Up early today as we have a long drive ahead of us. An estimated 6hrs will be the journey time to our next hostel: La Casablanca De Mamayacchi in the Valle De Colca, in the village of Coporaque, hoping to arrive by 1pm in time for some lunch.

Although long, the journey was broken up by quite a few stops & the scenery, as always, was just breathtaking. Today we have learnt the difference between llama, alpaca, vicuna & guanaco. Before today I would have said – whichever one you showed me – it was a llama. However, having now seen each of them full on in yer face close up… I’m actually still not sure. Everyone else seemed to get it, but I think I’m just a bit slow.

I’ve got many many great pictures of the wildlife here. The birds are amazing. We had one stop where we were introduced to Andean Geese. I settled myself in to a good position, zoomed in to full lens extension, framed the shot & click. Got it. Great I thought. That’ll be a good one. It wasn’t until later on when I transferred my photos to my iPad & flicked through them that I realised what I’d actually taken a photo of was a white plastic bag 😐

John very kindly said I could have one of his. Thanks John.

I’ve been really pleased with my camera – I bought it just before coming away & I’ve got some great shots. Thanks Steve & gang for the pointer 🙂 Large Pisco Sour coming your way…!

Our guide for the journey to & through the Colca Canyon (tomorrow) is Daniel. He has an amazing knowledge. If I remember just a fraction (which is unlikely actually) of what he tells us, I’ll be able to bore you all for days. He’s really really interesting – & is very in touch with Mother Earth. He also looks like a Peruvian Keith Richards. But he is very cool. He has today told us all about the benefits of Coca leaves, so a number of us have bought some & will be trying them very soon no doubt. Maybe he is closer to Keith Richards than I first thought!

In order to get to our destination, we have to travel over the highest point of the Canyon – at 4910m. After we passed this point we stopped for a breather – which at over 4500m is harder than it sounds! There was lots of puffing & panting – & a fair bit of giddiness too – but Coca tea is apparently very good for all of this, so we each felt compelled to try it as we rested. Daniel said the best way to enjoy Coca tea was to leave the leaves (ha) in the boiling water, in the cup, with the saucer over the top of the cup for 10 minutes. Then, remove the saucer, give it a stir, & drink. We did as we were told. I have to say, it’s not my cup of tea – boom boom! No, seriously, it was rank.

For all of you out there that like your green tea & your herbal howsyourfathers, I’m sure you’d love it. But form me – a simple strong black coffee with 2 sugars guy – it just didn’t float my boat. So I went & bought a bottle of Coke & a packet of salted farver beans. Not that I’ve every had farver beans before, but I thought they were peanuts &, to be honest, I’d have eaten anything right then just to get rid of the taste!

With the taste of privet hedge leaves still lingering on my taste buds, we reboarded the bus & set off again.

The hostel was really really nice. Beautiful views of the Colca Valley all around & nice rooms too. The temperature is noticeably lower than it has been & there’s a wind too – not just Mike either! We arrived in time for lunch, so before we unpacked or got settled proper, we ate. The food was buffet – nothing labelled of course, my worst nightmare – but there didn’t appear to be anything that even remotely resembled a guinea pig or a cow’s udder, so I was happy to be adventurous. There was also an outside grill going, so after loading my plate with pasta & salad I headed out to see what was on offer. Chicken or alpaca – well, I had to try the alpaca didn’t I?! Llama to those, who like me, still can’t work out the difference. It was absolutely delicious. Quite salty, very ‘gamey’ – reminded me of venison a little. Very good for you apparently – no cholesterol, zero fat. Happy chappy 🙂

After a full tummy it was off to ‘unpack’ (it’s only ever pants & socks that get unpacked – the rest just gets swapped around a bit!). Mike had the first shower & reported it was ‘the best so far’ so I thought I’d have a go. BOY WAS THE SHOWER AMAZING! It about took my head off when I turned it on full! I stayed in for about 10 minutes jetting away all the aches of sitting on bus after bus for hours on end – &, for those who followed the Everest blog, I managed to stay conscious for the entire time! A true result indeed!

We weren’t due to meet up again until about 3:30pm when we would be going on a 2 hour trek through the valley – the first trek of the trip! I was very excited about this prospect. With a couple of hours to kill, Mike grabbed a catch up nap as he was feeling a bit ‘out of sorts’ with the altitude & we both had headaches. I thought to myself ‘if I lie down I won’t get up again!’ so I decided to catch up on the blog. There’s sadly no internet here, so this blog won’t reach you for a few days – it also means I won’t get to see any of your comments from the last few days, or my daily email from my Polly 🙁

Please keep your comments coming, they’re so nice to read & I’ve been sharing them with Mike & John too. You’re great company all of you, & it’s fantastic to have you along on the journey with us, so please send more!

3:30pm arrived & we gathered outside the hostel – boots & poles at the ready (except my poles are leaning up against the back door in Bushby where I left them) – & off we set. I’d forgotten just how hard walking up hill at low altitude was. It was only minutes before everyone was panting away. I really missed my poles, it was even harder without them. The walk had been described to us – in the words of Psang the Everest Sherpa – a little bit up, a little bit more up, a rest, some more up before a gentle walk down. We slipped in to a natural walking order & I felt exhilarated – it was great to be trekking again!

Shortly we came upon a couple of young Peruvin girls, in traditional costume, with an array of their local produce in front of them – not to sell, just to show us. Daniel explained what each thing was, varying from fruit to seeds. The girls were keen to sing for us, which was delightful. We thanked them & moved on. One of the group, Chris, wasn’t feeling too good, so he went back, but the rest of us carried on to complete the trek.

The views were spectacular. Looking across the valley, seeing thousands of terrace fields, a seemingly infinite array of colours changing across the landscape, the soaring peaks of the Andes mountains contrasting against a cloudless deep blue sky, the tiny villages beneath, the huge overhangs of rock above… just breathtaking.

I walked a while with Daniel up front – his knowledge I’d truly amazing – & he explained to me a lot of things & patiently answered my questions. I was keen to understand the time line of Pre-Inca & Inca, so he explained to me that Pre-Inca was around 500BC-1400AD & Inca was around 1400AD-1530AD. It was a vast race of people & no one really knows how they communicated because they had no written language at all. It was only with the arrival of the Spanish that a civilisation began.

It wasn’t long before we came upon an Inca cemetery. Sadly long since looted, but we were able to see how the graves would have been left. The mountain people created tombs in the rock overhangs & built them up using larger rocks too to make walls. Inside these they would lay their dead. On the eastern face of the mountainside obviously.

We returned to the hostel & settled ourselves in for the evening. Sadly quite a few of our number had started to suffer: Francis was feverish, Brianna was proper sick poorly, Ruth was struggling in a similar way but not quite as bad, a large number had started to feel the effects of the altitude with headaches & everyone generally was experiencing a real lethargy. And of course, the chorus had started! I’d forgotten all about that part of travelling at high altitude! I think Mike is coming in at about an F Sharp Minor, whilst I’m more of an E Flat. Everyone else is managing to keep it pretty much ‘under wraps’, but no doubt things will start to slip very soon… hopefully not too much though 😐

A 5:30am alarm call in the morning – together with today’s trek & the altitude acclimatisation – meant that everyone was pretty pooped & for the second night running I think everyone was out by 9:30pm. The sickies were in for a long night, so I really felt for them having experienced it myself on the Base Camp trek. But better they get it out of the way now in good time for the Inca Trail next week.

An F Sharp Minor & an E Flat later & Mike & I were kicking out the zzzzzzzzs…

Night all. Gb.