Cusco, the Inca capital

Getting out of the bus in Cusco, I felt directly that the air was better and I don't care if was only in my mind, it felt good being in lower altitude.
We arrived early at 5am and the nice hostel staff gave us beds to sleep in, so after some sleep we were ready to walk the town.

Cusco is a very nice town! It's clear it lives of tourism with McDonalds, KFC, Subway and Starbucks available, and even a 4 year university education in tourism, which most of the guides have to do before working with the Machu Picchu tours.
And the city quickly got to me. The cheap, fresh juices from the market, the many restaurants and cafes to choose from, and nice, green plazas to chill in.
Not to mention that I found a super nice yoga studio, with an atmosphere I haven't met before in South America. And after just two classes my back pain disappeared - most likely caused by terrible hostel madrases and carrying the heavy backpack.

So Cusco became a place for me to rest, recover from sickness, enjoy good vegetarian food, meeting friendly travellers and practice good yoga, all of it both before and after my trip to Machu Picchu.
Because of my bad knees, I couldn't do the awesome 4-5 days of trekking to Machu Picchu, but found a great alternative: The Inca Jungle trip!

A 4 day trip including mountain biking, river rafting, zipplining, hot springs relaxation and of course some walking and hiking.
My group consisted of an Argentinian couple, three girls from Uruguay, an American girl, me and our guide Richard, also known as Papi. Normally the groups are around 15 people, so we were lucky to be a small group and enjoyed knowing each other and being like a small family. And as there were a majority of Spanish speaking, I really got practiced my language skills, and I ended up choosing the Machu Picchu guide tour in Spanish and I basically understood it all.

The trip started with mountain biking downhill from 4200 to 1400 meters above sea level and ending the day with river rafting! My first river rafting experience and it was really fun as well as a little scary. Here I got on the same boat as my two friends from Death Road in La Paz, so it was pleasant surprise to see them again!

Day 2 was the hardest walking day with 7-8 hours in total, including two hours straight uphill to reach the Inca trail. Walking on the Inca trail is very high up, on the side of the mountain, a narrow path, with no safety fences and several hundred meters down - but what a view! The impressive landscape of green mountains, the great river below and the snowy Salkantay mountain of 5000 meters in the horizon! It definitely felt worth the pain of the uphill part. And we ended the day in natural hot springs with a lovely shower, just perfect.
This was also the evening our guide introduced us to the "famous" Inca tequila shot. Here I might just add that there is a tendency to add "inca" to many things here, most of all to make the tourists interested or even feeling it's more "authentic". So there is also Inca cola (which is yellow and taste a bit like lemon) and Inca massage (mix of different massage styles) just to mention a few.

So waking up to day 3, I felt a little more tired than the days before and luckily we started out with zipplining! 5 ropes and last one as laying down in Superman position. Great fun, but afterwards I felt like tasting my drinks from the night before a second time.. The day continued with 3 hours of walking straight to the town Agua Caliente, which is located by the foot of Machu Picchu.

Finally, day 4! Which is what we have been building up to - Machu Picchu! The day started 4.30am to be able to stand in front of the line by the entrance at 6am. I was in line as less than the first hundred, which is quite good and meant that our guide could take us to the first view point without people in the pictures.
And what a sight to see when you turn a corner and have the Inca empire in front of you! And in less than half an hour the sun rised above the mountains and covered everything in golden sunbeams. So stunning that I had no problem understanding why this is a world wonder.

Unfortunately, the weather at Machu Picchu is unpredictable and normally isn't the best this time a year, so many tourists meet Machu Picchu covered in mist and fog or even in rain, which is troubling as there is no shelter in the area.
I had the most beautiful, sunny, warm day, better than I dared to wish for and even our guide told us to feel lucky. After returning to Cusco, I met many travellers who been there the days before and after and had bad weather. Some people even felt they didn't saw Machu Picchu, and need to go back another time, because of so much mist and fog! That says a lot..

I learned that it might be thanks to the mist and fog that the spaniards didn't find Machu Picchu, when they concurred the incas and took over Cusco, the inca capital. They destroyed a lot of buildings and temples in Cusco in search of gold, but Machu Picchu was safe high in the mountains and first much later it was found by an archaeologist and got protected right away.
Cusco was the Inca capital and Machu Picchu was a community of the highest ranked people in their society as well as learning and development centre. Even though the area is huge only 500 incas lived there, only the most important persons.

And right there on Machu Picchu I got reunited with Anne, as she took a 5 day hike and me the 4 day adventure trip. I don't think there is any better place to meet your friend again and share all the experiences from the last exciting days, where we had been apart. So we returned to Cusco together, very tired and very happy.

My last day in Cusco was spend on a trip to rainbow mountain. This place was found only 1,5 year ago and is therefore a very new tourist attraction. They are still doing tests of all the "colours" as they can't tell what minerals caused it.
It's located in 5000 meters altitude and 3,5 hours walk away from the road, so I bought a horse right away. And at steep points I had to get off the horse and walk for the sake of the horse and me, and only that was enough pressure for my knees and of course breath taking. So I made a good choice buying the horse even though it makes you feel very lazy, when a lot of people - old and young - hike by foot next to you. Anyway, I'm happy I went as it was very beautiful and the scenery around as well!
It was a great ending on my time in Cusco and I felt so ready to reach the coast and low land again.