Fons is growing up. He's in his teens at the moment and tried to run away when we arrived to Cusco. With him he took our travel diary and some other non-financially valuable items. But we were able to retrieve him at the airport! Cheeky rascal. (We forgot a small bag in the taxi from the airport, but since we took an official airport taxi, they just dropped it off at their office. Fioew!)

Cusco is the last new place on this part of the trip, and we apparently saved the best for last. What a nice, beautiful and cool city! There are numerous green squares all over the city center, and the narrow, twisting cobblestone streets create a charm we haven't encountered previously. Coffee shops and yoga places cater to the hip and happening crowd, while ladies offering massages seek to provide comfort (and sometimes a happy end) to tired travellers returning from trekking in the area around Cusco. The city walking tour offered by LOKI Hostel turned out to be a tourist trap thing, but now at least we know that squished cactus lice are the colour purple, which will turn a bright red when mixed with salt. The Incas knew this too and used it to colour their alpaca/llama wool clothing. Crafty little people, not in the least for their stone carving abilities! There is an Inca wall in the centre of Cusco which contains a ´twelve angle stone´. You know that feeling when a piece of furniture juuuust fits inside a nook in your house, or you reverse park your car in one time in that very tight parking spot? Inca stone carvers must have had a perpetual high.

After two nights in Cusco the time had come to finally do the trek that was the whole reason to come to Peru in the first place. I chose to do the Salkantay Trek because the scenery on the way appealed to me the most (definitely not because I waited too long to buy a permit for the Inca Trail. No no). Picked up at 4:30AM, day 1 consisted of hiking up to the first camping place called Soraypampa, at 3,9km altitude. We arrived in time for lunch, so the afternoon was free to hike up to a glacial lake (Humantay lake) at 4,3km altitude. Best. lake. ever! The coloured lakes on the Uyuni 3-day trip really cannot compete with the beauty of this lake. Snow capped peaks as a backdrop, crystal clear water, the constant but distant murmur of a waterfall. It was a bit cold though when fellow Swedish trekker Joakim and I took a dip. May not have been the best idea but #YOLO right? We spent the night in a glass igloo, great shelter for the cold wind and freezing temperatures. Bedtime? 7:30PM.

Day 2: Wake up call at 5AM. Coca tea? Coca tea? OK if you insist! Hiked up to the Salkantay pass at 4,6km altitude, and descended again to 3,8km for lunch. Another 12km to go to end up in Chaullay, our campsite for the second day, at 2,9km altitude. From mountain range to cloud forest in one day, we witnessed the gradual change in scenery, and temperature. All the while, horses and donkeys followed the same path to deliver our duffel bags, food and tents to the campsites. Slept like a king on a 4cm thick foam mattress. Today was a good day.

Day 3: Wake up call at 5AM. Go from sleeping to drinking coca tea in 0,2 seconds. But we only had a short hike up ahead! We were promised a 16km hike to the lunch spot, from where we would be taken by car to go ziplining and/or relax in the Santa Theresa Hot Springs. Let's say the reactions from the group were less than cheerful when we were still nowhere near civilization after 16km, and we had to go another 3km. After lunch: There ain't no zipline like a Peru zipline! For a converted 30 euros, Joakim and I enjoyed 5 different lines, varying in length between 0,5 and 1km long. Normal position, upside down, superman, you name it! AND the hot springs afterwards? Feelsgoodman. Unfortunately the local gangs also hang out at the hot springs, ready to rob you of your valuables the moment you get out of the water. Valuable blood, that is. Mosquitoes and sand flies teamed up on me, I didn't stand a chance. Lucky for me, my body was indifferent to these attacks, but a fellow Canadian trekster was less fortunate. After already suffering from blisters and a sprained ankle from the previous days, her feet swelled up to near-elephant proportions from allergic reactions to the many bites. Regardless, she completed the entire trek without complaining once, and even walked up Huayna Picchu on day 5, faster than average. What a trooper.

Day 4: You guessed it! Wake up call at 5AM. Sleeping to coca tea in 0,2 seconds. I'm getting good at this. Today featured a hike up to Llactapata, from where we got our first glimps of Machu Picchu. But only if you brought binoculars. It was about 2 visual pixels large, but the view provided a good context of the setting of Machu Picchu in between Huayna Picchu on the left, and the bigger Machu Picchu mountain on the right. We (= Caroline and myself) had tickets for the one on the right. Note to self: Best not to show this picture to Caroline until after we hiked up the mountain. You know, don't want to crush her spirit yet. She and I met up in Aguas Calientes, base camp for our Machu Picchu exploration the day after.

Day 5: Wake up at... 3:30AM, and no coca tea?! All this to climb up the 1800 Inca stairs before the gates to Macchu Picchu open. That's a 400 meter elevation gain before 6AM. We get a tour until 8AM, and I start to mentally prep Caroline for the Machu Picchu mountain that we will start hiking up at 9:30AM. "We can stop any time you want, it will be worth it, the view is going to be amazing, etc". We start the climb and agree to go up to viewpoint 2 of 4, located about half way up, and see where we go from there. When this viewpoint comes around earlier than expected, we make the decision to go all the way to the top at 3061 meter altitude. This is when my motivation strategy changed from "you decide, we can turn back any time" to "you can't turn back now, quit whining, suck it up buttercup!". And we made it! Machu Picchu itself is bigger than you'd think, and amazingly well preserved and restored. Add to this its setting on a mountain ridge, and you have a place that surpasses the Roman ruins in Europe in beauty. Manifestations and road blocks then spoiled our 10:30PM return to Cusco. We were diverted by the police onto a dirt road, but thanks to the rally driving capacities of our driver the delay was limited. Maybe he forgot he was driving an 11-seater minivan instead of a Toyota Corolla WRC, but we made it safely back to Cusco at 11:30PM.

That's all for this week! In the upcoming week we will discover more Inca sites around Cusco, set a new and final altitude record and return to Europe for 1 day.

Geschreven door BigTrip