Adios Peru!

Fitful sleep with a 4.45am alarm. Speedy check in. Enquired at security office about lost property, but no phone matching mine had been handed in .

Smooth flight, managed to nap a little. Magnificent views of snowcapped mountains coming into Santiago, including Aconcagua -an amazing sight

Able to share transport with Camerons down to Valparaiso. Nice drive down, through countryside reminiscent of the Adelaide Plains market gardens bowl in the Virginia area and vineyards not unlike the McLaren Vale district.

Checked into hotel, on top floor with great views of the famous Valpo hills and coastline.

Went for a short walk and had my first funicular railway ride. I wasn't too sure about it to start with, but enjoyed it. Valparaiso has 9 of the funicular railways still in working order.

Had dinner at Cafe Turri which had great views of the coast from it's hillside location in the suburban enclave of Concepcion. I ordered a lamb shank meal ,followed by a dessert platter of icecream and sorbet! My appetite had well and truly returned! Time to put some weight back on...

Cuzco - Lima

Feeling a little seedy this morning, like a few others. Think we may have had a bad batch of alcohol last night!

Decided to cancel plans to stay in Santiago and try and travel with Camerons to Valparaiso instead.
Managed to book into a guesthouse and were hoping to share the airport transfer transport. 

Checked out and transferred to airport. Managed to get on an earlier flight and arrived in Lima 1 hour than expected. Had my nose pressed up against the window for most of the flight enjoying the views.

Back at the same hotel in Miraflores. Strange to be back in a big city again. Already yearning for the Peruvian mountians...

Nice hat, my friend!

Jack about to devour a dessert the locals call Mt Vesuvius!

Checked out some markets close to the hotel, then dinner. Early night - 5 am pickup in the morning for flight to Santiago.

Peru - By Any Means

Lazy morning. Met the Camerons at lunchtime who arrived back in Cuzco having spent the last 4 days in the Sacred Valley.
Afternoon was spent riding motorbikes through the southern valleys of Cuzco with Andrew and Barb.
Great fun but thankful we had a guide to help negotiate our way through the mad traffic.

Enjoying the sights of the Southern Valley circuit

Didn't arrive back in town until 6pm in the dark.

Dinner and cards at the English pub to celebrate our last night in Cuzco

cuzco downtime

Jack off for the morning on a 4 hour motor cycle ride. 

I spent the morning catching up on emails, about 7 days behind!

Jack returned at 2.30. Had a great ride, although it was the tour he had booked for tomorrow. He was still happy to do the same one tomorrow with me coming along as a pillion passenger

Inca site at Pisac - Sacred Valley

Pisac ruins

Jack feeling right at home on the KLR

Spent the rest of the afternoon walking around San Blas and buying a few more presents. I really surprised myself by haggling and bartering well for a couple of hats. 
Dinner at an English style pub, sharing a lasagna and having rum and colas for happy hour!

recovery mode

Quiet day - starting to feel a little better today. 

Had a drink at a pub just across the road from the hotel called the "Norton Rats" named after the motorcycle brand. Walls adorned with memorabilia. Jack spied a couple of stickers advertising motorcycle tour companies based in Peru. He copied their details down and then surfed the net looking at their tours. He contacted one of them via hotel staff and a company representative visited us at the hotel to explain the local tours on offer around Cuzco. Jack booked one for tomorrow and the next day. We had originally planned to visit the Pisac ruins, but decided to do the motorbike rides instead.

Jack enjoying a bourbon at The Norton Rats Pub - our hotel in background

Artesenias market in Cuzco

We spent a couple of hours during the afternoon visiting a museum just around the corner from the hotel which had a collection of pieces from Bingham's Machu Picchu expedition of 1912. Very interesting. 

Dinner at restaurant near hotel. Shared an alpaca pizza.

Back to Cuzco - taking stock

Light breakfast and then picked up for transfer back to Cuzco.
Issued another warning to driver to take it slowly, this time it was not lost in translation

He took heed of the warning and it was a slow but uneventful drive back. 

Back at the same hotel as previously, not the 5 star Private Collection, but a different room which was double the size. Bathtub and kingsize bed! 

Need to have some serious chill time and realise that we have done a lot! Now it's time to relax.

Feeling as green as the lamp post - at least I still have my sense of humour

Front doors of the cathedral - more green!

Quiet afternoon. Decided to start a course of antibiotics for the gastro and had to go out in search for more Lomotil supplies!

Had dinner at an organic restaurant next door to hotel. Could only manage to eat half an entree serve.
No appetite! So washed out from more gastro.
Now Jack is coming down with a cold!

Lares Valley - Day 3

I woke this morning not feeling 100% again. Nausea mainly. After yesterday's efforts I probably had done my dash.
After packing up camp and a small breakfast, we were collected by our support vehicle for a short drive down the valley to commence our morning´s hike.
There had been more rain overnight and most of the mountains were shrouded in low cloud again
It was a 40 min drive from Patacancha to Pallata. There we left the entourage who were continuing down the valley to meet us at our lunch spot.
Carlos and his assistant accompanied us on this hike up to Pumamarca ruins.
The path followed some Inca water channels which were full of water coming straight down off the mountain they call Veronica. The hike up only took 1 hour.
Punamarca, or Puma town as it is translated was not a town as such, but a large food storage facility for the Inca people. They consrtucted huge buildings to store their crops. We wandered around the site for about 30 mins.

Where we've come from - valley looking towards Patacancha

Where we're going - looking north from Punamarca

On the ascent to Punamarca - Pallata in background

Puma Town

Carlos - our wonderful trek guide

More Inca terracing

Down the valley track

We then headed off down the valley towards Ollanta for our last meal on the trek. The hike down was a gradual descent and took about 2 hours. As we travelled down the valley we could see the Ollanta ruins come into sight as well as other familiar landmarks.

Lunch was once again another culinary delight from the chef.
We then said our goodbyes to the team after they dropped us back to the hotel, grateful that they had taken very good care of us over the past 3 days.

The Entourage - minus Carlos (behind the lens)

We were both feeling exhausted. Jack had his shower and then while I took a bath, he went into town to get some laundry done and get some more anti emetic medication for the car trip back to Cuzco the next day.  I started to feel nauseated, and then the diarrhoea started, again. No dinner that night, and I went through my 24 hour allocation of Lomotil in less than 16 hours. I was feeling totally washed out and wondering whether I should just come home. Very frustrated at how sick I have been this trip.

It really was a case of the good, the bad and the very ugly!