Quito

Quito ....

...shit


Met such a good crowd there and practically lived in the bar of Secret Garden Hostel. We didn´t do one cultural thing what so ever. The city had a pretty dodgy vibe about it, even in the day time. Every day we were hearing about people being robbed, bags slashed etc, and I saw some guy get his head kicked in right by the hostel. Had some great nights out though, hopefully will bump in to some of the Secret Garden crowd later on in our travels.

Southern Ecuador

Our plans to go climbing in a place called Cuenca were thwarted by lots of rain and most of the climbs we had looked at being unbolted. Should have read more carefully online. Decided to carry on rather than hanging about waiting for sun.


The bus journey to Alausi was amazing. We are still really high up (3000m??) but the landscape has completely changed, there are huge green hills everywhere, its like a scaled up slightly tropical Wales. The hills are surrounded by seas of cloud, so that they look like islands in the sky. It was incredible but I couldn´t get any decent photos due to being sat on the wrong side of a crowded bus grrr.

Went on a train journey in Alausi, which was really bigged up in the guidebook. You were meant to be able to sit on the roof of the train but cos some eejit tourists fell off and died that´s no longer allowed. The train thing wasn´t that great and was made worse by the fact that it took the ticket guys 6 hours or so to distribute tickets to maybe 150 people. Wouldn´t recommend this.

Headed to Baños next, a town near volcanos famous for it´s hot baths. Saw some big snowcapped volcanos on the way, no smoke though. In Baños we rented some mountain bikes and went on a daytrip to some waterfalls. Mountain biking is defo not for me. Chickened out and walked so many times hehe.
Visited some hot baths but they were packed with local people. Had a steambath as well which was really weird. You get shut in this wooden box with only your head sticking out, then you get out and some guy chucks cold water over you while laughing. This was repeated a few times, then the guy said ¨now for the final torture¨ and hosed me down with freezing cold water. :S

Moved on to a town called Tena and did some white water rafting. Had to fill in a form at the beginning that said ¨have you had anything traumatic happen to you recently?¨ Decided not to mention the steam bath. The tour was run by a company called River People. Even got to swim through some of the calmer rapids. Really recommend it, was great fun. Some of the folks with us had waterproof cameras and got some action shots, but so far have failed to track them down on facebook.

Just when we left this place a snake swam past :P

Mancora

Got to our first beach place which is a small town called Mancora, on the northern border of Peru with Ecuador. Stayed at Loki hostel again. It´s OK but seems like just a place to drink. The hostel is more like a beach resorty type thing with a swimming pool and everything.


Had a dip in the sea but it wasn´t that warm so just chilled by the pool. The seagulls here are huuuge and black. They look really menacing. Me and Reynolds entered a volleyball tournament and just lost in the semi final, but left his ipod behind the bar and it got robbed :(

One night they had a "ladies night" where girls (or people wearing girls clothing) got drinks cheapo. Pics won´t be appearing online ;) Best intentions to take surfing lessons just never materialised through a combination of laziness and hangovers. Oh well plenty of time for that.

Trujillo

Left Huaraz to head north to Ecuador. There are warning signs everywhere at the bus station about swine flu and what symptoms to look out for. Went down the list and I think I have had every single symptom in the last 2 days....lol.

We are currently stuck in a town called Trujillo. The strikes and road blocks have started again so earlier buses are cancelled and we can´t even make it via taxi to the local ancient ruins and pyramids which are meant to be pretty awesome. So that´s the reason for the bulk blog and

photo update :)

A few unsolved riddles about Peru....

- Every morning without fail there is a gigantic themepark length queue outside of the banks, with tons of locals waiting in line. What´s going on!?!? Surely if this is the system they are wasting millions of hours.

- When you go in to a restaurant in Peru and order your meal they don´t seem to bring your drink until they have prepared and brought you your main course (30 mins later). Why!?!? It just makes sense for a million reasons, not in the least profit from selling more drinks.

- HOW DID THEY NOT MANAGE TO INVENT THE WHEEL!?!?!?

Hatun Machay

Got a collectivo and then a taxi to Hatun Machay, which is a couple of hours south of Huaraz. They call it a ¨stone forest¨ and thats a pretty good description. Tons of stone columns coming straight out of the ground. There is a little refugio there which seems to be run by climbers and has no electricity. We camped just outside that but were allowed to use the water/toilets for a small fee.

The rock and the routes are amazing!! Bubbly volcanic rock with loads of handholds. Didn´t suffer from sweat at 4200m altitude and it gripped really nicely on climbing shoes. Reynolds cut his womanly hands open all the time though... lol. The people there are really helpful and showed us climbs that meet our grade etc. Reynolds is leading 6B´s and I have led up to 6A+ so everything looks good so far for our big multipitch climbs in Brazil :D It seems to me that these climbs are overgraded here but Reynolds thinks the opposite hehe.

Both of us have taken lead falls now which is probably our greatest achievement as we were both pretty scared of going for moves and falling before. Watched some nutters tackle 7C+´s seemingly with not too much trouble. Sucks that we don´t have some more people as it´s hard to take good photos with one person belaying and one climbing.

Stomache felt really bad in the evening of the second day. Prescribed myself these drugs which were in my medi kit, but really couldn´t remember what they were for or how many to take. I just knew they weren´t for altitude sickness so must be for dodgy water or something. Up all night, going to toilet in subzero outside. Dead all the next day. Couldn´t leave the tent let alone climb :( Had a fever and felt aweful.

Reynolds fed me tea and went up the hill to get some shots of the stone forest from above and his faithful dog which he seemed to have tamed followed the entire way. Got the bus back to Huaraz that evening.

Vallunaraju

After Pisco me and Reynolds headed back to Huaraz and Andrew stayed in the national park to do some more hikes. We decided to recover and do some bouldering near Huaraz. The owner of cafe Andino has been bigging up this rock climbing place a couple of hours from here so we are thinking of paying that a visit too. Slightly disturbed/amused by the fast food joint next to our hostel.

Met up with Andrew again a couple of days later when he got back to Huaraz. Decided to do another peak together. The weather forcasts are too dodgy and not enough time to do huascaran, which was the peak i originally wanted to do and fit the rock climbing in. Also have been told it is not the most interesting mountain to climb by people who have done it.

I really wanted to do a 6000+ m mountain but andrew is leaving huaraz in 2 days and will be hard to find a peak we can do that quickly. decide to climb Vallunaraju (5780m) which is the biggest mountain that overlooks Huaraz. It has twin peaks. We will do the south peak in one push rather than camping half way up. We´ll also take a more technical route to the standard one and include some ice climbing.
Reynolds decided to stay in Huaraz for this one. We got a taxi up to the end of the valley and camped by the road. Set alarms for 2am but this time I slept really well :) The first few hours hike were the hardest, just because it is dark and I was sleepy. When we reached the glacier everything seemed to get going and we made really good progress. Met several people coming back down who had to bail due to altitude sickness.

A few hundred metres below the peak we left the trail in the snow and went straight up the slope. A peruvian guide at the bottom of the mountain told us that it was 70 degrees. Did a swinging lead type thing. Using the axes was really good fun. Had to cross a couple of crevasses and then traverse along the ridge at the top to the peak. It´s a cool way to reach the top as you really feel you earned it. Was still full of energy when we got to the peak so I legged it up the north peak too :)

Defo want to try some higher peaks in the future but I guess no rush. I have all the gear now and a bit more experience.

Pisco

Just got out the shower in the morning and the hostel owner says there is someone at the front door for us. Turns out to be the guy I was mailing, Andrew. He just flew in from UK yesterday and wants to go up a mountain called Pisco today... nutter. Still feeling ill but gotta go for it.

So we have to mission off to get permits and food etc. Had to lie on the permit form and say we were going trekking round the national park rather than climbing cos otherwise you have to take a peruvian guide.

Got a taxi up the LLanganuco valley, which we are convinced was named by a Welsh bloke, to base camp (3900m). At the entrance to national park we had to sign in, saw a real stuffed condor. Think the birds we saw in the sacred valley weren´t condors after all as this was massive. Down the valley are huge cliffs and lakes of bright turquoise water.

When we arrived at base camp we figured we had just enough time to hike up to the meadow camp (4600m) before sunset. No idea how the ¨meadow¨camp got its name as it was anything but a meadow, ¨swamp camp¨or ¨marsh camp¨would have been more appropriate. Set up tent and ate and set the alarm for 3am.


Didn´t get any sleep that night. Apparently it´s an altitude thing. Got up at 3 feeling really rough. Had some porridge and set off for the summit. The first few hours was hiking through the dark. When the sun finally came up it was stunning. All the mountains around us reflected the colours because of the snow. They changed from red to yellow to finally white. Got to the glacier and met some American guy there who was doing science, researching glacier shrinkage. He roped up with us to cross the glacier.

From here it was really hard work. I felt so unfit, breathing heavily all the way. It took us the best part of the morning to reach the summit. Towards the end I was feeling nauseous and exhausted. The whole thing was really just a steep hike through snow apart from the last 50 metres or so where I got to get the axes out >:) Was pretty emotional reaching the summit (5760m !!). The view was incredible combined with the relief that we made it to the top was great.

Going down was a different story, crampons give you super powers going downhill on snow it seems. You can just take massive steps on really steep slopes and remain pretty stable. When we got back down to the meadow camp me and Andrew both collapsed and Reynolds actually cooked for us (Hope you are reading this Jan) ;)

Put my mat outside the tent and just lay down in my sleeping bag looking at the stars. You can see so many here. I tried to take photos of them but don´t have the required camera sKiLLz. Played some tunes on my ipod and a song came on with some pan pipey style music, which went down really well. Cheers Vlad.


This day was the highlight of my holiday so far. Check out the pics here

Huaraz

Back in the mountains in a town called Huaraz. It´s in a valley at 3000m altitude next to the Cordillera Blanca (an andean mountain range). We checked in to a family run hostel next to Cafe Andino, which does excellent coffee. There seems to be a parrot on our roof that shouts ¨Hola¨and wolf whistles when you walk past.

The town is in really beautiful surroundings with mountains towering over the buildings. It is the climbing hub of Peru with several cafes with indoor walls. Went to one and did some bouldering but still out of breath really quickly from the altitude.

There seem to be lots of protests going on here. Big parades with banners and people shouting. Don´t know what they are protesting about but they seem pretty angry. In the square is a lady with a llama with sunglasses on. I would have taken a photo but I know she would charge me lol. Might try sneak one in. Sunsets are really good here.

Need to find some people to do a climb with. Have been mailing a guy from the UK who was looking for a mountaineering partner on the UK climbing forums. Hopefully this should pan out OK.

Lima again

Back in Lima, decided to check in to a different hostel called the Flying Dog. We both preferred this place, it had a really nice atmosphere. Everyone in the hostel seems to hang out together a lot more.


Much to my mums horror I got a tattoo on my leg. It´s some Inca styley pattern with some waves through it. Had to have it completely shaved first which was pretty funny. Reynolds got another one too on his arm, also inca style.

Went to a jazz bar one evening, which was cool. After we got back tried to cook some food but the gas wasn´t working in the kitchen so we got our camping gear out hehehe.

Saw transformers 2 but our spanish still being abismal we walked in to the wrong hall and watched the first 20 minutes in spanish. When we bailed and finally found the right place Reynolds fell asleep half way through. Good film.

Still got a dodgy stomache.

Nazca Lines

We found out more about the road blocks. Apparently its something to do with strikes against the governments use of water...

They are starting again on tuesday so we decided to bail on the south and head back to lima. It´s a shame because we wanted to do some rafting but wouldnt be good to be stuck in Cusco and not be able to get to the mountains

The lack of pictures is due to bandwidth here, which is terrible. (at time of publishing just got to Lima where it´s OK so have bulk uploaded photos) We´ve been doing video diaries as well but large files don´t stand a chance. Hopefully when in Lima I can do a bulk upload cos lots of amazing pics.

In Nazca at the moment. Just saw the famous lines. Chartered a tiny plane to fly over them. Our pilot was a nutter and did some cool stunty stuff on request. Better than any rollercoaster by far!!

Machu Picchu

Got up early (4am) and took the bus. Even so there were queues going back for ages. The reason being that only the first 200 people who get to the site are allowed to climb up Huaynapicchu, the mountain in the backdrop to Machu Picchu.

We were in the first lot of people and did all the hikes. Reynolds chucked up a few times though from stomache problems and couldn´t make the final hike up Machu Picchu mountain. The ruins themselves weren´t THAT impressive but stunning views, pics are here.

Starting to hate American tourists, they are loud and obnoxious and that includes the old ladies. Found out that quite a lot of other travellers hate them too :)

Sacred Valley Of The Inca´s

Cusco

Had a night of drinking in Cusco. Met tons of other travelling folks. Tried the local spirit called Pisco. It´s mingin :p We have a bunch of very noisy cokehead British guys as roommates in our dorm grr. Decided we need to get out of Cusco and start adventuring. Rather than doing an Inka trail we are going to head down the "sacred valley" by public transport and do some hikes up to ruins etc along the way until we reach Machu Picchu.

Sacred Valley

Day 1
Got ooon the bus ... to Pisac, which is the first town along the valley. Was a nice market there selling lots of llama stuff but not much else. Had an amazing 4 course meal for 7 Soles (1.40 pounds) (no pound symbol to be found). After dinner we walked up the hillside to the ruins. First trek we have done at altitude and we were both out of breath really quickly.
Tried eating the coca leaves we bought in Cusco. We weren´t really sure how use them or how much to use so just both chewed on a handful of leaves. Reynolds chucked up. lol.

Day 2
Travelled on to Calca, the next village along the sacred valley. Along the way our bus got stopped by a roadblock, a group of men who had put massive rocks all over the road. We didn´t really wanna get off the bus cos it looked dodgy and had all our valuables with us but everyone else got off so we followed. Walked on to the next town, no drama at all. Seems they are just protesting against some government stuff.

Set out to trek through a valley over two 4000m passes to a village on the other side of the mountains called Lares. Mixed messages off locals about length of trek ranging from 8 hours to 4 days lol so had to head back when it got to afternoon. Got chased by some horses so we had to jump off the road !?!?!
Arrived in Urubamba. Couldn´t find hotel but spotted two blondes in the distance and stalked them. Turns out they are volunteer teachers in this village. They helped us find a hostel and invited us to go see some live music the next day.

Day 3
Stayed in Urubamba. Hiked up to the "salineras", which are ancient salt pans, used by the incas and still used today to extract salt from the mountain water.
Carried on walking over the mountains to some strange circular ruins called Moray. Apparently these were used to experiment with growing crops at different altitudes. The ruins were OK but
just watching the peruvian farmers was far more interesting. Also saw some big birds of prey on the way back which a peruvian lady told us were condors.

Went out in the evening to see this band play. It was really good. Nice latiny style music, made you feel like you were in South America. Met up with the girls from yesterday and had some drinks and Reynolds tried to salsa a bit. The bar staff didn´t charge on the spot but just lined up all the beers we drank on the bar and counted them at the end of the night.. (16 for just over a tenner woooop)

When we got back to the hostel it was locked up. Had a shout and a knock but no one came so we had to break in. Reynolds climbed over the roof and then spent about half an hour finding a door to let me in by. Meanwhile I waited on the street, there was a policeman just down the road with an automatic gun patrolling. Thought faking extreme drunkeness was the best option rather than looking like a dodgy loiterer.

Day 4

Went to the next town along called Ollantaytambo. This place had the most impressive inca ruins so far as the stones were huuge and all fitted together like jigsaw pieces. Even more crazy when you consider they didn´t manage to invent the wheel.

Caught the train to Aguas Calientes which is the final stop on the way to Machu Picchu. It´s a dirty little town full of restaurants and not much else, but you have to pass through as the only way to MP is by train.