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Published: March 7th 2008
Inka Trek
Arrival at Machu Picchu....After the upset caused by the guinea pig photo Darryl is only eating rice and fish from now on.
We have been very busy seeing some amazing sights, the highlight was our 4 day trek along the Inca trail to the holy lost city of Machu Picchu. We survived every sort of weather that the Andes could throw at us whilst walking and camping with 14 other mad men and women. The whole experience was fantastic though. After our extensive hiking in previous weeks the trek and altitude was not too bad for us despite the weather. We chewed coca leaves and drank Chica beer to keep us going. The fermentation of Chicha is started by saliva on chewed corn but it tastes OK (Darryl had 2 pints). Penny's boots fell to bits on the first day but one of our porters fixed them for 2 quid.
We thought that the trek was going to end in disaster on the last day when we got up at 4am in the driving rain and 3 hours later arrived at Machu Picchu to see nothing but dense white cloud....aaaaaargh! Mercifully the Inca gods came to our rescue, the clouds lifted, the
Machu Picchu
The cloud finally cleared! rain stopped and the sun came out. Machu Picchu was stunning but the thing we most enjoyed about the trip was the fun times we had along the way with some new friends...bonded together by huge muddy climbs, slippery paths that turned into rivers, and the fun times induced by Peruvian Rum!
Before our Inca trek we spent several days in and around Cuzco- the Inca Capital - a beautiful, if somewhat touristy, city with stunning plazas, cobbled streets, bars and restaurants. We visited a traditional Quech'an dance and music show where all the village costumes were on display and we found out more about Inca history and the amazing buildings. We explored several stunning Inca ruins and markets in the sacred valley- towns such as Pisac, Ollyantaytambo, Chichero and others. We also hiked out on foot through more Inca ruins such as Sacsaywaman (pronounced Sexy Woman). One unusual afternoon saw us taking a bus trip to a Salt 'factory' which consisted of thousands of drying salt beds and also to some bizarre cirrcular Inca terraces at Moray where they grow hundreds of different crops.
After our wonderful time around Cuzco and the sacred valley we took a
Machu Picchu
Complete with sunshine! tour down to Puno on Lake Titicaca and had some more interesting stops in ancient pre-inca towns and villages. The road took us above 4300 metres. Puno is hectic (and very cold at night- 3800m altitude) but Lake Titicaca is stunning. Today, in stunning sunshine, we visited the incredible Floating islands and saw how the locals make the islands from reeds and their roots. We even ate some reeds (tasted like spongey celery) before heading off on a reed boat! Next stop on the lake trip was beautiful Isla Taquile- a natural island where we had lunch in a primitive local house where the owners put on quite an impressive meal of quinua soup and the most wonderful fresh fish.
Our original plans were to cross to Copacabana, Bolivia, today but due to a strike and roadblock in the town we have switched our plans so we will now be heading across the border tomorrow to the worlds highest capital city La Paz. We hope to come back to Copacobana if time and political situation allow!
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anita thynne
non-member comment
happy anniversary
Hello guys You are having such a wonderful time but soon to be over. We had good time at DUK but as sad as it is to say..... we did miss you Daz. Anyway just blogging to say happy anniversary for yesterday. Hope you did something special and ate something more appropriate than guinea pig. See you soon and can't wait to see photos although Daz you are only allowed a 10min slot per lunch time so that we can continue to talk about girlie matters the other 50mins. Love to you both NeetsXXX