after an epic journey from rio involving 3 planes, 2 changes and 2 lost bags (cool - nice try, TAM and LAN) we arrived in the very very high town of Cusco, and our experience that was PERU began...
The lost bags were an obvious first hurdle, which was then made higher and higher as both airlines we flew with demonstrated that they couldn't photocopy, stay in the office during working hours, read emails, enlarge picture attachments or generally come good on promises to have our bags with us the following day. if it sounds like i am bitter about this, it's because i am. the 2.5 days with one change of clothes, no towels and no soap were not amongst the highlights of the trip.
ANYWAY, after much hassling, we managed to have our stuff returned on the morning of the trek, leaving us no time to wash anything (whoo) and having to catch up with the rest of the group because the plane got in after we should have left!
despite this somewhat rocky start, once we actually hit the start of the famous inca trail, we practically forgot about the previous days and got stuck into some serious 4 days of walking, which was definitely more difficult than our only previous experience with hiking, being D of E...
our group of 15 was loads of fun. even though the trail was so hard and everyone got sick at some point (including us, unfortunately - combination of the 4200m altitude, all day hikes and cold weather is not ideal for our delicate constitutions (ha)), everyone kept smiling, and no one complained!
the views from the trail were incredible, even if sometimes we couldn't see them because we were above the clouds! the inca ruins were really good to see and seeing machu picchu for the first time from the sun gate made everything worth it. there were no clouds so we got a clear view down to what is hands-down the most famous and most impressive of the ancient inca ruins.
we had a wander around machu picchu that morning (having beaten the day tourists by getting up in the dark at 3:50am - foolproof) which was amazing - probably once in a lifetime experience - and had a final lunch and a much needed massage in the town before taking a long trip back to cusco and collapsing into bed.
this is where we stayed for the next 3 or 4 days, still sick and very very tired. i won't bore (or disgust, really) you with the details of our last few days in cusco, which really did only involve bed and nothing very exciting at all.
much much love to one and all.
vivienne (and iona)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
