What a hectic 3 weeks we have had. I write from Bogotá, the trendy, exciting and wonderful capital of Colombia. We're mainly spending today resting after I hurt my shoulder quite badly when I fell off a bike in the wet yesterday, which will be a surprise to nobody. I hope that no long-term damage has been done and we move on to Villa de Leyva tomorrow. Colombians have treated us very kindly so far. They really do love football here - everyone seems to be wearing a Colombia national team shirt - even the customs officials at Bogotá airport were wearing them. They are quite rightly very proud of their team's performances during the World Cup and thousands of people were at Bogotá airport a couple of days ago to greet the returning heroes. Colombia were already out of the tournament by the time we arrived, but we did watch their game against Ivory Coast in a bar in Lima that was full of Colombians, which was tremendous fun.
Yesterday, we took in a cycle tour of the city, which despite my injuries, was extremely enjoyable. We tried several exotic fruits at the market, as well as seeing some excellent street art, the bull-fighting arena (which, thankfully, has not been used for a few years) and several important historical and cultural sites. We even had time to stop for a hot drink at a coffee factory. Nic and I then went to a wonderful free art gallery, which mainly focused on the Colombian artist Botero, who does really interesting paintings and sculptures, mainly of fat people and animals. His fat Mona Lisa is brilliant.
Bogotá has a lot of really good street art and many cool bars. It's a thriving, young and dynamic city. There's a big hill just outside the city, which offers excellent views. Nic and I walked up to the top on Sunday, which was extremely difficult, especially as it was very busy as Sunday is the day that many locals do the same thing to visit the church at the summit.
Before Colombia, there was Perú. We flew to Lima, where we stayed on the Pacific coast for two nights. It was pleasant enough, although we did not venture into the centre of Lima. We moved on to the little desert paradise of Huacachina, which is a tiny, touristy village around a lake in the middle of the desert. While there, we took a buggy ride onto the huge dune system which stretches for hundreds of miles all around Huacachina. The buggy ride was scary (I'm the type of wimp who doesn't like roller coasters) and when it felt like the buggy was about to flip right over and our feet left the floor, I did get a little nervous. I'd recommend it though, it's fun. We then proceeded to fly down these huge dunes on what were essentially snowboards.
The Salkantay trek starts in Cusco, with the intention of reaching Machu Picchu 5 days later. It is suggested that we arrive in Cusco a couple of days early in order to get used to operating at high altitude. We gave ourselves 4 days and I'm not sure if it was enough. When we arrived, walking up simple steps felt like the height of physical endurance. A few steps left me out of breath with my heart pumping like crazy. Every day helped a little, but it did not truly prepare me for what was to come.
Cusco itself is a beautiful little city, which we were sad to leave. Built high in the mountains, it was the capital of the Incan empire. Sadly, the Spanish destroyed most of the evidence of this, but a few pieces remain. Every day we were there seemed to also have a different colourful, exciting and noisy Catholic festival.
Our trek was made up of tough, long days. We typically woke up at about 4 am (although sometimes earlier) for breakfast. Trekking uphill at already great altitude was physically the most difficult thing I've ever done and I really struggled to breathe in places and at one point our guide made me do a small section of the steepest gradient on horseback (poor horse!). The guides were excellent and helped massively. The whole set up was superb - the food was ridiculously good by any standards, but when you consider that it was usually prepared in a tent in the middle of the Andes, it seems miraculous. I can only say positive things about our tour company, Llama Path.
Of course, the hardships were totally worth it for the stunning scenery during the trek alone. The Andean hillsides were truly breathtakingly beautiful.
As for the main event, I'm happy to say that we made it! There's not much I can say or show you that will even begin to do justice to the majesty of Machu Picchu. Upon arrival, it was almost completely covered by mist and we were concerned that we might not even be able to see the whole site. As the mist lifted and Machu Picchu slowly revealed itself to us, we were astonished by its beauty. It really is stunning, even more than we had expected it to be.
We did, of course, also go to New York, which feels like it was a long time ago now. New York was brilliant; we hired bikes and rode over the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan and Central Park, we went to the top of the Rockefeller centre and we took the Staten Island ferry and watched a game of baseball. The undoubted highlight, however, was Nic falling backwards on a subway train whilst wearing her heavy backpack and being unable to get up again, her limbs flailing around like a beetle that had flipped over. Hilarious.
That's enough for now, I think. I'll leave you with some more photos. I'll try and write again soon.
Love,
H and Nic xxx
Bogotá has a lot of really good street art and many cool bars. It's a thriving, young and dynamic city. There's a big hill just outside the city, which offers excellent views. Nic and I walked up to the top on Sunday, which was extremely difficult, especially as it was very busy as Sunday is the day that many locals do the same thing to visit the church at the summit.
Before Colombia, there was Perú. We flew to Lima, where we stayed on the Pacific coast for two nights. It was pleasant enough, although we did not venture into the centre of Lima. We moved on to the little desert paradise of Huacachina, which is a tiny, touristy village around a lake in the middle of the desert. While there, we took a buggy ride onto the huge dune system which stretches for hundreds of miles all around Huacachina. The buggy ride was scary (I'm the type of wimp who doesn't like roller coasters) and when it felt like the buggy was about to flip right over and our feet left the floor, I did get a little nervous. I'd recommend it though, it's fun. We then proceeded to fly down these huge dunes on what were essentially snowboards.
The Salkantay trek starts in Cusco, with the intention of reaching Machu Picchu 5 days later. It is suggested that we arrive in Cusco a couple of days early in order to get used to operating at high altitude. We gave ourselves 4 days and I'm not sure if it was enough. When we arrived, walking up simple steps felt like the height of physical endurance. A few steps left me out of breath with my heart pumping like crazy. Every day helped a little, but it did not truly prepare me for what was to come.
Cusco itself is a beautiful little city, which we were sad to leave. Built high in the mountains, it was the capital of the Incan empire. Sadly, the Spanish destroyed most of the evidence of this, but a few pieces remain. Every day we were there seemed to also have a different colourful, exciting and noisy Catholic festival.
Our trek was made up of tough, long days. We typically woke up at about 4 am (although sometimes earlier) for breakfast. Trekking uphill at already great altitude was physically the most difficult thing I've ever done and I really struggled to breathe in places and at one point our guide made me do a small section of the steepest gradient on horseback (poor horse!). The guides were excellent and helped massively. The whole set up was superb - the food was ridiculously good by any standards, but when you consider that it was usually prepared in a tent in the middle of the Andes, it seems miraculous. I can only say positive things about our tour company, Llama Path.
Of course, the hardships were totally worth it for the stunning scenery during the trek alone. The Andean hillsides were truly breathtakingly beautiful.
As for the main event, I'm happy to say that we made it! There's not much I can say or show you that will even begin to do justice to the majesty of Machu Picchu. Upon arrival, it was almost completely covered by mist and we were concerned that we might not even be able to see the whole site. As the mist lifted and Machu Picchu slowly revealed itself to us, we were astonished by its beauty. It really is stunning, even more than we had expected it to be.
We did, of course, also go to New York, which feels like it was a long time ago now. New York was brilliant; we hired bikes and rode over the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan and Central Park, we went to the top of the Rockefeller centre and we took the Staten Island ferry and watched a game of baseball. The undoubted highlight, however, was Nic falling backwards on a subway train whilst wearing her heavy backpack and being unable to get up again, her limbs flailing around like a beetle that had flipped over. Hilarious.
That's enough for now, I think. I'll leave you with some more photos. I'll try and write again soon.
Love,
H and Nic xxx
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