Live News Update 2007 - Inca Venture 3

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The Team:

Extract from our diaries:

From: Claire Wilkinson and Sarah Barr.

Sent: 16th April 2007 16:50
To: VentureCo
Subject: Huaraz trek and project

After having rested in Lima for a couple of days, we boarded the bus to Huaraz. Ten hours later we arrived - Huaraz is a typically pretty Peruvian mountain town located high up in the Andes. The next two days entailed hurried preparation for our project, buying enough food for 15 people for 16 days and ensuring that we all had enough warm clothes to survive more than a fortnight under canvas. We finally left the comfort of the hostel at around nine for the five hour drive deep into the mountains. Once we had arrived at the campsite, we set up the tents and the nine of us who had managed to avoid mild food poisoning set off to have a look at some Inca ruins which were close by. The next morning (after varying degrees of success at making porridge), we left camp early for the 14km trek to San Lorenzo de Isco where we would be starting our development project. It was a relief to arrive by mid afternoon, and we were able to have a quick look around the village before starting to cook the evening meal. Basically, San Lorenzo de Isco consists of a comedor popular (a food hall - our task to renevate), a few houses and one of the most basic toilets in Peru. The village is home to 60 families, eight of whom live around the central Plaza de Armas where we were staying.

We quickly fell into a work routine: breakfast at seven, work at eight until twelve and then again from two until five. The first day was spent levelling the floor of the food hall, which envolved lots of enthusiastic pick-axeing and even more dirt carrying. We then had to collect literally tonnes of rocks and sand to begin cementing the ground with the local men. The fourth day brought a couple of interesting events; due to the group´s general dislike for all things vegetarian, Yury and Jeremy set out armed with a sharp kitchen knife under one arm and a startled chicken under the other and proceeded to remove their heads. The majority of the group watched (including the two vegetarians), which was an experience in itself - though disappointingly the chicken was not very tasty. Over the next eight days we levelled part of the campsite into a terrace, built a fence around the campsite, plastered and painted the interior and exterior walls, knocked though a wall to make a window, planted about 600 trees and finally helped the locals to replace the roof on both the food hall and toilet. On the final day, we celebrated with a ´Pachamanca´with the locals. This is a bit like a barbeque in England, only the food is cooked with hot rocks in a pile of grass, mud and stones and is delicious! In the evening we gathered with the local men to talk about the project with its leader (Basilio) and the impact that it would have on the surrounding area and community - the food hall will be used to make sure that all the children are fed, and the campsite will help to bring money to the area in the form of tourism. Before we left, we signed our names on the side of the building underneath the VentureCo logo (artistically drawn by Jacinta) and took lots of photos to take home.

The following morning we were up early to begin the Great Inca Road trek - five days of walking through the mountains to our destination; the Inca ruins at Chavin. The walk started out well - it was surprisingly warm and sunny (and flat!), but by midday we were walking through heavy rain. It was great to get to the campsite (where another VentureCo group had spent two weeks completing a similar project) where we cooked and went to bed early. We were made to feel at home again by the weather the next day - it snowed! The campsite was at 4,500 metres and very cold, so it was a relief to get moving again the following morning. On the final night of the trek we met with the Inca and Amazon group we´d spent our preparation weekend with, and swapped tips about where is good to eat and drink at the beach that we were heading to. The next day we arrived at the ruins at midday, and by two were back on the bus ´home´to Huaraz, where most of the group enjoyed their first shower in 16 days. In the evening, we found a fantastic (i.e. meat-serving) restaurant and pretty much everyone ordered half a chicken, which disappeared surprisingly quickly.

We are looking forward to getting to the beach tomorrow!

From: Sarah Warry

Sent: 23rd March 2007 14:50
To: VentureCo
Subject: Machu Picchu

At the end of the week we left the families we'd been staying with and went
back to the hostel in the centre of Cusco to prepare for the trek. We did
the little known Salkantay trek which is much harder and longer than thenormal Inca Trail, 78km compared to 48km. Due to laws protecting the trails, you're not allowed to just go and walk it on your own, you have to have an orgainsed trek with a company. The company we went with was called United Mice! We had 2 guides to explain about the trail to us and 5 porters who led the mules that carry the tents and anyone's bags if they're not well. We set off in a minibus for the start of our trek at 4am on Sunday morning. The first challenge was about half way there when we discovered a rockslide had blocked the road. However, never fear, the men jumped out of the bus to try to shift the rocks while the girls stood and watched! While we (they) were clearing the road, quite a queue built up on the other side including a big coach which there was no way it was ever going to get through. Trying to get the minibus through the tiny gap looked like a scene from a movie but it got through in the end and we carried on. We had to get out of it about 5 times more though so it could get over various streams and mud across the road, it was a fairly hazardous journey!

We reached the start about 11am and apprehensively put our rucksacks on to start walking. The first day was really hard as it was uphill for hours and we reached 4600m which is really high up and so it was pretty hard to breathe while walking uphill with a heavy pack on. The peak was between 2 glaciers so there's some amazing photos of us in front of the snowy Salkantay mountain. The rest of that day was down hill towards the campsite, but due to various delays we had to walk the last couple of hours in the dark which was really hard as the ground was really rocky so we were slipping everywhere. The guides kept telling us it was only half an hour to the campsite but it always turned out to be much longer. Apparently this was because people don't normally carry their bags so they weren't sure how long it would take us. It was a really difficult walk in the dark and we were so relieved when we got to the campsite even though we then had to put up tents and cook in the dark which was a challenge in itself. Our sleeping bags wer very welcome that night!

The next couple of days were easier as there wasn't so much uphill but we did have to cross a few rivers on pretty dodgy bridges. Thefourth day we were walking in the cloud forest which was amazing apart from a lotof us got stung by a big wasp type thing! We got our first view of Machu Picchu that day. The clouds parted just long enough to see it which was quite a sight. It looked so far away though and we were meant to be there by the next day which was quite worrying!That evening we reached our campsite in Aguas Calientes (meaning hot waters) which is the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu. We went to the thermal baths which were absolutely amazing having been treking for 4 days and not being able to wash properly! It was also a great sense of achievement having finished the Salkantay trail which is meant to be 40% harder than the Inca Trail, and feeling superior to anyone who'd got the train there!
Being the nearest town to a major tourist attraction, Aguas Calientes was quite different to anywhere else we'd been in Peru. It was lot more upmarket and some of it almost looked European. The next day we got up at 4am to get to Machu Picchu before the crowds. We did our last hour's walking up never-ending steps, no tourist buses for us. It was incredible to see Machu Picchu in the flesh, so to speak.It was a lot bigger than it looked on postcards and definitely more impressive as there's so much more detail to the ruins than what you can see in the pictures. One of our guides told us a bit about the history of it and the various parts to it and then 5 of us decided we obviously hadn't done enough treking and climbed Wayna Picchu which is the mountain behind the ruins when you look at the pictures.

Later on Thursday afternoon we caught the train back to Cusco. There was no rest though as it was another early morning on Friday to travel to Puno. We were all really sad to be leaving Cusco as it's such a great city and we hadn't done everything we wanted to do there. It felt like our home in Peru as we'd been there so long! Puno wasn't as nice but our point of being there was to go to Lake Titicaca which was a great experience. We got on a boat to go round the islands on Saturday morning. First we visited the Uros islands which are manmade from reeds and are completely floating. It was amazing to see how the people live there on such a small expanse of land, but they can move the island about the lake if they get bored of where they are! We then went on to Amantani where we stayed the night with families that live there. The island has a population of about 4000 and has no cars or electricity so seems like an island paradise, it's so tranquil. In the evening there was a party for us and the other people who'd come to the island, for which we had to get dressed up in traditional costume which was hilarious.

From Puno we travelled to Arequipa on Monday morning. The city is lovely and seems more like Cusco. We made the most of our free time on Monday afternoon and went out in the evening as we were able to have a rare lie in on Tuesday morning. Tonight we're off to see the Nasca Lines which on the ground are just lines in the earth but when you fly over them you can see they're huge figures such as fish and birds. Seeing as they've been there for hundreds of years no one knows how they were formed, so that should be really interesting.

Now we await the boredom of 10 hours on the bus...

Extract from our diaries:

From: Yury Villalonga-Stanton

Sent: 20 March 2007 13:50
To: VentureCo
Subject: Arriving in South America

We arrived in Lima, Peru on Friday night and went straight to our hostel. It was really hot and humid, even at about 10pm. Coming out of the airport was like hitting a brick wall of heat. Driving through Lima was absolutely crazy, they're constantly beeping their horns and don't seem to use indicators. We only got stopped by the police once though so I guess that was a bonus. The area we drove through was quite run down but all of a sudden you'd come across a massive palace-like building, there were a lot of contrasts.

Our hostel was basic but the decoration can only be described as ornate, I've never seen a hostel like it, they certainly don't make them like that in Europe! On Satrurday morning we (by the way, 'we' is 10 gappers between school and uni, 3 post uni and 1 leader called Jacinta. 12 girls, 2 guys!) flew to Cusco which is at about 3400 metres above sea level. You could feel the effect of the altitude as soon as you came out of the airport, the air felt really thin. Climbing the steps up to our hostel was quite a challenge! The hostel was beautiful with the rooms set around a courtyard full of tropical plants. We stayed there 2 nights in which time we looked around the city and got to know it a bit and celebrate Yury's birthday in some proper Peruvian bars and clubs.

We started our classes at the language school on Monday. It's called Amigos and with the profits from teaching foreigners Spanish it givesfree English lessons to local poor children. It also gives them food and clothes and pays for medical treatment and so is really a second home for them. It also tries to link the tourists with the local children so at break we each got assigned to a child who we're meant to talk to for 15 minutes in Spanish and 15 minutes in English. It's a great way of getting to know the place better and not feeling like such an outsider who just sees the tourist attractions.

Our classes are mostly conversation although there's the odd bit of grammar if there's something we don't understand. For the two weeks of our languages classes we're staying with families here in Cusco. We have to get up far too early here as the classes start at 0800. We get a taxi to school because they're ridiculously cheap, about 30p! It also seems as if almost every car on the road is a taxi. You can just stick out your arm anywhere and a taxi will appear, it's great! We finish school at midday and generally go into town in the afternoon. Cusco is really beautiful with a huge plaza in the middle and market type shops selling Inca knitwear around the edge. There are also loads of internet cafes and restaurants. Around the plaza you can't move for people wanting you to buy postcards, offering you massages or free drinks.

On Sunday however it was slightly different in town, nobody thought to tell us but it was some kind of festival where the locals try to get each other, and particularly tourists, soaking wet. In the centre people were mostly just spraying foam from cans but down the sidestreets we got ambushed by waterbombs and some people even had washing up bowls of water tipped over them! Had we known we would have gone out prepared in our waterproofs. We all eat lunch and dinner with our families which has been interesting. The food is actually really good, just quite different to what we're used to, obviously. Yesterday we had battered cauliflower which is really good! They feed us far too much, like people in homestays always do and we seem to be constantly eating birthday cake.

Sometimes the language school puts on activities after classes. We have already had what they call the "Real City Tour" where they take you to places in the poor areas so you don't just see the 'movie' that tourists normally see. Our guide for the tour, Juan Carlos, was in the first group of students that Amigos took 5 years ago. He's from a really poor area and Amigos completely took him in when he was 16 as his mum died and his dad was already dead but now he's fluent in English, studying administration and seems so intelligent and mature. It just shows what a bit of education can do and how much of a future it gives them. First they took us to a local school which was so basic. They have up to 60 children in a class but don't have seats for them all so the rest just have to stand at the back. Juan Carlos told us about how the education in Peru is very basic and about how this is holding the country back. It's such a contrast to education in England, even though we complain about ours so much. Next we went to see where they make adobes which are these mud bricks which most poor people's houses are made out of and then to where chicha is made which is a local drink made from maize. Our next stop was Gladis's house, one of the students at Amigos who's also studing at college to become a tour guide. This was the hardest part of the tour as it was a one room mud brick shack with one light bulb, so it was really dark. There are 2 single beds for 4 of them to sleep in, separated from the rest by a curtain, one corner has a pile of pots and pans and a rudimentary stove so that's the kitchen, and a table and a small TV for the living area. The floor is mud and the ceiling is plastic sheeting. They don't have a toilet so have to go out onto the hillside. Juan Carlos talked to us about how much Amigos does for the children and how it had changed his life which was very emotional. The sad thing is it can only take 16 students a year. The first year they had 520 applications. So it's definitely an experience being here.

Last weekend we went on a mini trek for a bit of practice before the big one to Machu Picchu. First we went to Chinchero where we were greeted by a local blowing a conch shell (tuputi?). We admired the surrounding views, had a 2 course meal for 3 soles (never trust a menu that says rice and meat) and then crammed all 14 of us into 2 taxis and went to Ollantaytambo which boasted a half finished worship and ceremonial site. Our last stop for the day was Pisac where we stayed in a hostel and were treated to a Quechuan tribe performing a dance for us which was highly unique!

This week we have been taking full advantage of our free time after school by visiting the local ruins including Pikillacta, Tipón, Pukapukari, Saqsaywaman (a sacrificial site) and Tambomachay and have been highly impressed by the masonry, stonework and sheer level of ability with which the Incas once ruled. After all this walking we have also become masters of salsa and tomorrow will become masters of Peruvian cuisine. That's all for now, ciao!