Hey all you wonderful bloggers out there in aussieland!
There has been so much happening on this end that i am trying to figure out where to begin this epic tale of dragons and slaying and princes in disguise.
I beleive where we last left you off we were about to go and see my favourite man on the big screen, yep thats right! hold onto your wizard hats, we went and saw HARRY POTTER!
First we decided to wander around town and try some of the infamous Cheese icecream...or Sally did atleast, i was too busy trying not to pass out. We decided that we should get some lunch also, as i was feeling quite faint, and went into a smaller resteraunt. cue ¨Donde estas el baño?¨before running off to the toilet for a quick spew....oh yes, charming info ey??
My lovely ginger decided that i was such a good girl that she took me to see the newest installment of harry potter. so off we hopped in a taxi to the only cinema in Arequipa. I was still feeling quite sick (something i am getting used to now...life is constant nausea for those who are on the hit list of Altitude). I was ioncredibly excited to see harry potter, and i thought the movie was sooooooooo good, but the cinema quality was epicly shithouse. it was like watching a pirated movie on the big screen (which is probably was) either way, i am not complaining because HARRY HARRY HARRY!!!
Anyway, we arrived back at our hostel ready to hop on our next overnight bus, and we couldnt find our tour guide, so we asked some of the others on our trip where he was. turned out he was at the hospital with one of the other girls on our trip. she had stepped off the curb funny that afternoon and had fallen to the ground and was taken off in an ambulance. she had fractured her ankle. geez feet are extremely sensititve, i should know!! the poor thing had to have surgery that night while we were all on the bus to Cuzco (another intrepid guide was at the hospital with her to make sure she was ok) and she had to have a pin put in, WHILE SHE WAS AWAKE. talk about traumatic, poor emma. we were all hoping she would be able to meet with us in a few days at macchu picchu after our epic hiking of the inca trail.
we spent the night on the shittiest overnight bus, and arrived in Cusco at 5:30am, all very tired. we spent the day wandering around and getting the last minute things we would need for the Inka trail like, more sunscreen, another tshirt, etc etc. we ended up finding a market and i spent lots of money buying woolen goods for the trip, and to Sallys delight (not) some pan pipes, oh yes, my musical talent will astound you all!! hehe.
We then had a meeting that night with the guides that would be taking us on the Inka trail in less than 2 days. By this stage i was EXTREMELY nervous and freaked out by the idea of the hike, only because i was still quite unwell from altitude and i knew i would struggle to breathe whilst hiking up so high. But, still determined to give it a go....eeep!
The next morning we got up and headed over to the sacred valley and stopped off in a small town where they gave us a demonstration of pottery making and chocolate making in the local communities. We also had lunch with a local family, (although again i couldnt eat much as my stomach was doing backflips...altitude must die).
Then we stayed in a hotel over night, before beginning our journey the next morning on the Inka trail.... (cue teeth chattering in fear).
We hopped on the bus the next morning to go to the starting mark. we got our passports stamped and we were on our way.
Inka Trail: Day 1!
The first day started hiking at about 9am, and we began our hike up hill. our guides called it ´training day´so that they could assess whether or not we would be ok to continue the hike after this day. I found it to be quite a struggle battling nausea and lack of oxygen but sally seemed to power on up. as we arrived at our lunch spot, all of our porters had set up this lovely lunch for us, and this was the moment that we realised how freaking amazing all the food was going to be on this hike. it was seriously first class food and so much of it. our love for our porters at that moment grew. we continued hiking, thinking that we were doing some massive up hill hikes, until the guides showed us a map of what was to come...the up hills we were doing today were tiny goosebumps compared to what was instore for us the next day...eeeep. During the hike we were able to stop off at some ruins which were really interesting and one of our guides, Fabian, told us all a tale about the inkas and these particular ruins. After about 7 hours hiking, we arrived in our campsite with all of our tents set up, and bowls of hot water and soap left outside each of our tents for us. god bless porters.
we played a particularly violent game of spoons and other card games with our guides (who are awesome) and we proceeded to have dinner (again, such good food) and proceeded to get all snuggled up in our woolen gear and thermals for the night. it was sooo freaking cold.
Inka Trail: Day 2!
This morning we were woken up at 5am by our porters with hot cups of coca tea...talk about room service. we were up so early because today was going to be the hardest day of all. It was also Sally´s Birthday! haha, happy birthday to you sally, now go hike up two bloody big mountains! We were all packed up and set off to go again at 6:20am and began our massive trek uphill. I was up the back with Vicki as she was unwell also, and we both had a struggle for the day to continue quite as fast as everyone else. Sally was up further with the ducks (the people in the middle group who had decided to call themselves the ducks...we were the galapogas tortoises...niiiiiice and slow, hehe, and Ilze up the front is a freaking mountain goat....crazy Latvian!) we spent 4 hours hiking up the tallest mountain until we reached ´Dead Womans Pass´.....quite appropriately named. Vicki and i spent that time talking to Fabian up the back of the group and we were talking about the smurfs and altitude sickness (because i turned blue) and from that point on he kept calling me Pitufina...the spanish name for Smurfette. When we finally got to the top of that mountain, Miguel (our head guide) was waiting up the top for us with a big hug and high five! yaaaay, now to go down hill. we were quite excited about the prospects of down hill, until we saw the downhill which was crazyily steep steps that were slippery and insane. And then there were porters running down them, man those porters are amazing!!! after a few hours of down hill trying not to fall on our faces we arrived at the lunch spot where the porters had our lunch ready for us, as the others were nearly finished eating (oh well, cant push your self more than you can go). All the meals on the trip were amazing, but as i had spent the day trying not to vomit on the side of the inka trail due to altitude sickness, i couldnt eat anything except random hits of sugar, which is a shame because all the food is amazing. Once we had a break we had to continue hiking up the next mountain....no rest for the wicked!! So we powered on the ducks going ahead further, and the mountain goats and crazy people even further in front. And the galapogas turtles slowly coming up behind. this mountain wasnt as tall as the last, but it was definately as hard since our muscles were already so sore from earlier that day, and the day before. We made it over the top, and had to go back down some more insane steps. They were incredibly slipperly that i nearly lost my balance several times (thankfully we had walking sticks to help with balance) but poor Vicki fell down several off them hurting her back and ass quite badly. so we took them even slowert than before (i not wanting to break my foot again, and her nto wanting to fall over again, since she already had a stair phobia). As we were hiking down, we had some of the most amazing views that are completely indescribable, beyond the patchwork green and brown and red mountains were amazing snow capped peaks with the sun setting over them, and the clouds dancing around them. it was the second biggest thing that day that took my breath away (aside from altitude and lack of oxygen hiking). We finally got to the campsite just as the sun was nearly down, and got a huge cheer from the porters. (did i mention i love them all, such sweethearts). We stood there for a while in awe over the amazing view that we had from our campsite. I gave Sally the last of my energy in a gigantic birthday hug and just stood wathing the view....really i organised that view for her birthday, so she should really be appreciating it muchly, hehe.
Sally filled me in that during the day she was hiking with her ducks and Miguel and they had now deemed him to be Dr Love, as he was a walking cosmopolitan quiz! hehe, we loved our guides, such fuinny buggers
We had another amazing dinner, and the porters came out singing happy birthday to Sally. They had made her a massive cake with her name written accross it in icing, and it was just so wonderful. It really was an amazingly tough, and rewarding day. But it was soooooo freaking cold, that apparently Sally woke up to me spooning her in the middle of the night, trying to get warm, hehe. Really i was just giving her cuddles in replacement of Kyle for her birthday, hehe. Your welcome Kyle! :P
Inka Trail: Day 3!
The next morning we had breakfast outside enjoying the amazing view that we still had. it was absolutely wonderful (you know except for the nasea that i still had that was keeping me from eating all the fabulous food) and we were introduced officially to our porters. When Sally was introduced to them, she told them she was taken, but Miguel translated to them that she had a boyfriend back home, but he wasn´t here so she was therefore single (thanks to Lauren a girl on our tour who spoke some spanish translated back for us, hehe, silly Miguel).
We began our hike again that morning with some up and downhills, all a struggle due to our aching leg muscles. we got to stop at some wonderful ruins along the way though which were amazing to see. As the tortoises were up the back with Fabian again, he would be behind us, and then suddenly as we would walk further he would be sitting there already, and he never passed us. he assured us that he could fly, we however reckon he knew of other shortcuts. just trying to mess with our minds. we arrvied at camp around 2pm, had some lunch (or everyone else did atleast) and were at a spot for a shower....omg...yes...a shower!!! THE BEST EVER!!! not that the showers were great at all, but any shower was much appreciated after three days of nothing. we then went on to another archeological site which was absolutely stunning and breath taking. i cannot even begin to describe the stories and the amazinging views of it all. my vocab just isnt big enough for it. all i can say is WOW!
Our Porters then made us some dinner and we had written a speach of thanks for them with some massive tips for them (trust me, the deserve a million dollars each), and they had organised a Quechuan song for us. I got pulled up to dance with one of the porters which was funny and fun, and we all said our goodbyes to them with big hugs. Miguel stood with the porters just so he could trick us and get hugs off all the girls, haha. it worked too, we couldnt recognise him in the dark :P.
We had to say goodbye that night as the next morning was a 3:30am start for us, so the porters could pack up and catch their train and so we could start our final leg of the hike. TO MACCHU PICCHU!!!
Inka Trail: Day 4!
The gates opened at 5:30 to let us through and we began the hike. up and down and up and down, and we finally reached these stairs that our guides called the ´Gringo Killers´. again appropriately named, it was DEATH! trying to walk up over those with sore legs was a nightmare, but we had to reach the sun gate. which we did. but there was so much cloud we couldnt see Macchu Picchu....Dag nabbit!! so we continued to the top of macchu picchu for the classic shot of it....WHICH WAS ALSO COVERED IN CLOUDS!!! DAM YOU!!!!
so we continued down to begin our tour of macchu picchu. the clouds cleared shortly and we took a tour around (sooo freaking tired though, i wish i had more brain capacity to take it all in. it was amazing though!!! i would go into more detail, but there isnt much i can say about it. its more just a feeling of accomplishment and wonder. We climbed back up higher to take the classic photo, which was an effort and a half with aching limbs, but we did it!!!
We went on the bus back to the town where everything in the last 4 days began to feel so surreeal. we had some lunch and drinks (none for me, still wanting to throw up) and headed back to cuzco by train, and bus. listening to Hamish and Andy podcasts to drown out other noises, and napped occaisionally on the bus. we arrived back in cuzco and had a nice long HOT shower and went to grab some dinner. we attempted to stay up for as long as we could, making it to midnight, but crashed soon after. we defeated the inka trail, but could not defeat a piece of Banoffee pie and stay awake. Fail!! Sally got free bday drinks and then we passed out from exhaustion in bed. we woke up early this morning however (sleeping patterns are whacked) and had some scrumptious breakfast before putting our laundry in for washing and here we are!!
I am still nauseas and tired, but happy to have accomplished the inka trail despite some bad altitude sickness (which just wont go away) and Sally thought it was wonderful, tiring and definately worth it (the Inka trail that is).
Must love you and leave you all, lots to do today before fitting in another nap!
Love to all of you, missing you muchly, hopefully when i am awake enough i will begin to insult you all again. nawwww love for you all.
p.s. i passed uni this semester! wOOOOOO hehe.
Love Ruby xoxoxoxoxoxoxox
No comments:
Post a Comment