Wes & Claire's 2010 World Tour: 21 days in the Andes

Our 21 days in the Andes were spent on an Intrepid Group tour starting in Lima (the capital of Peru) and ending in La Paz (the capital of Bolvia). Having spent the last 6 months travelling on our own, this was the first group tour of the trip. Consequently, we had high hopes for what we thought the tour would be like - lots of young people, commradery, no fuss, everything organised for us, and lots of drinking. Well thats what we gathered from the brochure. Some of those things eventuated...but there really wasn't any point going on detox in the weeks leading up to the tour as it was not that kind of tour. Our guide was quite strict on not permitting us to drink alcohol at high altitudes, where we spent most of the trip. So strict was our guide that one day when we ordered a local alcoholic cocktail, he secretly pulled the waitress aside and told her not to add the alcohol! The Cheek!

The group consisted of only 6 other people, mostly Australians, four of whom were over 50. Not quite what we had anticipated but it turned out to be good fun despite this. We relished the fact that the accomodation, transport, transfers and day tours were all organised for the duration. We just had to sit back and enjoy - oh, and be at breakfast very early to start each day (which was a bit of a shock to our system). Despite being advertised as the "Original Tour Standard" (i.e for those on a modest budget), the accomodation standards far exceeded our level of accomodation to date, so we really soaked up the 3 star hotels with ensuites and flushing toilets - what a treat!

Our transport on the tour consisted of a variety of ordinary but comfortable public buses, private mini vans, plush public buses, taxis, trains, private boats, and even a tuk tuk style cyclist pushing us around. By far our favourite mode of transport was the overnight plush public bus. While most people cringe at the thought of spending 10 hours on an overnight bus (as most of our group did), Wes and I were very excited. This bus had almost fully reclinable wide seats, movies, wifi, and a HOSTESS who walked the aisle with her little trolley providing meals and drinks. It was Business Class on a bus, and we were almost too excited to sleep!

Lima, located by the pacific ocean, was covered in a misty haze. It wasn't a pretty city, with shanty towns perched on the surrounding hills, and a large degree of poverty evidenced by the beggars and shoeless children roaming the streets. But we were suprised that the centre of town and inner suburbs were quite modern. We saw all sorts of flash european cars and some rather nice houses which showed quite a divide between the rich and the poor. Lima was really just a starting point for us. A place where we could all get to know each other over dinner at the local shopping centre (quite an un-peruvian experience), and launch ourselves upwards into the Andes.

As we ventured deeper into the Andes we noticed that the people looked more and more Peruvian: They were smaller with darker features, and they wore more traditional clothing than those in the cities. The women wore wondefully coloured clothes full of bright pinks, greens and purples. The men were not as colourful clothing-wise but equally as traditional. It was normal for them to either not wear shoes, or wear very basic sandles, so their feet were incredibly coarse as most would treck for hours and hours on rough rocky surfaces as they went about their business in the mountains. All of the people we passed were so friendly.

We were surpised by the landscape of Peru. Who knew Peru had a desert?! The first couple of days we only saw desert - it was so baren. However, as we went further south the landscape became more like the Peru I had imagined with massive mountains, some snow, and even some Eycaluptus trees.

In Nazcar (famous for the Nazcar lines which are mysterious lines etched into the ground over many many kilometres of the desert seen only from the sky), the streets were dusty and the city was surrounded by rocky mountains. We had the privilege of taking a short plane trip over the Nazcar lines to see them from above. Although the girl sitting behind suffered from severe motion sickness and narrowly missed projectile vomiting on Wes, it was very interesting to see massive monkeys, whales, and other random carvings etched into the ground.

The food along the trip consisted of carbs, carbs and more carbs. We had bread and jam for breaky, potato and rice for lunch, and some similar sort of carbohydrates for dinner. By day 2 all the females in the group were begging for fruit. They say the altitude affects the metabolism and that carbs are supposed to be a good food to counter the effects of altitude sickness. By the end of the trip we weren't sure what was worse - the altitude or the carbs!

We climbed quite high on the trip, and our peak altitude in our mini bus was 4900 metres above sea level! The effects were incredible, we could only walk at the slowest of paces, and it was hard to get enough oxygen in our lungs. However, we adjusted over time and got used to feeling breathless as we walked up even a couple of stairs.

Some other highlights of the trip included:

* Cusco - a fantastic town with lots of charm. Very authentic and a lively atmosphere. The local markets were incredible with all sorts of fruits, vegies, meats, spices, herbs etc etc. The smells in the meat section were a bit too overpowering and the sight of the muzzle of a cow sitting on the meat tray was quite disturbing- but fascinating.

* The 3 day Lares treck to Machu Pichu - see next post

* Colca Canyon - famous for the magnificent Condors (supposedly the largest birds in the world). We arrived at dawn to watch flocks of them glide in the canyon.

* Bathing in the thermal hot springs

* La Paz - DEATH ROAD BIKE RIDE!!! We cycled down the most dangerous road in the world. See future post.