Inca Jungle Trek

Team Guides:
Guedo
Reilly

We have had an awesome three and a half days.. We were here four full days.. I say three and a half because the first half a day was one of the worst ever!

So we set off at 7:30am and didnt stop driving to the place until like 11am, we stopped to pick people up, get the bikes.. Ohhhh it took forever! So once we finally arrived we got kitted up in full biking gear! Wow they are safety consence after all! We wore a high vis vest (sexyy) a helmet (ULTRA sexy), knee and elbow pads (FIT!) and off we went.. Straight down hill, in the middle of a road. It was fun.. For about 30minutes.. Cold but fun.. Then it rained. :-/ ohhh boy it rained! And the worst bit of it? You could see the rain and when you would cycle into it! So you'd cycle along happy as larry, (thinking the whole time that your brakes werent quite good enough if you took a corner wrong), and then you'd just see this sheet of mist and you were heading straight for it.. Rain! We were soaked.. And i literally mean everything. Underwear dripping, shoes had puddles in wet! It was FREEZING! Then you'd come out the rain and think if it just stays like this it will be ok.. But ohhh no! Your out the rain for one corner and then you see your heading straight back for it! Theres nothing you can do no other route!
So imagine this.. Cycling in constant rain for what felt like 50 years.. I was cold, wet and getting increasing angry that the guide wasnt cycling and was in the van driving to the next place! Then the terrane changes and its rubble and a mud track almost! And i fall off. STOP LAUGHING! It hurt.. I landed in the mud on my shoulder! I was NOT happy! I was also wet.. Very wet. Did i mention that? Ha! So anyway Tom begs me practically to get back on the bike (which i now hate) and i cycle on.. Moaning obviously! And i go round the next few corners and see the van! Im straight in! That was the end of my cycling experience! There was already another girl in there because she didnt feel well! If you ask me she got in suspiciously close to when it just started to rain! Haha!
I learnt a lot from this cycling trip! I dont cycle anyway and this didnt make me want to go out and buy a mountain bike to take it up! Ha!

So after the hurrendous cycling which by the way everyone was moaning a lot about, we did white water rafting.. :-) i couldnt get any wetter so was looking forward to it! And omg it was class! The rapids werent massive or anything grade 3 in places apparentely but it was sooo cool! And it rained the whol time, which for the first time that day i actually liked! Ha!

We were staying in Santa Maria.. In a very basic hostel and because of all the rain and thunder they had no elecriticity and we had dinner etc in candle light- tres romantic! Ha!

Day two

Walking day.

We walked for 9 hours, 24km! Up hill for the majority of it! Ive honestly walked more on this trip than in the past 4years of my life.. Regretted skillfully ducking out of mums trips to the lakes, might have been fitter! Haha! it was fun walking thou.. We walked along the inca trail and saw monkeys and fruit trees galore it was brilliant!! We went through the jungle and got to make a wish to the inca gods by placing three coca leaves as an offering to the gods.. Each leaf meant something different..
1. Health
2. Work
3. Life

Once we'd all done that we went to the hot springs! WOW! We had walked for 9hours and i was so so hot and all i wanted was a hot shower.. Well these pools were incredible! I had to have a freezing cold shower first but boy it was worth it! There were three pools and each one got hotter! It was how id imagine heaven to be.. Incredibe!
We then stayed in Santa Teresa and it was our 'relax' night because we had zip lining in the morning and didnt need to be at breakfast until 8! So we all had beers! Erggh! Really not growing on me!

Day three

On the third day and the last full day before Machu Picchu we had it pretty easy! We went zip linung for three hours in the morning! Which was unreal! We did three zip lines but they were HUGE! One was over 1km long! It was incredible, id never done it before so was a bit worried how id stop but it was alright and i did fine... Until the final go.. We went like normal and it was again sooo long and i hadnt needed to brake too much before because you naturally slow down with the wind.. There wasnt any wind on this last one. I tried to brake, i really did but it hurt my hand so i just crashed straight into the guy at the end.. But you gota fully understand this. We were still suspended 20/30feet above the ground and i went straight into him standing on this rickety supspended platform! We swung like you wouldnt believe! Ha! Oopss! I then rapelled down to the ground which i think was the best bit it was awesome!

So after zip lining we had a pretty easy day, we walked for 3 hours along the train tracks into Aguas Calientes which i have to say is such a beautiful place! The train runs straight through the centre of the town and its surrounded by tons of little resturants and shops.. We both said we could have spent a week there just chilling!

Day four

The big one. The main attraction. One of the seven wonders of the world.

Hello Machu Picchu.

WOW!

We got up and started walking at 4:30 am.. Got to the gates to start the 1500 steps up to Machu Picchu at 5am.. We arrived at Machu Picchu at 6:10 to fog! Couldnt pissing see anything! Second time ive walked up a mountain to see sunrise and got fog! Im cursed! Ha! So anyway we hung around for about 5-10 mins and it started to clear and we finally got a full glimpse of it and WOW! It is excatly like the photos but better! It is incredible! Tom immediately said he would love to paintball in it because it really is the perfect location and setting!
We had our two hour tour around it all and learnt all about the Inca history and it was fasinating!
We then had free time to hang out and do whatever we wanted! We spent the entire day here and went to the inka bridge and to the temple of the condor, the inka house, and the temple of three windows..! We didnt climb Waynapichu thou (the mountain behind machu picchu) because we didnt have a ticket and people said it was ultra dangerous! We also didnt go to the sun gate.. It was a bit cloudy that way and didnt fancy the two hour trek to not be able to see anything! Ha!
We chilled all day thou and then started the climb back down (which is just as hard as going up) back to Aguas Calientes and had dinner and then caught the train back to Cusco! :-)

Overall Machu Picchu was incredible and completely worth every step! Other than the hurrendous cycling experience i really like the inca jungle trek! Now off to the next place!!

Speak soon! Muchos love!

XxX