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Cusco
I arrived from Cusco with a little less than my A game, having taken the 23 hour Cruz del Sur bus from Lima. At the time of writing this blog I'm now pretty used to night buses but this was my initiation into what is very much a right of passage for the South America Traveller. The bus itself was amazing with the exception of the solo urinario rule for the toilets and the Peruvian woman who decided to but here affairs in order through the means of a lengthy mobile phone conversation at 12.30 in the morning. Of course I didn't complain as I was british - I just sat there - a boiling coldron of rage and every so often gave her a loud sigh of dissatisfaction which obviously didn't work. Good points from the trip were hot food and nice seats and the highlight was waking up in Andies at 4,500 metres to some pretty breath-taking views.
Cusco itself is an amazing place that somehow maintains its cultural and historic heritage through the Cathedrals, Museuems and buildings, whilst also being a bit of a party town and being a great hub for doing random activities. Nobody told me until later that the best way to deal with adusting to the altitude is not to drink much and eat light meals in the evenings so I didn't feel to great the first too days.
Before the Inca trek I managed to getting a mountain biking trip which was up in the moutains - the isolation and spactacular views up there made it pretty incredible, however spending the previous evening getting free drinks in the clubs of Cusco and not getting back until 4 meant the 8 o clock start proved somewhat of a challenge.
Inca Trail
The GAP tour I was on, started off with a trip to Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley - this city actually had more significance for the Incas and was a much bigger place than Machu Pichu. Although since, like a lot of Inca sites it was partially distroyed by the Spanish it isn't nearly as famous. It was however an amazing site. What suprised me most is how big the steps were up to the city - the Incas were small people - I think not much more than 5ft on average but these steps were more than a foot high. Our guide also showed us the bedroom of the leader of the settlement, whose bed appeared to have an area to store Guinea Pigs for later consumption.
That night our group (already one down thanks to a food poisoning) headed to a pizza place in the town - unfortunately this was something of a farse as the propriotor had clearly only served 4 people at a time before, which meant that we all got to know each other during the 1 hour 30 minutes in which our food sporadically arrived.
The trek to MP itelf was incredible to the point where after the three days in which it took us to get to the last camp before MP, we were so used to seeing spectacular scenery I had just about give up taking pictures of it. The highlight for me was getting to Dead Woman's pass on the 2nd day, which was to toughest part of the trek and for us was in baking heat - luckily my peruvian hat served me well and I was one of the first up there. This meant I became the iritating person who would later shout motivational words of wisdom to the rest of the group coming up the slope. Such phrases as 'You can do it!' and 'Push it!' must have worked wonders...
Throughout the trip the porters were pretty amazing - everyday they set off after us, packup the camp - all our tents, the food tent and kitchen then overtook us and then set everything up again before we got to the next one. The food was amazing and things like having Coca tea brought to your tent in the morning meant you knew you were being well looked after. Me and another one of the guys gained a reputation for finishing other peoples meals for them, which only made me more intent on eating huge amounts. But it was easy to do after hiking all day and it made a big difference to your energy levels.
When we got to Machu Pichu on the last day we were up early to queue at the gate to the reserve so we could try and so the sun rise through the sun gate, although since they won't let you in until daylight there wasn't much hope of doing the 1 hour trek in time for that. Still there was some amzing views from there and not too many tourists around at that time. The city itself was great, although as it had become so touristy I was left feeling the hike itself was by far the best part of it and that people who just get the train up to the site have really missed out on something pretty specially in retracing part of the route the Incas took.
At the end of the day we all took the bus down to Aguas Calientes where the group had a slap up lunch and we all got to try a local delicacy - Guinea Pig. I appeared to be the only one who liked it but I just thought it tasted like pork and a rather expensive pieve of Pork at that.
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