Blogs from Inca Trail, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 5

Our one day Inca trek covered the last day of the normal 4 day Inca trek. The day began with a taxi, a bus and a train to km104 (about 12km from Matchu Picchu) where we began our trek. After an hour I begin to question the decision to leave a perfectly good train for what is turning out to be torturous; - definitely a trek for young legs. Nearing the top set of the Inca Ruins starcase my legs seize up with cramp. - not good. A quick massage and pat on the back and it´s onward and upward until finally we reach the Sun Gate - all downhill from here. I was very concious in keeping my pack light and started out with 1.5 litres of water that quickly became 3; - half from ... read more

Bolivia eventually allowed me into the country and I arrived after a 12hr journey, got a taxi to the Wild Rover hostel where we'd booked for the first couple of nights. Getting very excited at this stage to see Sinead and Bernie at the airport the next morning!a lovely early start meant I was at the airport for 4.20am, waiting impatiently, only to see the flight is delayed an hour and a half... :(La Paz airport is really small so I could see the plane land and taxi really close to the viewing area. I was the only gringo standing a good foot over all the little Bolivianos waving like a lunatic as I saw the girls get off the plane! After an emotional welcome we got a taxi back to the wild rover. We got ... read more

A very early start again and this after a night of sleeping on the ground in a tent for the first time in a number of years. Night time temperatures of around 7 C. As it works out this is the most complicated and longest day. One of the things I was not (sufficiently) aware of before I started the Camino, was the fact that about 70% of the whole Camino consists of uneven rocky stairs. These Incas had a great talent for making stairs. Stairs going up and coming down. They make sense due to the great amount of water that crosses the trail (melting water from the snow covered peaks) and the amount of rain that falls during the rainy season. Without the stairs there probably would not be a Camino. Nevertheless walking some ... read more

A day for tourism and aclimatization. The night before we had decided to take a tour of places in and around Cusco. We left the churches out, since those we had already partially done the day before. We concentrated on the Inca history. We took a taxi to drive us around and visited the folllowing places: Saqsayhuaman, Q'engo, Pakapakara and Tambonachay. In the first archeological place we visited we hired a guide who gave us a magnificent explication of the who and what of the Incas in building temples, houses, etc. Very interesting to learn that there are different types of construction depending on the relevance of the functions or the people. Straightlines in building is for prime purposes and "prime people". Impressive to see how the different rocks fit together without cement or anything. More ... read more

Hello dear readers, Georgi here Apologies about the huge blog gap, but we shall try and remember what we did in those last few days of our latino haze... Following our mountain adventures, we decided to chill out in cusco before our grand finale - the inca trail to macchu picchu. Cusco is tourist town 4000! Socks and sandals, mcdonalds wrappers (in andys pockets) lamas on everything saleable, and a flotsom of languages sailing through the clean mountain air. It was nice, but after experiencing the true beauties and hidden treasures of this continent, it was slightly overwhelming to be stampeded by a 20 strong group of skandanavian tourists, being lead by a rather stressed looking guide waving a 'we love cusco' flag franticly, and hoping to God the more senile members didnt get lost and ... read more