The Inca Trail: Ruins etc...

I've just realised that in all of our Inca Trail blogs there is very little mention of the actual ruins we went to see, or any of the ruins we saw along the way. True - they are just "old rocks" - but I feel this blog should be a cultural and informative experience as well as a form of entertainment. With this in mind, I am adding this post, hidden away after Liz's most recent one, for all our die hard blog fans ... or those desperately trying to find a diversion from uni work ...


DAY 1 - Patallacta (and coca leaves).

The first day of walking was meant to be a nice easy warm up before the rigours of day two (read - seven hours of uphill walking). The altitude wasn't excessive compared to what was to come, but there was still a significant risk of altitude sickness. To combat this, our guide "Lobo" suggested chewing coca leaves, which have a mild stimulant effect and are said to reduce the symptoms. So, before we started on the trail, Liz and I bought a packet of leaves each for the combined total of 50p. Now, apparently there's some kind of tecnique to chewing these leaves. A technique that "everybody" knows, and that Quechua people are born with or something. Not being Quechua, I assumed you just throw a couple of leaves in your mouth and chew. I did this about 3 hours into the walk. The leaves promptly disintegrated in my mouth and, not wanting them to go to waste, I swallowed the resulting syrupy foul tasting mass. Afterwards, I felt a bit tingly all over, but not much else. I told Lobo all this a few hours later. He stopped dead, looked at me with a sidewards glance and said: "You're not supposed to swallow the leaves. Are you feeling ok?" I nodded. He shrugged, told me not to eat any more that day, and said he'd show me the real way on day two. Oh - and we saw these ruins as well. They used to be an ancient city called Patallacta ....


Day 2 - Dead Woman's Pass (and "The Problems").

The second day was meant to be the hard one, and so it proved. Because of our experiences in Cuzco we were very worried about altitude sickness, so asked Lobo if he could show us how to chew those leaves as soon as possible. He looked at me, decided it was safe, and showed us the technique. Apparently you are meant to roll 10 to 15 leaves up into a little cigar type shape, which you then wedge in the side of your mouth between cheek and molars. You then suck (not chew!) the leaves to release the ... whatever it is that helps with the altitude sickness. We tried this, and to be honest, it was disgusting. The leaves exude some kind of bitter tasting liquid that has the same effect as washing a very cheap tequila around in your mouth for a few minutes. Not as bad as rancid shark meat (an Icelandic delicacy we had the misfortune to try a couple of years ago) but still pretty bad. As we sucked, our mouths slowly started to go numb, our fingers started to tingle, and we started to feel a little bit ill. We kept the leaves in for thirty minutes, then unceremoniously spat them out, vowing never to go near them again. We did however finish the most difficult and steep part of the walk (Dead Woman's Pass - 4215m) with no ill effects, and tentatively praised the coca leaves for the part they played. This was short lived.

It could have been the water. It could have been the altitude. It could even have been the food (though we all ate exaclty the same thing). Personally I blame the coca.

After a hearty lunch, we began our ascent of the second pass (altitude 3950m). After about half and hour the troubles started. Crimpling stomach cramps, and a burning desire to use the toilet at the earliest possible opportunity. I asked Lobo what to do. We had two options - retrace our steps to the toilets at our lunchtime camp (adding another hour onto an already incredibly long day) or bite the bullet and try to last out for the two hours until the next camp. We chose the second option, and so began one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life. The scenery was incredible (apparently) and we saw some impressive ruins (apparently), but both were lost on us. Finally we made it, fortunately without disaster (though we needed to run the last half mile or so), and I threw the remaining coca leaves forcefully into the bin.

Somehow I had the presence of mind to take this picture of the ruins we saw on the way. As you can see it is of significantly lower quality than the other pictures appearing on this blog, indicative of the inner torment I was feeling at the time ...


Day 3 - Inti Pati (and sealions).

The third day was much easier than Day 2. The walk was downhill, slow, short (we'd finished the majority of the trekking by lunchtime) and devoid of any violent stomach trouble. It gave us time to talk to our guide Lobo in comfort. Apparently "Lobo" wasn't our guide's real name, it was rather a cool nickname his friends had given him, meaning "Wolf". At this point Liz exclaimed "Wait a minute, doesn't Lobo mean sealion? Yes it does! You're called Sealion!". You see, throughout Patagonia we'd seen dozens of signs depicting the outline of a sealion, with the word "lobos" underneath it. That did seem to indicate that "lobo" meant sealion ...

And what was our guide's defence? Well, apparently (again) in Spanish, sealions aren't called sealions at all, they're called "wolves of the sea", and on the signs they don't have space to add on the "of the sea" bit, so they just call them "lobos". So our guide really did have a cool nickname, and he really was called "Wolf", not "Sealion". Hmmmmmm.

Here's a picture of him at Inti Pati ruins after we'd just called him a sealion:

Day 4 - Machu Picchu (and deja vu).

The final day was all about the majesty of Machu Picchu. The views of the ruins were incredible. The sight was completely unique - and yet somehow familiar. Had I been there before, maybe in another life? Perhaps these pictures will shed some light on the subject ...

The Inca Trail: FAQ

Well, since Liz seems to have covered actual walking (and eating!) part of the Inca Trail pretty comprehensively (check out that last post - Tolstoy eat your heart out ...) it only leaves me to answer the most popular questions (mostly made up) that we have been asked about the Inca Trail. Ready? Here we go:

What is this Inca Trail thing anyway?
The Inca Trail is an ancient route through the mountains that pilgrims of old used to take to get from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu; an important Quechua (i.e. Inca) religious and administrative settlement. The Trail is 46km long and snakes its way up, around and over three mountain passes, providing breathtaking scenery on its way to (and through) various Inca ruins.

Hang on - did you say 46km? That isn't very far. How long did it take you to do that?
Well ... ahem ... 4 days. But the last day is spent at the ruins so we did it in 3 days, really ...

I'm supposed to be impressed?
OK, so the main reason it takes so long is the trail goes up and down very steeply, a lot of the time. There are three mountain passes at heights of 4215m, 3950m and 3670m, that seriously sap your energy and (unless you're used to running up and down mountains with very little oxygen) take considerable time to scale. That said, it is possible to finish the entire trail in one day. In actual fact, every year there is an Inca Trail marathon race, and the record time for the whole trail is ... get this ... 3 hours 36 minutes. We took four days.

Why did the Quechuas pick such a ridiculous tough route?
Good question. The much shorter, easier and flatter route following the river valley was apparently "far too easy" for the pilgrims, according to Lobo our slightly crazed guide. The Quechuas thought it very important to commune with the mountains, as that brought them closer to heaven. There are many important ruins on the route, and the pilgrims also used to leave offerings on the mountain tops to various Gods. So there was a point to all that pain after all ...

Enough of the history. How much did you have to carry while walking?
Liz and I had to carry our sleeping bags, spare clothes, sleeping mat, toiletries, water, towel and various snacks to supplement the food we were given. This worked out to just over 10kg and 11kg respectively. Various porters for the trekking company carry the rest of the kit, including tents, food, stove, etc. In fact, the majority of the trekkers that we saw on the trail had hired extra porters to carry the rest of their kit. We decided against, because, well - we're cheap. And we thought we'd look ten times harder carrying massive packs on the trail. Unfortunately the porters themselves kind of stole our thunder on that score. Firstly most didn't actually have packs, so they pretty much had to lash all of their luggage to a metal frame mounted on their backs. Others simply balanced huge sacks on their shoulders, held in place with their arms. How on earth they ran up and down mountains like that I'll never know. Secondly they all carried around 25kg each. Over double what we were carrying. Thirdly they had to run ahead of us so they could get to the campsites, set up all the tents and begin preparing the food before we got there every day. And fourthly, most wore sandles, not shoes. Incredible.

The Inca Trail is very popular. What with all the people trekking it, and all the guides and porters, doesn't it get a little crowded?
It can do, yes. 500 people (including guides and porters) are allowed on the Inca Trail every day. That means at certain sections it can get congested, especially at the beginning of each day when everyone starts out. The trail can also get quite narrow in places, and throughout the day you must constantly move out of the way of the porters who come tearing past you, on the way to set up camp. We were told always to get ourselves on the mountain side of the overtaking porter, because apparently, in years past, a few unfortunates have been accidently pushed off the mountain by a particularly wide load the porter was carrying! That said, with everyone walking at different speeds, the field gets very stretched by the end of the day, and you can find yourself almost completely alone at some points, which is by far the best way to experience the trail.



I can't think of any more questions right now, but what if I think of one later?
Add it as a comment to this post and I will do my best to answer it.

Oh, but I don't like adding comments, you have to sign in, or have a Google account or something, don't you?
No you don't! It's very easy to leave a comment. Simply click on the "comments" link at the bottom of the post, fill in your comment in the box provided, then select the "Name/URL" field in the "choose your identity" section, fill in your name, then hit "publish". Easy!

Where can I learn more about your Inca Trail experiences?
See Liz's post below, or if you're very lucky (and I'm not feeling as lazy as usual) I might put another post up about it in the near future. How exciting?????

The Inca Trail!

The first day of the trek started VERY early, so I was terrified AND knackered. Great start. However, it quickly got LOADS better. The first bit of good news was that I could breathe properly without any pain, the next good news was we had a great group and our peruvian guide Lobo spoke great english and was very funny! So we started off about 10.30am from KM 82, backpacks all packed and ready to go! Chris and I were the only people in our group to carry our own backbacks..which I was really surprised about, apparently its the norm to pay an extra $50 and get a porter to carry your clothes, sleeping bag and sleeping mattress. Quite sensible really!! The first day we walked for about 6 hours and had an hour break for lunch. The walk wasn´t too difficult with just a few steep sections, but my breathing was feeling loads better so it was no trouble. The highlight of the first day was definitely lunch time. This was when I realised we weren´t going to be fed crackers and noodles for 4 days which I had expected, quite the opposite in fact!

Lunch was a 3 course affair in a tent set up by the porters before we´d arrvived. We had our own chef and he had been busy preparing our lunch while we were walking, amazing as he had set off at the same time as us from KM 82, he´d got there and made us a 3 course meal before we´d even arrived! So the first course was stuffed avocado salad, then asapargus soup with garlic bread and for the main it was a delicious spaghetti bolognese. You can imagine Chris´excitement at all this food..and I was pretty happy about what was to come after this great first meal! I was definitely feeling better about this Inca Trail thing.. I was really enjoying myself!

The first night we camped at a beautiful spot with amazing views of the mountains in the distance. The porters had set up our tent and we collapsed into it with relief..we were tired! However we did have enough energy left to eat a large amount of popcorn and fried wanton crackers with dulce de leche the chef had prepared for us as a snack-brilliant! Dinner was at 7.30pm and I was not disappointed..another 3 course meal had been prepared: mushroom soup, grilled trout with vegetables and rice, and then banana flambe with very strong rum! It was really cold as soon as the sun went down at 5pm but we slept very well that night-what a great day!



Our guide, Lobo told us the second day would be the hardest as we were hiking over 2 passes, the first one, Dead Womans Pass is 4,215m above sea level and it is a VERY steep walk up. So I mentally prepared myself for the worst and we set off after breakfast at 7am. Breakfast was great- fruit salad, granola, yoghurt, honey pancakes and toast and jam! Fantastic start to the day. Lobo was not wrong, the walk up to Dead Womans Pass was tough, the climb took us about 3 hours, we had to stop to catch our breath a fair few times as we were climbing so high up, you could literally feel the lack of oxygen up there- it was crazy! But I didn´t feel anything like I had in Cuzco, my breathing was ok and I felt fine once we reached the top! It was a great feeling to have completed the hardest bit of the trek without too much difficulty! The next part was an hour downhill-which was surprisingly difficult as my legs felt like jelly! We made it down for lunch which consisted of causa (a Peruvian dish similar to shepherd´s pie, but made with tuna instead of beef), barley soup, quinoa salad, grilled alpaca (which I didn´t eat..they are too cute to even think about eating!), fried manioc, mashed potatoes and pasta salad.

After filling up on much needed carbs we started the climb to the second pass which was 3,950m so still pretty high up! The second half of the day was hard as we were all so tired form the mornings climb, but we did it in good time and arrived at our second night´s camp about 5pm. After scoffing down more popcorn and fried wantan with banana we collapsed in our tents and waited for dinner. The chef once again produced a masterpeice of vegetable soup, steak in tomato sauce with rice and potatoes and for dessert, pears in wine sauce. We were passed out in our tents with as many clothes on as humanly possible by 9pm. Another fantastic, yet tiring day!





We had a bit of a lie in on the third day, being woken up at 7am by the porters offering us tea. Breakfast was amazing again, with creamy porridge, ham and vegetable omelettes and toast and jam. The view from our campsite was stunning watching the sunrise over snow capped Andes peaks. Unforgettable! So we set off again and walked for about 4 hours, passing ruins on the way, a couple of Inca tunnels and the third pass which was 3,700m. The scenery on this section of the walk is incredible and definitely our favourite part of the trek. The hour before we stopped for lunch we had to make our way down over 3000 original Inca steps, the steps are tiny so this was harder than it sounds! One of the highlights of the whole trek was stopping at a ruin called Intipata, the views of mountains, the valley and the Urubamba River below. The views from there were simply amazing and we would have been happy to end our trip there! We arrived at about 1pm at Wiñay Wayna, the campsite where we spent our third and final night. We had a great lunch of mini pizzas slices, quinoa soup and roast pork with vegetables, chips, rice and salad. We had the afternoon free which was great, some people used this time to have a hot shower (costing about 50p) and I had meant to but instead I fell asleep in my tent for an hour or so…great nap!!

The afternoon raced by and it was time for dinner again, sadly our final dinner! It was pretty special, I think the chef saved the best til last. The final feast was barley soup, Russian beet salad, rocoto relleno (stuffed bell peppers), chicken rolled with bacon in a rich mushroom cream sauce, rice pilaf, hungarian goulash with fried potato slices and raspberry jelly for afters! We said a big thank you to all the porters for carrying our tents, cooking equipment etc and a big thank you to the chef for all the marvellous meals, and we thanked our guide Lobo for being hilarious and making the trip so much fun! We then collapsed into our tents for the last time and fell fast asleep.



The 4th day we were up early…VERY early. 3.45am to be precise. Breakfast was quick but still yummy, banana pancakes, jam and toast. We got ready and left the campsite by 4.30am. It was still completely dark so we had to walk with our head torches on. The 2 hour trek was very fast and quite exciting as we all knew what we were walking towards…our first view of Machu Picchu. We arrived at Intipunku (Sun Gate) at about 6.30am just in time to get our first glimpse of Machu Picchu while the sun was rising. Another unforgettable view and the pictures just won´t do it justice! It was so great to finally be so close to what we´ve been walking towards! We walked a further hour down to the ruins and we´d made it!! It felt so good!



We spent about 2 hours walking around Machu Picchu with a very informative Lobo telling us all about it. Chris and I then decided to punish ourselves a little more by walking up Wayna Picchu Mountain just behind the ruins, it took us about 2 and half hours up and down and it was tough...and painful after 4 days of walking! It did offer amazing views over Machu Picchu tough so I´m glad we did it.

So after dreading the whole thing, I am very pleased to say I had the time of my life, it was so much fun, the people were great, the views were absolutely beautiful, the ruins were incredible, the food was delicious, the walk was tough but rewarding and I´d do it all again in a second! (after a month’s rest!!)

I Love Peru!

Despite all the stress and sickness, I was extremely happy to discover that Peru has a very large amount of donkeys!! They are literally everywhere!! Its great..and they are as lovely as the New Forest donkeys I have grown to love! I want one so much!

Another very exciting development in Peru are the Llama´s! They are everywhere too..walking around the town and sleeping on steps! I love them!

I also found a puppy in a shop and very nearly stole it.

Inca Trail: The Preparations

So we've moaned about it, cursed it, debated whether it was actually worth spending nigh on 500 GBP to spend four days walking to some old rocks with heavy packs, when anyone with 50 quid and half a brain can get the train there ... and now we've done it. Worth the money? Worth changing our travel plans? Oh yes - absolutely. The Inca Trail is very very good, and surprisingly, a lot of fun as well.

First the stress. We arrived in Cuzco after 3 days of bus hell (the majority of which was spent on the dirtiest long distance bus we've had the misfortune to encounter) to find that, at 3,300 metres above sea level, we could hardly breathe. Fine. That's why they suggest getting there at least two days before the trek to aclimatise. We arrived with four days spare to be safe, but by day three when I was still gasping for breath having rolled over in bed, I began to think that a month might have been more sensible.

We thought that four days would give us ample time to sort everything out, as well as do a short warm up trek. It ended up being an incredibly busy four day rush-a-thon, as we tried desperately to prepare all our stuff for the trek, and get over a spot of altitude sickness as well. The stuff we needed to sort included:

- Rent walking boots
- Rent sleeping bags
- Rent walking sticks (you need them for the steep downhill sections - everyone has them! Honest!)
- Buy snacks
- Train ticket back from Machu Picchu
- Malaria pills (yes I had failed to get these in the UK)
- Water purification tablets
- Waterproofs
- Arrange storage for all the stuff we're not taking on the trail
- Upload 1 gig of photos to online storgage (with a rubbish internet connection) to free up the camera memory card so we can actually take photos on this thing
... etc etc etc ... blah blah blah ...

You get the picture. This was far from the "stay in bed for four days, grab a sleeping bag then go" approach I was hoping for. We finally got everything sorted on the final day at around midnight - 5 hours before we had to get the bus to the start of the trail! Reminded me a lot of my preparations for this trip in January. Fortunately this time my passport was much easier to find. Liz had it.

So, at 5am on Friday 11th April, we caught the bus to km82 ready to start the trek ...

Worried in Cuzco

We did it! The Inca Trail is over and we are now relaxing back in Cuzco...relaxing being the operative word as we feel we haven´t done much of that in the last couple of weeks (sorry I really shouldn´t complain about travelling but it IS tiring!!) The rush and spending days on buses getting up here for the Inca Trail wasn´t too relaxing, then being in Cuzco and trying to sort out all the equipment we need for the trek that we didn´t even think about packing when we left in January (walking boots, waterproofs, walking poles?!) was a little bit stressful too..oh and then there was the altitude sickness. Not fun.

We arrived in Cuzco 4 days before the start date of the trek to acclimatize as Cuzco is 3,300m above sea level. As a practice run for the trek we decided to do a hike to some ruins high up on a mountain walking from a little town called Pisac, about an hour bus ride from Cuzco, in the stunning Sacred Valley. The walk was hour and a half all very steep uphill. This hike would have been a very easy hour and a half if we were in the UK or somewhere that wasn´t over 3000m above sea level, but as we were so high up it was pretty difficult, I felt awful and had to stop for a break every 15 minutes-RUBBISH! It was great to stop and look at the amazing views of the valley and various ruins though! After all the hikes we managed in Patagonia I really thought I´d be fit enough for the Inca Trek and wasn´t too worried about my fitness. However, my breathing was terrible and my chest felt like it was going to explode it hurt so much, not a nice feeling at all. In fact I felt like I was about 90 years old with severe heart problems, not 25 years old and relatively healthy! I was worried.

That evening my breathing got worse and I felt awful. I was convinced that this wasn´t altidute sickness though as I didn´t feel sick in the slightest, just very dizzy (yes dizzier than normal!) and it was pretty tough to breathe (slightly worrying). We looked it up though and it seemed these were also symptoms of altitude sickness, I was slightly releieved that I hadn´t just aged about 60 years in one day and there was a medical explanation for it! So Chris rushed out and found me some pills to take and I went straight to sleep.

The next day I did feel a little better and we decided to take it easy (still no relaxing time though as we had so much to sort out for the trek), I still found it really hard to walk around without getting completely breathless and had to stop for breaks just walking 3 blocks! I was absolutely terrified at this point of the Inca Trek, how on earth would I be able to walk for 4 days if I found it hard walking 3 blocks?! I was secretly thinking of how I could get out of doing the trek, I was so scared as it felt so horrible not being able to walk with ease. Luckily the day after my breathing got better still and walking around became much easier. I was still very apprehensive about the next 4 days though- the word ´dread´comes to mind!

Great Commitment

Just a quick note of thanks to one of our readers who managed to work his way through this entire blog from start to finish, reading every post in just one sitting. Channing I salute you. Great procrastination. Uni work must be really dull ...

Mendoza

I think I've gone on about this Inca Trail situation far too long without explaining, so, at last, here is the explanation:

The Inca Trail is a very very popular trek. It is recommended that you book your trek and pay your deposit at least 3 months prior to the departure date, or if wanting to go in May, at least 6 months. Naturally, we were planning to go in May, and found all this out from an Australian in Uruguay in March.

We checked availability for the trek immediately and found out, unsurprisingly, that all of May and June were booked up. There were a couple of dates free in the rainy season at the beginning of April, or loads of places free in the dry but cold season of late July/early August. That gave us two choices; rush through Argentina and Patagonia to make the April date, or spend several hundreds of pounds on plane flights to/from Peru in July/August (but at least we wouldn't have to rush) ...

I finally convinced Liz to rush, and we booked the Inca Trail for April 11th. Unfortunately that meant we had much less time in Patagonia that we wanted at every destination, and even had to miss out a few places. It also meant that we had to spend almost half our time there on incredibly long bus journeys, cursing the Inca Trail all the way.

Nowhere did we feel the impact of these two consequences more than in Mendoza. Mendoza is a wonderful city - it is located in an oasis in the middle of a desert, right in the middle of prime wine country, surrounded by vineyards and the 6000m peaks of the Andes. The climate was very pleasant, and a welcome break from the chill of southern Patagonia. The city itself was all but destroyed in an earthquake in 1861, and so the town planners decided to rebuild in anticipation of another earthquake, by building wide tree lined avenues (for the rubble to fall into) and many spacious parks and plazas (to use as evacuation points). The result is a city that is 90% leafy suburb, and a great place to relax and saunter around in.

Unfortunately, because of the Inca Trail, we had just 2 days there.

One of the highlights of Mendoza is to visit the vineyards just outside the city and sample their produce ... repeatedly. We decided to make things a little more interesting by renting bicycles, hoping to weave ever more erratically between tasting sessions at the abundant local wineries in the area.

According to the Lonely Planet, and I quote: "all winery tours and tastings are free". Apparently, not any more. Having caught on to the fact that they can make some money out of this racket, all tours and tastings are overpriced and of poor quality. A tiny taste of mediocre wine costs around 2GBP, when you can buy a very good bottle of a rival vintage for around 1GBP back in the city. Excessive tourism certainly has its downside.

Unfortunately, since we had already spent half our daily budget renting the bikes we could only afford one tasting session! We made the most of it though, as you can see from the above pictures. Cycling around the vineyards was fun, even without the added challenge of being off our faces while doing so. What really saved the day however was a chocolate and liquor distillery that we found, offering a tour and very potent tastings for under a pound. The chocolate mint vodka literally left me speechless.

We then returned to Mendoza, bought a bottle of very good (and cheap!) wine, and then did our best tramp impressions by opening it and drinking it in one of the parks! Reminded me of being 16. Oh happy days ...

Then we ran out of time, and had to arrange our longest bus ride yet - a three day marathon up to Cuzco in Peru for the Inca Trail ... oh dear.

Climbing Mountains ... In The Dark

On our final day in Bariloche we decided to indulge in a bit of training for the fast approaching Inca Trail, and set off to climb a mountain called Cerro Lopez. We had a bus to Mendoza to catch that day at 4.30pm, so had to finish the majority of our climbing before lunch time. According to the Lonely Planet (our Nemesis once again...) the climb was only supposed to take 3 hours. If we started early in the morning, we reasoned, we would have ample time to get up and down, and even have some time to chill out in Bariloche before our afternoon bus.

The bus from Bariloche city to the Cerro Lopez trail head takes 1 hour each way and only goes at very select times. We decided to play it very safe and get the 5.30am bus, hoping to start the trek at 6.30am and be back at the bus stop in time for the midday bus back. That gave us 5 and a half hours to do the walk, and given our experiences at the Torres Del Paine national park, we thought this would be easy enough.

We got up unreasonably early on the day in question and got the 5.30 bus. The problems began when the bus dropped us off at the trail head. It was pitch black. I mean pitch pitch pitch black. No light whatsoever. I had considered this possibility and had brought a torch, and after a bit of searching we found the sign signalling the start of the trail. It said the trail was marked with red paint so we wouldn't get lost, and so gamely we set off into the woods.

We got lost within about 100 yards of the start of the trail. The red paint just did not show up in the torchlight, and there were hundreds of other potential trials splintering off the main one. We decided to give up for the moment, head back to the road and wait for daylight.

It was then we realised how unbelievably cold it was. We spent the next hour, huddled together, shivering and sleep deprived, by the side of a deserted road, praying for daylight. It was a very long hour.

Finally, at around 7.45 there was enough light to walk by, and we began our trek at a furious pace because of our limited time. The walk itself was great, if very steep, taking us through dense forest, then up above the tree line to some challenging scree slopes, affording amazing views of the cloud covered lakes below.

We reached a pink house called Refugio Cerro Lopez at around 10.30, and assumed the top of the mountain must be very close, since we'd been walking quickly with few breaks for nearly three hours by then. So we continued up the very steep slope, almost rock climbing at some points, hoping to reach the summit within the next 15 minutes ...

We didn't. We kept coming to false summit after false summit, and after about an hours worth of walking/climbing reached a sign pointing to a path marked Cerro ... something. I've forgotten what it said, but the point is, it definitely didn't say Lopez. We have since come to the conclusion that the walk the Lonely Planet was describing was not actually to a summit called Cerro Lopez, but to a pink house called Cerro Lopez halfway up another mountain called something else. It just failed to mention that. This was annoying.

It was almost midday by then, so deciding to make the best of it, we climbed to a rock that provided fantastic views, and pretended we'd reached the top. After a few photos (including the recreation of Rio's Christo Redentor statue at the beginning of this post) we began to descend at breakneck speed hoping to make the 2pm bus. Since the ascent had taken 4 and a half hours, this was a little optimistic - and so it proved. We took a wrong turn on the way down, missed the 2pm bus by 15 minutes, and were forced to get an incredibly expensive taxi. It was actually a good thing we did, because what with all the packing we had to do, and the fact that the long distance bus station was 3k away from our hostel, we only made our bus by 5 minutes. Very stressful!

We have since decided never to try and climb a mountain on a day we need to catch a bus.

Deep Vein Thrombosis?

Not sure if I've complianed enough about bus journeys yet ... if not, I apologise. I will do my best to rectify this in the next few posts because, recently, we've been on some seriously long uns. The one in question went like this:

Puerto Natales - El Calafate = 7 hours
El Calafate - Glacier = 4 hours roundtrip
El Calafate - Rio Gallegos = 4 hours
Rio Gallegos - Comodoro Riviera = 12 hours
Comodoro Riviera - El Bolson = 12 hours

Took 2 days, with very few breaks. The result: pins and needles down my right hand side, and one extremely swollen ankle. I only noticed this when we arrived at our hostel in El Bolson, and just in case, got Liz to look up DVT in the Lonely Planet. It said, and I quote:

"The chief symptom of Deep Vein Thrombosis is swelling or pain of the foot, ankle or calf usually on just one side ... Travelers who have any of these symptoms should immediately seek medical attention."

Aaaaaaa! Cue lots of taking of painkillers, lying with my feet in the air and general panic. Before calling the ambulance we decided it sensible if Liz did a bit more research on the internet. Turns out DVT usually only occurs in unfit individuals over 40, and that swollen ankles are very common after a long bus ride. Looks like Lonely Planet are up to their old scaremongering techniques again.

So ... well ... yes this post is actually supposed to be about our time in El Bolson, so I'd better get on with that. El Bolson is a very chilled out hippie kind of town, set in a valley, flanked by two vast, picturesque mountain ranges. Once again we had limited time there, so decided to rent bikes and go on an action packed cycle ride to see the sacred "Indian Head" occuring naturally in the rock above El Bolson.

The Lonely Planet said it was an simple 10k hike from town, so we were expecting a nice and easy cycle to clear the cobwebs from our long bus ride. Unfortunately this "simple" 10k hike was on a near verticle dirt track, making cycling impossible to all but Tour de France champions. Soon we were walking the bikes up the especially steep sections, cycling only when possible. Then, on a rare flat section, Liz's bike broke. We're talking chain-wrapped-around-the-spokes, wheel-completely-off-centre, full-on-comedy broke. I was ahead at this point and so didn't see what happened, but Liz still claims to this day that: "all I was trying to do was change gears, then it started making a funny noise and then it broke". Hmmmmmmm ...

Anyway, we locked up the bikes where they stood, and set off on foot on the steep winding dirt track. An hour-and-a-half later, covered in dust and dirt, we arrived at the famous "Indian Head". Impressive? Judge for yourselves - that's it there just above my hand in the picture at the top of this post. I think the jury's still out on that one. Fortunately the views of El Bolson and the valley below were supurb, so the walk/cycle was worth it in the end ... just.

Somehow we managed to take a different route back, which would've been fine, except that we arrived in town with our bikes still half-way up the mountain. The walk up, and the subsequent walk down with the broken bikes became less and less funny as every minute passed. The rental man didn't charge us for the broken bike though which softened the blow a little.

The next day we decided to stay as close to our hostel as possible, and visit the arts, crafts and organic food fair. As you can see in the photo above, this was a much more successful excursion. Waffles with strawberries and cream. Mmmmmmm ....

Chocolate, pastries, ice cream and horses!

We spent a few days in a lovely town called Bariloche. Bariloche is the Argentine Lake District´s largest town. It sits on the shores of the beautiful huge Lago Nahuel Huapi and surrounded by mountains. This town is especially lovely as it is the chocolate capital of Argentina!

Bariloche literally has a chocolate shop on every corner as well as hundreds of patisseries..I was in heaven!! Suffice to say we sampled a fair few chocolates and pastries! Absolutely delicious! Oh and one of the reasons for visiting (apart from the speactacular national park and beautiful lakes) was that the Lonely Planet stated that the best ice cream in Argentina was made here. So I sampled that a fair few times as well, and yes I can confirm after many many tastings, it was the best!

I was torn away form the chocolate, pastries and ice cream for a couple of days to explore the Parque National Nahual Huapi just outside the town. We took a great horse riding trip which was a fab way to see the park and the amazing views over it. It was a really fun day, we were taken to an Estancia (the spanish word for a ranch) which was run by real life gaucho´s (south american cowboys!) We rode our horses for a few hours in the morning through the park, luckily Chris and I had fantastic horses who liked to go fast so we were often leading the others (at one point I galloped off completely the wrong way and all the other horses followed! The gaucho was not pleased! Was very funny!) We then returned to the estancia for lunch, which was a huge ´asado´-the estancia´s own meat BBQ and a few bottles of the regions red wine...lovely! We rode for a few more hours in the afternoon..which was a much easier after the mornings ride (and the large amount of red wine)! We were quite saddle sore the next day but it was so worth it!