Then I’m finally back from my four days in the jungle. We had some amazing days with a lot of walking, met a lot of new people and I got to see Machu Picchu. The jouney started with a lot of waiting. We woke up at 6 and were ready to be on our way. However, after our guide picked us up we waited for over an hour in the car for the others and then another hour because we had to get the bikes. We then drove for two hours before we started biking. We were told we were going downhill biking, however, it was “downroad”. We biked on the road next to the cars. Our bikes weren’t the best and in the beginning I didn’t quite trust my breaks. After a while I got more comfortable and we all had a lot of fun. We biked from 4300 meters above sea level to 1200. A great trip.
The next day was the hardest. We walked for about 8 hours. A long trip. This day we walked the Inka Trail and it was very steep part of the time. Part of the trail was also really narrow and far down if you were so unfortunate to fall down…. However, that didn’t happen and there wasn’t really any real danger. We also got to see part of the vegetation that they had there and tasted a lot of different things. The last stop was hot springs. A really nice treat after such a long journey. A couple from our group they have a camera which you can bring underwater and we took some great pictures there which I will show you when I get them. We spent a lot of time in the water before we went to our new hostel.
The third day of the journey was the most excited. We tried zip lining. It was amazing. We tried five different ones. I thought it would be very scary, but it was just excited. The first one we just sat in and didn’t really try anything. However, the rest we tried different things. In one we hung upside down and that had the most kick. You could “fly” up to 80 kmh and we were 280 meters above sea level. Definitely something that I will do if I have the opportunity again. We then walked for three hours before we came to this nice small down where we would spend the night.
At 4 a.m. in the morning our alarm went off and it was time to wake up. Half an hour later we were on our way to Machu Picchu. We had to walk 20 minutes before we came to the bottom of the hill which we were going to climb. 2100 steps up and the first 1000 I think I was half asleep. Getting to the top was really nice and after a while, when the fog cleared you had a great view. We walked around for two hours with a guide, learning different about the place. What I thought was interesting was that the place was build in the 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. It then wasn’t internationally known until the 1911 when an American came looking for it. They then restored most of it, but according to our guide it didn’t really become a tourist attraction until the 1940’s. Machu Picchu is 2430 meters above sea level and a place that you should visit. Well worth the trip. During our tour with the guide he told us that in 1911 whe the place was found they also found a lot of treasures that they wanted to examine. They made a deal with Yale University for further studying and Yale was supposed to keep them for a period of 18 months. However, after those 18 months only a small fraction of the treasures were returned. According to the guide, Yale got 40,000 treasures and only 500 were returned.
Going back to Cusco we took a train. The train was really nice and so nice to just relax after four long days. After four days of hiking I have been able to get 7 blisters, a small kind of accoplishment, I guess :) We have now spent a day in Cusco, mostly sitting at Starbucks, but also going around the city. Our bus to La Paz leaves tonight and then we have anothr 24 hours on the bus before we’ll be in Arica where we’ll spend an amazing week by the beach.
This rock is a holy rock. Ingvild and I were trying to find out what it looked like when our guide told us it was a bird. A bird?, We didn´t really see how it could look like a bird, but then our guide said a little more about it and showed us where the head was and we kind of understood it, but honestly, it doesnt really look like a bird to me. When he started explaing how the wings went up the mountain Ingvild and I were lost. We also looked at some other rocks that had great importants back in the day and they were a little easier to see what they were.
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Our Inka Trail trip started with biking and here we are ready to bike fro 4300 meters down to 1200.
Walking the Inka Trail. On the last day we came to a hot spring, which you can see in the picture above. They had three different temperatures and it was amazing to relax after walking for four days.
At Isle Del Sol we had to try the water which supposedly gives you eternal life. The water in my opinion tasted horribly and one sip was more than enough :)
Pictures from Isle Del sol and Cusco. The hat I’m wearing was really warm and would have perfect on a cold day in Mongolia.
Starbucks and subway was often visited on our vacation and I’m glad that they don’t have it here in Sucre or who knows how often we’d go there. Tonight we are going to the youth group and practice a play. I don’t really know what the play is about, but hopefully it’ll be fun.
Elises World 