Inca walls

We finally got our bit our tourism in today. We headed out of the centre up the mountains to the old Inca fortress of Sacsaywaman. Inca walls are an incredible feat, huge boulders fitted together so tightly you can't slide a piece of paper between, and not a sign of any kind of cement to hold them so tightly! Sadly we didn't have a ticket to get in amongst the ruins so wandered up the hill opposite to get some good pictures.

We then did a bit of touristy shopping, although mostly to buy warm clothes for the cold nights ahead. Today was our last day in the comfort of the city, and possibly the last day with internet for a while! Tomorrow lunch we are being driven to Wayquecha, the first, and most comfortable of our field sites. With hot showers and a chef it promises to be something of a luxury. The internet is intermittent so I am not sure how often I can post updates. If nothing else tomorrow, the drive promises to be spectacular!

Illness

Im finally out of bed after 36 hours! I caught some nasty stomach bug, kept me in bed firstly through illness, then through recovery sleep! Im feeling much better now. Hopefully I can brave the outside world again soon. Its been a shame as we had planned to do some sight-seeing over the weekend while we were waiting for supplies to arrive.

Differences

Inspired by my first coffee since arrival, I started thinking about small differences in the day to day things really are here compared to home.

For example, in the morning the shower water is heated by an electric head. When in full flow, contact with the metal tap results in mild electrocution, since the only way to control temperature is though flow rate, one is faced with the dilemma of having a barely warm shower with reasonable flow rate, or a mild electric shock and a warm shower with very slow flow rate.

Then we get to breakfast, and milk in packets. All milk sold in bottles is flavoured, so for my cereal I buy packets of milk. Although this sounds insignificant I didn't think to transfer to a bottle and attempted pouring from the packet, resulting in quite a mess!

Then to the most obvious difference, the complete lack of McDonalds or Starbucks (so far)! This is possibly the first country I have ever been to where there is no McDonalds, Im undecided as to whether this is good or bad. The lack of Starbucks is disappointing, and made worse because almost all coffee served here is instant. Tea, it seems, is the drink of choice. Coca tea, especially. This is another fun point, because in Peru and Bolivia it is possible to buy coca leaves (unlike the UK), you can chew them or brew them. Either way you get a mild dose of something very similar to cocain (apparently you have to add an alkali to get the real thing)! Its the most popular remedy for altitude sickness, and tastes quite nice, so we have been drinking quite a bit.

Corpus Christi

Today was the day of the big festival, and it lived up to expectations. Plaza de Armas was filled with people as the different 'schools' paraded their statue around to music and dancing and amazing costumes.

As I said yesterday we returned for lunch to the square selling guinea pig, technically "Chiriuchu" available only during the festival. Apart from guinea pig the meal included chicken, fish eggs, sausage made with potatoes and the insides of the guinea pig, corn bread, corn, seaweed and cheese. My bit of guinea pig was the back leg, and came with some fur still attached!!! I managed to eat most of the meat, and it tasted nice, but the fur did ruin my appetite a bit! The fish eggs were much worse though.

We also stopped in a local bar on the way home to sample the chicha, a home-made brew from maize. It comes in big glasses, and tastes unlike anything else I can think of. The bar was typical South American, simple with little decoration and a small crowd of friendly locals. It did have a TV, showing some terrible karaoke style singing to Peruvian music, made more cheesy when llamas occasionally wandered onto the set! At least the locals seemed to be enjoying it, maybe its the Peruvian equivalent of Pop Idol...

Exploring the City

Today we really got to see Cuzco, walking around for 7 hours! The city is typically Latin American, not least because there always seems to be an excuse for a party. Today was the warm-up day for Corpus Cristi tomorrow. There was a huge, very colourful parade, lots of amazing costumes (especially given the heat) and plenty of music and dancing. If this was just the warm up, tomorrow promises to be very exciting.

I think because of the festival one large square in town is given over entirely to Chiriuchu food, this is a kind of outdoor barbecue, serving mainly (spicy) guinea pigs! Also including beer, chicha and corn bread! Strolling round the square I estimate around 250 guinea pigs had been sacrificed (I have photographic proof for anyone who wants to see). We found this place shortly after dinner, so did not sample, but will probably return tomorrow.

We spent the rest of the day shopping, largely unsuccessfully, for equipment we need to take to the field. We did find a great local market down the road, very handy for buying ingredients for dinner. I also had my first Bromeliad sighting! A small plant had fallen into the litterfall traps and made its way back to HQ!

Cusco

He llegado en Cusco! (is that correct?) I have to make an effort to improve my Spanish. Its been a long day (literally due to crossing a few time zones), but I am now drinking Cusquena beer in the project headquarters, technically a house, but more like a herbarium with beds. Still its very comfortable and we cooked a nice dinner, despite buying bananas which turned out to be plantain (so much for being botanists!!!).

Flying over the Andes (twice) and the Amazon was pretty spectacular. We barely made the connecting flight in Lima, and we were rushed through all the stages at super-high speed. It was awsome to skip all the queues, turning up at airports late has its advantages!

We had a small exploration of Cusco in the evening, the city is big and lively, and apparently everyone is preparing for the Corpus Christi (Ascension day) festival in two days. Oddly this is bigger than the Champions League final (!) which is on tomorrow lunchtime.

Madrid

I have now got as far as Madrid, after the stress of leaving I slept for most of the bus journey/flight. The hotel is vast, and very grand, but named one of its conference suites "The Birmingham Room" !!!

Anyway, this seems like a good time to thank everyone who helped me pack and leave. The stress of packing for 3 months fieldwork and moving out of my room was tough. Without the kindness of all of my friends this would have been a nightmare. I would like to say thankyou to you all personally, hopefully I can do this later.

One little story, on the kindness of strangers, at the airline check-in, my luggage was over the allowance, and my 120 litre expedition bag 5 kg over the limit they allow on a plane (37kg to the 32kg maximum!). With the help of a lady managing queues I got through, with no excess charge! I am suspicious that we might have defied the laws of physics to achieve this.

Off to Lima tomorrow, early wake up call...

Starting my blog

This is the first time I have tried blogging. Hopefully it will allow me to keep people up to date with my life in the Peruvian Andes! It is meant for anyone to read, and I welcome, infact encourage comments. Hopefully I can post a few photos too. Anyway, I am leaving tomorrow so I should get back to packing...