Lima, Quito and Bogota - capital comments

Each of these South American capitals were stop over type trips where I would spend a few days having downtime before or after the places I was prioritising my time (southern Peru, Galapagos, Caribbean coast). Therefore I went with lowered expectations and did very little research.
Lima was the first capital visit. I stayed in the area of Miraflores which was a long long time in a taxi, maybe 90 minutes. This is a big social area in Lima, with restaurants, bars and big shopping areas. It is also a short walk to the beach.
There are also some ruins from the time of the Lima people  (predating the Quechua people ) these ruins showed incredible building intelligence as many old ruins do. This place was build with bricks laid out in bookcase style. This is important as it was earthquake proof, a common problem in the region. This meant that the damage to the pyramid ruin was wear and tear and not due to movement of the earth.
I spent the next 5 hours walking along the beach and through the neighbourhoods alongside the beach. The beach is nothing to write home about. Colour was not great, and are mainly pebble beaches (if you call pebbles beaches). Also lots of failed building projects or areas in disrepair even though the area is popular in summer. Walking through some of the neighbourhoods was nicer, especially the Barannco area which had a lot of well preserved colonial buildings. Lima definitely had a big city feel though! Very chaotic and spread out over a big distance.
Quito was my next capital. From what I had been told, it was a dangerous place and not really worth the time. But I wanted to stand on the equator, so planned a few nights there. After my first afternoon I was enamoured by the place. Quito is located up in the mountains and has a beautiful active volcano just a few hours away. It is apparently the highest peak in the world when measured from the earth's core. So an impressive mountain. The historical centre was really lovely. Would challenge a lot of old towns in Europe with its architecture and it's preservation. Also, as i was staying in a smaller hostel where everyone knew everyone, it was the nights I decided to party properly and dance! Both nights were great fun, and it felt safe, even when walking home at 5 am alone. The first night was the highlight as I was befriended by locals and went back to a house party when the clubs closed.
As well as this I did the equator monument which was good to check out, but a non affiliated museum next door based on where the old civilisations thought the equator is was much more interesting and informative and they did a bunch of tests to try and prove where the equator is, including the draining water test. (The direction of the swirling is true if you had doubts). On the final day, I headed up a gondola in the city that takes you to 4000m, and from there you can walk as high at 4700m. I didn't have the time to get to the top, but I did quite enjoy the altitude.
I flew from Quito to Bogota. Bogota again is a big city, and feels like it. It also feels a little unsafe, but a lot of this is due to the tourist area also being a common area for crime, especially at night. While in the old town I witnessed 5 police beating a guy who was carrying drugs and tried to fight an escape. The locals seemed to feel that even if he hadn't tried to escape he would of got beaten as police brutality is apparently a problem in Bogota especially.  The main thing I did in Bogota, other than walk around the old town, which was not very impressive, was to do the graffiti tour. This tour was excellent and a lot of detail was provided about the artists, and the meanings behind the images. There was also a lot of information about the politics of the city and how far Colombia still has to go to be deemed as a successful and stable country. Definitely worth the time. I do have one more night in Bogota at the end of my time in South America, but not sure what I will do. Probably a day trip outside the city.

Galapagos Islands

This will be difficult to write. It really is hard to explain this place in words, but I will try.
Heading into Ecuador, a lot of people had not said much about the country, focusing mainly on giving me tips on Peru and Colombia. Any advice I got was usually negative comments regarding Quito. So I thought about my options, knowing that my easier route from Peru to Colombia was via Ecuador, or, flying direct from one to the other. I preferred the option of at least visiting Ecuador, so looked up flights to Galapagos, and to my surprise, the tickets were cheap!
So hurray! I'm of to the Galapagos and once I arrived I had realised I made a big mistake! I should have booked much more time there then I did (actually a theme of Ecuador, as I loved Quito also).
So the best thing to do was to stick to doing activities based only on the island I flew onto. This meant giving at least some time in one place instead of spreading my time out a seeing virtually nothing.
Driving from the airport across the island of Santa Cruz demonstrated the uniqueness of these islands almost immediately. The north was quite barren with a lot of volcanic rock and some vegetation, kind of like parts of Tongariro national park. The middle of the island was the highlands as you travel up the volcano  (dormant). This area was wet with plenty of vegetation or pasture lands. The lowlands to the south had more of a tropics feel to it and seemed to be the direction that bad weather traveled from. The other islands also have their own different ecosystems with 2 of the islands having active volcanoes.
The greatest thing I discovered about the island is just how much wildlife there is, and the lack of fear they have of people just wandering around. We are not seen as a threat to them. This includes the animals in the sea. I went diving, and the sharks don't care, the turtles come right up to you to check themselves in your mask, the sealions play, fish continue what they are doing. Really quite remarkable. From talking to others, this was exactly the same for snorkeling. In fact, as a snorkeler, you have a very high chance of seeing sharks, turtles, penguins, mantarays, marine iguanas and sealions. The benefit divers have is seeing hammerheads, dolphins, whale sharks, and other things that live in the more open sea. I also watched a pod of about 50 dolphins do flips alongside the boat, saw galapagos penguins standing, and species of ray jumping up out of the water.
Without even diving, at night on the town pier you can see baby sharks and sting rays, and a few sealions play around and I even saw a turtle swim past.
Being in Galapagos, there are two must do things that may seem a bit boring, if you do not understand the scientific significance. One is to see the giant tortoises in the wild, and each island has its own subspecies, or had... You can of course go to the research centre to see them, but they are very young ones and do not show all the behaviours you will see in the wild.
The other thing to do is to try and spot any variations in the finches. I was only on the one island, but managed to see a couple of different finches.
The islands are a magical place with an abundance of animals. I tried to see as many as I could in just a few days, but it's tough. There is so much! Was glad I got a taster, but would certainly have the islands on my list as a place I have to return too. Lots more islands to see. Anyone traveling to South America needs to consider this as a must do. Even on a tight budget, it is worth sacrificing other things to go.

Arequipa

My last big adventure in Peru was to head down to Arequipa. This town is beautiful with snow capped volcanoes in the background, and the journey there really gives you the sense of getting into the Andes. The main purpose for coming here was to visit Colca Canyon, a place recommended by a number of friends, as well as backpackers in Cuzco.
The journey started with a bus ride through a national park where as a group we saw hundreds of vicuna, llamas and alpacas. At 4000m we had a stop to take photos of the the snow capped mountains surrounding the area, including part off the Chilean Andes.
In the afternoon we arrived in Chavey where we were staying over before the journey to the canyon. A nothing town really. Quite run down and somewhat remote. They did have hot springs a little out of town, so I relaxed in those for an hour.
The next morning was an early start, and I really do hate early mornings. 5.30am! We started on the journey to Colca Canyon via some random town to watch local people do some sort of dance around a fountain to win a mate. Due to the number of  tourist buses stopped there, it was obviously for show. And pointless.
After a few hours of driving through some stunning scenary, we arrived at the Condor cross, our destination. From here we sat in different spots admiring the canyon and waiting. We were waiting to see Andean Condors. Big scavenging birds. Some times though, they don't come while you are there.... fortunately one came. And it was amazing watching it soar through the air. And then many more came! And some sat on a rock about 8 metres from me. Quite mesmerising. I could of watched for hours. But we only had an hour :/ we then had to drive all the way back to Arequipa with a lunch stop.
In Arequipa i had a 2 hour break before the night bus back to Cuzco.
Definitely a worthwhile trip!

Machu Picchu

After many years of talking about getting to Machu Picchu, but then traveling elsewhere, I am finally doing it, ticking off one of my top bucket list items.
Unfortunately  (or perhaps fortunately due to my ambivalence towards camping) I decided not take take the risk of a multi day walk due to my tendonitis in my knee. Both the Inca and Sankantay trails look amazing, but I'd rather be the guy that takes the train, then the guy who has to sit on the donkey if the knee struggles.
So that's what I did, I trained from Ollantaytambo, a town that is almost 2 hours from Cuzco (or a 10 sole ride). The train is very relaxing, and shows of a lot of beautiful scenary, as well as parts of the Inca trail. The train ends in Agua Caliente, a town that exists purely to accommodate the tourists to Machu Picchu. It is a town of hotels, markets, restaurants and souvenirs. It is also where I would catch the bus to Machu Picchu the next morning.
I get up very early the next morning to see if I can get to the top to watch the sun rise. But that plan backfired when I saw the line to get on the buses. A nearby tour guide mentioned to his people that the line was longer than anything he had seen before. The reason for this was because it is free to Peruvians on a Sunday (or this particular Sunday, and quotas don't apply to locals) and it was the weekend after the Inti Raymi festival, so many more people were in the Cuzco district.
I got to the top by 8 and my first impressions were how well intact the site is. The Spanish hadn't managed to destroy it as the Quechua people had hidden many parts of the Inca trail, making the place inaccessible and therefore 'undiscovered' for centuries.
I headed straight to the sun gate, the entry into Machu Picchu from the Inca trail. Unfortunately, I was unable to experience the same wow factor the walkers would have got when they came through the gate, as I had already seen the main site on my way up to the gate. Once I spent a few minutes at the gate, I headed to Mõntana or Machu Picchu Mountain. This was a very steep climb, that was 1600m higher then the starting point. Probably one of the more difficult climbs I have done due to the altitude and my lower than usual fitness levels. It took me an hour, which was good time, and was rewarded with 5 minutes of good views until the view was clouded over.
After the mountain, I felt exhausted, but there was still so much to see. So I headed to the Inca bridge, which was the last part of an Inca trail before nature took over the path. Good job too. The path that existed after the bridge looked perilous! Lastly I finally headed into the main area that you always see in photos. This involved visiting temples, store houses, sacred stones and walking amongst all the terraces. Spectacular! I also had to get out the way of some llama who were walking on the same path as me at a faster speed.
Although exhausted, once I left the site, the queues to the buses were again very long, so I decided to walk back to the town knowing it was downhill and only an hour. I ended up in the middle of an extended Peruvian family, so my walk was trying to keep speed with 80 year olds, women carrying babies, and fathers with kids on their shoulders. Damn those Peruvians know how to walk!
At the bottom I headed into a restaurant to eat, and 5 minutes after entering, it poured with rain for over an hour. Good timing! Finally the day ended with a train back to Cuzco where I crashed out almost immediately after 35km of walking! Was certainly a worthwhile bucket list item!