Peru: My Andean Adventures

I’m back from Peru! Or well, I have been for over a month now, but between moving homes (and not having wifi at home for nearly a month) and starting a new job, I’ll admit it has taken me a while to get down to writing this. In some ways though, I've also put this off because my time in Peru was my final trip of my pre-working life, and by finishing and publishing this blog, it felt like I had inked the final page of this chapter of my life. When considering my options for my “last hurrah”, I put a lot of thought into what I wanted to do. While most of my friends chose to travel around Europe, Japan or the US, I was desperate for one last adventure before settling down at a desk. Mongolia was very tempting, but I ended up gravitating towards South America, not just because it was so different to anywhere else I’d ever been to, but because of the long journey to and fro, I wasn’t likely to make that trip with limited leave days. When I found out that there was a The Travel Intern (TTI) tour to Peru, it felt like things had aligned perfectly, which is how and why I found myself so far away from home.

My trip was 28-29 days long, and it could be split into three sections: The Amazon leg, the Salkantay/Machu Picchu leg, and the solo leg. The first two trips were with TTI, while the solo leg was… well solo, and I explored the wider Cusco region as well as Lake Titicaca. In producing my post-trip content, I wanted to try something a little bit different with my Salkantay Trek blog, and to really dive deep into what happened and how I felt over those few days. With that said, while it was certainly an experience of a lifetime (the link is here if you haven’t seen it already), it was only five days out of the whole month, and I have so many other photos and experiences to share from my time in Peru. Here, I’d like to revert back to my classic blogging style and talk about each part of the trip, something I realise I’ve not done since my post about my time in France.

Amazon: 17-23rd June

To put things into perspective, if you google the antipode of Singapore, you’ll end up near the Peruvian border in Ecuador. Getting to the start line of this trip was an entire journey itself. From stepping into Changi Airport to landing in Iquitos, Peru (the gateway city into the Amazon), I estimate it was about 50 hours. 50 hours of waiting around in airports, cramped economy seats, overpriced (and mediocre) airport food and without showers or good sleep. What one wants at the end of that ordeal is a nice and relaxing few days to unwind and get used to your new environment. Instead, I found myself camping out in the world’s most (in)famous jungle.

As we meandered along the river and saw hundreds of birds take off, John William's Jurassic Park theme was playing in my mind.

Amongst all the various components of my itinerary, the Amazon was by far the one that people questioned the most. In many ways, I couldn’t blame them. Between the mosquito infestations, spiders the size of my fist and torrential rainfall, there were a fair few moments where I genuinely questioned what the hell I was doing there, and why I PAID to do this. Probably the best comparison to make is my time in the army, specifically my overseas training in Brunei, not helped by the fact that nearly every guy was wearing at least one article of army clothing. At least by Singaporean standards, I think I am pretty hardy and willing to get dirty, but there were some moments which were a bit much for even me, and especially for my gear. My camera took an absolute beating during these few days, and I was legitimately worried that it would not survive. My poor Fuji kit, more at home on the streets of Tokyo or London, barely survived, was truthfully a little out of its element. Even my normally trusty Peak Design bag was giving me problems, and after what was admittedly a heavy rainstorm, my heart sank when I felt that water had seeped through and my camera cubes were damp. Perhaps unlike my army days, where nothing I brought out had any personal value and I would’ve gladly chucked my bag into a river, constantly needing to worry about my gear was very draining.

Great Egrets - a very common sight where we were, which gave me a lot of chances to get a "good" shot

Looking back though, I think this leg of the trip is the one I have the most vivid memories of. I think there were so many moments where I had to remind myself that this was real. There were scenes which felt like b-roll for Jurassic Park, and some of the coolest experiences of my life. Even amongst people who have been to Peru, how many can say they’ve been piranha fishing (and then eaten the piranha), or gone swimming with dolphins in the Amazon River? Beyond just the experience itself though, I think the people truly made these few days enjoyable. After all, when you’re all huddled up in a sampan without signal, taking cover from a tropical shower wreaking havoc on your campsite, it’s hard not to bond. Whether it was huddling around to see if Amazonian spiders could swim (they can) or betting on the number of chops it would take to cut a log in half using a parang (machete), the bonds made what is otherwise a dangerous jungle into a playground of opportunities, laughs and stupid games. Thanks to our guides, we could afford to mess around most of the time, for despite all the “tough conditions”, we were never truly in any real danger, and even had several unexpected creature comforts like proper chairs and tables to eat on, mattresses for our tents, or even the occasional Starlink connection, providing us brief moments to send home photos and messages of “Hi, I’ve not been eaten yet”.

We spent a lot of time in boats of many different shapes and sizes.

Ica/Huacachina: 25th June

After leaving the Amazon, we had a day of R&R before heading off to Cusco to begin the trek to Machu Picchu. Starting with a 4am wake-up, we began our action filled day with a four hour drive to Paracas Nature Reserve, where we had a boat tour to see the Ballestas Islands. I didn’t expect much from the boat ride (or this whole day) photography-wise, and so I only just about convinced myself to bring my camera and my 23mm lens along. On the boat though, what started off as fiddling around with my camera soon became one of the most cohesive, if not necessarily impressive, sets of images I have. Perhaps to my ultimate benefit, but my lack of a long lens meant I couldn’t focus on shooting the marine life, and thus focused on the rock features and such. In terms of post-processing, I barely did anything to the photos, relying instead largely on the Fuji film simulations. This was a good reminder that images can be found anywhere, and while they may not be award winning by any stretch, it was a fun little challenge, and as described by a friend, the start of my “VSCO girly era” #nofilter.

After our boat tour, we were whisked away to lunch and a pisco tasting in Ica, the home of the world-famous alcohol - a rather fun experience. But the highlight of the day was left to last, where we found ourselves in the village of Huacachina and the surrounding sand dunes. Flying across the desert on buggies and down the dunes on boards, the adrenaline filled afternoon was then contrasted with a serene sunset in the sand. Takeaway pizzas and pastas collected, we hopped back onto the bus back to Lima, finally arriving back at the hotel just after 1am, dead tired but aware of what was coming next.

Lacking perhaps the sheer size of the dunes in Mongolia or Death Valley, the signature dune S-curve shots were definitely on, and I like the person (one of the fellow trip participants) providing some sense of scale.

Salkantay Trek: 27th June-1st July

There isn’t much I can say now to add to what I wrote in my in depth “diary” about the trek. As a brief preview, it tells the story of our five day trek along the Salkantay Trail, a 76km route towards Machu Picchu, and features epic landscapes, races against time, significant knee pain and plenty of Incan flats. If you haven’t had the chance to read it in full, I think it’s one of my best pieces yet, and would recommend doing so. In order to hopefully peak your interest, here are a few sneak preview images from The Salkantay Diaries.

Cusco: 4th– 7th July

King Pachacuti, arguably the greatest Incan. He was the one who ordered for the construction of Machu Picchu.

I was technically in Cusco before and after my Machu Picchu adventures, but I think I really got the chance to explore the city once I said goodbye to my new friends, and ventured back out on my own. Cusco was a lovely city, with a good mix of historical monuments from both the Incan and Spanish colonial periods, combined with many of amenities associated with a tourist and backpackers hub, as well as the nearest “major” city to Machu Picchu. While in Cusco, I was able to try a lot of genuinely authentic Peruvian dishes like cuy (guinea pig) and alpaca, but also enjoy a drink at the world’s highest Irish pub, watching France play Portugal in the Euros.

As much as there is to see and do within Cusco itself though, it truthfully was just my basecamp to make day trips from. During my two full days in Cusco, I made two day trips out into the wider region, and boy did neither disappoint.

5th July: Moray and Maras

I started the day at Moray (left), which was a former Incan agricultural terrace. Supposedly, the differences in height and exposure to the sun meant that each layer had its own microclimate, with the top and bottom being nearly 5 degrees apart. As such, these terraces were the Incan version of a wild laboratory, where different species of crops and especially potatoes were grown. Less than half an hour away lay the town of Maras, whose people own the 4,500 plots of salt, which produce over 3000 tons of salt per season. While every family has their own plot, the salt produced is effectively shared, with the profits being distributed amongst all the families. Interestingly enough, these mines pre-dated the Incas, and in fact neither the Incans nor the Spanish used these mines, and it was only much later that they regained significance.

I was on a day tour to both these locations, and so I don’t think I had the optimal conditions in the way of both light or time at either location. Still, for the first time this trip, it felt good to be travelling with photography as the primary intention. I spent a lot of time trying to find a human subject for a sense of scale, and if you zoom in real close you can see just how expansive both landscapes were. Unfortunately, with (idiot) tourists having damaged both sites, access was severely limited - you couldn’t climb down the terraces in Moray, nor could you walk along the salt mines in Maras. What a shame.

6th July: Palcoyo Rainbow Mountains

Behind Machu Picchu, probably the most famous location (at least on Instagram) in the wider Cusco area is the Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain. With close to 1,500 visitors a day (for reference Machu Picchu itself has about 5,000) all trying to jostle for the single viewpoint, it sounds like my personal version of misery. Instead, I opted to visit an alternate site, the Palcoyo Rainbow Mountains, which belong to the same mountain range as Vinicunca, but because it was a “newer” tourist attraction (with tours starting as recently as 2019), it only saw around 50 tourists a day. Much better. While Palcoyo probably lacks a single iconic shot like Vinicunca, there were three rainbow mountain to shoot along the whole trail along a relatively easy and pleasant trail, which my still aching legs very much appreciated.

With the llama images above (I THINK they were llamas, but I do sometimes confuse them for alpacas), we were in the van driving to the trailhead when we found a herd of llamas blocking the road, and a couple of farmers trying move them to a nearby field. Jumping out of the car to take photos, my documentary photography brain went into overdrive and I was completely fixated on trying to capture the scene in front of me, to the point where I had to be pulled aside because I was blocking the gate where the llamas were supposed to and I was going to be run over. The encounter was probably less than five minutes, but they are some of my favourite images from the entire trip.

I'll admit I don't fully understand the geology or the chemistry, let me try to explain the colours. From what I understand, over millions of years, the layers represented the different layers of sediments over time, which were brought up as tectonic plates came together to form the Andean Mountains. The colours come from the different layers, each with different minerals in the ground, being exposed to the elements. For example, the red areas suggest the presence of iron oxide (rust), while the yellow comes from iron sulphide.

Peru Rail TIticaca: 7th July

One thing people don’t realise is how big Peru is. To illustrate my point, you could fit Germany, France and Italy within the area of Peru, or about three Californias. Needless to say then, I spent a lot of time in transit this trip, whether by plane, van, car or boat. By far the most memorable mode of transportation was the train journey from Cusco to Puno, the gateway city to Lake Titicaca - so much so it gets it own special section in this blog. The Peru Rail Titicaca was an 11 hour luxury train journey between the cities, crossing the Andres. It was certainly not cheap, but after the last few weeks of largely “roughing it up”, I figured I’d treat myself a bit, and that this was a much nicer way of travelling than an overnight bus.

Arriving at the train station early in the morning, I “checked in” and handed my luggage off to an attendant. Stepping onto the train, the comment I sent to my friends was “I’m not sure I deserve this level of opulence”. Since I was a solo traveller, I was given a quiet seat in the corner, next to the window. As the train departed from Cusco, we slowly left the city behind and headed into the mountains. I spent my time rotating between admiring the views from the observation cart, watching the various dances and shows that the staff had put on and just relaxing and catching up on shows/Youtube videos. Food and refreshments were constantly being brought to my table, and aside from a few planned stops for a quick walkabout, it was a rare peaceful and relaxing travel day, and the first day in a while where I felt able to just completely decompress. The train rolled into Puno as the sun set, and I collected my luggage and headed off to my hotel for what was the final major leg of my trip.

Puno/Lake Titicaca: 8th-9th July

Two teenage boys moving a block, apparently made out of the root of the totora reed, which forms the base of every island. Despite its size, these blocks float, and therefore can support the weight of multiple families.

At approximate 3,800m above sea level, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. Connecting Peru and Bolivia, this lake is more than 8000km² - for my Singaporean friends, you could fit 11 Singapores in there, with room to spare. What was I doing on this massive and high lake, you might ask. Well, as I was deciding on my itinerary, one of the things most recommended both online and by the few friends who had been was to do a homestay on Lake Titicaca. As such, I found myself on my final mini adventure for the trip.

Over the day and a half I was on Lake Titicaca, I visited three islands. The first island, or “island”, were collectively known as the Uros floating islands, and were made entirely out of totora reeds. There were probably a few dozen of these islands, each housing a couple of families. These reeds are the lifeblood of this community, providing a source of food, medicine and literally the islands that they live on. It was very obvious that these islands had all been set up for tourists and moved closer to the “entry point” of Lake Titicaca tours, but it was still quite cool learning about such a different and unique way of life. Like trying to remove water from a sinking boat, their lives were a never ending game of replacing the reeds on their islands, with a new layer lasting a month or two before sinking into the water.

The people on Amantani Island, especially the men, were all very well dressed. I was very tempted to get a hat while I was there.

Next up, we headed to Amantani Island, which is where we were going to do our homestay. We were divided into various groups and passed off to our host families, and I was with two Spanish men (who I were almost definitely together) approximately my age. I realised quite quickly that nobody local on the island spoke a single word of English (not even hello or thank you), and so having two Spanish speakers meant that there was at least some level of communication possible. With the Spanish men acting as my translator, my host told me that I was the first Singaporean and maybe even the first Asian tourist he had ever hosted, and he was very confused that I spoke English and not Chinese (or Japanese). After a lovely homemade lunch with our host family, we went on a quick hike to the top of Amantani Island - I was still sore from the Salkantay Trek (mind you, it had already been nearly 2 weeks by this point) but luckily it was quite relaxed walk. On the top of the island stood a mini church, and apparently there was a tradition where if you held Coca leaves (which were given to us) and walked around the church three times in an anti-clockwise direction, you could make up to three wishes. In the evening, we were invited to a dance, with local musicians playing a combination of traditional and more popular music. It was a lovely evening, although you can imagine how awkward I was dancing to Spanish songs I did not know with two Spanish gay men and their two friends, two Colombian women (I have no idea if they were together).

The next day, and the final island, were honestly pretty unremarkable. I think looking back at that experience, I find myself wondering whether the experience felt a little bit too polished. On one hand, it was very clear that the tourism money was being used to upgrade the islands and improve the people’s lives, but I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like 10 or even 5 years ago. According to some youtube videos I had seen before the trip, even a few years ago there weren’t any roads or electricity on the island. Of course it is great that people’s standards of living had improved, but the fact that seemingly all these islands had seemingly dedicated themselves solely to tourism and providing an “experience” for tourists like myself, it’s made me really think about what life was really like there before, and perhaps what had been lost.

Conclusion:

My last few days in Lima were fine, but I think by this time, I was starting to feel ready to go home. Truth be told, I did try to do a small photography project in Chinatown, Lima, but I don’t think it panned out - while I think it was a reasonably interesting idea, I didn’t feel like it was something I could pull off, and certainly not in one morning. The idea was based around the influence of Cantonese food on Purvian cuisine (due to a large wave of Chinese immigrants for labour in the mid to late 1800s, there is quite a large Chinese population in Peru). If you walk into most Peruvian restaurants and order a “lomo saltado”, it’s pretty much just a wok fried beef. Peruvian and Chinese cuisine had fused into something called “chifa” food (which likely originated from " 吃饭“), and it was something that I thought would have been interesting to explore. However, walking around Chinatown (which interestingly is the furthest major Chinatown away from mainland China) for a morning, I couldn’t quite find the spark I needed to push this idea forward. Maybe it’s something which needs more research and time to do, but it didn’t quite work out during my brief time in Lima.

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I think at this juncture, there are two final things which I think are worth writing about. For much of the trip, I think I felt like “oh I don’t think I got anything portfolio worthy” or “yeah these are fine, but nothing special”. Now that I’ve had time to process both the events of trip and the photos which came with it, I must say I am really proud of what I have produced from the trip. Between this blog and the Salkantay Diaries, I think that’s well over 50 images which I am happy and proud to share - a far cry from previous trips, where I’d have like 5 portfolio images, but nothing else to share and say. I think I do like the direction my photography is going in, where it is becoming more story driven, but without giving up on the emphasis on the aesthetics. I’ve written a lot about this idea of intentionality in photography, and I think this trip showed me that it is possible to embrace being intentional with when and why I shoot, but also being able to be on the move and immersing myself into my environment, and critically, being happy and present in the moment. Other than the astrophotography on the first evening of the Salkantay Trek, I don’t think I used my tripod once - and I think this probably is another indicator that my style and approach to photography is changing. Even in Madeira, not even 18 months ago, it was something that I’d whip out at every chance, not just because I was convinced it would lead to sharper images, but also because it forced me to slow down and be more intentional. Let’s see how this develops.

As I mentioned at the start, since getting back from Peru, a lot has changed. Primarily, I now am a working adult (gasp shock horror). The phase of life where I had time and energy but no money is now over, and the era where I have (some) money and energy but no time begins. While obviously I am as keen as ever to travel and to photograph the world, I honestly don’t know what happens next, and what I am going to be able to do. As of the time of writing, I am only about a month or so in, and so maybe I really haven’t felt the full effects yet. Perhaps this is something to think about and reflect on for next blog. Till next time.