Puno

Aside from the name, which I can't help but laugh at childishly, Puno's a good place to break up the trip to Bolivia. Sitting on the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca - the world's highest navigable lake, at 3,860m - there isn't a great deal to do here, but that was what the doctor ordered after a few post-trail fun nights in Cuzco.







You can take the bus here, and if I was being sensible with my money I'd have done that. But the train ride is said to be one of the world's finest so I had to see for myself. At $220 it had to be pretty good, and it was. The route snakes alongside the Huatanay river and up to, and across, the Andean plains as it heads south. It reminded me a lot of the Andean scenery when Ed and I left El Calafate to bus it towards Ushuaia.







You pass farming communities constantly, and one thing that was noticeable was that it was usually women, dressed up in the heavy traditional Quechua dress, working the fields. Now is harvest time, and you see piles of wheat in a wigwam shape, tied towards the top, standing like rows of sentries. Perhaps the way these piles point towards the sun is a hangover from the Incan sun worshipping days, but more likely it's not...



Kids run and wave as the train goes past, as no doubt they do every day. And no doubt they show the same unbridled enthusiasm every day that they did the first time. Which is great!





From the outside deck of the train you can sit back, put your feet up and watch it all roll by. They gave us a first class meal, and a "fashion show" for which read a couple of hot chicks were modelling scarves and gloves made from alpaca wool, which we were kindly invited to buy.



There was also some live Peruvian music but this was lost on me. I'm not the world's biggest fan of panpipe music, and Peru's the wrong place for me to be on that score. But all round, I got to see and absorb a lot more than I would have done through a bus window, and the food was amazing. Definitely worth it.









The main tourist attraction in Puno is a trip to Uros - the floating islands. The Uros people originally started constructing these raft islands, with their villages on, to prevent attacks by the Incas, which gives you an idea how long they've been there. The 42 islands are made from totora reeds, with straw huts sitting atop. They replace the reeds every 15 days, to stop the "ground" rotting.





Nearly everything is made from reeds. It's not all traditional, though - they also have solar panels and electrical goods like TVs. I didn't see a Playstation but you never know. They're chasing the tourist dollar now, big time. Every island has the usual array of stuff, bracelets etc, for sale, and they tried to have us believe, on one island, that they only get visited 3 times in a month. We saw 2 other trips that day, and I don't think they only take visitors one day in the month...





Apart from that I chilled out in Puno. I was supposed to go to Bolivia today, but there's been a national strike there for 2 days. I'm told this is something I will get used to in Bolivia - things taking an unpredictable amount of time. So the best bet is not to make any cast-iron plans. It is what it is, and I don't have any meetings to make on Monday morning....

Cuzco & Conquest

Bidding the islands a groggy farewell, I flew to Lima for a couple of quiet nights. Most travellers give Lima a bad rap but it seemed okay to me. It's a huge city and it's not easy to get around the sights, which may be why people complain, but I'd like to come back another time and spend a few days here.



Cuzco was a big change of climate and change of scene after a couple of weeks on the islands. Fortunately for me, the altitude didn't present any problems. They call Peru the Egypt of the Americas, and it's from Cuzco that most people set off to see the jewel in the Inca crown - Machu Picchu, of which more later.



Due to such an attraction, Cuzco's one of the most touristy places in South America. At the airport you have to run the gauntlet of tour agencies offering you this or that, and in town you're always running the gauntlet of women selling massages. (How this came to be such a massage mecca, I'm not sure). The city and its surroundings are beautiful and interesting, and Cuzco's enough fun, so it doesn't matter. And in any case, there's something stupid about a tourist complaining about a place being too touristy.



I took a bus 11km out of town to a site called Tambo Machay, which was small but in good shape and still boasted Incan plumbing with water flowing. Near to that was Puca Pucara, which wasn't remarkable. From there I walked back towards Cuzco, taking in another 2 ruins, one being the magnificent Saqsaywaman (pronounced similar to "sexy woman" in a thick Jamaican accent).



Although the Spanish burned most of the original site, the stones remain, and you can see how the Incas constructed their cities. The stones were enormous, some being as high and wide as 2 tall fatties, but fit together perfectly as the Incas cut them to fit without any bonding or cement. Imagine a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces, weighing up to several tonnes each (the heaviest is 120 tonnes) and you get the idea.



The Inca Empire and the Spanish Conquest

The Inca empire emerged from the 13th century and covered, at its peak, all of present day Peru and Bolivia, and the surrounding areas from Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. Most of these territories were captured and ruled by peaceful, pragmatic means. Cuzco was where the early tribe sprang from and it remained the heart and administrative centre throughout the empire. Quechua was the official language but, inevitably over such a large area, there were hundreds of dialects and variations. The word Inka itself means ruler or lord in Quechua, and referred to the ruling family. (The Spanish later transliterated it to Inca and used it to refer to all subjects of the empire rather than just the ruling class.)



All empires ultimately crumble - Egyptian, Ottoman, British and Spanish and all the rest, just as today's superpowers won't always be superpowers. The Incan empire came to an end with the Spanish Conquest in 1533, but had already been fraying at the seams. The Spanish had reached Inca territory in the late 1520s and reckoned they'd stumbled on a great and rich place to raid. By the time they returned in 1532 to conquer the Incas, the empire was already weakened due to a conflict between two ruling brothers, unrest in the territories, and smallpox. Within a year, much of the empire was under Spanish control. In 1533 they arrived in Cuzco and promptly smashed and burned the place up. Some original walls are still in place, the Spanish having incorporated them when constructing the new city.



True to form in their conquest of South America, the Spanish quickly set about destroying the traditions of the Incas. Many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed, including their sophisticated farming system. The Spaniards implemented mandatory public service which literally worked people to death. One member of each family was forced to work in the gold and silver mines, the foremost of which was the silver mine at Potosi in present day Bolivia. When a family member died, which would usually happen within a year or two, the family would be required to send a replacement. Smallpox, diptheria and measles largely finished the Inca empire off.



It's tragic that we lost the intelligence of the Incas, like the Egyptians before them. Their endeavour, techniques of mathematics, agriculture and construction make the skyscrapers in our cities today seem vulgar by comparison. We still can't figure out, with all our wonderful technology, how the Egyptians did some things. But history is littered with conquest, and oppression of the conquered. It's fitting that the empires which grow from such brutality and enslavement also seem to crumble under their own weight. Perhaps one of the most tragic aspects of the fall of the Inca empire is that its growth was largely peaceful, and could have served as an example that, even if you do believe that conquest and expansion is somehow good, violent means can be a last resort rather than the first. Then again, if you believe that conquest and expansion is somehow inherently good, maybe you're not a people person anyway.



The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

Not being sure if I would need time to adjust to the altitude, I'd arrived 3 days before starting the walk. I managed to take it easy for the first couple of nights but then met up with a friend from London and the drinks were flying. So although with a 5am start a few drinks were ill advised, I couldn't resist.



I'd booked the trip 2 months before, as I heard you need to book several weeks in advance. It used to be that you could just show up in Cuzco and find a late place, but not anymore, at least not with any agencies worth using. That being said, there are plenty of alternative treks to the Inca Trail and no doubt some of these are just as good if you're willing to do something different. I chose Peru Treks on the grounds that they put some of their profits back towards community projects, and they're said to treat their porters well. They treated this Porter well, for sure. I'd heard from people in Cuzco that the food was good with Peru Treks, too, and I wasn't disappointed.



There were 16 in the group, a mix of Aussies, Americans, Brits, Swedish, a German, and me. The trail only opened at the start of April, so the timing was lucky for us. Huge landslides in January wiped out part of the railway line between Cuzco and Agua Calientes (the nearest town to the site) leaving thousands stranded for several days. There was damage throughout the area, and it wasn't certain that the trail would be open again so soon. They always close the trail in February to give it some time to regenerate from the other 11 months of sweaty gringos walking it. This year it was closed in March, too.



We went by bus 2 hours east of Cuzco in the Sacred Valley of the Incas to Ollantaytambo for breakfast and to buy last minute provisions. I didn't bother with a walking stick on the Colombia trek and the downhills killed my knees on that, so I made sure to arm myself this time. From there the bus continued to KM82, at 2,600m the start of the trail and the end of the road.



It's stunning scenery from the start, as you're surrounded by mountains and steep, towering hillsides. We passed some terraces at a site called Llactapapa, which was once used as an agricultural station to supply Machu Picchu with maize, the staple crop. Onwards along the river and up a steady incline, we reached our first camp, at 3,100m, Wayllabamba.



There was a rough football area ("field" would be pushing it, without grass on 90% of the playing surface) so some of the group joined the porters and guides for a kickaround. There was something special about the setting, being so high up yet surrounded by still-higher peaks. This felt like the Peru I was hoping for. The first day was complete with us standing around the bar, which consisted of a bucket of beers on the ground. It was a fitting end to a hard first day.



The next day we were up at sunrise for breakfast in spectacular surroundings, before hitting the trail. We were shown how to chew coca leaves, with a little lump of charcoal to release the active ingredients in the leaves. It's hard to describe just how unpleasant the taste is, and I'm not sure how necessary it was for me seeing as I wasn't struggling with the altitude anyway, but when in Rome...

The first section was painless enough, up to 3,300m for a break. From there the going got a little harder, and it was another 1.5 hours to the next break point which, bearing in mind we'd been on an incline pretty much the whole way, was inexplicably only another 380m up. Most people consider the 2nd day to be the hardest, as the next section's a long, steep uphill to the highest point of the trail - Dead Woman's Pass, at 4,200m.



After the pass it was another 1.5 hours downhill to our 2nd camp. At 3,500m it was the highest place we would sleep, and definitely the coldest. We had a good introduction to the porters - all 19 of them - and the cooks, legends both. Most of the porters also work on farms, and leave the trail during harvest times. There was a wide range of ages among them, the youngest being 19 and the oldest a staggering 63. How anyone can stomp the trail with 25 kilos of camping gear, week in, week out, at that age, in rubber sandals, is beyond me. It was enough to hike with about 6kg in good boots at 33. It was difficult for them when the trail was closed for the extra month in March but Peru Treks went to their villages and gave donations to help see them through.



The mist rolling up the valley added some atmosphere to the location, cold as a witch's tit though it was. The guides treated us to some ghost stories after dinner. They were possibly the worst ghost stories I ever heard, such as Dead Woman's Pass being named after a woman who camped in the cold at the top years ago against locals' advice....and who wasn't there when they checked in the morning..... and they went further down and found her pale and...... not moving and...... went to get the police, who came to collect the body and discovered that....... she wasn't really dead.



Those who don't rate day 2 as the hardest say that day 3 is, as it's easily the longest. It starts with another climb past the Runkuracay ruins to another pass at 4,200m. The view from here is amazing and it's nice to know there are no more big uphills. We descended to another ruin at Sayacmarca, whose purpose wasn't known. After here the trail took us through spectacular cloudforest, with ferns and mosses that wouldn't look out of place on the south island of New Zealand. We made it to the final pass and again had amazing views of the surrounding valleys, with cloud and mist rolling in and out.



From here is the reason some say day 3 is the hardest - a long slog down over 1,000 Inca steps they call the Gringo Killer. Even with the walking pole it wasn't the easiest on the knees by the end, and it was a relief to make the last camp for a cold beer and a hot shower, expensive though they were. I guess they have a captive market. After 3 days of walking and having survived the Gringo Killer, there's a sense of achievement that can only be rewarded with a bottle of suds.



There wasn't much sleep on offer that night, partly because of the rain making a racket on the tent, partly because they got us up at 3:45 for breakfast. They have to get you up early so you can cover the 2 hours to the Sun Gate (leading to Machu Picchu) before the sun appears over the peaks to the east. It's hit and miss at Machu Picchu at that time of day, and with clouds coming in upon our arrival at the Sun Gate, we'd hit a "miss" day. Still, there was something special about sitting there on the terraces in the high cloud, in the eerie silence, having reached our destination.



We continued down to the main site and waited for the cloud to lift. Even with some cloud enveloping the site, there was a magical feel to the place, but when the clouds did lift it was magnificent.



The city was built around 1450, at the peak of the Inca empire, most archaeologists believe it was to be an estate for the Inca emperor. It was abandoned in 1572, although (fortunately) the Spanish never found it, and therefore never destroyed it like pretty much everywhere else in the empire. What a waste.



In 1983 this became a World Heritage site, and in 2007 a new Wonder of the World. The pictures explain better than I can...

More Galapagos

It was good to spend an extra week here and get more of a feeling about the islands and the islanders. I went with a friend from the boat trip to one of the populated islands - Isabela - for 3 nights. Its township is too small to boast paved roads and the pace of life would make Jamaica look like Johannesburg.

It's a beautiful little spot, but it's let down to some degree by the tour agencies chasing the tourist dollar with few or no scruples. We booked a snorkel trip on the 2nd day and the agency produced a picture chart showing us all the marine life we would likely see, including sharks. There's no doubt they knew very well that the water in that area is too warm for sharks now, and will be until June, so we were never going to see them. But they insisted on the lie, and they peddle the lie to anyone who goes in there asking about snorkelling.



We didn't book the trip on the basis of any sharks - we were after swimming with tropical fish, sea lions, turtles and penguins - but it's still a little disappointing to see the agencies (ours was not unique) behaving like that, even if you understand why.



(Back on the main island, Santa Cruz, a few days earlier, I'd hired a mask and snorkel one day and went to a great spot. A top tip I learned then: always test the mask and snorkel before you go too far from the hire place. Agencies will always insist that all their gear is good or top quality; they will often not be telling you the truth. This criticism doesn't extend to the agency I booked my boat trip through, who were excellent, and you get good and bad agencies wherever you go in the world so I guess Galapagos is no different to anywhere else in that respect.)



Maybe it's because this place is so magic that it seems disappointing to find that the agencies can be so cavalier about your experience, but as above why should they be any different here than anywhere else? Regardless, the wildlife is anything but disappointing, and when I find myself face to fin with a 3m Galapagos Shark, the snorkel equipment isn't the first thing on my mind.



I loved it here but it wouldn't do the islands justice to ignore the things that could be better - for their long term survival. I spoke to several people doing volunteer work on the islands, and they found that what they'd paid (a lot) to do here bears little or no resemblance to the work they are actually doing, almost without exception. Perhaps it would be a useful idea to have a central agency overseeing the various volunteer agencies to clamp down on the dodgy operators which seem to prevail. Seeing as most of those volunteer agencies seem to be based away from the islands they'd need to do it by way of some permitted agency system. Whatever, if you're considering doing volunteer work out here be very careful about the details, try to speak to someone who's volunteered here before to find out if what you're being sold stacks up against what is permitted, and use an agency that's been recommended to you by experience. Failing that, do a shitload of research, and be prepared for the possibility of still being mis-sold.

Education is available for children here, but from what I could tell most of them complete their education on the mainland, typically in Quito or Guayaquil. Most seem to return home here for love and work, which isn't a surprise given the quality of life here compared to the mainland. As born and bred locals are keen to tell you , the population on the 3 main populated islands, particularly Santa Cruz, has grown rapidly in recent years (and is now at around 30,000).



Bizarrely, the last 10 years have seen the population double by some estimates, but it was 12 years ago that the Ecuadorian government passed the Special Law for Galapagos, which prevents mainland Ecuadorians from having automatic rights of residence on the islands. They should theoretically only have the 90 days per year that the rest of us are entitled to. However, there are an estimated 5,000 (and growing) living on the islands below the radar, without proper papers.



It's not hard to see why they consider it worth the risk - even forgetting the natural beauty, wages are around 70% higher on the islands than the mainland and crime is virtually non existent, in stark contrast to the mainland. As so often in South America, the situation on paper (in this case the Special Law) differs sharply from the underlying reality. There has apparently been more of a crackdown of late, with 1,000 mainlanders expelled and another 2,000 normalised 18 months ago. But the ecological impact is mainly driven by the ever increasing tourism rather than by migration.



UNESCO reckons that if tourism continues to grow at this pace, there will be 400,000 annually in 10 years. That's a lot more boats and a lot more waste. I noticed on Isabela that the marine iguanas sunning themselves were more reticent than on other islands which see fewer visitors, and would sometimes retreat as you approached. On the other islands, they'd never do that, and sometimes ambled towards us to take a closer look. That must hide a deeper story. Here's hoping that the authorities find a way to properly control both tourist numbers and immigration to preserve the integrity of the islands. If the result of human activity expanding is that the possibility to get so close to the stunning wildlife is lost, then the whole rationale for the islands as a tourist destination is lost also, and everybody loses - man and beast, locals, mainlanders and foreigners.

I think a fairly reliable way of taking the pulse of a tropical island is how often you hear Bob Marley. Surprisingly for such a chilled out place, the Marley-O-Meter gives a low reading, but (like Colombia's Carib coast) the UB40 index is strong. Fine by me. The low Bob Count notwithstanding, the locals are relaxed and seem happy with their lot here. Given the number of undocumented residents, there is unemployment (a local cafe owner told me he placed an ad for help and saw 5 applicants within hours, none of whom had papers) but for now it's not visible beyond the usual smattering of Sunday drunks.



It's another surprise that accommodation (you can get a hotel room for $15-20) and food (you can get a set lunch for as little as $3) are so affordable here, although of course you can go top end and spend a shitload too, if you have the cash to burn. Bearing this in mind the islands are accessible even for travellers on a budget, although the return flight from the mainland's around $400 and there's no substitute for setting aside extra and doing (at least) a 4-5 day boat trip.



Aside from weighing up my sailing options for what wildlife to see, my hardest decision from day to day was whether to go snorkeling or surfing, so I guess it's fair to say this is one of the most beautiful and relaxed places I'll ever be lucky enough to visit. Now I'm around halfway through this trip. I've done the warm half, now I'm headed for the cold....