Amazon!

Pampas...............

Pampas - the rivers and flooded grasslands

The one thing I knew I wanted to do from La Paz was travel to a town called Rurrenebaque and visit the jungle. I met couple of guys (Paul & Mark) in the hostel who were planning on doing the same thing and I decided to join them on the trip. We decided on 3 days in the pampas (a tour of the areas along and around the river) and 2 in the yungas (jungle). The trip to Rurrenabaque involves either a 40 minute flight by plane or a hellish 20 hour bus ride along dirt roads, we decided on the plane. Rurrenabaque is a small town next to a Rio Beni that is a tributory to the Amazon. This was our base of operations and from where we would head into Madidi National Park. We were heading in to the Amazon during the wet season which meant the rivers were increasing in height and very fast flowing. Apparently the height of the rivers can climb by 7m from dry to wet seasons.

After an overnight stay in Rurrenabaque we were ready to head in to the pampas. There were meant to be two other people joining us on the trip but due to the fact the bus had not arrived on time it was just going to be the three of us with a guide! We were picked up by a 4x4 which took us on a 3 hour trip along a straight road which cut through the jungle and led to another river. We met our guide and boarded a long, thin motor boat to begin the journey to our lodgings. The boat trip was really amazing. The river had swelled and we were travelling next to submerged bushes and trees. The river is also the place to see wildlife and we saw plenty of it. Turtles, caman, aligators, taipers, monkey´s and lots of types of birds were all along the way. The weather was great and we could just sit back in the boat and take everything in. Camen are the biggest predators in the waters and can kill an Aligator. Seven years ago one stupid tourist took a swim in the river at night and got eaten by one.
The less pleasant thing about the pampas is the amount of mosquitos that swamp you as soon as you stop moving. They don´t like bright coloured clothing so I was fine with yellow and white long sleeved shirts but they have a thing about dark colours so my trousers were very attractive. They didn´t appear to be able to get through the material but I found out I wasn´t so lucky when I spent some time in a netted hammock.


Monkeys on board!


Camen

We were welcomed to the lodge with the site of a Camen hanging around in the water outside of it. It appeared to stay there every day in wait for the scraps of food which are thrown out after a meal. Our lodge consisted of several huts on struts with a newtwork of walkways connecting them. Lucky this meant there was no way of waking up to find a Caman in your bed. Another one hung around the marshy area at the back of the camp. Our guide went up to it and threw it a piece of meat which it promptly wolfed down. He then went up to it and touched it on the head! We were all able to do this as well but I decided to keep a little more distance!


Paul and the resident Camen

In the evening of the first day we ventured out in boat to hunt for Aligator and Caymen eyes. We motored along the river searching for the shining red eyes in the night. We had a perfectly clear night and the stars were out. Our guide turned the motor off and we drifted along the river staring up in to the night sky with the sounds of the pampas surrounding us, it was pretty magical.


Night eyes

On the second day we were taken to hunt for Anacondas in the marshy area further along the river. No one had seen one for a long time and they had probably left with the advancing of the river. Normally you are also able to fish for piranhas but they only live in shallow waters and these no longer existed where we were. After a fruitless but interesting search we returning to the boats when in the path in front of me I saw a long grey snake. As I shouted 'hey guys I found something' the snake turned around and struck out at me, fangs out! I danced backwards, arms in the air, shouting expletives as it lunged four times. The thing then disappeared in to the undergrowth and the guides started poking around for it. We heard it rattling and it was then we realised that it was a Rattlesnake!

After lunch we went back out on the river to go swimming with dolphins. We stopped the boat near an inlet in the river and we saw the tops of a couple of dolphins heads in the water ahead. Apparently it is safe to get in the water when dolphins are around as it means there are no aligators or caman. I jumped in the brown water in pursuit of the dolphins but sadly they kept there distance and were always a little ahead. We got back in to the boat and waited around. The dolphins came closer and we were treated to the site of a young pink dolphin relaxing in the water.


The river & dolphin head

In the evening we took the boat to a place further upstream where there was a small shop and a football pitch. We stayed there and had some beers as we watched the sun set across the beautiful pampas.


A pampas sunset

On the third day we didn´t do a lot as it was raining in the morning. Later on we were excitedly called by the guides to the dining hut. They pointed in to a tree and when we looked up we could see a Toucan between the branches. This is apparently pretty rare so it was a great end to the trip. After a boat trip and 4x4 drive we were back in Rurrenebaque and ready for the next adventure....


Jungle..................

Jungle - the dense and impeneterable tropical rainforest

From Rurrenebaque we took a boat upstream up the large and fast flowing Rio Beni. After fighting the current for 3 or 4 hours we made it to our lodgings in a clearing surrounded by jungle. After some lunch we ventured out for out first trip in to the jungle. Luckily there are not as many moskitos in the jungle as there are in the pampas but it is very humid and sweaty. You do not really see any animals or birds but you can hear them all around, and, when you look up you can only see a canopy of trees. We did see some crazy sized ants though! Our guide was really knowledgable and he showed us all the different types to trees and the special qualities and uses for each of them. He was the real deal, he grew up in the jungle, is able to drink the water from the river and armed with a bandana and machete he could easily live there. Sometimes he would stop and listen and he picked out the sound of wild pigs. We were on the hunt for them and could hear there noises close by. When we got close they made a huge racket and charged off in to the undergrowth.


Jungle boat

In the evening we had the chance to go on a night trek in to the jungle, this was really cool! Armed with head lamps we headed out in to the pitch black in search of insects. Through the undergrowth we could make out the occasional small flash of an eye in the light of a lamp. We found frogs, giant crickets, spiders including a tarantula, a mouse and lots of other wierd things!


Coca cheeks! Left Matt & left of me our guide


Tarantula

On the second day we went for a much longer trek in to the rainforest. We macheted are way down long abandoned paths, over fallen trees and giant leaves. We picked up the noise of the pigs once more and were on the hunt. Although we couldn´t see them all there must have been hundreds of them, and when we suprised they tore there way through the vegetation. Our journey took us over streams which we needed to cross using fallen down tree trunks. We came across one stream that didn´t have any so we just macheted a tree down! It was a lot of fun.


Me, Matt & Paul next to a GIANT tree

It was an incredible experience but after five days of sweat, humidity, tiredness, moskitos and wearing the same clothes we were more than ready to head back to civilisation.

The Inca Trail & Machu Picchu

What can I say about the Inca Trail, well it was a LOT of fun! The Inca Trail is the original route the Incas used to reach Machu Picchu. A bus came to pick us up from our hostels at 5am before being taken to Ollyantytambo for breakfast. Importantly we needed to purchase the vital provisions of coca leaves, charcoal and walking sticks here as well.


The route...

We got to the start of the trek with 15 tourists, 2 guides, 1 cook and 20 porters, yes that's 20 porters! Regulations mean that porters can only carry 25kg on their back as apposed to 60kg they were sometimes being made to carry previously. Those these guys were pros and they carried everything from the tents we slept in to the food, kitchen equipment and seats. Occasionally on the trail you would hear the shout of 'Porters' and you had to move to the side of the path as they shot by to set up for the next stop.


At the beginning of the trail

Day 1 was a series of undulating walks to reach the first campsite. The walking was not tricky or too tiring so it was a fairly easy day. The weather was a mixture of cloud, sun and rain which is what it would be like for the whole of the trek. Around 2pm we reached our lunch break and we were immediately struck by the food we were passing down the table. The food was the tastiest and best presented that I ever had in Peru and this was a trek! We were treated to the most amazing food for the rest of the trek. Around 4.30 we reached the first campsite. There is a football pitch at the first campsite and we were challenged a game of football by another group of travelers to which we lost sadly. Playing football at 3000m asl is kinda tiring!


How is a souped up Avacado as a starter for you?

Day 2 - we were told that this would be the longest and hardest day as we were climbing 1200m up to 'Dead Woman's Pass' before descending another 1000m to the next campsite. Breakfast was served at 6.30pm and we were on our way by 7am. To help us on day two we had Coca. Simply get a bunch of leaves in your hand, add some coal to the middle as a catalyst, fold up the leaves, put them in one side of your mouth, chew and wait for your mouth to go numb. Coca leaves are COMPLETELY different to cocaine and act as a mild stimulant and help with altitude sickness. They are an integral part of the indigenous culture in Peru, Bolivia and other countries in South America.


Coca

The walk was very impressive, we were climbing paths next to a fast flowing river with semi jungle vegetation around us. This eventually opened up to a path between mountains towards the Dead Woman's Pass at the highest point of the trek. Before this we were treated to a second breakfast (awesome) and a chance to refuel on Coca. The trek was a lot of fun and I found I was able to walk ahead of everyone and make it to the top first. On the way to the top our guide Freddy asked us to take a stone up with us to give to Pacha Mama (Mother Earth) as an offering at the top. Once everyone had arrived we had a ceremony to Pacha Mama in which we gave Pacha Mama the stones, coca leaves and rum to give thanks and for good luck! We also enjoyed a couple of shots of rum before heading down the other side of the pass.


On top of Dead Woman's Pass, like the masks?

On the way down I had a great conversation with my tent mate who as it turns out was a Green Berret (elite US special forces) who saw service in Kosovo and Somalia, trained Colombian forces to fight the Farc in the jungles, and now works as an organiser of security for high profile government personel in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh he also reports directly to the US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, does the occasional 100 mile run and is one of the nicest guys you could meet!

Day 3 - we had another 7am start. The day was not meant to be as difficult as the last but we had a lot of descending to do which takes its toll on the knees. Each day along the walk we would stop to see a lot of Inca ruins which are dotted along the path to Machu Picchu. Some of these were terraces for growing crops, others Tambo's which were living quarters for people to stay in along the trail and others were larger and watch towers as well.


A Tambo

I really felt it on the third day as I had not had a lot of sleep the night before and you really feel your knees shaking. We could look forward to a shot shower upon arrival at the third campsite though (yes this is a trek)!


The route down

The night was also a time to say farewell to the porters and thank them for their work. Geoff as the eldest member of the group was asked to write a speach and it was a nice send off. Shoepikey Wikey means thank you friend in Quechua and this is what we shouted out to them. It was an early night for us as the next say involved a very early start to get to Machu Picchu.


The porter crew

Day 4 - we were woken at 3.30am to pack up and eat. We needed to be one of the first groups to get through the gates of the campsite when they opened at 5.30am. We made it to be the second group. There was some confusion as the doors did not open as planned at 5.30am. The gate keeper got wasted the night before and turned up 15 minutes late prompting anger from the guides. We were surrounded in cloud but when the gates opened our group stormed through at a fast pace to in order to get to the Sun Gate and the path down to Machu Picchu. It was very lucky we did this as whilst hurrying along the path we heard the sound of what sounded like an explosion above us. From behind us the guides shouted at us to 'RUN'. We did not know what happened at the time but a landslide had crashed down the slopes behind us blocking the route for every group behind. Luckily no one was hurt but all the other groups would take 3 or 4 hours longer to reach Machu Picchu. We made it to Machu Picchu around 7am with site still partially shrouded in cloud. Most of us were also wearing the 'I survived the Inca Trail' t-shirts which were more truthful now than we had thought they ever would be! Machu Picchu may only be roughly 500 years old but the site is still amazing. It was principally built as a site of worship to the Sun, which, the Inca's revered as a god and the giver of life.


The obligatory Machu Picchu 'I was there' photo

The most impressive area of the site is the Sun Temple which has walls built of amazing smoothness and precision. There are windows in the sun temple that on the Summer and Winter Solstices precisely align with the sun to capture the first rays of sun above the mountains.


The Sun Temple

Machu Picchu was only full at these times of year when the Inca king and priests would arrive and young girls would be sacrificed to the gods. The site was also never fully completed and its paths were hidden by the final Inca King when the Spanish arrived so it would not be found. It was an amazing achievement to build and its importance lies with the fact that it represents one of the final achievements of pre Columbian (pre Spanish) culture before the Spanish arrived. It was an amazing experience to have seen Machu Picchu and gone on the Inca Trail. Altough it does all feel a little over commercialised now with the amount of people who visit it is definately an experience I will keep with me for my life.