Cusco, Arequipa and Lake Titicaca

Cusco

Soo our first bit of travelling started with a very long journey all the way from Trujillo to Cusco - so an overnight bus to Lima and then over 24 hours to Cusco from there. Not very enjoyable, but what can you do! When we got to Cusco we could really feel the altitude (it's at about 3,400 m above sea level) - we were completely out of breath after walking up a flight of stairs!! It didn't help that our hostel was at the top of a very steep hill which half the taxis just didn't bother going up so just left us
at the bottom. Not very fun.

Cusco

So we stayed a few days in Cusco city to acclimatize to the altitude before we went on our Machu Picchu trip. We weren't doing the actual Inca trail, you need to book that at least 6 months in advance and we didn't know when we would be in Cusco at that time!! So this was a different trip organised by our hostel. It was 4 days long, the first day was biking downhill a looong way (they took us up really high to start, 4,200 m) and then we stopped for lunch and afterwards had a horrible sweaty walk up in the jungle to where we were going to stay for the night.We stayed with a local family who cooked our meals for us - we also had coca tea made with just hot water and coca leaves, really yummy actually. They also had a pet parrot and coati which were hilarious to watch!!

with all the bikes

coca tea!

the parrot landed on Amy's hair...hahaha

The whole group

Day 2 was our first day of walking - we were to walk a part of the authentic Inca trail!! Our guide told us about the Incas and Cusco along the way which was really interesting. He also played pan pipes along the actual Inca Trail which was just so classicly Peruvian haha. Then we went to the thermal baths which were sooo lovely and relaxing, especially after having walked all day to get there.

walking the Inca trail

Day 3 we chose to go ziplining over the valleys which was SO much fun, I would recomment it to anyone it gives you such an adrenaline rush! Going upside down is by far the best. Takes a bit of courage to do it for the first time though!! After that we continued trekking, but this time along the train tracks for about 3 hours that eventually lead us to the town of Aguas Calientes, or Machu Picchu town. After we arrived there we just relaxed, had dinner and went out shopping to buy some souvenirs!

Ziplining upside down with Amy

Walking along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes

Day 4 was the day we went to Machu Picchu. We had timed it to be on Machu Picchu for Amy's birthday, 30 June, so we got the bus up to the entrance instead of walking up through the jungle (which everyone else said was horrible). When we first got there it was really foggy and we literally could not see a thing. Later we realised we had been at the bit everyone gets the famous photo from but we had no idea because we were surrounded by all this fog! Machu Picchu is incredible, once it finally cleared up (which was the most amazing part, realising we'd been so close to it all along) you could really tell how huge it all is. What none of the photos can show either is that there are loads of massive beautiful mountains round about Machu Picchu that are just as stunning in their own right. So obviouly we got our typical photo at Machu Picchu, kept on taking photos until they were all the same haha and then went back down to catch our train back to Cusco.

How the day started out!

Our amazing group we did the trip with

"That" Machu Picchu photo

Machu Picchu in its own glory

Arequipa and Cotahuasi

From Cusco we went to Arequipa - Most people go to Arequipa and see the Colca Canyon, the more famous one, but we decided we wanted to see the Cotahuasi Canyon, which is supposedly the deepest in the world! So we took an overnight bus from Arequipa to Cotahuasi and this must be the worst bus I have ever been on. 10 hours on a non-paved road, bouncing and bumping the whole way. No sleep whatsoever. Nightmare journey. But once we got there it was nice. Cotahuasi is a really small town in the mountains, so beautiful, hardly any tourists. Completely off the beaten track. We had heard about the local bus that goes past the canyon and so we got up at a reasonable time (these buses tend to arrive at totally useless time like 3am so you have to end up paying for a night in a hostel as well) and assumed we'd get it. Turns out the bus left at 6am and that was the only one. So we called up our taxi driver from the night before who'd been friendly and left his number and asked him if he'd kindly take us to the canyon and back. We ended up having the most hilarious day out. Our taxi driver-come-tour guide called Gherard ran ahead of us all the time on the wee path and we had no chance of keeping up, he lay down on the canyon edge to look down into it and was just so hilarious to be with. We had a lot of fun that day. It was also really nice because we were the only people there. Absolutely empty apart from us and Gherard!

Cotahuasi Plaza de Armas

Gherard hilariously leaning into the canyon

Amy in the vast empty landscape

Cotahuasi Canyon

Amy and I

Gherard again...

After we got back to Cotahuasi town we went on a litle walk to find a lake that some people had told us about. When we eventually got there it has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I think it was the fact that it was so absolutely dead silent - all you could hear was the water, the birds and a far away rush of a canyon waterfall somewhere. Amazingly beautiful place.

Lake Titicaca

From Arequipa we went to Puno, on the edge of the world's highest lake - Lake Titicaca. We took a day trip to visit the lake, the Uros islands and Taquile Island. So the lake itself is so so beautiful and bright and blue and it's so sunny and gorgeous! When we got to the Uros islands it was so weird, they are so strange but so fascinating. They're made completely out of reeds that grow in the lake and they somehow float on top of the water. Each island is absolutely tiny and a small community lives on each one - everyone just walks about in bare feet on the reeds underneath them and there were adorable little kids in traditional dress, even the tiniest ones. Amy was even made to try on the traditional dress, it was hilarious, the woman just kind of came up to her and started dressing her up. So she got the full lot: a little waistcoat, massive yellow skirt, a bowler's hat and hair in pigtails with pom poms tied onto them!

Amy and I on Lake Titicaca

Uros Island

Amy in her traditional gear!

Local guy demonstrating how the islands are built

Uros Islands

After the Uros Islands we went to Taquile Island which is so so beautiful, and a "normal" island instead of the floating Uros! It's so interesting because they have their own Taquile people who don't tend to marry outside of the island and so their culture and traditions have been really well preserved. For example, the type of skirts that the women wear tell you whether or not they are married: brightly coloured skirts are for the single women and married women wear darker colours. The men, too, wear different coloured hats to show their marital status - red hats with a white tip (meaning purity) are for single men whereas fully red ones are for married men. Children wear red hats with a brown tip - meaning fertility and Pachamama (Mother Earth). Taquile's chiefs even wear multi-coloured hats which are really cool haha.

Amy and I on Taquile Island

Taquile Island

Lake Titicaca is split across the border between Peru and Bolivia, so after seeing it from the Peruvian side we crossed the border into Copacabana on the Bolivian side. From there we went to see Isla del Sol (Island of the sun) which was also really pretty.

On Isla del Sol