Peru

As some of you know, when we were trying to find the border in the mountains we had a little bit of an incident when the car went off the road on a very steep angle and it took an excavator to pull it out and some minor repairs afterwards, which kind of delayed our crossing to Peru by a couple of days. But we did cross over eventually, and did so, on the most relaxed boarder crossing ever- we slept under the boarder bridge, some guys there don’t even wear uniforms to work, and the Peruvian custom officer wasn’t even sure what procedure there is for us to enter the country; he figured that if he speaks loud it sounds more competent- it was damn funny.

We drove for 3 days thru Andes, thru some good roads and fucking bad ones, thru valleys and over thousand meter drops, in the mists and sun and starry nites. It was a cool drive. And then we got to the coast and all this awesomeness was replaced by post-nuclear-war-like landscape of deserts and grey smoky air- ‘Mad Max 4- Resurrection’. Shortly afterwards, we started having problems with the car which made us spend in this lovely environment more time then necessary, but there was work to be done- Mick taking care of the car, me taking care of Mick. And we made our base of Trujillo.

After checking the spark plugs, dismounting fuel tank and disassembling the fuel pump, we were no closer to any answers. We even changed the transmission fluid. Everything looked fine (said Mick and I nodded). So we hit the road again and our car problems just as they mysteriously appeared, they seemed to disappear. Anyway, they had their effect on our stay in Peru and made us waste some very pricey fuel on driving there and back, not sure what was going on.

We visited Huaraz in Cordilliera Blanca. There is this amazing grassy plateau on 4000m or so, stretched between 2 mountain chains, one with snow caps and the other one without. The place is so beautiful. We drove it there and back, having some awesome stops in between, and once again, Peru proved to us, it is all about mountains.

Lima was a shit fight so after a failed attempt to drive into town we happily pissed off on Panamerican Highway to Nazca. The Nazca signs were shallow lines in desert plateau but I really liked the area there. We didn’t go for a flight assuming it was expensive like any touristy attraction in Peru and we drove into the hills, once again leaving the coast for the mountains. Between Nazca and Cuzco it is 660km and we drove through some coolest landscape ever; massive sand dune, our first pampa, canyons with cool looking rock and hidden mountain valleys. I would repeat it anytime on the bike.

And so we arrived to Cuzco- a very pleasant city with a cool, little old town and great tourist info services. We even made ourselves fake student ids to get a discount entrance to the ruins but they didn’t work- as pretty as they were, we made them to thin which raised the suspicions. Anyway, following the priceless map scored in the info centre, we checked out the sacred valley, we even did our laundry in the sacred river Urubamba. We checked out market in Pisac, Calca had some not-so-hot-springs, Urubamba saved us with its food and ATM and Ollantayamba welcomed us with a street fight and groovy looking ruins. This is were we left the sacred valley and climbed some 4000m high pass, to get to Machu Picchu from the backside- a must for budget travellers considering the price of the train and more so the walk on the sacred Inca path. We drove some deteriorating dirt roads and arrived to Santa Teresa were we left the car. Then we walked for 2 and a half hours to hydroelectric plant, which included river crossing in a fucking shopping trolley wobbling on a rope stretched across the river and doing so in 3 people (I couldn’t wipe the expression of disbelieve of my face even when it was all over). And then, already in the dark, we walked another 2 and a half hour along the railroad tracks. It was rather flat and straightforward walking but when we arrived to Aquas Calientes, we took the first room we saw, spent at least half an hour under the hot shower, so that you couldn’t see in the room, the air was so heavy of steam, and still, I fell asleep a few times over my food in the restaurant. I don’t remember last time I was so tired. There was no way, any of us could get up the next morning at 4am to walk up to Machu Picchu. So instead, we spent the next day hiking up this mountain on the other side of the valley. It had this one dodgy section, with rotten ladders missing parts and deteriorating unfixed after the last rainy season, so later on we found out that the trail was closed. Following the ever-present desire to be climbers that fuck, not fuckers that climbs, with some whinging on Peruvian safety standards we scaled that piece of wall and had the top of the mountain all to ourselves. And there, the most amazing view on Machu Picchu you can imagine. Now, I don’t even remember what this peak was called, but it definitely made my trip.

The next morning, we got up fucking early, took advantage of 24hour coffee shop in town and headed off up the hill to the gates of Machu Picchu. It must have been good coffee, ‘cause we arrived an hour too early; beaten only by two French who started their hike at 2:30 and a group of three Americans. The line behind us grew fast, though. Just before 6am the buses started to arrive. And then they let us in and everybody went roaming among the ruins on their own. It was a beautiful clear morning and Mick and I lost ourselves in those ruins for 3 hours or so, just walking, watching and enjoying. We smuggled in some food and threw a little picnic on a sunny terrace overlooking the sacred valley. Tuna and crackers never tasted so good.

We left the ruins quite early as we still had a hell of a walk out to be done that day. We took our bags from the hostel, ate something in town and dragged ourselves slowly towards Santa Teresa. Every hour or so we would stop, take our shoes off and put the feet in the cold river. I mean, we were tired. When we reached the river crossing there was a long line of people ahead of us, but down on the river the workers were just finishing the bridge. And so Mick became the godfather of the bridge on Urubamba in the Sacred Valley of Incas, being the first one to use it. Then we took a ride to Santa Teresa- enough is enough.

We came back to Cuzco, where we collected our car rego papers (thanks Jo) and bumped into a befriended French family whom we met in Guatemala and who also travel in a campervan. Then we drove south to Colca Canyon which is supposingly THE largest canyon in the world, twice bigger than Grand Canyon and so on. Well, to all those who have seen the Grand Canyon- don’t bother with Colca. Maybe it is bigger, but doesn’t have the intensity of Grand Canyon. It’s got condors though and they are fucking huge.

In Colca Canyon we realised that somebody tempered with the door lock in the car, so it was time to leave Peru. We drove along the lake Titicaca, which is very pretty, very big and has amazingly clear water. We parted with Peru on the boarder crossing of Copacabana. It was painless and rather happy farewell. We spent there 3 weeks.