Overwhelmed by Machu Picchu

I´m very happy to say that I have finally been able to see Machu Picchu and it only took 3 years or more of waiting...

Thankfully it didn´t disappoint. Particularly as we had to do a 9 day trek to get there which apparently was 4x harder than the Inca trail and one of the hardest treks in Peru (quite glad I didn´t know this before I set off). The first few days involved trekking up to and away from Choquequirao another mountain-top set of ruins set in beautiful surroundings. Day 4 after this was the worst, a 14hour hike 10 hours of which were uphill to 4,600m, starting at 5.30am and getting to the next site to camp at 8pm... Hardcore is indeed my middle name. Seriously, I loved the trek and am glad I did it, it was really hard but the scenery was some of the most beautiful I´ve seen in my life. The only slight downside was on the eve of day 8, 6 girls out of our 8 person group got really ill and puked out of their tents all night (I like to be graphic). So instead of hiking on Day 8 we had to rush by bus then train to the doctor in Aguas Calientes right by Machu Picchu where much interpreting of symptoms was needed! On Saturday, we went to Machu Picchu at the break of dawn and I was completely blown away. It´s a shame it will be taken over by tourists quite soon but I can see why it was voted a wonder of the world, it was beautiful. I only wished I could have seen it when it was full of Incas but I gave it my best shot at imagining it...

After a day of recovery in Cusco we have just been horse riding around the sacred valley courtesy of a random guy called Cesar who gave us a taxi ride a month ago and also owns a farm of horses, fortunately it all turned out well and wasn´t at all dodgy! Tomorrow we go white water rafting before I head off alone to the south of Peru and towards Bolivia on Wednesday while the others head to Lima. Am sad that the Peru stage is almost over but the rest of the continent awaits... as one great house mate suggested, I will try not to shake the rest of the world by my travels, one earthquake and plane crash is probably enough.

Over and out, xxxx

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La vida cusquena

Time has passed scarily fast. The two weeks in Cusco were brilliant, living with Lourdes and Darwin and their lovely Peruvian family in a suburb called La Florida. The middle weekend of the 2 week language course gave us the chance to head off into the Sacred valley to visit Ollayantambo and its ruins and then a beautiful colonial church in Chinchero, an old greenhouse style Inca ruin in Moray and some beautiful salt pans cut into the side of a hill in Salinas. After this we headed to Pisac a cool market town to see yes more ruins on the Sunday and to hit a massive Peruvian market: ponchos and crazy alpaca hats galore.

The weekdays consisted of going on a ´real city tour´, seeing more of the real Cusco, seeing the Inca museum and art galleries, enjoying the cuisine and nightlife and many markets and generally getting to feel really at home in Cusco, a stunning town surrounded by the Andes. Quechua was challenging but fun. I had a little Incan lady called Lourdes as a teacher, who was also an Andean medical practitioner, a really interesting lady. For the second weekend we saw the ruins just up on the hill on the side of Cusco and got to have some awesome trout. At the nearest ruin, Sacsaywaman (SEXY WOMAAAAN in slight Jamaican accent) the locals have a big festival there called Inti Raymi in June where they sacrifice a llama and eat its blood and hope to forecast the coming year.

After this all took a turn for the worse as I ended up after a night out rather ill (yes both ends) with salmonella and once I was hospitalised, it also turned out I had a urinary infection and a parasite. While the rest of the group headed off into the mountains I recovered with a drip. Last Wednesday I took a 12 hour journey (4hrs of which were walking uphill) to the community of Cuncani. There we helped build a big salon comunal. I got to practice Quechua and we got to have a big party at the end to celebrate the end of the project. We also squeezed in some teaching of the local kids (lots of gesturing and fun games) and hiking up to the beautiful lakes nearby where wild chinchilla style rabbits run around. The mountain experience was topped off by a trip to some natural hot thermal baths. Now we are back in Cusco and recuperating ready for the 9 day pilgrimage to Choequequirao and Machu Picchu at the end... the climax of the Peru trip before I head off across the continent to join Em in Buenos Aires...

All for now, much love xx