Iquitos

Hi everyone!! I´m writing this from Iquitos, about to head to a shamanic permaculture place in the amazon to volunteer for a couple of weeks (at this stage). If anyone is interested I´ll be staying here...sounds awesome :-)

So aside from that I´ve had a hectic few days since leaving Lake Titicaca. I decided to head to Arequipa and visit Colca canyon, (arguably) the deepest canyon in the world. This is an amazing, beautiful place, none of the photos really do it justice. Here I got to see wild condors and hung out in some volcanic hotsprings for a while...yay!

Arequipa is quite a beautiful town, lots of colonial architecture and modern conveniences (if you like that stuff) with snow capped mountains and volcanos in the distance. I had some dramas getting to Lima as the canyon tour I did ran over time, consequently I missed my bus and therefore my flight from Lima. Argh, my attempts to avoid Lima failed miserably. Fortunately I wasn´t there too long and met some very interesting people.

I continue to be amazed at how helpful people can be. The agent I bought the bus ticket from had arranged to pick me up from the hotel. When he saw I wasn´t there he head to the bus terminal looking for me, and changed my ticket for the next available bus. This was such a help as all the seats to Lima had sold out by the time I got there. Much gratitude! :-)

Will update blog and post photos when I can. Everyone have fun and take care, will be back online later :-)

[EDIT: photos uploaded! :-) ]

Arequipa

Colca canyon

Female condor looking out over the canyon

(male) condor in flight

Amazing terraces...serious microclimates going on here

posing with a condor, shameless tourist

At 5000m and serious barren (and cold), and surrounded by volcanoes

Llamas and alpacas! :-)

Tiwanaku

So everyone I have met has told me not to bother with Tiwanaku as the ruins are a let down, particularly after Peru. Having visited I can certainly agree that for those interested purely in looking at nice ruins, it is not for them.

I did however feel an urge to come here, hence the stopover in La Paz so I wasn’t backing out ;-)

This is a very ancient site, the Tiwanaku civilization dates back to at least 17,000 BC however the structures are more modern than that.

What remains of the site is generally in a great state of disrepair, for instance, this is what remains of the pyramid which one can walk on. 

 One of the most interesting features is the 7m high stone stature of Pachamamma within the museum, which was found buried 2m underground. Unfortunately I couldn’t take a photo.

A smaller statue of Pachamama

The subterranean temple is very interesting. Here there are approximately 180 carved faces around on the walls, all different, some possibly ET.

This is cool. It's a megaphone built into a rock. These are all over the place :-)

Gateway of the Sun

Some carved rocks from Pumapunku.

I managed to avoid the protests in leaving La Paz, and near the Peruvian border was greeted to this sunset.

hmm, it was much more spectacular in real life.

The bus back over the border was basically full of Aussies, so it was almost a little like being back home :-)

La Paz, Bolivia

I arrived in La Paz fairly late at night, and was determined to sleep in for as long as I felt like. The hotel was located within the midsts of the local ‘witches markets’ where one can find a herbal concoction for all that ails them, or pick up a dried llama fetus for good luck…ick.

Some pics…

Dried llama fetus..eww

coco products :-)

 I spent most of the day wandering around. While I was there the miners protests hit La Paz, which meant there was a lot of traffic disruption and loud noise.

The protests were worst around Estudiante Plaza, a few blocks from where I was staying. It was surreal to be sitting in a local eatery watching the news with protesters launching themselves onto police vehicles and water cannons etc in use. Later in the day after the protesters dispersed, there were police throughout the city, in their riot gear, casually standing around chatting. Another one of those 'I'm not in Australia anymore' moments.

When asking one of the locals about the protests, she told me she had heard someone had thrown a stick of dynamite and injured four people, very sad.

La Paz itself is an interesting city, it is around 3800m altitude and built within a canyon. Wandering around it is easy to see a mass of buildings clinging to the mountains. Quite a pretty view :-)

Lake Titicaca, (the Bolivian side)

I wanted to explore the sacred islands Isla del Sol and the Isla del Luna which are important creation sites in Inca mythology. To do this I caught a bus across the border into Bolivia. Getting into the country is ‘easy as’ for Australians, folks from the US, Russia etc need to get a visa which is pricey. 

Copacabana is the tourist launching pad for the islands and the town is full of backpackers. I noticed there seemed to be two distinct groups here. The younger early 20’s types, typically from the UK, Europe or somewhere within South America and up for a good time. There were also plenty of 30-something lone travellers taking a career break and going it alone through South America. This meant I was able to meet and converse with many interesting people from around the globe...awesomeness ☺

The cathedral in Copacabana is famous for her ‘black madonna’. In new agey circles this is considered to be a centre for feminine energy. Anyone interested in the cathedral can read more about it here. When I visited, I definitely noticed the energy. I actually burst into tears shortly after entering. Everyone must have thought I was a devout Catholic, LOL. I sat and meditated for a while enjoying the space :-)

Copacabana cathedral

At this point I should mention that having not being raised in a religious environment, I find entering a church quite an odd experience. I can't remember if I've ever been within a Catholic church before this trip but it is all a bit strange. Everywhere you look there is over the top opulence mixed with violent images of Jesus on the cross. I wonder if they do this to make people feel guilty? Surely there are better images to celebrate the man's life? Anyway...I don't get it :-/

While I was here I also climbed Cerro Calvario. I was pretty surprised at how much rubbish and graffiti there was on this site. They also sell alcohol at the top so the place smells like stale beer. Not sure what's going on here, surely it is not all from the tourists?

Cerro Calvario

I had originally intended to do a day trip including Isle del Luna and to stay overnight on Isle del Sol. However, silly me, did not know about the time difference between Peru and Bolivia so I arrived after the boat had departed and postponed to the following day.

Isle del Luna is the smaller of the two islands, and has an amazing view of snow-capped mountains. This island was used as a female initiation site and housed a group of women who lived a nun's lifestyle, performing rituals to the sun and so on.

View of the snow-capped mountains from Isla del Luna

Temple of the 'virgins of the sun'

Isle de Sol is larger and more commercialized and has this amazing spring running down the mountain. The locals drink from here and I filled my water bottle a couple of times ;-)

Spring :-)

Isla del Sol - commercialism at work

In my search for the temple of the sun, I bumped into a couple of interesting chaps from American and Israel. We head across country looking for the trail. Eventually we could see it form the top of the hill and decided it wasn’t worth the lengthy trek down for a closer look. It was funny, we had to stop while the Israelly guy took his picture with every animal we came across, a donkey, a llama, a pig...lol :-)

temple of the sun...from afar ;-)

The boat back to Copacabana seemed to take forever as one of the engines died. Luckily I didn't miss my bus...this time.

Puno

I decided it was time to head to Lake Titicaca and caught a tourist bus from Cusco to Puno. These bus tours are pretty lame, as in, you are packed onto a bus with 50 other people and you stop briefly at a few sites along the way with a guide. Still, I enjoyed the amazing scenery along the way and I didn’t regret opting out of the overnight bus.

A couple of places we stopped at...

Raqchi and the temple of Viracocha (god of creation)

La Raya - 4500m altitude...ouch

The following day from Puno, I headed to the Amaru Maru gateway. This place is off the mainstream tourist radar and I haven’t been able to find much info online about this [EDIT: opps, google "Aramu Muru" if you are interested, my bad ;-)  ]. I caught up with a local shaman via a contact in Australia who was kind enough to take me out there for the day.

The gateway

He explained to me the local legends around this site. It is said that the ancients used this gateway to access other dimensions. When we arrive he takes me through the various positions in order to use the gate and I went into a deep meditation.

He also explained some of the local mythology about how there were once huge galactic scale wars on earth. So big the weapons could take off the tops of mountains. He shows me a hole in the rock behind the gateway where it is said one such weapon was used. The rock appears to have been exposed to very high heat as there is crystallization, and unnatural ‘machine like’ formations within.

The whole site reminds of something from outback Australia with the intriguing rock formations. Overall it was amazingly beautiful and I enjoyed climbing the rocks and hanging out for the day :-)

Some pics...

I'm in there, somewhere ;-)

The following day I decided to once again jump on the blatant tourist bandwagon and visited the floating reed islands in the morning. 

These people have lived on these islands for hundreds of years, avoiding the rule of the Inca's and Spanish. During this time they have lived on a simple diet of fish, reeds, maca and vegetables and as a result they usually live to around 85. I wondered if this would remain the case now that the influx of tourists has allowed them to add many westernized foods into their diet? Interestingly enough, I found out that they do not use any toothpaste, rather consuming reeds keeps their teeth healthy. We tried some of this and it was rather bland and crunchy...but tolerable ;-)

Model of a small reed island

They explained that the reed islands where made by digging up the reed roots, joining them together with rope, then layering reeds on top. Each island needs to be replaced every 20 years.

In the afternoon I head out to Sillustani which is an ancient, pre-incan burial site containing an array of burial 'towers'.

This is the most beautiful site (certainly a nice place to be buried) and I enjoyed hanging around in the amazing energy from this flat-topped mountain in the lagoon.

The guide told us that the locals report seeing many ufo's around here ;-)

On the way back to town we stopped in at a local house.

Adobe/stone house - complete with llama ;-)

Local cuisine - quinoa, corn, clay, potatoes, cheese etc

The guinea pig hilton

For anyone staying in Puno I definitely recommend Kusillo’s Posada. This is a family run hotel, inexpensive and run by the most warm, friendly and helpful people. I was greeted at breakfast with a kiss on the cheek and lots of concerned mumsie questions for day such as, ‘what tour was I doing’ and ‘did I have sunscreen and appropriate footwear, a jumper etc’. If you stay, prepare to be spoilt with a fresh home cooked breakfast, mmmm :-)

Tipon

Well, the last day of our shaman tour ended in Tipon, another ancient site about 1 1/2 hrs from Cusco. Here we were joined again by our Andean priest for a closing despacho ceremony, where we were initiatied as Paco's (Pachamama warriors).

Closing despacho ceremony

 Tipon is a beautiful site within the mountains. It is built around water channeled from the mountains. Not many people visit here so it was very serene.

Tipon water feature

Temple where we completed the ceremony

On the way out I saw this tree with lots of baby peaches. Seeing people grow their own food makes me very happy :-)

Lots of peaches :-)

 Afterwards we dropped into a local guinea pig restaurant and the guys ordered and ate a 'cooee' with all the sides while I tried not to look too disgusted.

Over all I've had a great experience. I'm wondering where these six days have gone and can I please have them over again? I've learned a lot about Andean philospohy and enjoyed exploring and tapping into the ancient sacred sites.Our wonderful shaman Fredy answered my many, many questions about the culture, local agriculture etc and I owe much to him for facilitating this experience :-)

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was the most incredible, magical experience. So far this has been the highlight of the trip for me. I'd recommend going here to anyone.

Our trip started with the train ride to the town of Aguas Callientes literally ‘hot waters’ due to the hot springs within the town.  It was a beautiful trip along the river and through the mountains. The train has rooftop windows so the view of the scenery is amazing.

The train to Machu Picchu

Afterwards, we took the bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu. This is the most amazing energetic centre. The ruins are located amidst five sacred mountains, each one contributing a different energy to the area. According to Andean philosophy, one enters Machu Picchu via the sun gate, walking into the citadel, and in doing so becomes ‘activated’ due to the energies of the surrounding mountains that work on different chakras.

We spent the best part of two days here and I felt nothing but complete peace and calmness while I was here. Just amazing.

On day one, we connected with the energies of each of the sacred mountains. My favourite was the ‘happy mountain’. The energy emanating from this mountain was pure love.

Putucusi - the 'happy mountain'

Later we completed a beautiful ceremony here, tapping into the amazing ‘masculine’ and 'feminine' energy centres.

 Afterwards we climbed to the sun gate, in the rain (this is a cloud forest so it rains every day). It was amazing to watch the clouds descend over the surrounding mountains :-)

View from the sun gate - entrance point from the Inca trail

That evening we headed back down the mountain and to the hot springs, which were crowded and a bit disappointing.

The following morning we were up early and were fortunate enough to have a pass to climb Wayan Picchu mountain. Only 400 people are permitted to climb the mountain each day. This is roughly a one hour climb up the ancient Incan trail, which is pretty tough going. At the top of the mountain is the most amazing view of the Machu Picchu, as well as more ruins and temples to explore on top of the mountain.

The view from Wayan Picchu mountain

On top of the world - Wayan Picchu mountain

Another view from Wayan Picchu

Our shaman 'Fredy' with a short ceremony atop Wayan Picchu

Afterwards, I wandered about the complex, taking in the beauty of the surrounds, meditating, talking to interesting people etc. Love it! I would recommend a trip here to anyone. Also, it is almost 1km below Cusco so no altitude sickness, yay! :-)

Around the citadel

Temple of the Earth

Quarry of natural rocks within the citadel