Peru – A Promising Start

Peru – A Promising Start

We left the Bolivian holiday town of Copacabana and crossed into Peru at the Kasani border crossing. The border personal were serious, but very polite. A promising start. Having had our passports stamped and collected Big Bertha’s temporary import permit (TIP) we entered Peru and were immediately greeted by numerous and quiet fuel stations – what a change from Bolivia!

Our first stop was at a pre-Inca site called Willca Uta (“Place of the Sun”), believed by the Aymara people to be an interdimensional portal between worlds, which allowed their priests to communicate with the Gods. We thought it would be a quick look see, but we ended up performing a short ceremony to Pachamama (the earth mother) accompanied by some nice atmospheric music.

We then stopped in the town of Chucuito to visit the Inca penis park(!), lunch and watch the full-on fiesta with numerous bands, some having come from Bolivia.

From there we drove to Puna to meet Ivan and visit the floating reed villages on Lake Titicaca. Ivan and I hiked up to the Condor mirador, giving us an impressive view out over the town and lake.

We then went onto the Sillustani ruins while Ivan waited in Puna for Jon and Heather to catch up. Sillustani was an impressive site of pre-inca stone towers or “Chullpas” – tombs for the nobility of the Colla people. Although the attraction receives many visitors, it didn’t feel crowded and we really enjoyed our hike around it. A few of the Chullpas had been reconstructed – to show their original shape and that they would have been covered with a white plaster (which had mostly disappeared from the original ones). The mummy was encased in an interior chamber, along with various burial goods (and sometimes their servants, so that they could continue to be served in death). The surrounding villages were also like nothing we’ve seen before.

Rather than take the busy main road to Juliaca we took a small but spectacular back road to Lampa. On the way we stopped to hike up to a bull-shaped cave with ancient drawings. Unimpressive, considering the fields of waist-high grass and crumbling stone walls we had to cross to reach it! Lampa has a very impressive Church with catacombs and a truly macabre ossuary tomb. The tomb was designed by a local dignitary for himself and his wife to repose in peace. Though how this was possible when he insisted on “decorating” it with the bones of hundreds of long-deceased Lampa residents, is hard to understand. Creepy!

The Rainbow Mountain is a famous tourist attraction in Peru. It is a long and tortuous road to reach the summit car park followed by an hour’s hike to the top (5,036m). But after a short distance, we decided ‘not in Big Bertha’, turned around and camped in Checacupe, the town at the base. Dave took a taxi to the top the following morning.

From here we entered the Sacred Valley to visit the Inca sites. The town of Pisac was delightful – very touristy, but quaint with it. Very narrow roads which looked to be pedestrian only, but we traversed one in Big Bertha to reach our camp spot for the night. Here we met Dwight, Lucia and their daughter. Later on Ivan and Heather/Jon joined us. Next was a series of other small towns with Inca sites before heading back into Cusco from where we took the train to Aguas Calientes for our Machu Picchu visit. “Cuy” or guinea pig is a popular dish in Peru and there are many restaurants serving “cuy al horno” (roast guinea pig).

From Cusco we made our way to Nazca along an amazing route that took us several days traversing high passes (4000m +) and deep valleys. Along the way we briefly visited the “Bosque de las Piedras” (stone forest), formed millions of years ago from matter expelled after two volcanoes erupted.

By the time we reached Nazca, we had a convoy of four overlanders and we together arranged to visit the Nazca Lines. After our flights, it was time to say goodbye to Jon and Heather, who were heading back to Cusco to fly home. The road from Nazca via Ica to the coast is quite nasty – desert with patchy habitation. We visited the museum in Ica, which has a fascinating display of mummies (Paracas and Inca) and skulls that had been ‘extended’ (which seems to have been performed for aesthetic reasons or to show status).

However, the coastal town of Paracas was very pleasant – clearly the weekend home to the rich from Lima. And here we said goodbye to Ivan, Gerhard and Martina.