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Published: October 25th 2008
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We had originally thought that cusco would just be a place to take it easy and get used to the higher altitude before we did the Inca Trail. It was actually a really great city to visit though. The town is set in between mountains and is very beautiful. The city has cobblestone streets and small alleys which make it fun to walk around. Because of the high altitude (i think it is about 3,400meters) I did have a headache for the first couple of days but nothing too bad. It was also a bit of a party town although we didn´t even though of drinking more than a few beers because of the altitude!
On day one we just had time to go to the cathedral (recommended by Becca) in the centre of town. It was def worth the visit as the inside was covered in gold and silver and very impressive. Then for dinner we went to a nice restaurant (also recommended) to celebrate our birthdays. We tried Guinea Pig which is a speciality there and it wasn´t too bad (as long as you dont think of it as a small furry animal). The next day we went
Dead Woman´s Pass
We were about halfway up the mountain at this point up to Saqsaywaman which are some Inca sites about 2km outside of the city. It was an easy walk and because we are early risers we beat most of the tourists by about half and hour. From there you can also go to the huge jesus statue that overlooks the city. We then walked onto another site called Qenqo which was a smaller site but worth checking out. We had a tourist pass that got us into all of the sites so checked out as much as we could. It was quite good getting a little exercise after sitting on a boat for so many days.
Next day we went to a site called Pisac (in the sacred valley) which was our favourite outside of the inca trail and machiu picchu. It is about 33km outside of Cusco and we managed to get a taxi for about $3 (US) There were about four different sites set on a mountain. Most tourists opted to take a taxi to the top of the mountain and only really look at the biggest site. We decided to climb to the top which was fantastic. There were very few people until we got to
the top (where it was tourist central) and the views were very good. We had a nice picnic lunch (marmite sandwiches) on our walk down and then took a local bus back to Cusco. That evening we went out for a nice but quick dinner as we had to pack for the inca trail.
The inca trail was also very good. We had heard it was an absolute killer but didn´t really find it too difficult. Day two was a lot of uphill but it was not that bad. We went with a company called SAS which was very good. The food was excellent but there was a little too much and we felt a little sick from eating so much. Our group was also very good, there were 14 people at 8 of them were Irish! All really nice people and the group got on really well. Overall a gret experience. Here is a quick day by day run down.
We had to meet the group at 545 in the morning so had a very early start. It was a little over an hour drive before we got to the Urubama which was the start. Day one
was pretty easy. We had some uphill after lunch but besides that it was pretty flat. We started at an elevation of 2400 and got to 3300.
Day two was the day that was supposed to be a killer but we didn´t find it too difficult. We started out at about 3300 meters around 7am and by 11 or so we had climbed to the tòp of "dead womans pass" which was an elevation of 4200. Afterwards we climbed down to an elevation of 3600 where we had lunch. Then we had a bit more uphill to 3900 meters and then back down to 3600 to our campsite to sleep. We say quite a few inca sites that day where we usually took breaks. A long day but the worst bit for me was the downhill as my knees dont like that much.
Day three was loads of downhill. We only had about a half day of hiking before we got to our campsite which had hot water for showers---fantastic as I could smell myself. We got to see quite a few exellent inca sites this day. It was also rob´s birthdy so after dinner the cooks made
him a birthday cake and we all sang happy birthday. We had a few beers after dinner but got to bed pretty early as we had to wake up at 4am the next day.
We were up at 4am and walking by 5am today. There were a lot of people which made it a less nice walk than previously. But by 730am we were at the Sun Gate and got views of Machu Picchu. From there it was about an other hour walk to the site. It was very cloudy so we did not get the best views but it was still an excellent morning. We walked around the sites until about 10am and then 4 of us decided to climb up Wayna Picchu. This was a fantastic walk but we missed out on the views becuase of the weather. We were running short on time so got up very quickly but then were very slow getting down. The steps were very narrow and wet so it was a little terrifying. After our walk we took a bus to a town called Aguas Calientes where we had lunch and then said bye to our group. We stayed in town
and went to some hot springs which was a fantastic way to finish the trip.
On our way back to Cusco the next day we stopped off at some sites in Urubamba which is part of the sacred valley, I can´t remember the name of the site. We only spent about an hour there before taking a local bus to Cusco and sorting out leaving the next day.
We are heading to bolivia this afternoon and not too sure how good internet and phones will be. Hopefully we will be able to stay in touch but dont worry if you dont hear much.
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