true story. How insane is that??

So we all stood around while Valerio introduced each of the porters and told us what they carried (eggs & bread was my favourite one!) and then we got to shake their hands to thank them and give them a tip as a group. It was really lovely and one of my favourite parts of the trip.

That night, for the first time, both Joep and I managed to doze off for a few hours. Unfortunately, on Day 4 we had to be up at 3:30am. And so we were rudely awoken at 3:30am to the sound of Spanish speaking porters pounding on our tent. The noise of the porters was nothing in comparison to the drumming of torrential rain on our tent!! Uh-oh.

We had been super lucky the entire time and mostly got rain in the nights while we slept so the days were pretty clear with only occasional showers. Our sneakers aren’t properly waterproof so we took some advice from the Spaniards in our group and had been putting plastic bags over our socks before putting our shoes on (best tip ever by the way). At 3:30am however, with Peruvian porters shouting at us to ‘Vamos! Vamos!’ we were not concentrating. We threw our sleeping bags into our pack, put our poncho’s on and vamos’d!!

As I stepped out of the tent into the pitch dark, pouring rain I landed ankle deep in a giant muddy puddle … I then turned to Joep who was behind me with the torch and shouted ‘Its like being in ‘Nam!’ In reality, I am sure it was nothing like being in the Vietnamese war. For starters we weren’t under fire. But still, at the time it was a good analogy! Joep appreciated it.

It wasn’t until we got to the dry food hall that I realized – Joep was 30!! Thankfully I realized before we saw the rest of our group!! When we saw everyone else they went straight into ‘Happy Birthday!’ mode and there were high 4’s all around. Awww!! Joepinator was so happy even though it was 3:30am and we were all wet. I was so happy that we were there together to celebrate it! What a wonderful experience! For the next couple of hours we ate breakfast and napped at the table. The plan had been to walk almost directly after breakfast but the torrential down pour wasn’t stopping so we waited. It didn’t stop and eventually the waiting was given up on and we walked.

My goodness was it raining! Pouring rain. We had 6km’s to walk and most of it was pretty easy going but I think it was the hardest day of the trek … all because of the weather for sure! At one point, I was really starting to lose faith in my ability to ever get to Machu Picchu. At this point we turned a corner and came face to face with a vertical climb up a rocky wall. I am not exaggerating. Even the guys in the group were scared. But there was no time to think. Everyone clambered up the wall and I managed to make it up as well even though I kept stepping on my own poncho and tripping over my walking stick (jeez) and the entire climb I was announcing ‘Oh I’m afraid. I’m properly afraid. Yup. I’m scared. Really afraid.’ It was worth making it to the top thought because at the next bend there was a llama just hanging out! I was so excited! I chatted with him and we were face to face when I was warned about llama's spitting at people. And so ended the love affair.

After a few hours of walking, we finally made it to Machu Picchu! Some people say when they saw Machu Picchu for the first time they were blown away! These people hadn’t just walked for 3 and a bit days and seen everything that comes before Machu Picchu. Still, despite the cloud cover, it was pretty amazing to be there!!

By the time we got to Machu Picchu we were all soaking wet but feeling pretty excited to be there! We then went on a tour with Valerio who explained everything to us. The irritating thing is that there are a HEAP of tourists at Machu Picchu so it is almost like being at a theme park. Plus, when you have just walked 49km’s and you haven’t had a proper shower in 4 days, it is a bit upsetting to walk past people in cleanly pressed chino’s and collared shirts with a lovely umbrella and hair all perfect.

Everyone that walked the trail had the same sense of self-righteous indignation towards the people who had gotten the bus up. Looking back on it, its pretty funny! At the time, we thought those people had almost no right to be there!! Ha! The epitome of this was a lady in a tiger print jacket who was offering her scrap paper to the Inca gods as a sacrifice and video taping everything. Thankfully Joep made fun of her loudly so that we could all be entertained. Best future husband ever.

However we felt even more self-righteous when we learned that Japanese engineers have done a study showing that Machu Picchu is sinking 2 inches every year! They have determining that part of the sinking is because the site is on a mountain that gets torrential rains for 2-3 months of every year (don’t we know that!) but the biggest problem is that there are too many people walking around the site every day. True story. So they are now looking at severely limiting the number of people who even get to enter Machu Picchu. Our group was adamant that you should only be let in if you do the 4-day trek to get there. Definitely.

After enjoying the tour and judging other visitors for a while, there were some tough decisions to be made – Stay in Machu Picchu and hope the sun comes out? Or go back down to the town to get dry clothes, warm up and eat? The group was divided but Joep and I made the easy decision.

It was Joep’s birthday and we needed to celebrate with food and some beers!! And so, after sharing contact details with our new pals, we headed back down to Machu Picchu town where we set up camp in a local restaurant to get dried off and fed. Feeling contentedly full we wandered around the town before finding a spot in the sun (which eventually DID pop its head out!) for an afternoon of beer drinking and relaxing. Before too long we were joined by our German pal for some fun chats and more beers and Joep’s 30th was celebrated in pretty impressive style!

Joep and I were booked on the 4pm train back to Cusco so we couldn’t go too crazy in case we missed it! Thankfully we are getting better at this ‘being on time’ stuff as we get older and we managed to make the train back on time.

The train ride was uneventful and very relaxing and before long we were back at Amaru I. A couple of very looooong, hot showers later and we fell into a real bed for the first full night of sleep in days. It was heavenly!

And so ended Joep’s INCA-redible 30th birthday! I don’t think I am wrong in saying that it was a total success! We managed to get through 4 days of trekking through the Andes despite lack of sleep due to Cheyne-Stokes Respirations and a tiny tent, blisters on our feet (I had some whoppers! Joep is tougher than me and had none), horrifically sunburned ears, less than ‘happy’ stomachs and a big fall on my back on some rocks. When I summarize it like this it sounds awful – But imagine how good it must have been considering we dealt with all of this and finished every day with big content grins on our faces!!

But the adventure didn’t end there … more to come!!