Four days, One Scar, Some old ruins

Having been on a trek to Macchu Picchu, I decided it was pretty much eventful enough for it to have it's own blog. Plus I've done nothing else but drink in Cusco, so describing that could be a little boring.

We signed up for a four day trek to the ancient inca ruins, which involved 1 day of cycling and 3 days of walking. Also tagging along was a northern lass named Sally, who turned out to be a disaster area!

DAY ONE

Wake up at 7.30, on a bus for 8, on bikes at the top of a fook off mountain by about midday. Load up on water and sunscreen, then it was off for 1 hour of cruising down a road with more twists and turns than I'd like to think about. Sanjay went macho macho and cruised down, beating me down the road section by about 10 minutes, and I was about 10 minutes ahead of the next guy. However he got his come-uppance with a bit of a tumble when the nice paved road turned to dirt track! All was ok, and after 4 hours of cruising up and down a dirt track, and getting bitten to shit by mosquitoes we arrived at our first over night stay. Sally turned up about 2 hours later, moaning about how much her arse hurt. Just. The. Start.

DAY TWO

Wake up at 6, Sally discovers that sleeping without socks on outside the covers results in legs getting bitten to shit, and promptly starts to moan about it. Day two turns out to be the toughest, 5 hours trekking up a mountain (where i got my picture taken with a tame monkey on my shoulder!), and then along a tiny mountain path. After that it was 3 hours along a riverside, Sally moaning getting more and more intense. As people stopped listening, she resorted to the girlie tactic of have a cry about it. However, day two was to get more entertaining courtesy of me.

After the days trekking, we visited a thermal spring come swimming pool. Poddling around the place willy nilly, I stepped on what I though was pavement, but was actually a well covering. As it collapsed, I fell and split my leg open. Cue a prompt visit to hospital, 3 stiches, and 10 pounds lighter out my wallet. Also managed to get eaten alive by mosquitoes as my wounds were tended to!

Spent the night playing cards with a couple of local 7 year olds, which was a lot of fun.

DAY THREE

Not much to report, walked along a train track for 4 hours, a bit dull. Despite my injuries, I finish about 15 minutes ahead of the next guy. Call me Iron Man...

DAY FOUR

Having been instructed to arise at 4AM to trek up to Macchu Picchu (2 hours of step climbing action), we managed to get thoroughly soaking wet courtesy of the strange jungle climate, and when we got there it was misty and shit. Disaster struck me for the second time, as i managed to drop my camera and dent one of the button, so it now isn't working. With morale at an all time low, we limped back to our lodgings and slept til 1PM, before deciding to get the bus back up the hill. Was so, so worth it though because in the sunlight the place looked amazing!

To sum up the time since my return to Cusco involves a little bit of news. I'm not coming back at the end of September. In fact, I don't actually know when i'm coming back. I've got a job here for 3 or 4 weeks, and I'm gonna do some volunteering with disadvantaged kids (teaching them how to behave so they can get into state school and stuff), learning spanish, and generally being Mr. Cool. Sanjay is now heading home next week, so I will be flying solo. Made some amazing friends here in Cusco though, so the next month should be wicki-cool.

So yeah, if any fancies a holiday, the rough plan is to be in Buenos Aires by about november (where I have another job waiting for me), and I'm very tempted to stay out here til Rio Carnival at the end of February. Shhh, no-one tell work!

Lots of Love,

Nick

xx

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