Where's the Banos?

The trip to Banos was quite an experience; it started off with a three hour taxi ride from Montanita to Guayaquil, followed by a seven hour bus and finally after approximately 30 minutes of trying to hitch-hike and an argument between four taxi drivers we finally arrived in Banos at about 1am.

The rather strange travel arrangements were due to the fact that our friend Shawn had booked us in for whitewater rafting the following day.

Heading down to the river all kitted out

Our boat was supported by a kayaker who took plenty of photos throughout the day (probably too many), so I will just include a couple...

Calm Waters

Powering through the rapids

Overall the day of rafting was great fun and a good introduction to the adventure activities that lay ahead in Banos. After such a tough day we decided to head off to the hot springs to heal our tired bodies. The hottest of the springs was 45*C which the locals seemed to rather enjoy however for most of the gringos it was far too hot!!

The following day we woke up a bit later and decided that some puenting (bridge swing) was in order. We headed off to San Francisco bridge where we were greeted by a tiny platform over the other side of the fence that we were told would be the launching point for the jump (the scariest part was climbing onto the platform without falling off)

Slowly edging forward



Holding on for dear life



The Survivors

After the stress of the swing, Ben and I headed off for a massage. Upon arrival we discovered that for the same price we could get a facial massage and facial included so we figured "why not?". The massage was quite good although I'm not sure that the facial did much to help my cause!

Continuing on with the activity trend on Wednesday we decided to hire a buggy and go and check out some waterfalls about an hour from town.

Ready to hit the road

Behind The Devil's Waterfall

Another waterfall

Holding up the rainbow

Continuing my bad luck of hiring anything with wheels, flat tyre on the quadbike and a broken bike on death road, the buggy managed to break down just as we started to head home. After 90 minutes wait we were told that no-one would be coming to help us and we would have to make our own way home. Fortunately some others from the hostel allowed us to squeeze into their jeep and we managed to get back safely; I think I might stay clear of hiring anything for a while...

On Thursday morning we tried to find another activity to do for the day however nothing appealed to us so we spent most of the day lounging around. Ben and I decided that it was time for another massage, little did we know that this would provide us with a life-changing travel experience; a pedicure! At this stage I would like to justify this and say that similar to the facial it was included however this is not true and we both paid an extra $5 to have our feet washed and nails clipped...I'm completely hooked and cannot wait for my next one.

Such beautiful feet!!

At this point it was time to say goodbye to Ben and Shawn who were both heading back south. I had a thoroughly enjoyable few weeks and will catch up with them both in the near future! Tyler and I then headed to Cotopaxi to trek someway up the volcano but I'll include information about this in my next post.

Cusco & The Sacred Valley: No Wonder It's Famous

Sorry for the delay in writing this however the internet in Peru left much to be desired and I have made a couple of quick stops along the way leaving little opportunity to delve into my time in Cusco.


Plaza De Armas



We arrived in Cusco on Thursday night due to the fact that we needed to use Friday to buy a few things for our four day trek. As the weather wasn't meant to be too good I invested in some wet weather gear and apart from that, snacks for the journey and a sleeping bag as I didn't bring one with me on the trip. I will also take this opportunity to point out that my Dad decided to hire a walking stick which was rather embarrassing.

We headed off at 5am on Saturday morning to meet our guide, porters and trekking group (not quite the demographic of people I was expecting)

The Group

Being a typical tourist I decided to get my passport stamped at the start of the trek and head off from Km 82 on the 45km trek to Machu Picchu.

The First Inca Site

Overall the first day of trekking was relatively uneventful apart from the fact that a few of the group members were rather unprepared for the trekking that lay ahead (two were unable to carry their daypacks the whole way meaning I had to help them for the last two hours). As exciting as this sounds the fun with the group really started at dinner when the conversation moved onto hygiene and the general health of the 11 others who had been travelling together for a few weeks prior to the trek. It turned out that only one was yet to get sick and the rest were still heavily popping pills, refusing to eat without using hand sanitiser and discussing their daily bowel movements over dinner; not quite what I was expecting!

Night One

Breakfast on day two was merely a continuation of the conversation of dinner from the night before however apparently a couple of the group were feeling better and were well prepared for the toughest day of hiking that lay ahead!

Father and Son Leading the Way

Dead Woman's Pass

Walking Stick and Yellow Poncho...HOW EMBARRASSING!!

 Day two was much more uneventful than I was expecting, and whilst there was a lot of waiting around everyone managed to finish the day in the allocated time. Along the way we did manage to pass a few more rather impressive Inca sites however the weather meant that the photos were not as impressive as they could have been.

Day three started with a relatively relaxed wake up time of 6am as there was not as much ground to cover as the first two days. The first point of call was Cloudy Town which definitely lived up to its name; it was hard to see anything further than 10 metres. The weather gradually improved as the morning went on and we managed to see a number of impressive Inca sites along the way

On the way to Cloudy Town



Pretty Impressive

Not a bad view from our tent

Day four on the Inca Trail is a race from start to finish. The aim is to get up first, leave the campsite first, get to the checkpoint first and finally to be first at the sun gate and we failed at all of them! Fortunately we did manage to be the third group at the checkpoint which meant that I was able to get to the Sun Gate fourth. I did consider running the whole distance however due to the lack of sun I decided that it probably wouldn't be worth it

My First View of Machu Picchu

It didn't get much better...

Inca Ingenuity

The Postcard Shot

An Even Better Postcard

All in all the Inca Trail and particularly Machu Picchu was an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone. I booked the trip through Intrepid Travel and everything ran smoothly from start to finish; the guides were insightful and the food was absolutely incredible, almost every meal seemed to defy logic as to how it could be created with the facilities available. Following the Inca Trail we booked into a nice hotel (thanks Dad) which was a welcome change after weeks spent in hostels with shared bathrooms.

The Hotel

After a day of rest we headed back down to the Sacred Valley to gain a greater understanding of the Inca Empire. The day was interesting and further outlined the importance of the Sun along with the the three tiered system of the Snake, Puma and Condor.

We finished the day off with a Llama steak and Pisco Sour as it was our last meal together as my Dad was flying home the next morning. We had a great two weeks together but unfortunately some of us still pay the bills so I'll be seeing you at home in four months time! I hung around in Cusco for the weekend to meet up with Rolance, Callum and Alex.

After Cusco I flew up to Piura so as to avoid the 42 hour bus ride to Mancora. Sadly, I stayed at another Loki which had a nice setting but again the people failed to live up to expectations. I headed up to Montanita in Ecuador after Mancora for a night but again there was nothing to write home about so I won't bother boring you.

I am currently in Banos and have done a couple of activities over the past few days but I'll blog about those at a later date...hopefully it won't take me as long as it took to write this post!!

Copacana: Not Brazil But A Pretty Nice Hill!

We arrived in Copacabana on Monday afternoon after a $3, 3 hour bus ride from La Paz. We were the last on the minibus which meant that we were forced to sit up front next to the driver. I figured this wouldn't be a problem however the lack of space meant that every time the driver went to put the van in 5th gear he ended up stroking my left leg (this happened quite often due to his strong desire to remain in the highest gear possible and thus save petrol)

We checked into Las Olas, described in the Lonely Planet as a once in a lifetime experience and well worth the splurge; which was definitely the case as my Dad was paying!

Looking up to Las Olas



Of course I got the single bed

One of the better views I've had from my bedroom

The rest of Monday was spent lounging around planning our trip for the following day to the Isla Del Sol. We got down to the docks (shonky wooden jettys) at 8am on Tuesday morning for the trip to the Island which we were told would take 2 hours. Half way through my Dad pointed out that he could swim faster than the boat; a bit of an exaggeration on his behalf (arrogance), however not too far from the truth.

Upon arrival at the North end of the island we headed off to the Gold Museum; quite why it is called this I will never know due to the fact that there is not one piece of gold in it, I can only imagine it is called this due to the gold mine it is for the local community from misleadingly selling tourists tickets to enter!

Fortunately the tickets also enabled us to head further onto the island to look at some rocks (I would put a picture on here but it really isn't worth it, so I'll put a few others on instead

Two seriously good pieces of Ass

One of the more exciting rock formations

B-E-A-U-tiful

After checking out the wonders of the North side of the island we headed towards the South hoping to stumble across an Inca wonder...

Searching for greener pastures

Instead of Inca ruins we found an Inca rip-off; a ticket checkpoint in the middle of the Island where the only option is to buy the ticket and move on

At least we got a photo out of it

A rose amongst the thorns

When we did finally manage to reach the South side of the Island it seemed some people were so keen to leave that they decided to build a boat out of reeds

In all seriousness Isla Del Sol is well worth the visit; the views are incredible even if the Inca monuments are not that impressive. We did not stay overnight on the island however there was a large variety of hostels and I would consider doing this if I visit it again.

On Wednesday we decided to spend most of the day relaxing; although we did manage to head up to Cerro Calvario to check out the views.

Looking down on the town

Typical tourist

Copacabana itself was one of the most chilled out towns I have ever visited and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who was visiting Bolivia. Las Olas was simply incredible and well worth the investment, due to its popularity it is necessary to book in advance. I am currently in Cusco and heading off to walk the Inca Trail tomorrow morning so I will write about that when I get back next week. Unfortunately this means that I will miss Melbourne Cup; my hot pick is number 6 so make sure you put a bet on that little beauty (whoever it is). Anyway I'll just include a couple more of my photos from Lake Titicaca for the fun of it...

Sunset

Tough day at the office



 Unfortunately, that's it for this post, however I will aim to get another one done at some stage next week regarding the Inca Trail.

Enjoy your weekend and good luck on Tuesday!