The Travels Of The RJs

  Discovering The Lost City Of The Incas The Peruvians at the camp  (well Freddie and Huevo the skinny mute chef) challenged us to a game of football at sunriseseeing as we were missing out on the World Cupand I still had no idea as to  whether England had beaten Germany in the Last 16. The locals, already well adjusted to the altitude of 3,500 metres clinched a fortuitous 3-2 victory in the first game (both of us were guilty of missing open nets). They were confident of a further humiliation and asked us to play again - this time the winner would receive cerveza from the loser. We managed to restore some national pride and won 3-2 to tie the series as the soft adidas ball arrowed from dumpsite hole to thorny bush beyond the flip flops that were playing the part of goal posts. I, rath er foolishly, went through a delicious trade mark slide tackle on Freddy that crunched both our shins as we wheeled away in  simultaneously  agony. It was perhaps not the best idea...

Machu Picchu to Puno, Peru Thursday 1st July 2010 Our regular early morning departure (including me forgetting my towel) and we settle on to a luxurious Marcopolo bus for the six hour ride to Puno. Uneventful journey; vast expanses of valleys and mountains for the view with scattered pockets of Peruvian poverty and we pull into Puno – expecting a seaside resort (granted albeit on a lake – Lake Titicaca ) – instead a conglomeration of half built brick houses and businesses covering the port and reaching up the mountainside. A grim grey picture. After being collected at the bus station by the hostel in a taxi, including the hostel lady in the boot of the car we check in to a very helpful and friendly Walk On Inn, and assess our timings: as we fly out of La Paz on the 7 th July we decide to skip Lake Titicaca island tours and book a ticket for the following morning to La Paz. The town of Puno hardly exerting a pull on us to stay longer. The Americans we met on the bus Ravi and Chris,...

Machu Picchu, Peru Wednesday 30th June 2010 The alarm gets earlier and earlier. Packed up and munching on a jam roll at 5am when Freddy comes bouncing in. Walk to join bus queue with all the other tourists intent on an early start. After a wait and a 25 minute bus ride we’re at the entrance gate to Machu Picchu at 6:15. Freddy points at the route all the tourists take and promptly takes us the other way. We settle on a small terrace where for over an hour we pepper Freddy with questions on a topic he’s clearly animated about. Looking around in the mist we can see levels of terraces similar to Ollantaytambo.  As the mist continually rises and falls more aspects are uncovered and re-hidden; the size of terraces each five/six feet tall and about 10 feet deep, a mass of shells of stone buildings.  We gain a much more thorough how and why of Machu Picchu – used for approximately 300-350 Inca nobility, built along a known tectonic plate fault line (marked by a terrace running thro...

Cusco to Machu Picchu, Peru Tuesday 29th June 2010 A relative lie in until 8am. Freddy has promised a special treat for breakfast but before that there are more important matters at hand. A football will win friends the world over and in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes is no exception.  For England : Matt & Krish.  F or Peru : Freddy & Hueblo.  We gasp for breath after any four yard dash and despite there being four beers at stake succumb 3-2 in a best of five goals. Double or quits we restore equality and pride with a thrilling 3-2 win.  I ' m finally feeling fully better now (if unfit) so am enjoying the food. Our last breakfast consists of eggy bread, toast, cinnamon porridge finished off with a freshly baked cake. On a single gas stove? There follows a Q&A with the crew from which we learn, amongst other things, that Bicente has a nine hour walk home after we leave (two days at our pace), and Krish and I are the oldest by three years. We pack up,...

  Lares: Headaches, Downpours And No Sign Of Them Incas The city of Cusco in Peru , sits approximately 3300 metres above sea level. I had been previously warned by my travel doctor in Wellington that appropriate measures would have to be taken in order to counter the curse of altitude sickness. Our tour operator, Carlos, also advised us vehemently that we should stay in Cusco for at least 3-5 days in order to acclimatise to the thin air before embarking on our much anticipated Lares Inca Trek. We thought better of this elaborate patter and gave ourselves a modest afternoon at a higher gradient, we had little choice in the matter after the delay from the last flight from Lima, which was not ideal. We managed to cope ok, only our chests did tighten whenever walking uphill, but this did not cause alarm. Our hostel,  Sumac Wasi , was hidden in a busy cobbled street ('Gringo Alley' as the natives baptised it) and although the second floor was under the light dust of construction, w...