Machu Picchu

Mal and I flew from Lima to a place called Cusco - an hours flight over the Andes Mountain range which had pretty spectacular views. We had all been warned about the altitude difference and to that it would take a few days to aclimatize. Cusco is a big city with 1 million people living up 3000 feet in the Andes Mountains. As soon as we landed you could feel it straight away.  Its like your lungs arent getting as much oxygen as you want and you try and breathe faster to compensate. Best advise is to try and relax, it takes everyone at least 2 days to acclimatise, no matter how fit you are.

Taxi into town took 15 minutes. For me this was the real Peru that you read about and see in the tourist books. Women with long plaited hair walking down the streets wearing typical peruvian clothing -peruvian hat, colorful alpaca (llama) jumpers and the most gorgeous babies wrapped up in colorful blankets on their backs.

We met our group in the Hotel and went for dinner that night. As we sat in the local restaurant with a few locals playing peruvian pan pipes (like the ones on Grafton St!), the waiter approached us and advised Mal that we should try a local delicacy...........Guinea Pig. I broke my side laughing when he said it, I thought he was joking. He wasnt.

Mal convinced me to get it. Dont ask me WHY or HOW he did but 1 roasted Guinea Pig was ordered and 20 mins later....... ah lads, it was desperate. Poor old ronnie the guinea pig came out with half a tomato on his head as a hat. I didnt know whether to laugh or cry, retch or stroke the poor creatur. Again, I have pics. Where or how the hell do you start digging into something like that when he's looking up at you saying 'you roasted me you feker'. The skin was very tough and ewwww, I had one bite which was enough for me. Too gamey.  I dont even like brown chicken meat. Mal loved it and tucked in. I had the veggies on the side.

After that delish dinner, we went back to the hotel and that same evening went to the Trek meeting. Met our guide, Gonzalo (!) who came in and shouted 'ola champions, how are we all doing'. Given none of us knew each other there was that typical veggie moment of 'good thanks' from everyone trying not to smile at this dude and trying to blend in. Ah sure 6 days later we were all the best of mates!

Our trekking group consisted of 13 in total - there was Brett the New Yorker, 24 years of age, 6 ft 4 told me he had lost half his body weight last year within a few minutes of meeting me and just one of these deadly blokes who was bloody hilarious but didnt know it. Who else.....5 different UK crew including some chicks who had just finished college, Helga and Bjorn from Norway (im not making it up!), cool steve from NZ but living in London very nice guy, Dan from the prairies in Canada who was about 6 stone and very very very quiet but still a nice guy, Cam the 'aw yeah struth, thats not a knife, thats a knife', kinda crocodile dundee type from Western Australia - and Mal and I.
Great stuff.

So to sum up The Inka Trail Trek in a few lines, here goes.....

INKA means King and its a trek that brings you through endless mountains, some small, some large, some steep, some not so steep all the time along the way being taught by Gonzalo about all these amazing Inka sites that were built back in the 15th Century by the Inka generation. It was amazing to see how these people were able to make cities out of nothing. Machu Picchu, the largest and most awesome of the inka trails is the piece de resistance at the end of the trek and the one everyone comes to look at.

The trek took 4 days in total. Each day, our group set off at about 7am and walked about 6 hours in the morning before lunch and then about 3 to 4 hours in the afternoon before we literally crawled into the camp for dinner. It sounds tough and it deffo was but the craic on the mountain is just brilliant. You get to chat to all your group about anything and everything and my God on day 4 when you start to go stir crazy, it usually is about food and what you're gonna eat when you get off the mountain!

Looking back on the trek, I really did enjoy it but every single day, I did find myself the odd time thinking  'holy shit Sue, what have I let myself in for...... keep going! It's tough and the old legs have to be ready to climb steep hills. Take day 2 for example,  we climbed up to 12,000 feet to the highest range of the trek called 'Dead woman´s pass' - encouraging name, eh!

I was thanking Mal everyday that he forced me into getting walking boots for the trek. Even though they looked pretty horrendous, they were a life saver. You also HAVE to use a walking stick too to help get up the steeper hills and really steep steps down (On day 3, there are 2000 steep steps down through streams!) A few had some small falls but nothing too bad thankfully. Was very controlled with 1 guide at the back and one at the front.

As we got into camp on day 2, I wasnt feeling great and lo and behold I knew about it a few hours later. I got a 12 hour bug like a lot of people get due to the altitude which was NOT amazing. Imagine the last time you were sick and not able to get out of bed or able to hold down water. For 12 hours.
That was me in a 2 man tent with squat toilets that had queues of 10 women from other groups. Sexy chick on her honeymoon! My lush hubbie was brill and looked after me the entire time not getting any much needed kip as I was sick throughout the night. I got up on day 3 and admitedly was absolutely bricking the day ahead. I had nothing in my tum and feck all energy. I hoped some dude in black would helipcopter in with some milk tray and bring me to the top of the mountain. Instead, I was given some loo roll and a cup of piping hot celery tea! I was lucky though, the bug lasted 12 hours and I made it up and down the mountains even managing dinner on evening 3. And of course chicks, every cloud and all that, the clothes are a little loser now.

Back to the Trek. Everynight, we would have dinner in our main tent in our camp which was put up by our group of 'Porters'. We had 16 porters in total including a head chef, a waiter and loads of helpers. These are Cusco natives and are AMAZING. They are all men ranging from 16 years of age to 50 and come with a group for the 4 days to make everything nice and simple for us. I swear to God, they put us to shame.

We were each allowed 5kg of clothes for the 4 days and were given a duffel bag each to put them in. The porters took these duffel bags along with food, tents, chairs(!), you name it, and brought it....carrying it on their backs up the mountain. Each man carried 25kg of gear and ran ahead so they could set up camp, our tents, make dinner and be all nice when we arrived. The GUILTS we all felt.
I'll put up pics when I can and you'll see what I mean. Such lovely blokes, I was gutted I couldnt chat more freely to them, my spanish is pretty shocking.

Oh yeah, there are no showers for the 4 days! Yeah, I know. We all looked like we had been dragged through the bush backwards (actually, thats not far off) and the hair was looking nace. You know what, none of us could care less in the end and naturally the conversations were all about how minging the toilets were, the bruises we got along the way, food, if we got any sleep the night before, and what Brett the american dude's favorite films were. Brett was gas. Think LOUD New York accent out of literally nowhere......... ' hey Susan, do you think Im obnoxious?!'   Erm no Brett, I think you're very funny.  ' Oh ok, you know what, I just HATE Shia Le Bouef the actor. Oh and cats too'.
These kind of lines came out of nowhere.

We were all cracking up ALL the time and having a ball. Brett loved the attention and before long we were having such laughs playing the 'ok Brett, if you had to share your tent with 10 cats or talk to Shia le Bouef about his films, which would it be'. His serious logical replies and then something mental like ' Mal, I just love you man, can I come sit by you' would have us all in tears. Legend.

We ate dinner everynight in the tent at a long table and the food was very good. Soup, chicken, fish and sometimes a nice desert like jelly. They even made a cake for Mal and I for our honeymoon, the last night, BLESS THEM.

Day 4 we got up at 3.30am and made our way to Machu Picchu which I have to say was just awesome. Its the typical thing though, looking back on it, it was the 4 days along the way that was the best part of it all. The banter along the mountains, the craic at dinner, Brett and just moaning about all our aches and pains.

Back at base and one long, lush shower and fresh clothes later, I can safely say its been the highlght of the trip so far for both Mal and I.  We would deffo recommend it. Its not gonna be open for long apparently so if you're down that way, make sure you book yourself on a tour and get your walking stick....

In the airport now heading to Brazil. Time for some samba and sun.