When a holiday isn't a holiday - El Misti

Decided to test my body the last 2 days, had some fun along the way, but El Misti would have to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.
El Misti is the second largest volcano in the country, but is said to be the hardest to climb. El Misti stands at 5822m, a tiny bit bigger than Australia's highest, Mt Kosciuszko at 2,228m.
I started off getting picked up at 8am from my hostel in Arequipa, there was only one other person, a French girl who was nice enough.
We needed to carry all our own gear for the hike. That meant carrying a tent, ground mat, sleeping bag, 5 litres of water and any other clothes that were needed. I would say that I was carrying at least 15kgs, which is a huge difference than the 6kgs I was carrying on the Inca trail.
The starting point of the trek is 3,300m not too far from Arequipa. The first day wasn't too hard, the base camp is at 4,500m, it was hard going lugging 15kg up shifting sand and rocks, but I didn't feel any effects of the altitude. We got to be the base camp at 3pm, I was pretty hungry but tea wasn't ready until 5pm, so I spent 2 hours talking to the French girl and dreaming of big fat chickens. Unfortunately for me, the food wasn't on the same level as the Inca Trail...tea was soup with pasta, then mains was 2 minute noodles. As you can imagine, after 6 hours for trekking through the sun with a big backpack, this wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger...but what could I do..there wasn't a 7/11 in sight.
Anyway, after dinner with nothing to do...was in bed by 6.30pm. I would of preferred staying up, but everyone was too buggered from the first day. We needed to wake up at 2.30am for day 2 anyway, so maybe this was a good thing. I got to see an amazing sun-set which was cool, so least that was something.
The breakfast at 2.30am was even worse than the dinner, it consisted of stale white bread, jam and cheese...hardly the food you need when your about to make your body really suffer.
Anyway after the hardy breakfast, we set off at 3am. There aren't too many advantages getting up at this hour, but I got to see stars for the first time in awhile...and lights of Arequipa shone brightly amongst the darkness.
The backpack was considerable lighter for this, we could leave most things behind at the base camp, and pick it up on the way out..but this didn't make it any easier. I could really feel the altitude effect me..the 6 hours to reach the top of the volcano was so bloody hard. Basically it one step, two step..over and over again..the lack of light, small rocks and the 40-50 percentage gradient didn't help matters either. Anyway, when we finally made the top, it was all worth while. Amazing views of Arequipa and other volcanoes in the area...got to see inside my first volcano.
Going down was a lot of fun as well, instead of walking down, we ran down the volcanic sand, so you do it loads quicker, not to mention the fun of bounding down the mountain.
Great to do it, but I was pretty starved by the end, we got back to Arequipa at 2pm, my last meal was the stale bread at 2.30am.

Rafting in the Chili River

I really wanted to climb El Misti today, the large volcano near the city..it stands 5800 and something metres...but unfortunately there wasn't enough people, so will get to it tomorrow. To pass the time today, decided to do a little rafting, and I wasn't disappointed. I have done rafting in the Zambezi and Rotorua in New Zealand..they were both special for different reasons...Zambezi, what can you say...and Rotorua had a 7m rapid which was rather special. This wasn't too technical, but the scenery was amazing...there were water falls coming down at various intervals and there was a couple of grade 3/4 rapids.
Besides this didn't really do much, met a couple of cool German brothers on the trip, so hung out with them for most of the arvo.
Anyway, I have booked in the Volcano tomorrow, so that should be pretty interesting. After 5000m things can get pretty interesting, but I will be decked out with all the stuff, so should be fine.

Arequipa & the Colca Canyon

I took an overnight bus from Cusco and arrived in Arequipa last Tuesday. It only cost 40 soles on the Flores bus, and even though I'd heard of a bad story from them from another traveller, the ride went without incident. Got some food on board and got to practise my Spanish watching Happy Gilmore.
Didn't really do much on the Tuesday, I caught up with Christel, a girl I met during the Inca Trail, so we decided to do the Colca Canyon trek, which is the deepest canyon in the world...or the 2nd..so I've been told.(it's twice as deep as the Grand Canyon)
We started on the Wednesday, getting picked up at 5.20am by taxi, then taken to the main bus station with millions of other Peruvians.
There were 6 others on the trip, a Dutch couple, 3 French blokes and a Swiss dude.
Anyway we made the 6 hour bus ride with few difficulties...we went over unpaved road for at least 4 hours of the journey, and a whole bunch of Peruvian women jumped on with a couple hours to go, they were pretty smelly....I don't think a shower is a big part of their custom and they wear so much clothes for the conditions...I would hate to see what they'd wear in cold weather!
After having a small lunch with rice and potatoes included...they use them in every meal over here...we started the downwards trek at 2.30pm. We arrived at the first site around 6pm, just before dark. This was all downhill...which isn't the easiest on the legs, small rocks and sand abound. The scenery was a stark contrast to Machu Picchu, cactus everywhere instead of orchids.
Our first night was spent in a very small village, we stayed in rooms made of mud-brick and a tin roof with a dirt floor, with the beds made of tree-stumps and bits of reed like material as the base. Thankfully they used a normal mattress and bedding...and surprising enough I had a great night sleep, except for the bird dancing on the roof at 6am in the morning. Even though the place was basic, I should be thankful, only 5 months before they didn't even have electricity.
We left at about 9am after some pancakes and some coca tea. Coca tea is pretty good, they love drinking or chewing the leaves over here...unlike the rest of the world who prefers it up the nose. The 3 hour walk to lunch was pretty crusiey, we stopped in to check out the local doctor, who's range covers about 8kms over various mountains. It was pretty basic, just glad my Mum isn't Peruvian..because I don't think I would of made it 30 years ago! One other interesting thing we learnt...Peruvian women from this area will likely have their babies standing up and crouching...because they tend to be shy...the husband might wrap a blanket over her so no one can see her godly bits.
After this we stopped in a very small (closest really) little Inca museum where this old lady showed us various things. We also tried Chicha, which is a corn beer that they brew. The taste was pretty interesting, let's just say I didn't ask for the recipe.
The lunch was at the Oasis, which is just like the name suggest...greenery right at the bottom of the canyon where the rest of the area was sandy and brown. After 3 hours of having another carbo fuelled meal and a dip in the pool, we did the hardest part of the trek, 2 hours...for me anyway..of climbing from 2000m to 3200m of Cabanaconde. It was great to reach of the top after 2 hour..not have to worry about dust flying around anymore.
We had dinner at the same place as the first night, and once again it was nothing special, more rice and potatoes, but they had a DVD of rock videos from the 80's, so that kept us entertained for the night. After a good night sleep in the hostel, we checked out the condors, which was OK, then we had a few moments of adventure..the mini van got a flat and we got pulled over by the transport police for some paper that wasn't in order..it didn't matter to them that we had 11 people in a van that should of only held 8. The day was completed by a buffet meal included cuy...better known by little girls as Guinea Pig, yummy...actually it was OK, but it doesn't have that much meat on it. Lastly we went to a near by hot springs to soak our weary bodies. The day was capped of by one of the French guys leaving his jacket and credit cards behind at the springs after we got to the the bus station, that kind of misfortune is usually left to me!

Party time back in Cusco

After knocking back some lunch in Aguas Calientes we took the slowest train in the world to Urubamba, then a bus back to Cusco. That was a bit hairy, it started pissing with rain and the bus felt like it might go over a edge a few times. We got back in Cusco @ 8.30pm, and decided to celebrate the end of the trip together with a bite to eat and a few drinks. We met 1 hour later, but first it was great to put some water and shampoo through the hair after 4 days without a wash.
I took the crew to my local, 2 Nations, where we got stuck into some great food, and a a few pisco sours. After that we decided to move to this little bar down the road, which wasn't much, but we had a great time in there, playing stupid drinking games. We got this crazy alcohol there which is made of 24 herbs, and it has a crazy taste as well. I wouldn't start the night on it, that's for sure, but for 10 soles for a jug you can't really complain.
That bar had the worst toilet I have ever seen, it was disguising, some one had thrown up in the corner, the toilet looked like it was falling apart, and the ground was all wet and sticky.
After that we ventured to Mamma Africa to finish off the night with a bit of stomping. It was a cool place, had decent music, and it was amazing that we could stay up to 4am after getting up at the same time the day before...not to mention all the walking.....

Finally the Inca Trek....

Well what an experience the Inca trek was. It was a hard little trip, some really tough moments, but definitely one of the best experiences in my life. After getting to the entrance at 3pm, Cessar and I power-walked the 12kms in 3 hours. The first day wasn't that hard, we arrived at camp just before dark, with lots of claps from the rest of the guy. It was great to see them all again after all the hassles that I'd been though.
The second day was probably the hardest, it was another 12kms, but most of it was up hill. Just think of a million steps, and that's what it was like. The weather was pretty miserable through that morning, but by the time that we had reach the highest point the weather had cleared. The weather is so temperamental up there, one minute it's pissing down, then the sun is out.
I can't complain too much, my backpack was just over 6kgs, but the poor porters were carrying at least 15kg, and they needed to leave after us, and arrive at camp before us to set up the tents and get the food prepared. So you would regularly see them running to get in front of you.
Talking of food, it was amazing, so much great food. I gave Alpaca meat a try, and I was the tour's garbage can, always knocking back others leftovers.
The 3rd day was probably one of the best, lots of downhill steps and some amazing scenery. I was a bit worried about the weather, the last stretch before camp on the 3rd day it absolutely pissed down. All you could do was kept your head down and walk.
Every night on the trek it rained, but the last night was the worrying one, I had visions of Machu Picchu being completed covered in mist. We woke up at 4am on the final day, which was the earliest time, after a 5.30am and 5am start on the previous 2 days. Actually it was very weird, because even though we were getting up pretty early, we were expected to go to bed at 8-9pm. This didn't really work for me, and the rain on the tent meant it was hard to get a proper night sleep anyway.
We arrived at the final check point at 5am, and started through when it opened at 5.30am. Our group was at the front, so I decided to speed to the front (I tended to be near the front for the whole tour...except for the first day of course!) for the 5km walk before I got to Machu Picchu.
I managed to be the first to the Sun gate, which is the place that you can first see Machu Picchu below, but unfortunately there was loads of mist at 6am in the morning, so I had to wait for another tour leader to arrive to make sure I was heading in the right direction. After being there was 10 minutes, the mist gradually move, so you could start to see it.
We spent the morning taking lots of happy-snappys and learning about the site. I might be the first person that has carried Vegemite to Machu Picchu, hopefully Kraft might be able to donate a few jars for my effort.
After a few hours of a guided tour, the dutch sisters, Ishka, Sasha and me decided to climb Wayna Picchu, the mountain which gives you a great view of the whole area. The way up was reasonable tough..a 40 minute hike , but the way down was one of the scariest things I have ever done. The top section, the stairs were so steep and small that you needed to crawl down to feel like you were in control. It was great to finally get down after that, even though it was great to do it. Wayna Picchu was the hardest stretch for me, after 3 days of solid walking it topped it off for my body, we were all pretty buggered at the bottom.
One last thing that capped off the tour was the bus ride down to Aguas Calientes, down the mountain. A little kid ran down the mountain in Peruvian gear, going through a path while we snaked down the mountain. This was a fair effort, the bus ride was about 20 minutes, all this to earn himself a few bucks at the bottom when he jumped on the bus...and supposedly he does this a few times a day.

Having 2 passports isn't always a good thing

When I check the ticket I realised that I had used my Aussie passport for the trek, these details were on the ticket, and the problem was that my Aussie passport was in the safe of my hotel back in Cuzco. This was a big problem I was told by my guides...I might not get in. I tried to get in, but the rangers wouldn't have a bar of it...so while the rest of the group went through, I was standing around like a tit. Anyway, after some deliberation by the guides, and a call back to the company in Cuzco, the only thing that could be done was head back to Cuzco to pick up the Aussie passport. As you could imagine, I was pretty deflated, but was lucky that the assistant guide, Cessar, was such a top bloke. With the help of Mr Speedy González taxi driver we made the return trip back to Cuzco, and were back at the start by 3pm, only 4 hours after we should of started. The taxi ride cost 120 soles, about 40 bucks, so it wasn't that bad after the trouble I got myself in. The trouble gave me a chance to get to know Cessar and now I have a Machu Picchu entrance stamp on both of my passports for the trouble..I bet not too many people can say that!

Start of the Inca trek

Everything worked out great last Wednesday, I got picked up at the hotel 6am. I managed to organise everything the night before so I was all set. There was 13 others in the group, and everyone kept fairly quiet for the bus ride, except for Cristal (from Vancouver) and me. She had slept in so she was too amped, and I was too excited to sleep.

We arrived at km 82 at about 10am after stopped in Urubamba for brekkie, and it was great to see the sign showing us that we were about to start the trek, all we needed to do was show our passport and ticket to the park rangers so we could begin the 45km walk over the next 4 days.

Two Nations Restaurant

I have managed to find my favourite restaurant on the trip so far, it not just because it's extremely cheap, but that is one very good reason. The food and the service is great, and the place is pretty funky as well. Funny enough, the 2 nations that it refers to is Peru and Australia. I believe an Aussie bloke met this Peruvian sheila, and the rest is history.
I have eaten there the last 2 meals, and for 5 soles at lunch, or 10 soles at dinner (6 soles to a pound) you get garlic bread, soup, a choice of mains and a drink, how can you go wrong with that. To think I was eating a crappy pizza for 18 soles alone earlier in the week! They used all good quality stuff, and they wash all the veges in purified water, which is good to know..I don't want to be sick again on this trip! Anyway I only have one more meal until I embark on the Inca trail tomorrow morning, so I will be heading to the 2 Nations again tonight. I tell ya, I wasn't expecting to find an 'Aussie Burger' in South America....beetroot here we come!

Cuzco the city of Museums

Over the last 2 days I have managed to visit 7 museums of varying quality with a ticket (boletoturistico) bought to access 6 of them. The only 1 that I thought was any good was the one outside of of 6, Convent of Santo Domingo, which has some interesting stuff on the Incas, and the best painting out of any of the museums. The ticket costs 70 soles, or 35 if your a student, thank's again STA! It also good for some of the Inca ruins, but to access the fancy churches in the main square of Cuzco you have to pay extra, gotta love the catholic church trying to make a few extra bucks, like they need it! Besides getting some culture into this trip, I visited the closest Inca ruins to Cuzco, Sacsayhuaman, try saying that after a couple of cervesas. It is only about a 15 minute walk from the town, but pretty good exercise as it's all up hill. I had a good time checking it out, but this young Peruvian soon-to-be shaman took a liking to me, so I spent 25 minutes with him practising condor arm waves and depth breaths, while he told me some history of Cuzco. I decided against one of his little practises, he said that urinating is one way of releasing negative energy, but I told him that I released all my negative energy earlier.

Pisac to lift the spirits

Now you can't go nearly 4 months travelling alone to have a few down days along the way, and due partly to my fault yesterday was one of them. The day wasn't bad, it just that since I'm not staying in a hostel, I'm having dinner by myself the last few nights, and in a restaurant, that can sometime be a bit off-putting. I actually don't mind it, I picked a small little place, decided to have a pizza and cheer on Peru as they played Paraguay in the 2010 football world cup qualifying...they have a bloody long road in South America! Anyway, 5 minutes after I sat down, a group of 9 sat down from some tour..filling out the whole of the floor, so I felt like I had crashed their party, plus the service towards me was non-existent after that.
This morning didn't start off in a good way either, I went to buy a couple of bottles of water and a chocolate bar from a supermarket, but I only had a 50 sole note, with the goods coming to just under a 5er. Now when I pulled out the note the bloke looked like I'd pulled out a knife. So I couldn't buy the stuff, so I walked out of the store f'ing and blinding...unfortunately not in Spanish!
Thankfully the rest of my day was fantastic. I took a little bus to Pisac, only 32kms from Cuzco, but a good hour journey with it travelling at a snails pace up the winding road. I got to see Peruvians with Lamas or Alpacas..I can't tell the bloody difference, their mud brick houses with pigs and dogs running around.
Pisac has a massive market on Sundays, but I decided to quickly bypass this, and hike up and see the Inca ruins, which is a 5km walk up and a fairly difficult one especially in the mid-day sun. It took about 2 hours to climb and see everything. The walk was also good, I met a really cool French couple on the way, it was great to have a chat with someone after a day cruising by myself. We then shared a taxi back down to Pisac and had a quick walk around the market, I didn't look too hard, but there was some very cool stuff there.
After have a drink with them at their funky hotel, I just caught the bus back to Cuzco, and I meet some cool Israelis on the bus. It's the people that make travelling fun they say.....

A Kangaroo..the symbol of the world!

Now, I have done a bit of travel over the last 10 years, and one symbol keeps popping up all over the world, from Japan, Australia (funnily enough), Belgium, Slovenia, England and now in Peru, Lima. Now using a Kangaroo from a transport company, I can kind of understand, even if it's in Japan..but this latest one in Peru was pretty strange to me when I saw it. I bought my plane ticket from Lima to Peru in this travel agent, and they had this company selling travel insurance I believe..the company was called EuroAmerican whatever....using a Kangaroo as their symbol. Who thinks of this? What's a Kangaroo got to do with, America, Europe or Peru for that matter!

Cuzco

What a cool city Cuzco turns out to be. If you have any images of what Peru is like..Lamas, women walking around with the funny hats, a baby strap to her back with a bright cloth, and Internet cafes everywhere...oh well, we can't be too authentic in this day and age.
I haven't done a great deal so far, I have walked around checking the sights. The main square has a couple of amazing looking churches. Cuzco has even more taxis than Lima..every 8 cars that pass seem to be a one..and they are bloody cheap, 3 soles anywhere in town.
I'm feeling a lot better now, I think I have managed to beat the bug that was in my system in Lima. Tonight will be the first day since Thursday that I will eat 3 meals in a day...I'm actually bloody hungry at the moment which is a good sign.
I'm staying in this great little guest house at the moment, it a cool little place, I have my own room with double bed, cable and bathroom. It great value 7 bucks, but it's a bugger to meet anyone, so I might have to leave and move into a hostel soon. The family that run it are so nice though, so I will leave with some difficulty!
I'm so glad I'm not in England at the moment, I watched the rugby today, I can't believe the French didn't win...bloody hell, the Poms better not win! I'm a massive Puma or Springbok fan for next week. I just won't be able to watch it..I will have just finished the Inca trek to Machu Pichu...oh well...

Lima

Only spent 1 day in Lima, wanted to give myself enough time in Cuzco to acclimatize, the city is pretty high up, so they say you should give yourself a few days in the city before you do anything hectic, and after the food poisoning, and the Inca trek to come on Wednesday, I thought sooner the better.
Lima is an interesting city from what I saw, which wasn't a lot. They have some very cool old churches in the centre, but in front of these they had riot police, tanks with sub machine attached to the front and loads of police just roaming the street. God knows what happens, but maybe they like a protest like the Argies.
Lima also has more taxis then you can poke a stick at, half the cars on the road are taxi. Anyone can be one, supposedly you can pick up the taxi plastic sign at a market, so if your short of a few bob, you can take your car out and earn a few extra soles.
Decided to catch a plane this morning at 5.50am to Cuzco, it only cost $71US, so I though what the hell, it saved a 30 hour bus ride and I was here 1 hour later.
Besides this, my small backpack is falling apart, it got caught on the bus from the airport to the plane in Buenos Aires, which is a bugger. I should be able to get it fixed for a good price over here anyway.
One last thing, I have to be touching some wood whilst I'm saying this because I'm sure I'm going to lose something soon. I don't know how many times I've dropped something, or left something behind before someone runs up giving me the paper, passport, camera or ipod back.

Sick as a Dog in Lima

I arrived in Lima last night, was really looking forward to seeing another city, but my last day in Buenos Aires made my first night in Lima one that I don't want to remember.
I spent the majority of last night keeling over a toilet bowl, I couldn't control any body functions..lets just say it wasn't a pretty sight! I had a buffet at a fancy restaurant with my mate Adan, so I knocked back quite a bit of food, 12 hours later the food was staring back at me.
So I will be on the waters and the sports drinks for the next few days, hopefully I can get my body back to some normality.
Had a great last night in BA, went kart racing with some of the guys from the hostel. If you know me, you will know that I didn't win, but came an honorable 5th out of 6...probably would of come 6th if one guy didn't spin out a couple of times. I was jumping on the brakes too much, that 1 week behind the (car) wheel over the last 10 years didn't hold me in good stead.

Boca Juniors @ River Plate

I decided to go to one of the biggest sporting events in the world today, and it was totally worth it, crazy, crazy event, that's all I can say. Boca Juniors, where the great Maradona played, are a team from the dock area of Boca in Buenos Aires, which is a poor and colourful area. River plate are called the Millionaires, due to the wealthy area where their team is located, but after spending the game in their sections, the ground didn't have quite that feeling.
I went with a group from the hostel, so it was basically a group of Israelis, me and another bloke called Nick from a Macclesfield in England. We were up in the top terrace, miles away from the game, but it was great in some respects because you got to see all the action. Anyway, you don't have atmosphere like this in most stadiums around the world, due to seating being imposed. We were all jammed in...with the River supporters constantly singing...they had a few 15 second pauses here and there throughout the game, but the were basically going crazy for 3 hours!
I had to watch most of the game through the legs of 2 guys, they were all propped up on the rails of the exit gates, so this was the only way to see, we were all packed in like sardines. This was all going swimmingly, got to see loads of action, River scored 2 goals, their supporters were going crazy...but with about 15 minutes to go, some newspaper caught fire..and there was loads of it everywhere. They bring piles of the stuff into the ground to rip into pieces, and used to chuck it onto the pitch...anyway, I had visions of myself being turned into an barbie..with nowhere to go. The fire eventually went out..not after there was a massive push to the left...which I was apart of. The game finally ended about 10 minutes after the fire, but we didn't get let out for another 30 minutes..this was to let out the Boca fans first...so in our thousands we just stood there and sung the River Plate songs....well they did anyway.

The Gregson name....

This post is a couple days late...but my sister think here surname isn't common..not so...they even have whisky named after her in Uruguay! La Gregson Clasico....haha

Spanish Lessons

I had my first Spanish lesson today, now that I'm back in Buenos Aires..I decided that it was time to get with the local lingo....my Spanish is very crappy!
My teacher Dolores and her Siamese cat made me feel right at home. I know that it will take the next 5 lessons and more for my Spanish to come on, but I really want to get there...it will make the rest of my trip so much better. By the way Mum, you can pick up a Siamese for between 100-150 pesos from a proper place, that's between 30 and 50 Aussie...can you believe that!
It's great to be back in the hostel, the staff really make you feel like your at home in the Estoril, made some cool friends, learnt a lot about other cultures.
There was another protest today...actually it's rare when their isn't one....the Argies love to Protest...every day they march past the main street where our hostel is located...banging drums and protesting with the loud speaker....I always ask what it's about...but the staff are so use to it.
I'm hitting the town tonight...or should I say tomorrow, their nights start so late...so watch out Buenos Aires, I'm a coming!

Montevideo

Decided to leave BA for a few days, with Uruguay only a 3 hour ferry ride, it was a great place to visit. Left the hostel with a couple of Israelis that I met at the hostel. Yesterday was spent in Colonia de Sacremento...it's meant to be a pretty little town, and probably is, but yesterday it absolutely pissed down, so that kind of distracted from the place.
Anyway, enough was enough, so a 2 hour bus ride later and we were in Montevideo, the place where despair and jubilation has been felt by Soccer supporters from OZ over the last 8 years. I made sure that I was wearing my rain jacket when I got off the bus...didn't want to get hit by any saliva like the Socceroos...anyway, there was no need to worry. Uruguay is a sleepy little country, there was just grass and a few cows from Colonia, not really any towns to speak of.
Montevideo isn't the prettiest city, it has loads of crumbling building, more banks in a city than I've ever seen before, but it does have some charm, just can't put it into words.