המסע המופלא

 

Yesterday we (The other volunteers and the couple that runs the organisation) went to a special market held because of Peru's indepandance day. There was there a lot of local music, and somehow I found myself looking at a cook fight, which was quite terrible, actually.
I also went in the last two days to the two orphanages I will work in. One was quite empty today because the kids went to the festivities. In the other I played some games with the kids (plonter, evolution and 7-boom), which was quite fun.

 

After a somewhat long bus ride(just 9 hours, actually) I came to Huancayo. This is an ordinary looking city. It turned out that the same day another Israeli came to the same organisation, and we are the two first Israelis that actually ever came to it... Anyway, the school I was supposed to volunteer in is currently in vacation, so probably I will help in an orphanage here, which I visited today.

  As promised, here are some pictures from Machu Pichu and the way there. And voila their descriptions:
1 - The sacred valley, taken from the taxi to Ollantaytambu.
2 - Ollantaytambu, ruins and village.
3 - Still the ruins of Ollantaytambu. By the way, Tambu in Quechua meant an administrative and domestic center in the Inca empire.
4 - Somewhat north to Ollantaytambu, while I took a walk.
5 - My first view of the ruins of Machu Pichu (the roof, BTW, is reconstructed).
6 - The ruins of Machu Pichu, as seen from the sun gate 6:06 in the morning.
7 - A view of the way up to the ruins. Notice all the people coming from the Inca trail.
8 - The sun appearing through the sun gate.
9 - The sun shining over the lost city.
10 - Same picture, with no zoom.
11 - The ruins as seen from the top of the Huayna Pichu.
12 - I on top of the Huayna Pichu.
13 - The main plaza.
14 - I am unsure now, but I think this is considered as the industrial zone.
15 - A distant view of the industrial zone.
16 - An Inca bridge. In time of danger they could remove the tree logs.
17 - This is already a picture from Tambumachay, a purification place for the Inca king near Cusco. I got there the day I left to Pisco while doing some horse riding in the region.

And here are the pictures from Islas Ballestas and the Paracas reserve. Notice the one I am entering the Pacific Ocean - Did I mention this was the first time I saw this ocean? I actually also entered the sea here in Lima, but the water was cold and quite ugly, so I quickly got out. The last picture is not from Pisco but from a vegetarian restaurant I ate two hours ago here in Lima. Notice you can see Guy in the mirror taking the picture.

I went to the Copa Final today, and (as I anticipated) Brazil won, but you surely know that. It was actually quite an interesting game, much more than the one I saw in Rio.

Tomorrow I am going to Huancayo, where I am supposed to volunteer in a school for a month. Hopefully it will be successful...

 

So, last time I left you on the verge of getting to Machu Pichu. As promised in the last post I did go to Ollataytambu. There I had to wait two days with to get a place in the train to Aguas Calientes, the village near Machu Pichu. While being there, we (A bunch of 4 more Israelis and I) visited the ruins of Ollataytambu, drank Pisco, slept a lot (though not enough) and explored the nearby environment (well, I just walked around the village for two hours).

We came to Aguas Calientes Saturday evening, and the following day we woke up at 4 o'clock and began climbing to Machu Pichu, with the aim of seeing the sunrise from the sun gate above the city. We climbed up in total darkness (though this time the flashlight worked) and we did manage to get to the sun gate at time. The view of the city from there was indeed breathtaking. However, it turned out it is not possible to see the sun rise, as the mountains around the valley are too high. We did, nonetheless, see the appearance of the sun after a while, and all the people getting from the Inca Trail (we were between the first to get to the site that day). After a short breakfast we went to a tour of the city. As I had with me a guidebook about the city, I just went around with it and from time to time eavesdropped to the guides going around (each one explaining differently the same place). The ruins are really worthwhile for all the superlatives they get. The place is really well-conserved, and one can admire the Inca architecture of their temples (they had a lot of temples...) I should upload some photos, so you can see for yourself, although the photos themselves do not communicate the whole awe of the place. In the middle of the day I went up with Elad on the Huayna Pichu (young mountain, litterarly) to see the city from another angle, but after that it took me an hour to recuperate to continue my tour of the city. All in all, I was there from opening time almost to closing time (without eating, as you aren't allowed to enter food), so you can understand it was really interesting.

The next day we went back to Cusco, and a day later I went with Guy to Pisco, where we saw the Islas Ballestas where there are sea lions, Humbeldt penguins, cormorans and other birds. We also visited the Paracas peninsula, where we could see some flamingoes far away (they look like pink spots). Somehow, I didn't get to drink Pisco in Pisco...

From Pisco we went to Lima, and tomorrow we will try to get tickets to the Copa America final (somehow Guy persuaded me to go there).

 

Today I visited the archeological site of Sacsayhuaman, which was an Inca temple for the sun in the outskirts of Cusco (it is actually considered as the head of the Puma, which Cusco is supposed to represent). The perfect match between the great stones that the Inca used to construct the site is really impressing. Near the site is a statue of Jesus, which was given to Cusco by Palestinians in 1944.
Here are some pictures from Cusco. The last pictures are from Sascayhuaman. You can also notice people with a lot of people marching. That is because they had today a strike and demonstration because the gas prices became more expensive. You can also notice one picture (#146) of the Santa Domingo church, where you can see the Inca wall that the Spaniards used as a base for the construction. Another interesting picture is #154, where the wall is supposed to show a Lama. See if you can find it...

And with no direct connection, here are the pictures from around Lake Titicaca (Copacabana, Isla del Sol and the floating islands near Puno).

Tomorrow I plan to go Ollataytambu, where hopefully I will get a train ticket to Machu Pichu.

 

I am still in Cusco. Today I went to Santo Domingo church, which is quite interesting because it was built on an Inca temple called Quiricancha (if I don't misspell it). After an earthquake in 1950 parts of the Inca temple were revealed, and it is quite fascinating seeing the two different architectures in one place. The Inca used to build with big carved stones which fitted each other almost perfectly, while the church looks like any European church.
Tomorrow there is some kind of strike in Peru, but on Thursday I will hopefully go to Machu Pichu.

A technical note: some of you maybe didn't get lately the automatic bloglet mail updates. I hope it is fixed now, but if not tell me.

 

After a long and irritating bus trip from Puno I came to Cusco yesterday afternoon. Cusco has quite a nice architecture and is very touristic, but till now I didn't have a too profound impression of it. I was considering lately if doing the volunteering thing or continue traveling in Peru now, but I think I will proceed with the former plan.
Today I went to the Inca museum. It was quite interesting: showed all the cultures that were in the region, and of course a whole deal about the Inca. It actually gave me an appetite to read more about them. Anyway, in the meantime, I am resting here in Cusco.

 

So, as promised in the last post, I came to Copacabana and visited Isla del Sol (the sun island). Copacabana itself is quite a pretty town, with a nice plaza, and a great beach with a lot of colorful boats.
Before I went to the island, I rode bicycle with one of the Israelis I was with on the lakeside road. Some say that lake Titicaca is not only the highest in the world but also the most blue and pure. Indeed, so it seems... We were supposed to come to our destination in one hour, but that is probably the time for the locals. As for us, we had to climb of the bike each time the road went uphill and regain our breath.
The next day we took a boat to the island. It is hard to describe in word the beauty of this place. The blue lake, the Inca ruins, The snowy Illampu in the background - all contributed to a feeling of superb amazement. I was even inspired to write two more haikus, but I don't have here a Hebrew keyboard, so I will post them another time. On the island we went from the north part to south part, and I even continued to the most southern peak to view the sunset, which I missed in a minute, but still it was beautiful. I got so thrilled the next day I went up early to see the sunrise (we stayed the night on the island), which was very majestic. The sun rose exactly beside the Illampu, so for a while the mountain and the sun rays were competing who is higher, while the village Yumani was illuminated by the soft morning light. Unfortunately, my batteries in the camera became empty, so I don't have a photo of that.
After that I stayed another day in Copacabana, and even played some basketball with some locals (I am not used to playing basketball, but this was even more exhausting than usual because of the altitude), and today I went to Puno on the Peruvian side.
Here I already saw the floating islands. These are artificial island constructed of reeds. Once the people on them lived from fishing and collecting eggs of birds, but now half of them are working in the tourism business...
Tomorrow I will be already on my way to Cusco.

 

The Selva, or the jungle, was really an interesting place. It was not as dense as I expected (I could still see the blue skies and the sun from time to time), but there were indeed a lot of different plants there.
We (I and two other Israelis, the guide and the cook, who was coincidently his wife) 5 days, and all of the nights but the last one we slept in very simple camps, which consisted just of some barks to put the rain cover on.
While walking through the jungle trails (there wasn't too much need for the macheta), we tried different fruits (mostly they all had the same taste, in my opinion), and I even ate some ants, which were supposed to be healthy (for me, that is, not for them).
It is a bit hard to describe the views, so I will just let the photos speak for themselves (see the last post). Yeah, there was an odd moment when we weared leaves, which, according to the guide, is the way the Indians dressed up when going to a war with another tribe (as a type of camouflage).
The last day we were supposed to build a raphsoda (I can't remember the English word). But when we came to the place, we discovered it was already built. Instead of dismantling it and rebuilding it we went up on a mountain with a splendid view above a macaw colony (again, look at the photos). This probably to the most beautiful experience I had till now in South America.

Soon I will continue to Copacabana, on lake Titicaca, where hopefully I will visit the Isla del Sol.

 

I am back now from La Paz after 8 days in the Rurrenabaque region, but first I'll write about the climb of the Huayna Potosi.
The good news are that I managed to do it, but it was really tough, maybe even the hardest thing I've ever done. The first day was actually quite OK, we just trained some walking in the ice with crampons and an axe. The second day was already harder, as we went up to a higher altitude with quite a lot of packing. When we came to the camp, there was a small snow storm going on, so we didn't know if we would be able to go up to the top or not (I have to say it is quite an experience to brush one teeth in a snow storm :) However, the weather calmed somewhat, and at midnight we began the climb up. It was still very cold and windy, and snowflakes kept running into my face. Some minutes after we began climbing my lamp stopped working (later it turned out it was the light bulb which decided to die in that specific moment). The guide had another lamp, but when he gave it to me it broke open and the batteries flied away. So it was also dark... The ascent itself was very difficult because of the thin air. I tried to concentrate only on the next breathe and the next step. At one point we had to jump over a gap in the ice - that was scary. We didn't eat anything since supper last night, so after a while I became also quite hungry (there was some bread, but somehow I missed it). After a couple of hours we had to climb a vertical wall of 50 meters, which was very exhausting - the wind and the snow continued all the time. At this time I began already losing my feeling of the toes. Somehow I managed to continue, and at sunrise we came to the final challenge - an almost vertical ascent of 200 meters to the summit. The guide, who noted that I was already very tired and energyless (I mentioned the food problem...) proposed that I won't go up, as I had to keep strength to go down also. However, I said I will try nonetheless. The weather was already getting warmer, so that gave me a moral boost. It was still very hard. I almost despaired in the middle, but luckily I had with me a coca sweet which gave me strength to continue. When I got up to the summit, I was so exhausted I didn't even joy properly... Still, I was very glad, and the scenery was superb, of course!
The way down was, as promised, almost as difficult. I was so tired so I marched down only because of the gravity (and of course, there were again the 200m and 50m vertical walls, which turned out to be even more difficult to descend). When I came finally down to the base camp, and we took the car to La Paz, I couldn't decide if this was an enjoyable or terrible experience. Certainly it was an experience, though.
Here are some photos (notice the ones with me on the top :).
The day after I came back I flied to Rurrenabaque, which was quite a relief. The weather there is much warmer, and the air is much more denser with oxygen.
A day later I went to a three day tour in the Pampas. This was quite a relaxing experience. Most of the time we were on a canoe, looking on alligators on the bank of the Yacuma river. On the morning of the second day we went to catch an anaconda, though, and the afternoon we tried to fish piranhas in vein (only the French succeeded).
As I am already quite tired (got up early for the flight from Rurrenabaque), I will tell about my experiences from the Jungle and on a different post, but on the meanwhile you can enjoy some photos.