After pissing off the hostel owner by arriving at 1am, we settled into room for our first night in Cusco. We spent the following day trying to arrange all the trips and activities that we wanted to do whilst in the Sacred Valley.
The day after, we decided to go on a 3 hour quadbiking tour, however, the seemingly safety-conscious tour operator may have thought too much off our skill when immediately after showing us the off-road bikes, took us onto a dual carriageway! Nevertheless, slightly fazed we headed off over bumps, up hills and past lagoons until our arms were shaking and bums numb.
We decided to follow this with the illogical descision to go horseriding the next morning…..our pelvises were not pleased! With no regard for our derrieres comfort we headed off to explore 4 Inca sites close to Cusco, the most famous being Saqsaywaman, pronounced “Sexy woman” (prompting several boistrous jokes and giggles) is a huge imposing Inca fortress overlooking the city. Since we explained we had ridden before, we were allowed to add a few long canters over grassland and past streams to the otherwise chilled walk.
Not travellers to shy away from challenges, we booked to go on a 4 day/3 night “Inca Jungle Trail” to Machupiccu, that began the next day with a 53km downhill mountain biking ride from mountains to the tiny jungle town of Santa Maria. With our pelvises now basically shattered we set off, and whilst we enjoyed every sweaty minute of it, it became a tad tedious putting the chaín back on the (rather shoddy) bike every 10 minutes. Undettered we arrived in the jungle town for a beer and needed good nights sleep. The next morning we began the hardest day of trekking, 25km up and down mountains following small trails clinging to rock faces and although the views were amazing and well-worth the trekking, the highlight of the day had to be the monkey we encountered whose party-piece was drinking milk from an upturned gatorade bottle….Classic! We ended the blistering day´s walking in hot springs in the dusty town of Santa Theresa. Unfortunately this night´s sleep was less sound than the first, due to the unwelcome cockroach found under our bed! Safe in the knowledge we would never have to return to the grubby hostel, we began our final day´s trekking to Aguas Calientes (the nearest town to Machupiccu) following defunct railway lines the whole way. I felt quite dozey around the middle of the day and so decided to wake myself up with a swim in the ridiculously cold rapids of the Rio Urubamba…however, Sophie was not quick to follow! After arriving in Aguas Calientes we headed out to dinner for a bit, but since I was feeling a bit rough, hit the sack early. We awoke the next morning, to our horror, at 4am to begin the 2000 step climb to Machupiccu. We reached the gates at around 6am and got to see Machupiccu at sunrise, a beautiful sight! We then had a guided tour for 2 hours followed by picture taking and some sunbathing on the grassy terraces before we headed back down to Aguas Calientes. Our transport back to Cusco was arranged for us and we caught the train back arriving in the evening.
We took our first day back in Cusco easy since neither of us were feeling top-notch and enjoyed a hot shower and clean clothes, after our sweaty and dirty jungle trip!!!
We spent the next day shopping for friends´ presents and eating in this fantastic restuarant we found, called “Jack´s Café” – which has the biggest and best fry-ups we´ve ever seen!!!!
After our little 2 day rest, I thought I needed another adreneline boost and so took a taxi to “Action Valley” a local company, where I did a 122m Bungy jump….which did the trick! So….buzzing alter my adrenaline shot we headed to Jacks for a light snack, which rather inevitably turned into a massive feast, and headed back for a nap before our last night in Cusco.
Tomorrow we are heading to the rainforest for 4 days before returning to Lima for the final few days of what has been an amazing trip. We will keep you all updated! Hope to hear from you soon!
love A and S xxxx
