Travel lessons from a gelateria

I´ve never been great at making choices. Faced with too many possibilities I'm easily overwhelmed into indecision. Like the gelateria in Rome I went to once that prided itself on having 100 flavours of icecream. I was a total wreck- how to choose between so many delicious possibilities?

South America has sometimes felt like that gelateria. Often I find myself faced with so many enticing options that deciding on where to go next can be quite the dilemma. Cuzco was one of the most difficult crossroads as I was forced to finally decide: North vs South, Equatorial sun vs the wilds of Patagonia. In the end, the lure of the southernmost point in the world won out, and I found myself en route to Arequipa, my last stop in Peru where another of South America's '-est' attractions awaited.

Whether it be the biggest, longest, highest, driest, most dangerous (est) etc, everything in South America seems to have an ´-est´ attached to it. In Arequipa, it´s the deepest. The deepest Canyon in the World: Colca Canyon. Such is the size of Colca that looking into it from the top, the whole view (top to bottom) didn't even fit on the screen of my digi camera! After soothing our tired feet in the cooling river at the bottom of the canyon, we arrived in what seemed like a little slice of paradise after a long trek. The little town we came to was surrounded by fertile fields sown with all number of crops and groves of fruit trees. In quaint stone walled paddocks donkeys were mulling over juicy grass as we walked along Inkan canals to the little straw rooved huts in which we would spend the night. Sitting on the grass watching the sun set over the canyon could only have been better with a fresh gin and tonic in hand!

Though idillic in setting, life in the canyon is by no means easy. Alcoholism is high and consequently male machismo often turns to violence, of which wives are usually the primary victims. A stop to the local medical centre brought the problem to life. The centre serves a dozen towns within the canyon, but as access to all of these can only be by foot or donkey, there is nothing speedy about medical treatment. The most distant town takes 1 and a half days to reach by foot, a round trip of 3 days for anyone requiring medical attention.

Prior to the centre having an oven for sterilization, the story was recounted of a woman waiting patiently for sterilized equipment to be returned from hours away, while her severed finger hung from her hand. Risks in childbirth too become a problem when women fail to make the journey to attend regular check ups throughout their pregnancies given the distance and the time out of their duties required to make the appointments, resulting in many preventable deaths of mothers, babies or both. These are some of the poorest people in Peru, but also some of the loveliest. And though medical provisions are vastly lacking, the saving grace is the fertile lands mean that no one here goes hungry and tradition medicines can often be employed to treat some ailments.

So after an educational trek and a lazy afternoon lounging in swimming pools at the canyon's oasis, it was time to walk back up that horribly steep hillside with its four hours of torcherously steep switchbacks-well, if you're a sucker for punishment that is... The smart ones? The smart ones ride a mule! So we saddled up our noble steeds and let them do the work, as their master trotted along behind on foot with unbelievable fitness for his age encouraging his charges along with shouts of mules, mules, vamos! (let's go!) the entire way. I think Juan was more concerned for the welfare of his mules after carrying the guys with their heavier weights and packs, because for him the climb was "no problemo", and even after the 2 hr steady climb he'd barely raised a sweat!

And with that came the end of my time in Peru, where I felt like I got back to Pachamama (mother earth) with some fantastic outdoor experiences and incredibly beautiful natural wonders. But even though I'd decided to leave Peru from Arequipa, I found myself again with that 100-flavours feeling of indecision and as I boarded my bus into Chile, I still hadn't decided where exactly I was going to stop. San Pedro? Arica? La Serena? Valparaiso? Chocolate? Hazlenut? Berry? Lemon? When it comes down to it, you can't really go wrong no matter what you choose. In South American terms, sacrificing one amazing site is only going to be rewarded with another spectacular experience so typical of almost every option available to you on this crazy/beautiful continent, and so you can never lose by deciding on a last minute whim the location of your next journey. All it depends on is time, money, and how many hours at a time you can stand sitting in a bus...

So until next time chicos, keep well and stay tuned for Chile!

Machu Picchu

The traditional Inka trail trek is so popular that you have to book a place several months in advance if you plan to do it. I didn't, so an alternative was always on the cards. I wasn't much up for gasping my way through thin air and days of leg burning hikes, so signed up instead for a different tour called 'Inka Jungle' which offered a bit more variation and a bit less exertion {well, supposedly}.

Though terribly disorganised the activities we did actually do were all fantastic, starting with a bike ride where we desended about 1500m from freezing altitude to warm jungle, the air temperature noticibly increasing with every turn on the 2 hour down hill ride to the town of Santa Maria. Although La Paz has the "world's most dangerous road", I think this could have come in a close second. The bends were sharp, the passing trucks were large, the road was narrow, and the drop off the side unthinkable. More scary than the bike ride though was the taxi journey between Santa Maria and Santa Theresa afterwards, where we were destined to spend the afternoon soaking in some hot springs. Well I'm glad we made it as our driver zoomed along a windy dirt road twisting and turning with no apparent need to use the brakes. I think he was entirely reliant on others hearing his tooting at every bend and giving way, because he certainly favoured the horn!!

By the time we got to the hot springs we definitely needed to wind down, and so spent an hour or so lying in what felt like a large warm bath under the stars watching the bats zoom by overhead. Bliss! After celebrating a birthday on the tour with some Peruvian pisco sours {pisco, lime juice, ice, sugar and egg whites. mmm.}, the next day we walked along the train line to the town of Aguas Callientes, the jumping off point to Machu Picchu. A tough climb up steep steps and long wooden ladders gave us a fantastic overview of the entire Machu Picchu site in the afternoon that not many seem to take in, and built the anticipation some more for getting there the next day (and the dread at the hundreds of steps you could see cut into the hill to get there).

At 4 in the morning as we began the first of what felt like a million of those steps leading up to Machu Picchu, I was well and truly looking forward to meeting the place in person. It really does feel a bit mystical as you get there {despite the hoards of tourists you're competing with}. As the mist finally rose and the city came into view, surrounded by towering peaks you've gotta wonder what possessed them to build a massive stone city in such a place. We joked that the architects and builders must've been begging the king to reconsider "seriously your highness, building up mountains is so BC". But royalty always gets its way, and I feel for the messengers who used to have to run, repeat run, between Machu Picchu and Cuzco daily {about a 3hr-ish drive} getting energy only from Coca leaves! But the exhaustion of the climb for us mere mortals is worth it because the city the Inka's left behind I found to be truly worthy of the hype that surrounds it, and was one of the most amazing things so far!

Though sad to leave Cuzco, of course more fun awaited in the South. The worst thing is always having to say goodbye to the great people you meet along the way. But on to Arequipa, the deepest canyon in the world, and a little touch of paradise...

Chau chau amigos xox

Proxima para; Peru

From one side of Lake Titicaca to the other, from Copacabana I crossed into Peru to the nothing-to-write-home-about town of Puno. Of more interest here than the town itself are the unique and unbelievable floating islands, still inhabitated by what looks to be the final generation of the Quecha speaking fisherman culture, now entirely reliant on tourism to survive. A trip to the islands is worth the feeling of exploitation however, just to see with your own eyes that the impossible sounding engineering actually works-everything in the village, even the 'land' upon which it's built is artfully constructed using the reeds at Lake Titicaca. But you wouldn't want to be in a hurry for the toilet, which is on a separate island a 10 minute boat trip away!!

The feeling of exploitation continued a little when a guy at the bus station messed me around with my bus to Cuzco, resulting in me paying money for services I didn't actually get (we were meant to stop at some interesting places along the way but my new ticket didn't include the entry costs because he switched my voucher for a ticket on his company instead of the one I booked!!). But it's funny how things work out, and I ended up meeting an Aussie girl who I spent the next week or so with in Cuzco where we had such a blast!! There are some places that attract hoards of backpackers and Cuzco +Loki hostel is definitely one of them! On a hill overlooking the beautiful city of Cuzco with it's Inka walls and terracotta rooves, the puffing climb up the hill to Loki was well worth it, and after about a week there I found myself seriously tempted to take up their offer requesting workers. I don't know if it was the people, the place or a maybe a bit of both but it was a really fun week-- not to mention the activities around Cuzco outside bar-hours!

From Cuzco stretches the Sacred Valley, right up to the pinnacle of Inka ruins-Machu Picchu of course. But before seeing the main event, it's nice to take in some of the lesser known places such as Sachsaywaman {'sexy woman' to the tourists!} and the churches around Cuzco which were built by the Spanish on sacred Inkan sites, but still contain elements of the Inkan constructions and beliefs cleverly incorporated by the slaves the Spanish used for their construction. But wandering around looking at ruins can get a bit dull after a while, so for a different view I decided to take to the air and signed up for paragliding with Linda. Let me tell you, I don't think there is a better way to see the Sacred Valley than sitting up there taking in the view of snow capped peaks rooted in a lush green valley dotted with towns and surrounded by ruins of ancient times past. It was totally chevre {cool}!!

So the anticipation was building to see Machu Picchu, and the talk at the hostel is all about "have you been? When are you going? What trek are you taking?". So it was time to get going, and the next day we were picked up at 7 to start the journey to the most impressive Inkan ruins around....