Cuzco - Machu Picchu, Peru Nov 2011

Our walk along the railway lines to Aguas Calientes

Kevin, Susan, Ben, Donal

Aguas Calientes

Machu Picchu!

Watching the mist lift...

Our lovely group!

Huayna Picchu in the background

El Condor - the body & beak are on the ground, the painted wings spread up the rocks on either side

Llama!!

Pathway to the Inca Bridge

Inca Steps...soo many steps

Inca Bridge...the plank of wood to the right of Donal

We arrive in Cuzco exhausted after a 13hour overnight bus ride sitting next to a broken toilet and some kind of machine which insisted on making sporadic loud noises right about the moment we began to drift off.
We have a short snooze at the hostel before heading into Cuzco for a look. Far more touristy than Arequipa, Cuzco's streets are an array of stalls selling all sorts of alpaca anything, silver jewelry, vast arrays of trinkets in the form of wooden flutes, hand carved chess sets and Inca warriors. It's amazing to see that they are still selling many of the same items as they did 10years ago...a lot of the things on sale are strangely familiar household items following Dad's trip there well over a decade ago now.

Although there are permits still for the infamous Inca Trail we decide against it in favor of a more adventurous (and albeit cheaper) route of The Jungle Trek. Involving less walking, more cycling & Zip-Lining, this route suits us perfectly as my feet at this point are in less than perfect condition after they developed blisters under the big toenails (on both feet - sick) after the Colca Canyon trek. We begin our 4day Jungle Trek the next day.

Day one involves leaving at approx 8am to drive uphill so we can cycle downhill to our destination. Sweet! The road is broad and paved so relatively easy to navigate if you don't have difficulty with the 4000 meter drop into the steep canyon to your left. Kit out with mountain bike, helmet, elbow & knee pads we set off on our 62K downhill journey.

A few narrow escapes on mis-judged corners/hairpin bends leave my heart racing and result in a small accident/brush with death for Donal as his bike skids on a mountain stream sending him head first into the canyon wall. Thank God for a sturdy helmet hah!

Good craic was had with our group of three English Nikki, Ben and Kim - a fourth, Julia to join at a later stage, and two Irish Kevin & Susan, while we waited for 3 hours at a random hostel for our driver to pick us up. We eventually arrive at our hostel after a tenuous journey along a narrow unpaved cliff edge. At one point we cross a bridge which should only be used by ducks (and other light animals with the back up of wings) judging by its width and stability. The bridge lands us in a village where the bus driver delivers a fridge(?!) to some locals and through which we can't drive due to a deep trench dug right through the middle of the main road/dirt track. An unidentifiable animal/duck/chicken/cat later to be identified as a goose watches the commotion from the doorstep of the new fridge owners.

Our hostel in a village in the heart of the mountains is nice & a lack of electricity due to some thunder in the previous days makes it feel like camping but indoors. The power lines for this remote village cross the mountains quite precariously!

More people arrive and suddenly there is a battle between 30 odd dirty sweaty people, mostly girls, for the one and only bathroom. The 13year old son of the hostel owners makes numerous attempts to dash between each shower in the hope of brushing his teeth to no avail.

Dinner is included in the trips cost, and therefore we are taken to the cheapest and subsequently, worst restaurant possible. We laugh and joke, each trying to decide which item on the menu is likely to be the least disgusting. Alpaca steak it is. Not a bad decision as the meat is cooked (bonus) and the rice is not freezing although tastes mildly of chlorine. Our group are great craic and we chat and joke after the ordeal of the meal is over.

Our English friends depart for bed after the long day in the sun, and the four Irish head off to the local pub/club for a drink. Despite the electricity in the town having made a miraculous return the club continues to use candles. I can only assume to aid the unsightly Peruvians attempts at seducing white backpackers. We watch in amusement as white singleton females enter the dark room to be immediately swept up by preying salsa dancing Peruvians. One of which happens to be our tour guide, Ricardo, who's attempts at guiding up until this point have been mainly aimed at guiding, in his words, 'easy American women' to the bedroom.

The other Irish girl, Susan and I leave Donal & Kevin there while we head off to bed. Later Donal returns with a recollection of Ricardos further rejection and tells of his anger at once again being shot down by his usually oh so reliable Americans. We are delighted with this satisfying blow as he had been more interested in sleezing on his group than guiding us up until now. The next day he is hungover and cranky.

Day 2: Ziplining - a thin is wire attached to rock at either side of a large canyon. The wire is at an angle so when you are attached to it by pulley, gravity pulls you across the canyon at a reasonably fast speed. The wire is approximately 450m in length and 250-300m above ground so day one I was nervous as heck. One girl is particularly dramatic and although is terrified, insists on going first, screaming all the way across, not very good for the rest of our nerves! Once I got over the fear & climbed on board for my turn it was amazing - the view was spectacular!

We had 6 ziplines to cross all angled downwards slightly, so we had to climb for 30minutes or so to get to the first & highest one, zip-lining all the way back down to the bottom. Amazing! Susan has a photo of us doing it so I must get it from her to post here.

After the mornings adventures we eat lunch at Ollantaytambo, and walk for 3hours along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes in the afternoon - our base camp before the final trek to Machu Picchu. The hostel has a strong stench of urine and stained bed sheets. A bad bad meal is had at a nearby restaurant of tinned spaghetti hoop sauce on spaghetti pasta.

We rise at 4am and walk to the control point where we enter Machu Picchu. After 1hour uphill and the most sweating I have ever done, we finally look out onto the city in awe. At 5am the sun is up, we are the first to arrive and we watch as the mist rises, revealing to us ever so slowly the magnificent Machu Picchu.