I was going to start this post a few weeks ago and call it  ‘3 months in Peru’, didn’t quite get round to it, and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly time seems to fly for me these days. In about 10 days time I’ll have now been here 4 months and that seems hard to believe! Is time flying as fast for everyone else?

Anyway, it’s been awhile since I regularly updated this blog and I’m sorry about that. I’m hoping to get back into a more regular routine but you just never know with me. Writing has always been something I’ve struggled with and if I can put it off I usually will! Although the truth is once I get started I usually enjoy it more than I expect!

So what have I been up to this last month that’s made the time fly even faster? Not a whole lot strangely enough but it’s been a whole lot of fun!

As stated in one of my lasts posts I went without my laptop for almost 2 weeks due to my power adapter getting fried. At first I thought I was cursed but in the end it proved to be a blessing and I really enjoyed having a chunk of time away from the computer. I must admit I went a little bit crazy during that period, having a brief affair with a Peruvian girl called Ysabel (on vacation in Cusco from Lima), I ended up going clubbing, getting fairly drunk,  and staying out very late about 7 nights out of 10, which is definitely not my usual way of being. I certainly had a lot of fun but I was grateful for the rest when Ysabel returned home to Lima (she’s actually just returned to Cusco a few days ago but that’s perhaps a story for another post!).

Right now I’m busier with work than I’ve been in a long time with about 5 projects on the go, so definitely no late nights and parties for me at the moment! Hopefully this will mean I’ll be able to afford to take a trip into the Amazon in the next month or so which is something I really have my heart set on.

About a month ago I also did my fourth Ayahuasca ceremony while here in Peru. I’ve been meaning to write about that for quite sometime because I haven’t really talked about my Ayahuasca experiences so far on this blog and I really felt I received some lessons I want to write about any explore further. I will get round to that soon, and please give me a nudge if nothing appears soon.

Another positive development over the last month or so is that I’ve made quite a few friends with people who are either living permanently in Peru, or who are like me, staying here indefinitely. During my first 2 months here most of the people I developed friendships with were mostly just passing through on their travels, so I had to keep saying goodbye to a lot of people I really liked which was difficult at times. It feels really great to finally have some solid friendships with people who won’t be leaving anytime soon!

I’ve now been learning Spanish for about 3 months and I have to say I’m still really struggling with it, although perhaps I was expecting too much too soon. One thing is for sure though, it’s a very frustrating language to learn and I’m probably going to dedicate a whole post soon to my struggles with Spanish.

Anyway, it’s getting late and I have an early morning Spanish class, so it’s adios from me for a little while.

Machu Picchu, surely one of the most amazing sights to behold on this incredible planet we live on, is probably the main reason why many hundreds of thousands of people feel drawn to visit Peru each year. The first time I remember seeing pictures of Machu Picchu I was about 22 years old and immediately I thought - I have to go there! and less than 6 months later I was there  - and awestruck. I’ve waited a long time to go back!

I will write more about Machu Picchu in my next post, but this post is about how I got there. The first time I visited Peru we travelled to Machu Picchu by train. This time I wanted to walk there!

There are a few treks in this region that enable you to finish at Machu Picchu. The most well known is the Inca Trail, a stone pathway built by the Incas to connect Cusco (their capital) with Machu Picchu. However, at this time of year you need to book over 3 months in advance if you want to hike the Inca Trail due to laws enacted several years ago to help preserve the trail, which allow only 200 people a day to begin the trek - and only with a licensed tour company.

The second most popular trek to Machu Picchu is known as the Salkantay Trek. This is because it passes right by the regions second highest mountain - Mount Salkantay. You’re free to hike this trek alone if you want to, but as I’m not an experienced hiker (and always looking for ways to meet more people) I decided it would be better to do an organised trek with one of the trekking companies that operate in Cusco.

The Salkantay trek would be a 4 day trek arriving at Aguas Calientes (the village below Machu Picchu) at the end of the 4th day. The 5th day would be spent exploring Machu Picchu and then finally getting the train back to Cusco.

Each of the 4 trekking days would be split into 2 hiking sections of about 4 hours each (with lunch in the middle). The first 3 nights we would be camping in tents and the 4th and final night would be spent at a hotel in Aguas Calientes.

Day 1 - Mollepata to Soraypampa

The first day of the trek began at 4.30am when everyone was picked up at their hotels, or residencies, by a taxi driver. We were then driven to a waiting bus that took us on a 3 hour drive out of Cusco to the town of Mollepata where the trek would begin around 9.30am.

Mollepata is 2,900masl (metres above sealevel) and is a small village only accessible from an incredibly long and winding dirt track that seemed to go on forever. After arriving in Mollepata we were taken to a local cafe for breakfast which was the first real chance to meet the rest of the group and our guides. The impressive group consisted of 14 people (5 Brits, 2 Americans, 2 Australians, 2 Germans, 2 Polish and a Belgian). There were also 2 tour guides to lead the way, 1 cook to keep us well fed, and 3 horsemen to ensure the horses ended up in the same place as we did (the camping equipment and some of our bags would be carried by horses).

The trek began after breakfast around 9.30am after we’d all introduced ourselves and taken a few group photos. The first morning was mostly uphill but not usually on a steep incline so it wasn’t too difficult. But still, after 3 or 4 hours trekking you become rather tired and hungry and incredibly grateful for a hearty lunch. All our meals were excellent I’m thankful to say. Both lunch and dinner usually consisted of a soup for starter and then a main course and a hot drink. Rice and/or potatoes were a common feature of the main course along with beef or chicken in the form of traditional Peruvian cuisine such as Lomo Saltado.

According to my infosheet we hiked 19km on the first day in about 8 hours. Our destination was the campsite at Soraypampa, at 3900masl, so we went about 1km uphill in total. Soraypampa, which is just a campsite (there’s no village or anybody living there), would be our highest campsite of the trip and also by far the coldest. I think we arrived there about 6pm and it was already starting to get really cool. Once the sun sets in this region of Peru, it can get very cold.

Most people were in bed by around 9pm as it was just too cold to be anywhere else but your sleeping bag! And thankfully I had a warm sleeping bag, you needed one, because night time temperatures in this area would drop below freezing. Some guy whose watch could read the temperature said it was about -5 Celsius inside the tents! A few people experienced an uncomfortably cold night because not everyone had great sleeping bags. You were expected to bring your own unless the booking agency provided you with one (which was the case for me). Not all sleeping bags are designed to be used in sub-zero temperatures!

Views like this were all around us for much of day 1

The snow-capped mountain in the distance is Mount Umantay. Our first night camp was at the base of this mountain.

Getting closer to Mount Umantay

Our first view of Salkantay would come as we almost reached the campsite towards the end of Day 1

Day 2 - Soraypampa to Chaullay

Day 2 was by far the most difficult day of the entire trek with about 10 hours of hiking in total. We were woken about 5.30am for a 6am breakfast and I think a 6.30am start. The first 4 hours of day 2 would be spent hiking entirely uphill and it was pretty steep in places and quite gruelling. After about 4 hours of hiking uphill we would finally reach the highest point of the trek at 4650m, right in front of Mount Salkantay. Mount Salkantay is probably one of the most impressive peaks I’ve ever been close to and I’m sure it would be a challenge to any mountaineer planning on reaching its peak.

After 4 hours of hiking uphill we were all pretty hungry; however, we wouldn’t be having lunch here unfortunately, that was another 2 hours away. But thankfully after the highest point it was pretty much all downhill the rest of the way.

Not long after a much needed lunch we then entered into a long and very lush valley where we would hike for about another 3 hours in a downward direction. It was amazing how quickly the landscape changed. Some of these valleys appear to have their own micro-climates and get a lot more rain than other much drier regions at a similar altitude. In about a 10 minute period of walking we dropped down from a fairly dry and barren landscape to being surround by incredibly lush and beautiful vegetation.

The second campsite was a place called Chaullay which is 2900masl, so we dropped down about 1750m in the space of an afternoon. This campsite was on a small isolated farm so there were a few people living there but I think it’s about half a days walk from here to the nearest road so they’re pretty cut off from the outside world, although that’s definitely not unusual in Peru.

I think we hiked 21km on day 2 and even though the campsite was a lot warmer most people still had a very early night!

This photo was taken about 3 hours into the steep accent of Day 2. The first campsite is down in the valley about as far as you can see.

This was taken fairly close to the highest point of the trek where we get up close and personal with Mount Salkantay, the 2nd largest mountain in the Cusco area.

After reaching the highest point of the trek we begin our descent downwards and we spend over 5 hours walking downhill. The 2nd campsite was further than the eye can see in the above photo.

After a few hours of walking down through a fairly dry and baron landscape the scenery quickly changes as we enter a lush green valley.

We finally reach the 2nd campsite at the bottom of a beautiful valley.

Day 3 -Chaullay to Santa Teresa

Day 3 was certainly the easiest day of the trek, although it’s fair to say we cheated a bit because after about a 3 or 4 hours morning hike through another beautiful, green valley, we then met up with a bus that took us to our third and final campsite at a small town called Santa Teresa. The reason they took us part of the way by bus was so that we would have time to experience the amazing hot springs at Santa Teresa, and I think everyone was glad for this. The hot springs were incredibly beautiful and a very welcome relief for 14 tired and sore bodies!

The morning of Day 3 is spent walking through the lower regions of the valley you can see in this photo

This nice waterfall is one of the many pretty sights on day 3.

A shopping center in the middle of nowhere!? Or just a place for hikers to buy drinks and snacks!

This is the bus that took us to the final campsite at Santa Teresa so that we could have a few hours at the beautiful hot springs before dinner.

Day 4 - Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes

The morning of Day 4 would be spent walking to the Santa Teresa train station (about a 3 hour walk) where for those who who were feeling worse for wear could travel the final part of the trek to Aguas Caliente by train - except that wasn’t an option today. Over the last few months there’s been a series of transport strikes in Peru and today was such a day, so the trains weren’t running. I think everyone would have walked anyway, except their was a slight problem. Usually all our bags would be put on the train (we said goodbye to the horses when we got on the bus in the middle of day 3) and then everyone would walk up the tracks. But with no trains running everyone had to carry their own bags for this last part of the hike (I’m sure the horses would find that funny but we certainly didn’t).

After 3 long hours of walking with a much heavier loads than we were used to, we finally made it to our final destination of Aguas Calientes where we checked in to a rather nice hotel for our 4th and final night. Our 4th morning would be an early start of around 4.30am to get to the bus stop for 5am to get the first bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu (write up coming in my next post).

The final stretch of the hike, walking up the train tracks to the town of Aguas Calientes

For the full slideshow of this trek go here

It’s hard to believe but today marks the beginning of my fifth week in Peru. I can hardly believe I’ve been here 4 weeks already, the time has simply flown by - a sure sign I’m having fun!

I haven’t written a great deal about what I’ve actually been getting up to and to be honest that’s because I haven’t yet done a great deal that’s worth writing about. I found out about 10 days ago  that a friend of mine from the UK wants to come out and join me for nearly a month (she arrives 10th June) so I’ve decided to wait until she arrives before I do all the touristy sight-seeing stuff like trekking to Machu Picchu and visiting the jungle etc.

Anyway, I can’t wait for my friend to arrive because I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun and adventures together, and also it’ll be nice having regular company for awhile because there have been occassions lately when I’ve felt a bit lonely. One of the downsides of living in Cusco is that most of the people you meet here are travellers passing through so they don’t usually hang around long enough to form any real kind of friendship.

Anyway, most of the last few weeks I’ve just been settling into Cusco and getting to know the city better. I’ve also been quite busy with client work so I’ve spent a lot of hours on my computer working although I usually work from a couple of pubs I like because they have much better wifi connection and a better atmosphere too.

I’ve had two trips to Pisac in the sacred valley where I’ve taken part in Ayahuasca ceremonies and they’ve both been amazing experiences. The place where I stayed, Paz y Luz, is just in the most incredibly beautiful and tranquil location surrounded by mountains. I would love to spend more time there but there isn’t a good internet connection unfortunately so I can’t really stay for more than a few days right now.

This morning I finally got around to enrolling at a Spanish school and I have my first class tomorrow morning. I must admit I should have done this much earlier and it’s pretty shameful of me that I’ve now been here 4 weeks and I’ve made very little attempt to learn the language. Better late than never I guess. I’ll let you know how I get on!

So what does anyone actually know about Peru apart from the fact it’s where Paddington Bear came from and that it’s home to some fairly spectacular ancient ruins and monuments such as Machu Picchu?

Don’t worry, your in the field reporter decided to do a little research for you!

Location: Peru (officially the Republic of Peru) is on the west side of South America, below the equator. It is bordered by 5 different countries. Ecuador and Colombia to the north. Brazil is to the east, Bolivia the south east, and Chile to the south.

Capital: The capital of Peru is Lima, which is located on the west coast.

Population: The population of Peru is 29,180,900 according to WikiPedia. It is the fourth most populous country in South America. Over 8 million people live within the Lima metropolitan area, which is almost a third of the population.

Ethnic groups: Amerindian 45%, mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 37%, white 15%, black, Japanese, Chinese, and other 3%.

Language: The main language of Peru is Spanish, however there are several native languages that are still spoken by the more indigenous populations. Quechua, the language of the Incas, is the most common native language, spoken by over 13% of the population.

Currency: The currency of Peru is the nuevo sol (plural is soles). Virtually everyone just says soles, ie. ten soles (or diez soles). Many shops and businesses in Cusco (and probably many other parts of the country) also accept American Dollars. More at wikipedia.

Income: The average household income in Peru is about $4,400. Peru is largely a poor country.

Politics: Peru is a presidential representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. Under the current constitution, the President is the head of state and government; he or she is elected for five years and cannot seek immediate re-election, he or she must stand down for at least one full constitutional term before reelection.

Independance: Peru declared independance from Spain on 28 July 1821.

Flag: Here is an image of the Peruvian flag

Geography: Peru covers 1,285,220 km² (496,193 sq mi). There are 3 very distinct geographical areas of Peru. The entire west coast is mostly dry and desert.  Then running parallel with the coast from the north west to the south east are the Andes mountains . Then to the north and north east of Peru is the Amazon basin. The Amazon rainforest in Peru covers 70 million hectares, giving Peru the fourth largest area of tropical forest in the world after Brazil, Congo and Indonesia.

Natural Hazards: Peru (or certain regions of Peru) are prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, landslides and mild volcanic activity. Yikes!!!

Life Expectancy: The average life expectancy for Peruvian males is  68.88 years, and for females is 72.69 years.

Religion: Peru is a very christian country with over 81% of the population Roman Catholic. However many Peruvians still maintain some of their indigenous beliefs.

Food: Peruvian cuisine is considered by many to be the best in South America. Common ingredients found in Peruvian dishes include rice, potatoes, hot peppers and garlic. A Peruvian speciality (in the Andes region) is guinea Pig (known as Cuy). More about Peruvian cuisine at Wikipedia

More info about Peru can be found at:

CIA World Factbook

Wikipedia

Unicef

What else would you like to know about Peru? Leave a comment below!

Well, I’ve been in Peru just over a week now and so far everything has gone as well as I could ever have expected! I apologise for the lack of updates for the few people who are following this blog.

So what have I been up to so far?

Well, after arriving in Cusco last Tuesday I found my way to Casa de la Gringa, a really nice little travellers hostel. I spent 6 nights there in total and really enjoyed my stay there.

My first few days were spent mostly exploring Cusco and getting used to the high altitude (over 11,000ft!!) . I suffered mild altitude sickness for the first 48 hours which resulted in me feeling a little light headed and some very mild flu-like symptoms. Or perhaps I caught swine-flu on the way!? Either way, I got over it in a few days.

Cusco is a wonderful city to explore. It’s a huge labyrinth of small cobbled-stoned streets, alley-ways and squares, with hundreds of little stores that sell some of the most incredible Peruvian art and clothing. I’m sure the novelty will wear off after awhile, but even after a week here I still love to walk around browsing the stores and making new discoveries.

There’s also a huge amount of restaurants and cafes, offering a wide variety of food, most of which are very reasonably priced - at least to someone with an average western sized income. You can eat well for about £5 and eat like a king for about £20.

A street in the San Blas area of Cusco

A street in Cusco

Last Thursday I visited the main market for the first time. In fact there are two main markets. One is predominantly for food and the other for electrical, clothing and household goods. Fruit and veg is amazingly cheap and you can probably buy almost all the fruit and veg you can eat in a week for about £5 (and that assumes that, like me, you eat quite a lot of fruit and veg!).

Entrance to Cusco's main market

On friday night I participated in my first Ayahuasca ceremony here in Peru. The friday ceremony was unplanned and fairly spur of the moment and I have to be honest definitely wasn’t one of the best ceremonies I’ve experienced. I’ll write a lot more about ayahuasca in future posts.

The friday ceremony took place in Lesley’s house who is the owner of the hostel I was staying in. About 15 people took part in the ceremony and it was conducted by a young female shaman from the sacred valley.

Leyley's house

A couple of days previous I had made plans to go to Pisac, a small town in the sacred valley to do an ayahuasca ceremony with Javier at a small healing resort called Paz Y Luz (Peace & Light). I hardly slept on friday night after the ceremony and almost decided not to go to Pisac, but an intuition told me I should go. So after we walked back down to Cusco from Leyley’s house I got on the bus to Pisac because I knew Javier wanted me there by around midday.

Walking back down to Cusco

View over Cusco

The bus was an interesting experience. It was just leaving the bus station when I got there but I flagged it down and got on board just in the nick of time. However the small bus was completely full with even two passengers in the front passenger seat. I was going to try and stand (not easy on these kinds of roads) but the bus driver insisted I sat on this small makeshift seat right in the middle between him and the two front passengers. It wasn’t the comfiest seat in the world but way better than trying to stand and I got a fantastic view of the journey ahead.

The bus journey was about 45 minutes. The first half is mostly uphill as the bus ascends up the mountainous terrain, and then the second half is all downhill as the road descends into the sacred valley towards Pisac.

View from the front of the bus to Pisac

Upon arriving at Pisac I went straight to Paz y Luz where I met and spoke to Javier for awhile. Then I booked myself into a room and got myself some much needed sleep before we met for the ceremony at 5.30pm.

The ceremony with Javier was awesome. He’s created a really safe and sacred space in his ceremony room at the back of his house. I don’t want to write too much about my experience but I felt tremendous love and energy for the full length of the ceremony. As stated above I will write more about ayahuasca in future posts because it’s played an important role in my spiritual journey so far.

View from the sacred valley

On the Sunday morning I caught the bus back to Cusco and got some much needed rest and begin the process of integrating what I had learnt the previous two nights.

On the Sunday evening I went to see a guy who had a spare room in a house he managed. The room was perfect and I moved in the following morning. It’s costing me 600 soles a month (about £135) and as I write this I’ve spent two nights there. It feels like one of the most perfect houses I could have found. In fact I didn’t really find it - it found me - just like I knew it would. More information and pictures coming soon.

Anyway, that’s my summary of my first week so far. It’s been a wonderful week and I’m feeling really high on life right now. If every other week is as good as this then I’m going to have an amazing experience here.

Click here for more photos