Expedition to Peru

Expedition to Peru

by Dawn Bowden

A mixture of excitement, nerves and apprehension were on display as the group of 12 students from Appleby Grammar School, Cumbria, and 3 leaders gathered at Heathrow airport on the 4th of July. After 18 months of countless car boot sales, coffee mornings and other fundraising events in order for each student to reach their individual target of £1900, we were finally going to Peru for 24 days! We had a 2 hour flight to Madrid then 11 hours to Lima so it seemed like we were travelling for ever! We continued our journey at 4 o'clock the next morning when we flew to Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital. We saw sunrise over the Andes from the plane which was worth the early start.

The first day in Cuzco was spent acclimatising to the altitude (3600 metres above sea level). This meant lots of rest and lots of drinking water. Later that day we ventured out into the town and admired the Plaza de Armas, (the main square), with its cathedral and church, cobbles streets and stone arches.

The next day was spent at a local market in the town of Pisac, an hours bus journey from Cuzco. The bus journey was, lets say interesting! It was a little 26 seater bus which they managed to fit about 50 people on! Later that day we visited Sacsayhuaman on the hillside above Cuzco, better known to Europeans as "Sexy Woman" because of its pronunciation. The old city of Cuzco is said to be built in the shape of a Puma and Sacsayhuaman is the eye of this Puma. Here we saw the traditional Inca walls, with stones weighing up to 130 tonnes:

The next few days were spent on the Inca trail, on our way to Machu Picchu. It was a four day trek and included the famous 'dead woman's pass' (Wayllabamba) at 4200m on the second day. The height gain that day was equivalent to climbing Ben Nevis! This presented a few minor health problems gaining so much height at that altitude but by the time we reached camp that day everyone was fine again. Throughout the trek we saw some amazing scenery and fantastic views of the surrounding Andes. The third day took us past several Inca ruins and archaeological sites and over another, lower pass, near the impressive ruins of Sayacmarca, meaning 'dominant town'. From here the highest mountain in the Cuzco region, Mt. Ausangate, can be seen in the distance.

After Sayacmarca we went through some amazing jungle-like terrain where we saw different vegetation and life ranging from lizards to humming-birds. We reached the third pass on the trek then proceeded down 3500 steps (!) to our last camp, WinayWayna. The fourth day brought an early start so that we would reach Machu Picchu by sunrise. We set off walking about 5am by head torch and reached Intipunku (better known as the sun gate) by 6:30 where we got our fist breathtaking sight of the famous Machu Picchu. We carried on walking towards Machu Picchu as the sun came up and cast over the ruins.

The picture below right is of the group at Machu Picchu. I am third from the left (standing with grey top). After a tour of the ancient city from our guides, Vida and Elios, about half of the group decided to go to the top of Wayna Picchu, which is the tall mountain towering behind Machu Picchu. It was extremely scary coming back down with huge drops to the side of very narrow steep steps but the view of Machu Picchu from the top was worth every minute. Afterwards we took the bus down to Aguas Calientes and visited the hot springs, a welcome treat! That night we returned to Cuzco by train.

White water rafting on the Urabamba River was on the agenda for the next day which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. However we had a valuable but emotional experience that evening when we visited the Mantay project in Cuzco which is a residential centre for teenage mothers, all of whom have been abused, many by members of their own family, and abandoned to fend for themselves and their young children. The project houses girls, some as young as 12 and their children from Cuzco and surrounding villages. The project aims to educate the girls and provide them with the skills to support themselves and their children in the future. It was very sad to see girls much younger than ourselves working so hard to raise children with no money and very little in terms of materialistic values.

The project is entirely funded by donations from overseas and survives month by month. It is currently facing eviction from the house and is raising funds to build a new centre nearby. One story that particularly touched our hearts was that of a 14 year-old mother with a 1 year-old daughter. The daughter has a heart defect and there is not enough money to send her somewhere where she can get the medical attention she needs. This means that she will probably not live long. Whilst at Mantay house we played with the children and tried to communicate with the mothers, which was very difficult because of the language barrier. We left a large collection of children's clothes and toys and gave a modest financial donation to the project.

I think visiting this project made us realise just how lucky we are to have families that love us and to live comfortably.

The next part of the expedition was spent in the Puno region, south of Cuzco, where we visited Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable lake in the world). It is 120 miles long and 50 miles wide at its widest point. For me personally the lake and its islands was one of the highlights of the expedition. Here we were seeing communities live traditionally in a completely self-sufficient manner, completely undisturbed by tourism as much of Peru is. We took the boat from Puno out into the lake and visited the floating Uros reed islands where direct descendants of the Uros Indians live. The people of the islands use the totora reed for everything. The island is built of it, their houses and boats are made with it, they cook with it and even eat it. It was quite surreal stepping onto the islands, knowing people really do still live like this. Kind of like stepping back in time.

We then moved on to one of the major island on Titicaca, Tequile island. The island is totally unspoilt by tourism and is completely unique. The island is owned by the people that live there so there is little interference from the Peruvian government. The island is small, therefore there are no vehicles on it. There is also no crime on the island so there are no dogs or police. Again, the communities on Tequile are completely self-sufficient. We spent a night on the island in tiny rooms with broken doors and rickety windows! The next day we sailed back to Puno again. The last part of the expedition was spent in the Cordillera Blanca region, based at the town of Huaraz (north of Lima). The first two days we were there were spent doing community work with children in a shanty town on the edge of the town. Huaraz was completely destroyed in an earthquake 30 years ago and one man, who lost everything and had to rebuild his life, has decided to work with a select group of young children (aged 8 to 11), teaching them skills for them to be successful and build a better life for themselves in the future. We played games with the children and taught them English songs. Many more children from the shanty town came to join the group to play with us and we had a massive football match. We were having great fun until we realised the 'stream' that the ball kept going into was in fact raw sewage! Again we left a collection of children's clothes and pencils which were received very gratefully. Below are three of the children living in the shanty town:

After two enjoyable days we set off on the last part of our expedition, a 6-day trek in the Cordillera Blanca. After a three hour bus journey up some lets say… interesting roads, we arrived at Cashapampa, the start point where we met up with our donkeys/mules. The first day was awful as many of the team members were ill with stomach bugs and we were trekking up quite steep terrain in the midday heat and with no shade! We were also being eaten alive by mosquito's and midges! We were extremely pleased to reach camp and to get some rest. Our sleep was rudely disturbed at around 1am when the donkeys decided to invade camp and start eating anything we had left outside the tents! A bit of chasing around and shouting and we soon learned not to leave anything outside! Day two was much better as we were getting used to walking again and we were able to find shade whilst walking. This day took us along the Santa Cruz valley and past a glacier lake and many snow capped mountains above us. A step climb brought us to our second camp at the foot of the Punta Union pass:
	We all knew the third day would be a tough day as we went up and over the Punta Union, a pass with a height of 4750 metres above sea level. A huge sense of achievement was felt by everyone when we arrived at the top of the pass and saw the amazing views of the two valleys and the mountains surrounding. We were then able to descend into the valley and along to our campsite. It was a long day and it was dusk when we arrived so the tents went up in virtual darkness!
Day four saw us ascend out of the valley again, passing through several hillside villages with smiling faces and friendly waves from the children. We reached the small town of Vaqueria where we had our lunch before continuing to camp. We arrived to camp early afternoon so we enjoyed a rare wash in the river whilst the sun was still out! The final day of walking took us over the second high pass, similar in height to Punta Union, which was extremely steep and tiring on already tired legs, and down into the Llanganuco valley where we camped near the head of Lake Llanganuco. The next day we caught the bus back to Huaraz for much needed hot showers(!), stopping off at the lakes along the way. The final few days of the expedition were spent in Lima doing last minute shopping, and making good use of McDonalds!

I WOULD LIKE TO SINCERELY THANK THE COLIN GRAHAM TRUST FUND FOR HELPING ME RAISE THE FUNDS TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN SUCH AN AMAZING, ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE.