This morning we had an early start. We were saying goodbye to Lima and hello to Cusco.
After breakfast, we jump aboard the coach and make our way to the airport. The airport porters then collected all of our big bags, whilst we took our carry on bags into the airport. In order to gain entry into the airport, we needed to flash our passport at security. Although with a big group of 40, he checked the first few and then just waved the rest of us through.
We checked in for our flight, and made our way through security. After waiting for a couple of hours, it was then time to board the plane.
The plane was pretty full, with the greater percentage of passengers being tourists. A majority of them making their way to either Machu Picchu, or to the Peruvian amazon river and forest, via another flight from cusco.
As I was walking down the aisle to get to my seat, there was a bit of commotion going on. The cabin crew were telling some Americans that they needed to get off the plane. This looked juicy. So I made it to my seat which was a few rows behind... Perfect viewing vantage point. Then I tuned in. I didn't even need the glass, as the conversation was pretty loud, especially when a whole heap of other people came down to 'help out'. So strangely enough, the plane that we were on was dropping some people off at cusco, and then the plane was getting a few more passengers at cusco and flying on to the amazon. Any passengers currently on the plane making this second flight didn't need to get off the plane. Just those of us heading to cusco were to get off. But the problem was, for what ever reason the Americans hadn't checked in at the airport, and therefore their seats were confirmed until cusco, however after that their seats hadn't been confirmed and the plane was already over booked. The Americans were digging their heels in and said that they were not getting off the plane. It was so bizarre, as these people were about to join a different Globus tour. So our tour guide started mediating between the cabin crew and the Americans.... Eventually a direct flight from Lima to the amazon was organised and these people eventually left the plane. By this stage the plane was already 30mins behind our scheduled departure time. However crisis was everted, and it was all thanks to our illustrious leader Fernando. He promised that he would call Globus head office to give them the heads up, which he did.
So with these people now off the plane we were free to take off. As soon as we start taxiing out to the run way, everyone gave the cabin crew a huge round of applause. They were copping it big time from these Americans, the entire time they kept cool, calm and collected!!!
I sorted my junk out for the flight, just waiting for the seatbelt light to go off so I can ramp up my iPhone and start listening to some tracks. 2 mins before the light went off however, the lady next to me from America starts yapping. There was a noise from under the plane before we even took off, and she asked her husband if he thought that they may have raised up the landing gear. I'm so glad that he answered her straight up... He just said 'dear, considering we need to be up in the air before they can lift the landing gear up, I think it's still down'. I nearly started laughing out aloud!!
Then the lady turned to me, 'so where are you from?'. I replied Australia. She then started going on about Mcleods Daughters, and whether I thought that they may start reproducing that show. She was asking me all about the characters, where it was filmed, that fact that she was saddened after the season finale of the 3rd season and that 8 seasons just wasn't enough. Holly crap, she knew so much about this show, and I knew nothing!!!
Eventually there was a big enough break in the conversation, allowing me enough time to get my earphones in and just to kick back and listen to some tunes. The flight was only a short 1.5hr one. We went over some spectacular country. The Andes were displaying their characteristic large mountains beneath the plane. It is just amazing to see how big and far the Andes extends.
We received the warning that they were preparing for landing. So everyone packed their things away, and readied themselves to get off the plane once it landed. The plane then started pulling a hard left.... It looked like the wing was only a few hundred metres from the top of the mountain. We then did a minimal right turn, and then another really hard left turn, and again our wing looked like it was about to hit the mountains. In the not too distant future I could see the runway fast approaching. It's funny, I watched 'Top 10 most dangerous airports' on tv not long before I left for my trip, and I can't recall Cusco airport being on that show..... However I think that it should at least be considered for it!!
We landed safely, however there was no room at the inn for us. We sat idle just off to the side of the runway. We watched a few planes come and a few go. The message then came over the paging system, we will remain in this stationary position for 20mins. Perfect time for a toilet break. So I head down and join the queue. I eventually got in to the toilet and just as I entered the plane started moving towards the gate. How typical!!
Once safe and sound at the gate, we then made our way through to baggage claim. One of my biggest concerns about coming to cusco was altitude sickness. Apparently it's enough to send even the toughest of people packing their bags. I really wanted to see Machu Picchu, so I was nervous that I would be really badly effected and would need to sit it out.
We casually made our way to the baggage claim. We had been previously told by Fernando to make sure that we all take our time walking there because of the altitude. Check - We all took it pretty slow. We pointed out our bags to the porters, as they were to take them to our hotel. We on the other hand were split into two groups, the alpacas and the llamas.
As a lot of the streets around cusco are very narrow, it's not practical to take a huge coach, so instead we had the two minibuses.
The glamazon's made our way to the llama bus, and were joined by the beautiful Kerry who was to be our guide for the next couple of days whilst in cusco and Machu Picchu.
We set off on our adventure. We all seemed to be doing ok, no one seemed too effected by altitude sickness. Our first stop was for some lunch. We had been driven a little further up the mountain, and therefore the restaurant provided us with a great arial view of downtown cusco. We all decided to just have a light lunch, as altitude sickness can also give you a few digestion issues if you get my drift!! In the end I think the majority of us ended up with chicken noodle soup!!! The other thing that everyone had with their lunch was a nice cup of coca tea. This is a tea that is brewed with coca leaves, and is used to help reduce the effects of altitude sickness. It tasted pretty good. I would describe the flavour as being a cross between fresh mowed grass and green tea. Quite refreshing!!
After lunch, we then jumped back on to llama (our minibus). We were driven a short distance, further up the hill for a shaman Mother Earth ceremony. To get to the ceremony we all had to walk about 100m up to a hut, where our beautiful female shaman was waiting for us. But that 100m walk, may well have been a 4km jog. As the increased elevation decreases the oxygen available in our bodies, I found myself breathing a lot harder, my heart was racing and my legs just felt heavy. It was so weird. We all made it up to the ceremony, and this was spiritually enlightening!! The shaman started by wanting to know our names and where we were from, each time adding perfectly formed coca leaves to the sacrifice. By the time she had finished, there was a beautiful rose pattern of coca leaves. She then started unwrapping these little packages wrapped in newspaper, each one containing something precious to sacrifice. These included things like sweet biscuits, corn, confetti, aniseed etc. surrounding where she had her sacrifice package was a lot of knick knacks, like chocolate bars, toy cars, beer, and wine. At one stage a fly came over and landed on the car.... This she said meant that there was going to be a car accident. I hope not!!
After the shaman had finished adding her items to the sacrifice, she wrapped it up in birthday paper, walking around and blessing each of us with the package. At the same time we were to think about what we wished for in our lives. Once everyone had been blessed the shaman placed the package on a fire and burnt it in sacrifice to Mother Earth. For those people who wanted to have a photo taken with the shaman they could stay back to do so. Only a few of us stayed back..... and in turn the shaman blessed each if us again. I can't explain the feeling of what happened after this ceremony, other than I felt a release of emotions as I walked back to llama. Lucky I was wearing sunglasses, as it could have been a little embarrassing walking back on to the bus with teary eyes!!! I felt free!!!
Aboard the bus again, we set off to our next location, a place call Saqsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman). This was the location of some ancient Incan ruins, standing tall up on a mountain side. It still amazes me how the Incan's came to make these sophisticated towns out of huge stones. Some of the stones that made up the structures here were almost a storey high. It must have taken a lot if effort to move the stone to its location in the first place. But then to shape it like Lego so that they could click the stones together to make these big strong stone walls, that's something else!! We also saw our first llamas roaming around eating the grass at the ruins. Meanwhile, Kerry gave us a running commentary on the ruins. She was great, as she gave us information but didn't over whelm us.
It was at this location that quite a lot of people started to feel the effects of the altitude. Some were having problems with headaches, others with catching their breath. I, at times just felt a little tight around the chest, but it was soon remedied with a few deep breaths. Some people only did a small part of the ruins, as they just found the walking around too much. By the time we got back into llama, you could really start to see the effects on everyone. We all had pale lips and were starting to look tired.
We just sat quietly in the bus, whilst it drove about 1.5hrs to the sacred valley. The roads twisted and turned.... We had a close call, where a car veered in front if us, and we seriously missed the car by centre-meters. I have never seen so many people grab and put their seat belts on all at one time. It also made me think.... could this be what the shaman saw today???
As sacred valley is located at a lower altitude to cusco, we needed to descend down the mountain. This provided stunning views of the endless mountains that make up the Andes. We occasionally came across a snow capped glacier which was so pretty to look at. There is a reason why we head down to sacred valley and spend the night down there rather than cusco, and that's because of the altitude. The whole idea of going down to a town at a lower altitude for the night was to try and allow our bodies time to acclimatise to being at this higher altitude. Hopefully reducing the incidence of us coming down with altitude sickness.
Once we arrived in the sacred valley, we all jumped out for a bathroom break, and also to have a look around the local market. However, the skies opened up and the rain came tumbling down. So most of us just cowered in a silver store, hoping that we could outlast the rain. Mother Nature had different ideas, as the rain well and truly outlasted us. We all had to run back to the buses.... essentially running from one sheltered stall to the next.
Once we were all accounted for it was time to make our way to the hotel. This was another 1hr drive from where we were.
We watched as the sun set over the Andes, continuing our drive to the hotel. We eventually arrived at the hotel, and by this stage it was dark. A large majority of people were starting to get headaches and others difficulty with their breathing. I just felt tired and every now and again a tight chest. I just had to remind myself to keep taking deep breaths.
I found my hotel room, and it was so beautiful. Soon after our tour group met for dinner, however it was the least social event we have had to date. People were just eating and then heading back to their rooms to try and sleep off their altitude sickness.
I headed back to my room and did a little bit of washing, then set about packing an overnight bag for Machu Picchu. Now, this was an impossible task, not so much that I had to pack an overnight bag, but more so that I had to fit everything else that I wasn't taking down to Machu Picchu in my big case. I packed everything in so tightly.... and finally with me sitting on my bag to compress it enough, I zipped it up. I still don't know how I fit everything in there, but I did. I just hope no one looks side ways at my big bag, as I honestly don't think it will take much for it to start spewing my clothes out all over the place!!!