Arica & San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Alpacas graze in the stunning Lauca National Park

The border crossing into Chile was straightforward and I arrived into the city of Arica. A couple of days was enough to explore this coastal city, the nearby Lauca National Park, and practice my Spanish with an Argentinian and an Irish guy over some cheap but very drinkable Chilean wine - about the only thing cheap in Chile.

The Sun sets over Valle de la Muerte in San Pedro

I then headed off on another overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of the Atacama desert, supposedly the driest place on the planet. San Pedro was touristy, expensive, but strangely beautiful, with hazy mountains visible on the horizon and blazing sunshine in the daytime.

Floating in Laguna Cejar

Although expensive, the tours out of San Pedro into the surrounding area were also pretty amazing. The valley of the moon and the valley of death were completely surreal, with sand dunes and rock formations covered salt in that made me feel like I was on Arrakis, the planet from Dune.

Floating in the salty Laguna Cejar and watching the sunset over the desert whilst drinking a a pisco sour were also memorable experiences.

 On my final night in San Pedro I went on an astronomy tour into the desert where our French guide Alain and his wife had ten telescopes set up to watch the night sky focused on the moon, Venus, a red giant, several nebulae and other celestial objects.

Then it was time for another long bus ride and another border crossing into Argentina. 

Final days in Peru...

Peru rail staff double up as models 

Unfortunately, things didn't quite go to plan.
A one day nationwide transport strike meant we were stuck in Aguas Calientes that night and didn't reach Cusco until the following afternoon after the most bizzare train journey (complete with catwalk fashion show of alpaca jumpers and shawls).

Cusco's beautiful central plaza

A few final drinks with our trek group in Paddy's Irish bar that night and it was time for us all to part ways and for Josh to fly home the next day.

The ruins of Sacsaywaman overlooking Cusco

I spent the next five days in Cusco exploring the city, visiting local ruins and markets and recovering from the trek. I was also gearing myself up as my next stop was to leave Peru for Chile. Finally I booked my last overnight bus in Peru and headed towards the border. 

The Inca trail & Machu Picchu

Looking fresh at the start of the trail

The ruins of Llaqtapata

 After a day in Cusco it was time to embark on the Inca trail. After a brief stop in Ollybatrambo to pick up hiking poles, snacks and breakfast, we were dropped off at km 88, the start of the trail.







In a great group of 16 with two guides, we spent the next 3 days hiking through amazing scenery that changed from antiplano to jungle, stopping at several Incan sites along the way.

The first day eased us in gently but the second day of almost continual climbing was really tough going, and the third day with over 3000 steps downwards was pretty hard on the knees. But on the afternoon of the third day we reached our campsite just a short walk away from the final checkpoint before Machu Picchu.

With my usual limited fitness I had been pretty worried about the trek but both Josh and I held our own in a group of about five of us who led throughout most of the trek. Although it was still probably the hardest thing I'd done in a long time, if not ever. It was certainly too much for this little boy who was carried by his Dad in a backpack for most of the trek!

 On the fourth day, we packed up early (4am) and headed down to the checkpoint which opened at 5.30am. Sitting in the dark, knackered, with 100 other people waiting for the gate to open whilst listening to choice 80's and 90's music was a bit surreal but a moment I won't forget. Suddenly the gate opened and we all rushed forward to get to the Sun gate as quickly as possible and to our first glimpse of Machu Picchu.

However when we reached the Sun gate it was clouded over. We kept walking and finally, the clouds began to clear. We waited. It seemed like the clouds had cleared over every bit of the valley except the ruined city. Finally, the last clouds parted. The ruins of Machu Picchu are impressive in themselves but the backdrop against the mountains makes it pretty spectacular. And after three days of walking we'd earned the view.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the ruins close up before taking the bus down to the nearby town of Agues Calientes where we were due to take a train back to Cusco that night.

Lake Titicaca take 2

Reed boats taking off from the floating islands

After taking a very cheap local bus and then a ridiculously overpriced tourist bus we managed to get directly from Colca Canyon to Puno, on the Peruvian shores of lake Titicaca.

Josh on the lookout

The next morning we headed out to the ultra touristy but still interesting floating Uros islands, a group of 70+ small islands make completely of reeds by the communities that live on them.

The view from Taquille island

The boat then headed onto Taquile Island for great views across lake Titicaca and some community tourism before heading back to Puno.

With time against us we left Puno early next morning for our final stop together, Cusco. 

Arequipa & Colca Canyon

 Arriving early the next morning in Arequipa we spent the next few days exploring this pretty colonial city and coming up with a plan for our trip to Colca Canyon.

The beautiful Santa Catalina Monastery

We finally decided to take a ridiculously early tourist bus at 3am to Cabanaconde, the setting off point for exploring the canyon, but to do the rest of the trip ourselves.

The bus stopped on the way at the condor cross, a lookout famed for being able to see sweeping condors at the right time of day and we managed to see about 6 or so gliding on the thermals.

Preparing for takeoff

We then packed up our daypacks with overnight gear and enough water for two days, dropped off our main packs at the hostel, and headed off into the canyon.

San Galle oasis at the bottom of the canyon

We arrived almost 3 hours later completely knackered at the Oasis town of San Galle, having timed our steep decent into the canyon perfectly with the hottest part of the day.

Two hours later, refreshed from food and a dip in a local pool, we started off again for the small village of Cosñirhua, where we spent the night with a lovely local family, one of two in the village who offer meals and accommodation to weary trekkers.

One of our lovely hosts

Having the opportunity to practice my basic Spanish with locals amongst beautiful scenery was a real highlight and I wished we'd had time to spend a few more nights down in the canyon.

Amazing rock formations in Colca

We set off the next morning for the gruelling 5 1/2 hike that would take us out of the canyon, climbing steadily for about 4 hours and an elevation of  around 1000m. Back in Cabanaconde that night we slept like babies but feeling significantly more confident about our upcoming Inca trail. 

Paracas & Nazca

Humboldt penguins on one of the Ballestas islands

 Our next stop after Lima was the small coastal town of Paracas, where we spent just long enough to get a boat out to the Ballestas islands, known for its sea lions and huge population of birds, and do a land tour of the peninsula, a national park with interesting geological features.

Red sand in the Paracas National Reserve

 From Paracas we headed to Nazca and next morning prepared ourselves with anti-sickness tabs for our half hour flight over the Nazca lines in a tiny 4 seater plane.

The flight over the desert was amazing (photos really don't do it justice), and the pills did their job, albeit leaving us extremely sleepy for several hours afterwards.

The hands and the tree patterns as seen from the air

That evening we finished up with a great planetarium show that explained some of the many theories behind the lines before hopping on another overnight bus. 

Lima

Chasing pigeons in Lima's historic centre

Due partly to the fact Josh arrived in Peru completely knackered, we spent the next 3 nights in Lima.

A 'luggage' of starters arrives

Highlights included a tour of the San Francisco church which contains the remains of over 70,000 people in its catacombs, and a visit to Astrid & Gaston, the #14 rated restaurant in the world.

More of a theatrical experience than dinner our meal came complete with a leather bound journal outlining a young man's journey to Peru that was told through a 22 preparation tasting menu.

Dessert arrives...

At this point I was very pleased that I'd thrown in that one wraparound dress, although I did have to team it with leggings and flip flops and was definitely the most underdressed person that night. Oh well.

The pyramid is unstacked

Chachapoyas

Our bus clearing the 'road' four hours later

The 13 hour bus journey turned into 17 hours when we became stuck about an hour from our destination at 5am due to a landslide on the road. But the road was eventually cleared and I finally reached Chachapoyas, my base for exploring the pre-incan culture of The Chachapoyas, or 'cloud people', who lived in the cloud forests of the  Amazonas region of Peru until being conquered by the Incans.

Sarcophogi of Carajia

A bus trip the next day took me to some amazing Sarcophagi up on a steep ledge in the mountains and a cave scattered here and there with human remains.

One of the impressive entrances to Keulap

The following day I headed out to the ruins of Keulap, my main reason for heading out this way. Keulap was a fortified city inhabited by The Chacapoyas and is known as the Machu Picchu of the North.
Located at over 3000m above sea level on a ridge overlooking a valley and containing ruins of over 400 mainly circular buildings, the site was pretty impressive. And with only about 20-30 tourists on the day we visited we could explore the site in peace. Definitely a highlight of North Peru.

Ruins nestled in the cloud forest

Remains of circular houses overlooking the valley

It was then time to head back to Trujillo on another overnight bus (luckily no landslide this time) for a quick stopover and day trip to the beach town of Huanchaco before heading back to Lima to meet Josh at roughly the halfway point in my travels.