Inca Jungle Trek

Four long days were spent trekking and biking over 120 kilometres. Day one we  drove over 4500m above the clouds and cycled downhill for around three hours.  The faster ones in the group were able to go on ahead and meet up with everyone at a particular destination every 45 minutes. Off I merrily peddled and forgot to stop at our last checkpoint and managed to cycle an extra 10k more. I did wonder why it was getting really hard as most of it was uphill by this stage with the sweat was lashing off me, thinking.."Downhill my arse!". So after the extra bit, I stopped and waited - two of the others followed me, so we all got a bit lost, but thankfully the  rescue van came and found us wrecked at the side of a road somewhere at the foot of the mountains.

The next two days were spent trekking for hours and hours through the Peruvian jungle in search of the Inca trail and Machu Picchu.  The actual trek is much longer than the Inca trek, but worth it for all the views. At the end of our day, we had the option of jumping into hot springs in the valleys - pure bliss.

Day four was an early start - rising at 4am (after a night of about 2 hours sleep in total, thanks to a bunch of wee shites of school kids making loads of noise coming back to the hostel and banging doors etc).  As we left the hostel, a couple of us decided to 'accidentally' bang a few of their doors, just for pay back. There was around 2500 vertical steps to climb in the dark before reaching Machu Picchu.  In my group there was a fitness instructor and an ex-Olympic Aussie female speed skater (Im being serious), so they were happy enough to go up the steps as fast as they could.  Made it up in the end with lots of staring people at the top as two of us arrived up in our sports bras. Sweating in our t-shirts with a backpack climbing those steps didnt go together, so off came the tops - we couldn't have cared less.

Machu Picchu was exactly like the picture postcards you see - stunning views of the ruins and landscape. The day finished by climbing Waynupicchu mountain - another 400 metres of veritcal steps that wound round the mountain. Again, the view was amazing, but I spent a large amount of my time coming down on my arse as it was high up there.

Have arrived in Arequipa after a 10 hour truck journey and spent the last few hours checking out the town. It's back to camping again, which is a slight shock to the system after being spoilt in nice hostels and hotels. Was dragged kicking and screaming (not really!) to a local convent (what is it with these people thinking that tourists find convents remotely interesting - this is my second one...no more or I'll crack up). From here it's onto the Nazca lines, sandboarding and staying in the desert and then upwards to Lima, where my 7 week tour ends on Friday - can't believe it's gone so quickly - I've had so much fun and met so many lovely new friends; some who I'll definitely meet again as I make my way through Australia.

Then it's back to the brilliant city of Cuzco, this time by myself, for some Spanish language (I'm thinking it wasnt one of my brightest ideas doing this at the end of my trip in South America ) and 3 weeks of volunteering.  The only problem now is the flight that I'd booked and paid for to fly me from Lima to Cuzco has been grounded for 90 days due to safety problems with the planes on this particular route...so the only option now is to get a 23 hour bus journey all the way back again to Cuzco. Doesn't faze me at all - at least I'll recognise all the scenery as I revert to becoming an OAP again, looking out of the window, dozing off and waiting for the toilet stops again. Oh how I have missed the all day travelling on a bus/truck!