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On the way to Cusco we needed to switch buses in Puno, which is on the northern shore of Lake Titicaca, just a few hours from where we've been. We get off the bus expecting to get straight onto the next bus to be told there is a strike on a stretch of road a few hours away and we won't be able to leave for Cusco until tomorrow. This slightly hinders our plans but as we don't really have another option, us and 4 other travellers follow this 'helpful' man who we suspect may be conning us to a nearby hostel.
We spend the day wandering around Puno which turns out to be quite nice, and as an added bonus we discover Jack and Caitlin who we'd met previously are in Puno too so meet up for an alpaca dinner.
The next morning it is back on the bus for the 8 hour winding journey to Cusco. As you can imagine it was long with moments of despair, such as when the woman sat across the aisle from us decided to eat a chicken leg, then wipe her greasy hands on the seat in front of her and then proceeded to floss her teeth using her hair!! Seriously.
After a long day we arrive in Cusco and check in to our hostel to find the room we'd booked isn't available so instead we get a dorm room to ourselves, complete with chipboard bunk beds.
We spend the next few days exploring the vibrant city that is Cusco as well as preparing for the Inca Trail, namely by having a table tennis competition with Jack and Caitlin who are also in Cusco now. The night before we set off on the trail we head to Llama Path's offices for a pre-tour briefing. It turns out we're a large group of 17 people who will go with 2 guides and a whopping 22 porters. We're asked if anyone in the group is vegetarian, at which point a girl's boyfriend says 'She is', and she says, 'Oh no, I'm not for this trip!' - easily best quote of the trip so far
The next morning we set off at the sociable time of 4.30am to kilometre 82 where we begin our trek. The next 4 days and 3 nights are spent working our way along the 26 miles up and down the mountains of the Inca Trail towards our end goal: Machu Picchu. The unrellenting rain made the trek (and the camping) tough and precarious at times, especially when splashing through newly formed rivers as there had been so much rain. I managed a personal best and only slipped over once.
A definite highlight of the trek was the incredible food our chef prepared at each mealtime. The porters would run ahead and set up the eating and cooking tents and the chef would whip up amazing meals in record time, with next to no equipment. For 'happy hour' on our last day he'd even baked 2 cakes from scratch on a log fire! They were so good it definitely made my excuse of the temperature of our oven at home being unreliable seem futile.
One low point of the trip has to be the toilets (if you can call them that). The 'squatters' often didn't have running water which made things a bit pungent.
The last morning was an especially early start as we were woken up at 3.30am to get down to the gate at the entrance of the campsite by around 4am, going quietly to try and beat the other groups camping. Here we had to queue until 5.30am when the gate was unlocked. Our guide told us the earlier we queued, the better chance we had of making it to 'Sun Gate', 45 minutes from Machu Picchu first. At 5.20am we were let through the gate and it was like we had started a race. Our group steamed ahead, splashing through puddles and over rocks at a rate of knots. We clambered up the steep stairs quicker than any of the other days, determined to make it there first. Sure enough, our determination paid off as 4 of our group made it over the 'finish line' first. Tom and I followed shortly behind, all ready for a great photo with that first glimpse of Machu Picchu in the background. Unlucky for us it was very foggy so on we went for the final stretch to make it to Machu Picchu by 7.30am before the majority of the 'bus' tourists arrived. The Inca Magic we'd been hoping for came through and soon after arriving at Machu Picchu the rain and fog cleared and we were left with a clear, sunny day. We spent the next few hours exploring with our guide, learning about the fascinating history of the Incas that once lived here.
After a few well deserved beers in the local town, it was time to get the scenic train back to Cusco while enjoying a few final games of UNO with some of the group.
We'd learnt on our trek that Hiram Bingham was the first foreigner to 'discover' Machu Picchu back in 1911. At that time he'd borrowed many of the artefacts and taken them back to Yale University for analysis, with a promise to return them within 18 months. However, our guide told us that it was only for the centenary in 2011 that the majority of these were returned. On our last day in Cusco we wanted to make the most of it and visited a couple of museums to see these artefacts and learn more. After a mentally and physically gruelling week we ended the day with a well-deserved massage... and then topped it off with pie and mash in an English pub. Yum!
With 3 days in left in South America next we fly to Lima for a last Peruvian hurrah.
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