NotSoSustainableSimon

Greetings readers,

I hope that things are all tickitty boo with you.

Well quick update I been in Cuzco for 4 days and tomorrow at 4 am I am off on a 5 day hike, again camping at 4000m and ascending a couple of 4800 passes.. nice and cold… anyhow its a quieter if somehwhat longer alternative to the Stinka Trail  – will update on any updates when I get back to Cuzco on Saturday – will have a whole day at Machu Pichu which will be fab.

Anyhow Cuzco is fab, beautiful if you like Inka and Colonial Spinich architecture. The first 2 days I signed up for a couple of excursions which kinda drive me a bit mad. Stuck in a minibus with 25 others getting whisked off to a load of sites, not having suufficient time at each and then accounting for everyones different bladder and lower bowel clocks the schedule becomes later and later.   The final site is then in pitch darkness so a complete waste of time and also pretty dammned dangerous as you are feeling and tripping your way round these sites the guide then shouts ´watch where you tread there´s a 300ft drop to your immediate left.. or ´be careful these things are very delicate – which ones – oh the ones I just trod on..´ etc.  Some great sites (the ones I saw in daylight at any rate) I would very much recommed a day trip (though from Cuzco rather than London/UK).

Today I got up at 7, hungover, and after 3 hrs sleep to witness the Inti Raymi (Sun Festival).  Just to fill you in the Inka´s didn´t believe in God (well the one we know as the `big G`) or Jesus or the 3 wise men or Father Christmas either. Rather they worshiped things like the Sun (so do i and I dn´t mean the tabloid), the earth, water, animals, birds, and fooball teams (i made the last one up). Of these the Sun is the most important.

Anyhow today was the day that all the little Inkas take part in the worshipping of the sun (whereas last night I was worshipping the cerveza and the mojito). So at 8 there is the first ceremony at this site in Cuzco – with the big chief Inka- he rocked, and about 400+ other inka helpers (i thought they looked like elves) all dressed up in their really colourful costumes. Anyhow I managed to get a ringside view of everything happening around me – wow indeed. Then there was a procesion with king Inka and the elves to the Plaza de Almas (not such a good view there) then up to Sacsayhuamán  which is the big temple about 400m climb above Cuzco. The temple is bloody amazing – made with MASSIVE blocks of granite all fitted together without a hairs breadth beween them. 

There was lots of dancing and praising to the Sun god (called Inti). It seemed to work as just before the procesion of Inka Inc. arrived it spotted with rain and as the ceremony progressed it cleared up and at the end it was fab sunshine. Anyhow I think he also must have also interested the  Wind God during his chanting, as all day I couldn´t stop ´blowing off´. It was really embarrassing and still hasn´t stopped. Any remedies??

So that´s it in a very snall nutshell. I am incommunicado till Saturday, possible mobile coverage – but doubtful unless Steve has pulled his finger out.

So love from Me and Inti the Sun God, hope he´s shining on you great people.

Si X

PS sorry for the poor, grammer, and spolling.. must try harder..

PPs Need to evacuate the building.. I have just dropped another really bad one one – i really can´t stop”!..

Hi Simonista´s

Sorry for the rant, but thanks to some bright young sparks here protesting and striking about the price of bare essentials for human existance, for a whole 24 hours, I had my climb up Chachani cancelled. Thus I have been here twiddling my thumbs and anything else I could find to hand, awaiting for tonights night bus to Cuzco where I have very much lucked out. 

I will arrive for the festival of Inti Rami  – some 5 day Inca sun and deity dance festival* that is supposted to be headdress and loinclothtastic but wait for it – Cameron Diaz is there too though I don´t reckon she will be staying at the same bedbug bitten hostal as I will be. Maybe otherwise I will probably just ´bump into here in the street – like in films.

Should be there a few days  will try to get an exclusive tour of Machu Picchu (Snrta Diaz and I) though I reckon the place will be swarming with bloody tourists (me inca – cluded – geddit!.. never mind..). From there to Lake Titicaca – theres a gag there I´m sure..

Anyhow any news at your ends?

Lots of Inca love

Si

X

* nothing like the dance tent at Glasto I´m affraid..

Howdy Doody Gringo´s and Gringa´s!

Well I am alive, which is a bit of luck. The hike was fantastic-  loads of snow and glacier covered mountains, azure and turqouis coloured lakes and not to many other hikers.

HuayHuash (in Quechuan the local lingo they don´t pronounce H so thus Why Wash(?)) – i didn´t, because the glacier fed mountain streams would freeze the cohones of a brassed-off monkey I thought better – so liberally applied Hydrocortosone cream to any part of my body that I suspected of breaking out into a potentially deadly skin complaint due to the pretty minging conditions. magine 9 days (over 65 hours) of hiking 2 changes of clothes and lots of walking, climbing, sweating, dust and animal poo. My clothes have been incinerated!

Well the scenery would blow the proverbial sock off of a long distanc lorry driver, pretty damn fine. 9 days without seeing a wheel or even getting any where near reception on a mobile (Steve can you get Orange to stick a few thousand unsightly transmitters over the area). It was great – feel a bit weird to be back in civilistion (though I often have the same feelings when returning to London from home in Wales.

We walked throgh massive landscapes which some people actually lived in 4 days walk from the nearest road, 5 days to the nearest village/town and 10 from the nearest Mc Donalds – call it backwards! On the last night we were invited by a local to eat lamb. Very kind we thought, then he asked if we wanted to chose which one from his flock then went about slaughtering, skinning, gutting and then getting his wife of 80 plus to cook it. We then were invited into their house (mud/stone construction, thatched roof and a doorway that you had to bend doube to get through). The poor lamb tasted mighty  fine having been liberally spinkled (whled dead and skinned) with special herbs and spiced though not according to the ´Colnels special recipe´). Couldn´t see what exactly what we were eating as there were no lights, windows and no cutlery either. I may have eaten the tweeter but I would never have known as I was eating blind.

Days were sunny and skies were blue nights were starry and black and bloody cold. I had a minus 10 sleeping bag, polar lining, thermals and still was really, really cold.

Food apart from the lamb was ok if you like carbs, though our guide and burro man did catch us a load of tiny trout which we ate like whitebait – don´´t knock it it could even catch on. The coca mate was my favorite. I  managed to drink about 2 litres a day plus chewing on a mouthful of coca leaves. This was fine for the first few days where I had bundles of evergy, after day 5 I think I had overdosed on the stuff and was in a right cranky way – though still increasing the amounts I was ibibing/chewing. I now have a coca dealer who delivers a full bin liner to my hotel every hour on the hour o keep me going(mum only joking!).

Mason – saw a few Condors and Gavilan (though didn´t hunt and eat them) and Stephen - you will be ashamed that we had donkeys to carry our ruck sacks, tents etc and the guide and Burro man even put the tents up and made dinner and washed up after! easy hiking – all for $250 (125 pounds for 9 days and they threw in a couple of excursions for this.

I didn´t realise until geting there there that one of the peaks we were to visit was Suila Grande – the peek that Joe Simpson climbed successfully then kind of unsuccessfully decended. It is blooming massive and I can see why it made such a great story as they were miles from anywhere.

Oh and I mearly maimed a horse I was riding- too long a story to tell here!

Im off to Arequipa tomorrow a nice journey of 20 hours though I am travelling luxury so that should be fine though if they play Mariachi all the way on the bus I will go ape! At Arequipa there is much more hiking can´t wait.

Hope you are all having a great summer.

Love

Simon

PS not sure if this posted – this is now 4 days later – in Arequipa, tomorrow big black toe permitting will scale a 6000+ m mountain… will keep you posted..

Hi wonderfool people,

Well I have achived stage 2 of my trip, arriving in the most beautiful peaks I have seen since casting my eyes on Linda Lusardi many moons ago – the Cordillerras Blancas (in english meaning White Cordless Drills).

Well after another endurance night bus journey from hell: 8 hours of maharachi video´s played full blast with the accompaniment of the locals with bad head colds busy hawking up sputum and gobbing in in the aisles  (not conducive to sleep – esp if you were one of the poor kids kipping on the floor).

Well I have got here and have signed up to a 9 day hike begining Wednesday) that will go round and over Huayhuash, supposed to be the second best hike in the whole mundo (I think the first best is the hike from Brixton Tube to the Ritzy – well certainly the most risky). Anyhow have seen foto´s and it looks landscapetastic (see link). The whole hike is consists a total climb of 7500m and we will go over a few passes at over 5000m, not to the top though which is over 6000m. One of the peaks in the range is the one that was used in the film ´Touching the Cloth/Void´ which is gioving me the heebie geebies just by thinking about it.

Tomorrow (tuesday) going hiking up to and in one of the glaciers at 5,300m (that s unless global warming hasn´t put paid to this plan by tomorrow morning!).

http://www.enriqueexpeditiontours.com/huayhuash_trek_en.htm

Wish me luck! Will probably be out of radio contact for about 10 days so hope you are all on top form.

Love,

Si X

PS Dad, thanks for the emails, unfortunatley when I reply it always bounces back. Hope it all goes well!

Hello all and Greetings from Peru! 

Currently in Trujillo, Peru, on the coast.

Having had my pelvis further smashed up following the horseriding I have spent 24 hours being bounced around a whole range of differing forms of road transport on roads that are more like riverbeds.

Heading through the mountains was a great idea until I found out that the roads were not just un-tarmacked but largely not there in the first place. So I eventually found an overnight bus to a big city (which equals roads) and will tonight get another night bus back into the mountains to Huaraz, a walking, climbing and sleeping mecca (that will be me) that are in the Cordilleras Blancas  there is supposed to be over 8 million (some exaggeration there) peaks over 6000m there so they will be good to look at if nothing else, as I am very pooped  indeed currently.

Today I visited a massive city (pre Inca)  40 km2 in size. It is called Chan Chan and was built with mud bricks. I am not an engineer, builder or architect  but I know that such structures get a bit muddy when wet. Anyhow. It was like visiting a bunch of sandcastles that had been lapped with waves, nothing much there apart from some indiscernable peaks and troughs. It would make a very good bmx race track.

So now I have another 9 hours to kill (not in a harrold shipman stylee) before I get on the next darned bus….

Hope you had a better Saturday!

Love, as ever

Si.

PS Peru is living up to its rip off reputation. Pretty much every transacion I have made I have been ripped off. My favorite today was getting charged nearly 4 dollars for a shoe clean (no extras). I got out the cash to tired to do the conversion and the bloke legged it. It was 4 am and I have just got off the night bus so wasn´t all there…