World Trip: July 2012

After a long night bus we finally arrive in the city of Cusco, Peru, a beautiful city at 3400m above sea level, with a great Plaza De Armas in the centre, and the gateway to Machu Picchu. Found a great little B&B right at the top of a steep hill, plenty of Inca Trail training will be done walking up and down this hill.....

Follow that Llama...

Mountain view - Cusco

Plaza De Armas

Everyday here in Cusco something seemed to be going off in the Plaza De Armas from locals marching, protesting, singing and dancing in the square, it was great....

View from above

Singing and Dancing

Marching & Protests

We booked our 4 day/3 night Inca Jungle Trail with Lorenzo Expeditions which was excellent.
Day 1. We set off early, had a great buffet breakfast at Lorenzo's house which was nice of the owner, then headed out of Cusco to the mountains ready for 3-4 hours of downhill Mountain Biking to the village of Santa Maria. When we got to the top of the mountain it was snowing so we had to keep going a little further down to start in the rain and not the snow, oh my it was so so cold...

Oh no snow!!!

WOW!!!

Ready for downhill biking????

Made it!!!!

Day 2. We had a full day trekking, starting at the outer jungle and walking through the tropical forest with some gorgeous surroundings before heading to a local Coffee & Coco Plantation then to the highest point of the trail, the Original Inca Trail.

Ready for the Jungle...

A little lesson on coffee & coco beans

Time for a bit of dressing up...

Our Group dressing up time....

Original Inca Trail

Fantastic......

Highest point of the Original Inca Trail, chewing coco leafs...

After a nice rest with fantastic views we set off and made our way further along the trail crossing over bridges made by locals, one a little scary consisting of thin tree trunks laid over the valley river, Andrea struggled on this one and needed a little help off the guide to help her across......Then we crossed another river by cable car, well a basket on a wire being pulled across which cost us 25p. This was lot more fun and easier. Then we arrive at our final place of the day for a nice relax in the natural hot baths and a well deserved beer, YES!!!!!

Love the ponchos....

You can do it Andrea....

Local Cable Car

Andrea in 1st....

WOW Hot springs....

Day 3. Started with the choice of Zip Lining or 3hour Trek plus another 3/4 hour trek to Aguas Calientes the village at the bottom of Machu Picchu. We both decided to have a go at Zip Linning, which was very scary at a height of 1000ft over the valley. Six lines in total the biggest being 400m long, Andrea went tandem with the guide.

Ready to go....

Watch your bum!!!!

Andrea, Ready????

Weeeeeeeee!!!!!!

After fun on the Zip Lines now time for Trekking again, 3-4 hours walking along the truck road to the Hydro-Electric Power Plant, then onto the village of Aguas Calientes via the Peru Rail Track.

We made it to Aguas Calientes

Day 4. Very early start this morning up at 4am to trek up 1861 steps in the dark with only our head torches to the main gates of Machu Picchu. That was hard work but worth it....

We could not walk to the top of Wina Pacchu Mountain as all tickets were booked, so we booked to walk up to the top of Machu Picchu Mountain which was very hard work, but the views were AWESOME!!!!!

Top of Machu Picchu Mountain

After a absolutely fantastic Inca Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu we head back to Cusco on Peru Rail to collect our big backpacks and get the night bus to Arequipa, here we will book a 2 day trip to the Colca Canyon and see the Condors....

Arequipa

Arequipa Plaza De Armas

Colca Canyon Trip

Colca Canyon & Condors

Condor up close and a little blurry......

Condors flying high

After the Colca Canyon Trip we move up to Nazca for a night and did a DIY trip to see the Nazca Lines. We got the local bus to the 1st view point of the Nazca lines and managed to see 2 out of 3 lines here, the Hands and the Tree we could not recognise the Lizard...

Viewing platform

The Tree

The Hands

After the viewing platform we waited on the side of the road for another local bus to go past and go further down the road to the Marie Riech Museum, the former home of the German Mathematician who devoted her life to studying the lines.

Please let me take them home.....

Well the World trip is near the end now, we are heading to the capital of Peru, Lima. Here we spent our last 3 nights in a 4* Hotel as a treat for us and for Steve's birthday....