After a lovely summer at home enjoying the good weather, we’ve set off again to South America -Peru and maybe Ecuador. We’ve got very little booked and so are going to play it very much by ear- slightly worrying as its a continent that we’ve never been to. We flew to Lima with KLM from a very disorganised Schipol airport though it was a great flight with good food and films. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at the airport overnight as with the time difference, very early start and over indulgence of the previous days, we were exhausted.

Cusco

The next day, we flew to Cusco and settled in to the prettiest but noisiest hotel ever; we had thought the side street would be quiet but nowhere is quiet in Cusco! After paying for our trek and getting a SIM card, we puffed our way to bed. We’d read lots about altitude sickness but it’s still been a bit of a shock. A short uphill gives a heart beat of 154 and a feeling like you’ve just run a sprint and when linked with a headache it’s a challenge so we’ve kept popping pills.

Unfortunately, the next day we weren’t feeling much better but ventured out and immediately came across a huge parade which was on to celebrate tourism. The costumes and enthusiasm of it all was amazing. We wandered through the main squares and, very slowly, up to a viewpoint and cobbled area which nearly killed us. All very pretty but being exhausted that was all we could do.

A day later, the pills were definitely helping and so we set off to do a DIY trip to Pisac in the Sacred Valley. We found a local bus (collectivo) and really enjoyed the drive through the countryside. The little town was so pretty and we enjoyed a drink in a square watching people who had decided to hike up to the ruins. We’d read that this was 3 hours uphill (from 2972m to 3525m) and so decided we’d rather pay 25 soles (about £6) for the tuktuk and, boy, were we happy that we did. The collectivo dropped us where we had a 30 min uphill walk to the entrance and that was enough for us. The ruins were really interesting but there was not one information board there which was so frustrating as we had no idea what we were seeing. The view and terraces were quite stunning though and we did really enjoy it. We walked down to Pisac (90 mins) and met many people walking up puffing well and looking like they would have preferred a tuktuk too. We ventured into the market, which was “tat” central, and then ventured back out for a lovely meal. Callum is loving the menu of the day; 3 courses plus a drink for £6 with a choice of about 4 options for the 3 courses including an alpaca steak all in a sweet little restaurant. Everything we’ve eaten has been amazing though you always seem to get chips with your rice in the main meal- carb central with the churros too!

We spent the next day doing a self guided walking tour of the main town which included the main square, Plaza de Aramas, and the Choco Museum. We learnt a few interesting things in here, apart from how to make chocolate such as if you were drunk in Aztec times you were executed so people drank chocolate instead and the Catholic Church decided that drinking chocolate was ok when fasting as it was for medicinal purposes which is probably going to be a much repeated fact in our house. Also, for every 1 bar of chocolate the Chinese eat, the British eat a 1000 – the Rossie family does their fair share of this. Callum was definitely in his happy place here and was all for getting some chocolate as it smelt delicious until he saw it was £20 for 100g! Quick change of mind there. Next on the tour, we saw a 12 angled stone that was a key stone in the Inca wall that runs down one of the old streets. The walls are pretty impressive and they don’t use any mortar but the stones fit exactly so that if there is an earthquake they just jostle and settle again on their own. Lastly, we went into Qorikancha – an old temple that was turned into a church by the conquistadors (something they did a lot here) mainly using the enslaved Peruvians to do the demolition and new construction.There were lots of beautiful paintings and a garden to collapse in for a little while too.
The following morning we both felt considerably better and so walked up to the Christo Blanco (White Jesus statue) which was donated by Palestinian Arabs to Cusco after the 2nd World War. It was a lovely spot to sit as it’s away from the noise of the city and then we went down for a rather painful Swedish massage. We had our briefing about what to take, met our guide Sergio and packed ready for the trek. Fingers crossed for good weather and comfy air mattresses.

Inca Trail and Tribulations

I used to be told at work in my performance management meetings how good for me it was to be pushed out of my comfort zone to which I always replied that I was quite happy there thank you very much! Well, these last few days have definitely pushed us out of that comfortable place and down the other side of a mountain. Having said that, we had an amazing time on the Inca Trail despite Callum getting really sick with food poisoning the first night (worst possible time as the hardest day was the one to follow and I’ve really no idea how he managed it) and me having altitude sickness on day 3 which totally floored me too for 24 hours. Physically, it was undoubtedly the hardest thing we have ever done but the views and the experience was amazing.

Despite being on our own trek, we spoke to many interesting people on the way, most younger but some other oldies too. The camaraderie and generosity of the people we met was was wonderful with people sharing coca leaves, inhalers to open lungs as well as gummy sweets. The organisation of Alpaca Expeditions was great; we had a guide, Sergio, super chef, Ronnie, and 7 porters who carried 25kg on their backs along the trail past us everyday to set up camp for lunch, take it down , go past us again to set up camp again and make dinner. The wildlife wasn’t something we’d considered but in addition to the quite fantastic ruins, we spotted many humming birds, snakes, a wasp paralysed a tarantula to lay eggs inside it, so many butterflies and orchids. We were really glad to have booked a night in a hotel at the end of the trek before the rest of our tour of Machu Picchu and the climb up Huaynu Picchu. Best bed and shower ever! We had though this would be the hardest part but to actually both feel well it was a bit of a breeze😂. Hopefully, the pictures illustrate a little of our experience.