The death treck!

Trip Start Oct 05, 2007
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Trip End Oct 04, 2008


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Flag of Peru  , Sacred Valley,
Thursday, June 26, 2008

So up we got/struggled at 4.00 AM and we were piled into a minibus, with the two other crazy but delightful Brazillians we were doing the treck with, Sylvia and Eduardo!  Having collected the Chef, Sue Chef and Roger we started to wind our way to the start of our treck!  At which point I turned my stomach inside out....not a great start....we stopped for breckfast, then carried on a little further to a track heading off into the mountains where we met our horses and horsemen that would be taking care of our bags - thank God!  I felt so ill going along this semi flat bit of track that I had to get a horse up to the top (with Sylvia who was having similar problems)  I was very glad I had decided to ´cheat´ as we started our ascent as the up was a lot steeper and went on a lot longer than it looked from the bottom, had I walked I would have almost certainly passed out and rolled to my doom!!  The journey gave us fantastic views of Salcantay mountain all covered in snow, and after an hour or so we had reached the top and consequently the highest pass on our treck - phew!!  Sylvia decided she would carry on to the village where we were to have lunch, I wanted to wait for the others so I sat under a rock enjoying the view and listening to the avalanches....truly surreal!! 

Immpressivly the others were not far behind us, and we all celebrated there victory and my cheating at the highest point of the pass before starting our descent towards a much needed lunch!!  After lunch we descended further into jungle and everything warmed up considerably - much to my relief!!  We ended up walking the final part in the dark, and were all very pleased to reach the campsight and rest our weary bones!! Not being very proficient at setting up tents in the dark we were very glad to hav the horsemen to set up the tents for us....othewise they would have collapsed on us in the middle of the night!!  A bit of supper later and we were all fast asleep on supprisingly comfy sleeping mats!

Day 2 was lots of walking and Steph, Livy (stephs friend) and I got very left behind encouraging Steph whos knees were in agony and all swollen (thats my excuse for the slowness anyway) and she had her stomach infection back again so had to keep dissapearing into bushes....so dignified!! Anyway this day was brightened somewhat by Livvy and I inventing wonderful love stories about Kathryn and our guide who seemed to be getting on rather well, playing word association games and learning all about American politics!!

We were so slow we missed all the busses from our lunch stop and so had to sit in the back of an open air truck fratenising with the locals, which actually turned out to be one of the more comfortable journeys i´ve taken in Peru - lucky for us it didn´t rain!!! We reached Santa Teresa our overnight stop and met a baby monkey with flees.....then we toddled off to the hot spings and bathed under the clouds!! That night the love story plot thickened (we called it Madam Mountain - sort of like Madam Bouveray but different) when kathryn and the guide went to enjoy the fire together after supper....i collapsed in my tent and kathryn never returned.....well she did but not till midnight....oooooooooooooooooo!!

Final morning of the treck and Steph could walk no more....so she got the truck with the cooks and Livvy and Liv hobbled there way to lunch in the scorching heat!! Lunch was at a train station - Peru style ie. a train track with a few ramshackle huts at the side! We then had the option to take the train for the final part of the treck - which of course I took....why stand when you can sit, why walk when you can take the train!! Anyway so we (Steph livy and I) lounged aroiund for most of the afternoon stuffing our gobs with twixs (which are paticularly good in Peru)! Then sat on the train, and arrived in Agus Caliente, the nearest town to macchu picchu, half an hour after the fools that walked!!  Suckers!  Agus Caliente was horribly touristy, but we were staying in a 3 star hotel which had real pillows and a matress that actually gave when you sat on it!! AMAZING!! Anyway supper and early bed.....

Next day it was up at sparrows fart to go and see Macchu Picchu, at sunrise!! All very impressive and exciting.....Kathryn and I were finally able to replace the picture of us superimposed over Macchu Picchu with the real thing.....a poignient moment you could say!! We had a very imformative guided tour around the ruins and were then left to our own devices.....we decided to go and see the inca bridge but i climbed five steps and promptly sat down.....kindly offering to look after kathryns things whilst she went to look at the logs (ever the devoted friend)!! That was quite enough of all the culture stuff so we returned to Agus Caliente where we had a huge lunch, kicked around all afternoon and then caught the train back to Cusco..........where we discovered that not only had Steph had money nicked from her bag that she´d left at the hostal but Kathryns bag had been gone through allthough luckily nothing was stolen!!

A late but delicious supper with the Brazillians and Roger and it was time to bid our farewells and hit the sack.....although not all of us were saying good bye to Roger...........tbc??!!
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