wow two blog updates within two weeks, you are lucky people! Soon we´ll actually be up to date, a feat we haven´t managed since we left Bariloche in Argentina back in November. Without further adoo doo...We left Huacachina on an overnight bus bound for Cuzco (gringo capital of south america and the hopping off point for machu picchu). We arrived in the rain which was an ominous sign of things to come, and hopped in a tiny tiny taxi to our hostel. A quick point about these dwarf like taxis is that they are made by the chinese for driving around airports, the peruvians use them on the roads. Therefore a crash in one is best avoided, we stopped taking them. Cuzco was the centre of the incan empire back in the good old 1500´s, they built fanastic buildings using masonry techniques of slotting huge stones perfectly together to make them earthquake proof, they had a huge and efficient road network, and an amazing palace in the centre of cuzco filled with huge golden edifices of sungods, warriors and llamas (not sure about the last one). Then the spanish came and ruined everything. Now all that is left is some of the stonework, the gold was melted down and sent back to Spain to pay for a giant piaella for the king or possibally debts to other countries.
We spent a good few days wandering around cuzco and trying to work a way to gain student cards in order to get into machu picchu for less than $45. Sadly this proved impossible and resigned ourselves to the fact we would have to pay and that we were no longer students. The main route to MP is by train which is also very expensive (it´s owned by a british company so no surprise there) but there is a more arduous route round the back which we decided upon. We took a 5 hour minivan to a place called san miguel then a 1 hour taxi to santa maria along a road that clung to a cliff above a roaring river (more about this river later) then it was another hour to hidroelectrico train station where we walked for 3 hours up the train tracks to aguas calientes (the town by macchu picchu). It was a hot and tiring walk but we made it by about 7 in the evening.
We checked into an overpriced hostal in Aguas Calientes which is the town next to MP. Aguas Calientes was a small sleepy village until American explorar Hiram Bingham rocked up looking for the lost city of the incas...which he found thanks to the help of a local lad. Little did this lad know that by telling Mr Bingham the site of this spectacular settlement he was to change the lives of the locals forever and severely piss off the two farmers grazing their animals in the ruins of the ancient citadel. Aguas Calientes is now a one night stop for backpackers, and package tourists to eat, sleep and visit MP. On our way along the train tracks we walked alongside the Urubamba River which was without a doubt the scariest, and most dangerous river i´ve ever seen, and i have witnessed the Severn in flood! It gave off a constant roar as it crashed down through the steep sided valley, throwing up rapids over 10ft high and racing into huge whirlpools. However due to the heavy rain in Cuzco we merely thought this was normal for wet season...little did we know.

We arose at 4am to climb the 2hour trail to MP. As we climbed in the darkness struggling for breath in the thinner air it began to rain, about half way up this had become a downpour so we stopped for a breakfast banana and convinced each other that the view at sunrise would be worth it. Finally we reached the top after a hot climb and were rewarded with an amazing...queue. Yes, that´s right a queue. A bedraggled line of visitors stretched back into the grey drizzle and around the corner. We had been cheated. Reluctantly and like good British citizens we joined the back of the queue, and like good British citizens we complained bitterly to each other about the unfairness of the situation. When we finally got in the site was shrouded in cloud, not in a mysterious way...oh no in a kind of ´i can´t see a thing´ kind of way. We wandered around through the mist bumping into various tour groups until we decided we needed a coffee and a sit down from the overpriced cafe at the entrance. This was a smart move, as upon our return the clouds lifted, tour groups disappeared and we were treated to a magnificent sight of MP in all its glory. It really is amazing, incredible engineering in an impossible setting. With the moutains all around and the river roaring several hundred feet below it is easy to understand why the Spanish didn´t find it. After basking in sunshine on the ruins in what Sadie entitled ´the most exotic nap ever´we took the view in one last time before heading back (by bus this time) to catch our train back to Cuzco. On the train ride back we both noticed as our carriage leaned perilously close just how near the raging river was to the tracks!

The next day we boarded our night bus to Lima which would take 20hours. At the same time the train tracks we had travelled on the previous day were being blocked by landslides and washed into the river which had eroded the land beneath. Thus stranding thousands of tourists in Aguas Calientes. Our bus left Cuzco at 6pm and was back in the same place 3 hours later due to landslides and flooding, we then left to go via Arequipa which would take 24hours extra only to find ourselves back in Cuzco at 5am. We slept on the bus until 8am when we were informed we would leave again at 12midday. We left at 2pm on a hellish journey which took in total 48hours. Luckily we met some sound Argentinian guys to chat with and share mate (traditional Argentinian drink) with. So we retraced our steps through all the places in Peru that we had already visited, and half along learnt of the tourists being stuck in MP. We finally got to Lima, knackered but feeling lucky that we had left Aguas Calientes when we did otherwise we´d be sitting there waiting for a helicopter out. Onwards to Trujillo and our volunteering....