Ollantaytambo Lodge

We got local taxis (3 soles to most places in Cuzco) to the bus station and waited while Bobby (our tour leader) queued for ages to get us tickets to the Urubamba Valley. We had allocated seats, which cost twice as much as a standing place, for about an hour up to the start of the Sacred Valley. From there we were picked up by taxis for the ride down into the village we were visiting. The village we were visiting happened to be the one our tour leader had been born in, but as he had left when...

Fortunately my headache is gone.  I was able to get some Sorochi pills and within 30 minutes of taking them last night, I felt perfectly fine.  While my head felt better this morning, my stomach did not.  I woke up at 5:30 this morning with a fever and a very upset tummy.  I'm not sure what I ate that didn't agree with me, but it was something.  Taking more Sorochi pills, Immodium, and Cipro, I was well enough to leave the hotel this morning with the group to make our trek through the Sacred ...

Tuesday

Altitude sickness hasnīt really affected me much, except that I havenīt been sleeping the whole night.

Our day of touring the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Saw lots of Inca ruins and sites that I wonīt bore you with here. Shopped at a large local market over lunch. Arrived in Ollantaytambo which is a small inca town quite well preserved and very authentic. Bright inca clothes everywhere.

Was 6th January which is Epiphany and a cultural holiday in catholic Peru. Ever...

ĄHola! I finished theInca Trail yesterday and it was amazing! Tough and exhausting but so so cool :o) It all began a very long time ago (or so it seems) very early in the morning. We were picked up from the hostel at 5.30am on tuesday morning and drove for 2 hours to the start point, Ollyantaytambo (arenīt quechuan names great?!). There were 14 of us in our trek group plus 2 guides - Bobby (done the trail 450+ times and knows everything) and Puma (assistant, really sweet and helped us all out...

We were up at 4.30am and managed to hail ourselves a taxi to the train station. Naturally it wasnīt yet open and the initial lack of gringos worried us, were we in the wrong place!!! We werenīt we were just early and were soon joined by some more gringos phew!! and let into the train station. Staff in flashy uniforms showed us to our seats (ah the joys of travelling 1st class) and off we went. Worry and flashbacks to Singapore hit us when the train started to go backwards but we were informed...

16th: up at 5:15 for our 6am transfer to the starting point of the Inca Trail. En route I whisked up a translation of our comical "500 miles" lyrics tailored for the Inca trail porters at the end of our journey as thanks......also stopped in this town, Ollantaytambo, where last minute winterware and bambo walking sticks could be purchased. We saw some ruins on the way in the "Sacred Valley" and stunning landscape again naturally.... met up with the remainder of our crew who had a tour of the ...

DID IT!!!! Well, more accurately we ALL did it which is to say our whole group (or "team" as I prefer to think of us). That's right, we've "Survived the Inca Trail" as the cheese-ball t-shirts you can buy here say. So now it's party time! Send in the clowns! ...or maybe don't because clowns kinda freak me out (thanks to Stephen King). In case you're wondering, I'm calling this entry "A Walk in the Cloud Forest" as most of the Inca Trail is located in what is known as a Cloud Forest which is ...

We left Aguas Calientes in the 'Vistadome' train, rather than the 'Backpacker' train that we turned up. The major differences being the clientele (mainly tour groups over 50) and the fact that the windows stretch up around onto the ceiling of the train, giving you a view upwards (hence the name). There wasn't a moment of peace on the train, inbetween a traditional act and the host and hostess teaming up with a Japanese tourist to do a fashion show along the aisle of the Alpaca clothing they ...