Peru

9th March 2009 -Lucy´s Dad´s 60th birthday and the day we started the Inca Trail. We had made our way up to Cusco, via the town of Puno and enjoyed a couple of nights of peace before the start. The first thing we noticed was that the two of us looked the most unfit out of the entire group, the second was that everyone else was either from Oz or NZ and we were the only Brits.



The first day was fairly easy and we arrived at our first campsite quietly relieved, but also dreading the next day which we had been told was the hardest of the 4 - the infamous Dead Woman´s Pass at 4200m. And they weren´t kidding. Four and a half hours uphill, no wonder that woman is dead. Rob miraculously found a new source of energy through chewing Coca leaves and turned into Speedy Gonzales, whilst Lucy stuck to Red Bull, Kit Kats and the power of music through Rob´s mum´s ipod. We still don´t know how we made it through that day.



Unfortunately that night Lucy had a few toilet troubles (we´ll spare you the details) and didn´t get much sleep, and felt like absolute crap the next day. So that was a barrel of laughs, considering the first part of the day was uphill again. On the plus side, the scenery was starting to get a lot prettier - we were walking through jungle and rainforest, with streams running alongside the trail. We arrived at our final campsite (where there was a bar!) about only 1 hour from Machu Picchu.



We had a really early start the next morning, 4am, we thought this was so we could get there for sunrise, but in was in fact so the porters could get home at a reasonable time. Bless them though, the porters are bloody amazing - carrying all our stuff for us and actually running the trail! We all chipped in some money to give to them on the last night, as they don´t get paid very much.



We finally arrived at the Sun Gate which is the entrance to Machu Picchu, and as we climbed the last few steps, absolutely exhausted, knowing that we had actually completed this mammoth 4 day trek what did we see? The magical Lost City of the Incas? Nope, a big bunch of cloud. Fantastic! Thankfully it did start to clear so we did actually get to see Machu Picchu. We had a guided tour of the ruins and were then given the option to climb the peak of Huayna Picchu. We had both said at the beginning that we would do it, but as there was still a bit of cloud around, that was enough for us to say ´It´s probably not worth it!´ We walked around a bit longer and then made our way down to Aguas Calientes where we were catching the train back to Cusco. A few people in our group decided to buy in a few boxes of wine for the journey, and we thought that was a brilliant idea. It certainly brightened up the 4 hour journey, even if we did get told off by the guards 3 or 4 times for being too loud. Sleeping in a proper bed that night, and having a decent shower was the best thing ever.



The next day we made our way to Nasca, to see the famous Nasca Lines. However, we didn´t realise we´d have to get in a plane that only seated 5 - and that includes the pilot! Although pretty terrifying, at least we didn´t throw up, and it was definitely worth it. We stayed a night in Nasca as we felt too frazzled to travel again the same day, and the next day we made the journey up to Lima for our final night in Peru.



We hadn´t left enough time to see Lima, although we did see some of it as we were driving through that night. Our stupid taxi driver couldn´t find our hostel, so we had to get dropped off at the airport and get another taxi, who did know where it was. The next morning we were up bright and early ready to catch our flight to Costa Rica and start the Central American part of our trip!