Cusco and Machu Picchu, Peru

After an 18-hour overnight bus from Arequipa we arrived early in the morning in the picturesque city of Cusco, Peru. We took a cab to our third and last Wild Rover Hostel and were given an impromptu tour of the city by the cab driver en route who took us by some of the famous cathedrals, plazas and parks of Cusco. We checked into the hostel at 8AM and immediately sat down at the hostel bar to watch the opening match of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The game was pretty lopsided between the All Blacks and Tonga but was entertaining to watch as the hostel bar staff were still partying from the night before. One Australian staffer wore a bathrobe and drank white russians (Big Lebowski style) for the duration of our stay there -gotta love being on holiday.

Cusco is a medium-sized city (about 100,000+) in southeastern Peru that is the staging point for treks to Machu Picchu and surrounding areas. As a result it's very much a tourist-oriented town (unlike most of the cities we'd visited to date) making sightseeing pretty easy but meals and accomodation somewhat expensive.

We spent the next two days preparing for our 5-day, 90km trek over Salkantay pass to Machu Picchu. We also got to watch a few more games of the Rugby World Cup which unfortunately included Ireland's thumping of the US team. On our third day in Cusco we set off on the Salkantay trek with our Aussie friends David and Merryn, as well as 4 Germans, 1 Finnish dude and 1 Norwegian girl.

Prior to the trek Charlotte purchased the worst possible footwear you could have for a 5-day trek in the mountains. She was aiming for fashionability with her brand new jet-black Pumas, however, the fashionable hiker image was quickly shattered when on day 2 she lost her footing and smeared brown and green horse poo up her side and back. She also unfortunately sprained her ankle on the same day and had to wrap her ankle in bandages for the rest of the trek. Gotta hand it to her though, she had the option of taking a horse for the remainder of the trek but refused to do so as she wanted to complete the whole trek on foot. This was an especially impressive effort considering she sprained her ankle on about km #20.

Unfortunately the food we had on the trek was hands down the worst we'd had in South America. This came as a surprise because we'd heard so many people raving on about how good the food was on their treks and were looking forward to the delicacies that our camp cook, Vicente, would be preparing. Vicente showcased his culinary prowess early on when on the first night at camp he prepared a chicken curry that smelled like fish and tasted like cat food. Mad props to Vicente for trying never-before-tested flavor combinations, it's just that they didn't go down well even with the accompanying undercooked rice and flavorless boiled potatos. Most of the meals throughout the trek were on par with this -palatable enough to eat, but onl eaten out of necessity.

The first four days of hiking were difficult but rewarding with spectacular scenery that took us through multiple eco-systems. Days 1 and 2 were spent in alpine and sometimes snowy conditions as we went up and over a pass near Salkantay mountain (5000+ meters). Days 3 & 4 took us through jungles, over rivers and into a natural hot spring which was a welcome treat for sore our feet. We arrived in Aguas Caliente on night 4 for a comfortable hostel sleep before spending day 5 hiking up to and around the ruins of Machu Pichu.

The ruins of Machu Picchu were spectacular as they've been kept in very good condition and are surrounded by incredible mountain scenery. We set off on foot from Aguas Caliente at 5.00AM to reach the entrance to the ruins by 6.30AM opening time. As we were walking up the trail in the dark we could hear the tour busses from Aguas Caliente winding their way up the mountain, so we picked up the pace to make it before the busses. We didn't make it in time, however, most of our treking group did so we cut in line and joined them near the front (after 5 days hiking I think we earned a front spot anyways). We spent most of the day walking around the ruins including a 1hr hike up to the Sun Gate where people on the traditional Inca Trail would have caught their first glimpses of Machu Picchu at sunrise.

We caught a night train and bus back to Cusco later that evening and checked back into the Wild Rover for a very comfortable and exhausted sleep. The following day we boarded a 22-hour overnight bus to Lima and said our goodbyes to David and Merryn who were headed to Arequipa next and then back to Canada and Australia.