4/12/2015 Cuzco
Travel time = 25 hours. From Sydney, we flew to Santiago → Lima → Cuzco. Arrived in Cuzco around 9 pm where our hotel driver picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at Amaru Hostal Inca. It was a cute hostal; I eagerly tried the freely available coca tea, hopeful that it would help with the altitude. We dropped our bags and realised our room is adjacent to the stairs. Hence, we could hear and feel others' footsteps going up and down the stairs.
Tiny roads with shared zones between cars, pedestrians, motorbikes, and all other methods of transport
The hotel is centrally located, so we just walked for a wander to find something to eat. We settled into this tourist trap looking restaurant, simply because I was so out of breath after 10 minutes! The food was actually quite decent. Fabs ordered a beer and I had a glass of wine; I reckoned we were drunk after 1 serving of alcohol - I blamed the altitude.
5/12/2015 Cuzco/Skylodge
Cuzco sightseeing day. All within walking distance from the hostel which was handy. We stopped by Peru Treks office to pay for our Inca Trail 4 days trek; we set to go!
Qorikancha
Impressive Inca stone masonry
Then we were off to our second hotel: The Skylodge (http://naturavive.com/web/). Fabs stumbled upon it on Facebook and thought it would be a good idea to stay there. It was probably his best suggestion to date.
It's located near Ollantytambo; about 1-2 hours drive from Cuzco. To get to our accommodation, we had to climb 400 metres of Via Ferrata. It is basically a transparent capsule hangs from the mountain. We had one guide per couple (there were 2 couples), and up we went.
Just hanging
Via ferrata
The 'bridge'
View from the top
Once we got in our capsule; I proceeded to take my first ever wet wipe 'shower'. Dinner then served; I found it a bit awkward with the guide being there with us serving our meal, but not eating. After he left, with belly full and a bit groggy from the wine; we laid there staring at the sky before I promptly passed out in a matter of seconds.
6/12/2015 Cuzco
Everything that goes up, must come down.
After spectacular breakfast, we started our descent by 6 really long zip-lines. I thought I was to crash to the mountain and turned into a pulp; ended up I just split my lip. Due to my own fault for not breaking correctly on the 4th zip.
Zip it
We went back to Cuzco; but we shouldn't have as the start of the trek is very close to the Skylodge. Alas, I didn’t know any better. 2 hours later, we arrived at our nice(r) hotel; Casa Andina Private Collection. After a proper shower, we went for a walk to stock up for our trek.
As always, I had all the restaurants and places I would like to go all saved in google map. I was so busy looking at my phone, I didn’t realise we turned into this really dodgy alleyway; away from the main road. Windows were broken, and it was close to the ‘douche douche’ type of club. Fabs started to twitch; I looked up, and found we could be in a deep shit. I suggested we do a U turn and get the hell out of there ASAP. He agreed before I even finished my sentence. He did a massive lecture of what could’ve happen, and we ended up in some other random tourist restaurant.
07/12/2015 Tent!
03.00 am start. Bus picked us up and rounded up all the crew by 05.00 am. On our way from Cuzco, our guide asked whether we would like to hire walking sticks. I thought we wouldn’t need it. How wrong I was. Lucky Fabs got one pair.
The start of a huge challenge for me
Terrain on day 1 of the trek was 'OK'. Once we settled in the camp site, we had this really awkward introduction to all 17 of our porters (oldest was 80+!), chef and guides. This would be my first time sleeping in a tent. Due to Fabs's height, we had to sleep diagonally. I wasn't convinced why people do this for fun.
08/12/2015 Dead Women's Pass
The name said it all. All warnings I’ve got about Inca Trail was toilet related. No one warned me how challenging this would be. I thought since many people have done this trek, it shouldn’t be THAT hard, right? WRONG.
See that mountain far far away?
Whilst we were struggling with our tiny backpacks, the porters zoomed past us whilst carrying an entire house on their back.
The only way is up
To make matters worst, after lunch it started raining. I almost lost it. I considered to just curl in a fetal position and call the chopper; I couldn't go on any further. But since I don't think there will be any rescue chopper in Peru, we pushed on. Fabs saw me struggling so much, he gave me his walking sticks, carried my backpack on top of his own, his gloves and his hand warmers; as it started to became really cold.
Once we’re in camp, he told me to filled my aluminium water bottle with hot water and put it in my
sleeping bag. I am glad my first camping experience is with him, least one of us knows what to do!
09/12/2015 Winay Wayna
More walking. Heaps more. But at least it wasn’t steep uphill battle like yesterday. Today was actually my favourite, since there were loads of Inca ruins along the way.
Ruin ruin on a hill, which is the fairest of them all
10/12/2015 Macchu Picchu
0300 am start – we were waiting around at the starting line before we could actually go. Basically we needed to get out from our tents so the porters could packed them on time. About 05.00 am we headed to the sun gate, but the weather God wasn’t with us today, it was too cloudy to see anything and it started raining.More walking. Heaps more. But at least it wasn’t steep uphill battle like yesterday. Today was actually my favourite, since there were loads of Inca ruins along the way.
Ruin ruin on a hill, which is the fairest of them all
They were just magnificent! How did they bring all those stones here?!
Awesome looking terraces with barely anyone around
The sun was supposed to be behind him
Not long after the sun gate we saw IT! All that trekking for this beautiful magnificent structure.
Simply amazing
Once we reached the main entrance, all of us were DYING to go to a proper toilet! I would've loved to just hang out in the nice, clean, pristine toilet for the rest of the day. I think most of the people in the group shared my sentiment. There was even queue for men’s!
It was really crowded when we got there, because instead of walking the whole 4 days
There was still time before our train back to Ollantytambo, so we decided to dip ourselves in the hot spring. It was HEAVEN. Afterwards we went for a massage. My calves were so sore, and the ladies kept giggling because Fabs is a giant for Peruvian massage table.
We were dropped off at our hotel about 10pm (Casa Andina), and I went straight to the shower. This trip has made me deeply appreciate personal hygiene and hot water.
11/12/2015 Cuzco
Last day in Cuzco before we catch overnight bus to Copacabana (more info about Bolivia’s here).
The hotel felt like a 10 star hotel. The bed, shower, temperature controlled room, connectivity (we even splurge on Wi-Fi in our bedroom since it was only available in the lobby); all felt so luxurious after our nights in the wild.
We went out for food and checked out the market.
Then went straight back to the hotel room. I requested late check out so we could lie around and indulged on Wi-Fi until our departure.
It was time to leave Peru. It is such a lovely place, far exceeded my expectations on so many levels. I dare say my camping experiment was a success and the experience were truly amazing and worth it.
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