One for the Pachamama

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  Cusco, Peru
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Last night we arrived back from our 4 day, 3 night Inka Trail trek - tired and dirty but so stoked!  The trek, landscape, archaelogical sites, food and guides far exceeded our expectations. Especially as the night before leaving we were told that our trekking group was to be ourselves plus only one other person - talk about a third wheel!  However, when the van turned up to pick us up at 6am the first morning, we were quite pleased to hear the third person (an elusive Miss Patel) had not turned up - this meant the trek was our own private honeymoon expedition, with just our Guide (Bruno - who turned out to be an absolute diamond - so knowledgeable and passionate about the subject of the Andean and Inka people), our cook (Willy - who turned out to be the Gordon Ramsay of Peru - the food was the best we have eaten during our travels, and this, all cooked on the side of a mountain), as well as two porters (Gaudito & Fortunato - these legendary men carried 20+kg each of neccessities for the trek)

another spiritual place......

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I have to say a big ups to anyone who has done this trek, because it is actually pretty hard - made even more so by the fact we carried all of our own gear (many people hire extra porters to carry their gear, and just hike with day packs).  Guy can proudly say, he hiked the whole thing with an 11kg pack!! The hardest day was the second, which included 5 hours walking solidly up a steep mountainside, followed by 2 hours of knee jarring steep down hill.  The hardest thing though is that you are walking up and down massive stone steps - think stair master from hell (much of the trail is actually the original Inca laid steps - and these people were absolutely mad about where they laid this trail!).
Anyway, the last day of the trek entailed waking up at 4am - being fed our usual breakfast of hot pancakes, hot soya milk and granola (!!!), followed by a brisk walk to arrive at Machu Piccu by around 8am.  Although we arrived there to cloud cover, within the hour it had cleared, and we had a good few hours to be guided around all the sites of this amazing place.  As it was such a sunny day, our guide suggested we finish off the visit with a hike up the adjacent Waynapicchu mountain, and then meet him down the bottom of the valley in the township of Aquas Calientes for a final lunch before catching our train back to Cusco.  Little did we know, but this wasnt the normal agenda for most exhausted trekkers!  If anyone reading this hiked Waynapicchu you will understand what i mean when i say a STEEP walk to the top... i mean it was like walking up a slippery rock face ladder for 45mins... then holding on for dear life to get down again.  Anyway, the views were amazing, and unbeliveably the mad Incas had actually built more terraces and buildings onto this rock face!!  So, after making it down again with shaking legs, we decided there was no way we were going to catch the bus down to Aquas Calientes, and that we would do the a final trek down

breakfast? yes please!

.  Unfortunately this entailed an hour more of steep stone steps, which guy and I decided the only way to do now was to run... so eventually with massive smiles on our faces we made it in to Aquas Calientes to enjoy a deserved ice cold beer!!
So now we are back in Cusco, enjoying a chilled out day and night (well hopefully not too chilled tonight - Cusco is party central - and you'll be please to know Missy and Bescs that we have already been a couple of times to Mama Africas!!).
Ok, signing off for now - we leave for Rio tomorrow - Carnival here we come!! - though we dont know if we're scared or excited - as it's going to be madness......
xx

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camping 2nd day	fee being taught about the 1st archeological site	fee relaxing after a hard trek!	get ready,get steady....
Guy hot the trail of the Incas!	guy relaxing at 1st camp site	inca steps are steeeeeep!	Machu Picchu!!
our first sight of Machu Picchu....	relief after the path of death (2nd day!!)	the hobbit in search of a (wedding) ring..	Waynapicchu in all its glory!
we made it!

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