Cusco & Macchu Picchu, Peru...

From Puno we caught the bus to Cusco, a very pretty seven hour journey through lush green Peruvian farmlands dotted with cows, sheep and women working the fields dressed in their bright embroidered outfits and elaborate hats. We got to Cusco in the afternoon and checked into Casa Grande, where our private double room with breakfast, free internet, tv and ensuite was a bargainous 7 pounds each. Then we wandered around the beautiful town, centred around the Plaza de Armas (why does no one ever mention how gorgeous Cusco is? All monasteries and churches and lit up fountains and colonial architecture) before finding a British pub where we had a roast dinner and read English papers and magazines - quite the treat! Later we checked out the cobbled side streets of Cusco, some of them with original Inca walls, and found the most incredible little sandwich shop in Plazoleta San Blas called Juanitos. Best philly cheese sandwiches we have ever eaten in our lives. If you´re ever in Cusco, GO!

The next day it was a very early start for our big day in Macchu Picchu. We left the hostel at 5.45am to head to Poroy station just outside Cusco, and caught the three hour Peru Rail train to Macchu Picchu Pueblo station (previously Aguas Calientes). And thanks to my wonderful, wonderful parents we weren´t in economy class for once, we went in the Vistadome class which meant a breakfast of bread, fruit, juices and coca tea on the train. The tracks follow the Rio Urubamba all the way through Ollantaytambo to Macchu Picchu, and it´s the only way of getting there unless you do the Inca trail, as the valley gets so narrow through the mountains. Once there you take a 25 minute bus journey up to the ruins which was the first of many hair raising parts of the day. The road winds higher and higher and higher around a mountain until it reaches the top where you get off to explore Macchu Picchu, which is just breathtaking.

Even though it is actually lower than Cusco (about 2500 metres) it feels so much higher as you´re right at the top of a mountain (god knows how the Inca´s got up there to make all this stuff in the first place) and by the entrance you get a panoramic view of the ruins below which is just mindblowing. I was a bit scared by the broken railing we saw on the way in, but actually that was the safest part of the whole place, nowhere else has any railings at all. You are left at the complete mercy of the place, with 3000 metre sheer drops on the sides of the pathways (I had horrible visions of one of us tripping over our shoelaces). But the upside is that the landscape looks completely untouched and natural so you can imagine it just as it was centuries ago. So we wandered through the enormous ruins of the Temple of the Sun, Ancient Cemeteries, Royal Tomb, Palace, Prison Quarters and more, all flanked by the imposing backdrop of Huayna Picchu peak, and lots of llamas hanging around the munching on the grass.

After that we decided to take a trail marked the Inca Bridge trail. BIG mistake. I have never been so terrified in all my life. I can categorically state that the Incas did not suffer from vertigo. This few feet wide path clings to the edge of the mountains with sheer thousand metre drops on one side, and it has only very low stone walls for about three metres of it, the rest has nothing. I suppose I should have been suspicious when a man in a little booth made us sign in (presumably so if someone falls off they know about it). I´ve never been scared of heights before but this was the most jelly legged I´ve ever been, and about five times I stopped and told Danny I couldn´t do it anymore and we´d have to turn back, but I do so hate being defeated so we trudged on, especially as all the people coming back kept saying ´not far,´just a couple more minutes.´ There were also builders working on the track who seemed completely oblivious to the height, leaning over the edge to tamper with bits of rock, at one point I couldn't help but screech at one of them to come away from the edge when I was sure he was going to fall to his death. And the climax of all this? the path just gets narrower and narrower until you can see in the distance a tiny wooden plank which joins it to the other side of the mountain (you can´t walk this bit but you can see that the Incas did). The Incas were mad. Anyway, we sweatily made our way back, with me freezing just a few times and declaring I couldn´t go any further, and I have never been so happy to see the ground in all my life. Moral of the story? Don´t take the ground for granted, it is excellent.

We then caught the bus back down the mountain to Macchu Picchu Pueblo and strolled around the markets there, before heading back to the train station for the three and a half hour return journey (where we were treated to Peruvian dancing and a fashion show of all the latest Alpaca designs, modelled on the train staff. Absolutely hilarious and much more fun than fashion week!) We met a lovely Australian lady on the train who was with her sister and son who had just done the Inca trail. She has been living in South America for the past five years and told us all about Chile (where we are headed today) sorted us out with extra food when we were hungry, gave me a book, and then when we arrived at Poroy persuaded her hotel-transfer driver to take us too, so we got a free trip back to the hostel. She was a great mum-substitute for the day!