South America - Peru: Cusco, Hotel Toyota & Machu Picchu Road Trip

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Jo and i arrived in Cusco extremely early at 4am after our overnight bus because the driver was speeding so had 4 hours to kill until it was a decent hour to turn up at hostels. Managed to pass the time huddled in the cold bus station covered in sleeping bags and ponchos drinking tea and then spotted the internet which killed another couple of hours!

Before i came to South America I'd pictured there being lots of plazas and cafes and Bolivia didn´t disappoint on that front but Cusco was by far the best! Arrived in the morning sunshine to find quaint cobbled streets surrounding the stunning plaza along with a huge cathedral and church. It felt so different to being in Bolivia, it was like entering civilisation again and it made us realise how tough Bolivia had been with the poor hygiene, quality of food and poverty.

We spent a couple of days in Cusco recovering after our horrendous trek on the Isla del Sol the previous day, we ate our way around Cusco as there was so much good food to choose from and we stuck to places recommended in the LP this time, sampled the local nightlife and planned our Machu Picchu trip. We couldn´t face a trek so decided to be flashpackers and hire a car to check out some of the small villages surrounding Machu Picchu before getting the train there from Ollantaytambo.

Our road trip began as we collected the Toyota Hilux 4x4 Turbo, or "Hotel Toyota" as Cesar from the hire car office called it as it was big enough to house us for the night if we couldn´t find a hostel!

It was huge and so cool, we were the biggest vehicle on the road and so high up, we picked up some cheap CDs to complete the trip and Jo drove while i navigated us to the Inca ruins called Saqsaywaman (pronounced Sexy Woman!). We trekked around the site and a random man started to speak to me in Spanish and thrust his camera in my direction so i assumed he wanted me to take a picture, I went to take his camera only to discover that he wanted a picture of me with his 12 year old son - i did pose with him but i have no idea why he would´ve wanted that picture, a very strange one for their family album!

We drove on through the mountains of the Sacred Valley to our first planned stop over which is a little place called Pisac with a population of 2,000. Considering we rocked up in the massive flash looking Hotel Toyota and everyone there was pretty poor, the locals were so friendly, constantly smiling at us and wanting to chat as not too many travellers stop on route there so they are interested to meet people when they do. It was such a cool place, we managed to squeeze Hotel Toyota up a narrow road to park her and found Ulrike´s Cafe where we spent the evening buzzing from our experience of Hotel Toyota, the lovely people we met and Pisac.

The next morning we drove up to the entrance of the hilltop Inca citadel in Pisac and passed Mirabelle, a cute Peruvian girl, on route who was struggling to climb uphill with a massive full bag on her back so we stopped to give her a lift which she was very grateful for bless her and we spent the morning climbing over the terraces and ruins. Back on the road trip we had to keep stopping to take pictures as there were huge random statues in the middle of small towns which were really odd! Came across Urubamba where we stopped for lunch then on to Ollantaytambo which is lovely with cobbled streets and very touristy as the train to Machu Picchu leaves from here. We met a couple of Scottish guys, Alan and Andy and went for dinner with them, they tried to persuade us to go for a few late drinks but we didn´t want to as we had an early train in the morning so declined the offer - will power!!

We woke up the next day very excited about getting the train to Machu Picchu, the views along the route were lovely but it was very sad because young children were alongside the train track begging for food. So much money is poured into Machu Picchu and the tourist industry yet some of their own children are forgotten about.

The train pulled up at Aguas Calientes where everyone stays before going to Machu Picchu. It was a tourist mecca with markets and overpriced restaurants everywhere. It was a really nice place, the weather was amazing and everyone was friendly. We met a really sweet girl from Arequipa who worked in a restaurant and said to come back for dinner if we wanted to try "cuy" which is guinea pig and one of the main dishes in Peru, but we looked at the menu and found pictures of it and it comes out whole on your plate with its head and legs still attached, the works!!! The girl said she would show us how to break the bones and get the most of the meat from it which completely turned my stomach - again! I wanted to be brave and try it but all i kept thinking was that Laura and Becky J would never forgive me if i did as they have pet guinea pigs so i decided against it!!

Got up in the dark at 5am, very excited about going to Machu Picchu. There were hundreds of people queueing and several buses arrived to pick us all up. I have seen so many pictures of Machu Picchu and was looking forward to seeing it for real but also hoping that i wouldn´t be disappointed as so many people had raved about it and built it up, but it did live up to expectations. We arrived at the main view point and it really was amazing and hard to believe that it was discovered not that long ago in 1911. We took some photos then ran across the site to the other side where they give out free tickets to the first 400 people there to climb Waynapicchu mountain. It was a good 2 hour trek and very steep and jungle like but we were finally back on form and feeling well so sped up the mountain pretty quickly enjoying the trek and overtaking people as we went! Spent some time at the top checking out the views over Machu Picchu before climbing down and heading back to Aguas Calientes where we met a guy who told us that he had just proposed to his girlfriend at Machu Picchu - how cool!!! She was off emailing friends and family and he told us the story of how he'd been carrying the engagement ring around in a hideous man bag/purse thing he had around his waist and would not take it off or part with it for fear of losing the ring and his girlfriend kept moaning at him that he constantly had this bag on and that it looked ridiculous until she found out what it was really for!!

We got the train back to Ollantaytambo the next morning, picked up Hotel Toyota from the little old lady who was guarding it for us in her car park and cruised back to Cusco stopping to take photos of the views on route. We stopped just outside Chinchero where there were a couple of small houses and a really nice Peruvian man called Antonio came out to greet us and said that he had like a small market in his garden so we went through to see it and met his family and he explained the process of how they extract coloured natural products from plants and use them to dye fabric and showed us the end result. We couldn´t resist a purchase as the family were so friendly and we gave Antonio a lift on the back of Hotel Toyota to Chinchero.

Back in Cusco we dropped our bags off at The Point hostel and while Jo was inside and i was guarding the car a very cute young Peruvian boy couldn´t keep away from Hotel Toyota and was very fascinated so, with the permission of his family of course, i picked him up and put him inside where he happily played and pretended to take the car for a spin until Jo came back!

Spent a couple of days back in Cusco before moving on as it was so nice. The Irish boys who i was with in Rurrenabaque were staying at the same hostel so we met up for one last time and went for dinner - in an Irish pub! - before they caught their flight to Rio. Jo and i went for a very cheap massage the next day but i started to get ill yet again so spent the next couple of days in bed and was even throwing up - didn't make it to the bathroom at one point and had to make do with the dorm room bin just as a cute boy walked in - typical!!!!

Got myself out of bed to watch the new Batman film in the TV room with Jo, one of the bar staff, Leandra and Team America - 3 very funny young boys from Chicago who were in our dorm room. Went straight back to bed after and Jo went on a messy night out with Leandra!

The next morning i had to play the role of mum in the dorm room... Team America had set their alarm for 4am as they were getting up to do a trek but their alarm was blaring out in the room and they were completely comatosed so i had to wake them all up and get them up for the trek. Jo didn't get in until 5am and i had to wake her up at 5:30am to get our bus at 6:30am to Arequipa - I was the responsible one for once! I thought Jo was dead she wouldn´t wake up to start with but finally got her out of bed, still drunk and somehow managed to get her packing her bag and staggering to the bus station which was very funny!

The bus journey was 10 hours and we were the only gringos on the bus. We'd decided to do the trip during the day instead of at night so we could check out the scenery as we'd been told it was a nice route but we both slept most of the way as Jo was hungover and i wasn't 100% so missed most of it! Woke up as various Peruvians came on to the bus to sell things and one lady came on with the typical Peruvian material bag on her bag which was huge and looked very heavy. As she opened it up and started handing out meat to the passengers we discovered she practically had a family of lamas in it there was so much meat and it was all warm! These Peruvians must have stomachs of steel, we stuck to dry crackers until we could get a decent meal in Arequipa...x

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