Apr. 27-28 - Cuscotopia

Today we had an early departure flight to Cusco. As this was Manuel's first trip as a guide, things went a little slower than planed. In the end we did manage to get our flight to Cusco with very little time to spare (it was better than a 24 hour bus ride). One nice thing about the flight is that it was a beautiful day over the Andes, so our hour flight gave us some remarkable views of the Andes and it's green hills and snow capped mountains.

Once we were in Cusco, most of the people on our trip got their first taste of altitude sickness. For most this just meant they were a little light headed, but we were all rather surprised to find that there was a stand at the airport selling bottles of oxygen for the tourists. Cusco might be high, but it isn't so high that you would require extra oxygen. We did find the hotel had their own oxygen tank, and they were serving Coca Tea like it was going out of fashion (everywhere you went they were selling either the tea to drink or the leaves to chew on). Due to the altitude, most of the people in our trip slept all afternoon after we had lunch.

After our lovely nap (part of my daily ritual now....probably will have to do something about that when I start working again) we took a walk around the Plaza de Armas, taking pictures of the buildings in the city, and then took a short stroll around some of the blocks around the city centre, just trying to help acclimatize faster. To give you an idea how small the city centre is, we happened to bump into everyone in our group during our hour outing.

As we found out quickly, Manuel knew all the coolest places to eat dinner and we were never disipointed. Tonight we happened upon a small Peruvian diner that allowed me to try Alpaca meat. I recommend to anyone to try alpaca, it tastes very close to beef and was remarkable. But due to the altitude (a very good excuse if you are ever looking for one) we turned in early so as to conserve our energy.

The next morning we got up when we were ready and found out over breakfast that there was not enough room for all of us to go on the ATV ride, so Sandy and I opted to go horseback riding instead. While we were waiting for our tour to start, we walked around the town looking for equipment we would need for our upcoming Inca Trail hike (walking poles, warm clothes, hats, etc.) and explored the town looking at all the craft shops. One of interest was an art shop where we spent about an hour talking to the owners about Peruvian art, the artists and how their styles changed. In the end we bought a lovely piece of art from the lady, making her first sale at the art gallery.

While walking around we happened to bump into Manuel who informed us he wanted to talk to everyone who was going on the ATV tour at 1. So we headed back to the hotel, and we decided to go in two different groups. As Sandy and I were more than willing to back out this morning, Manuel made sure we went in the first group. We headed out to a restaurant for a quick lunch, and through some confusion, we ended up eating with a GAP group that just finished the Inca Trail and gave us a quick description of the trip. It made us very excited to start hiking the trail ... especially since they told us the food was great.

The ATV ride was tons of fun. We started off (Nick, Anastasia, Nina, Nnenna and Sandy) with some lessons on how to ride the 4-wheelers and got a safety lesson before we headed out on our ride. The first 10 minutes of the ride were through the streets of Cusco before we managed to get off road through the mountains around Cusco. Once we went off the main streets we were blessed with beautiful views of the mountains, travelling through farm country, adobe brick houses and a lovely lake. On the ride though, Nnenna had a few problems. One time she went off the road and got the ATV stuck. The second time she managed to sharply turn the ATV and flipped the bike. Luckily she was spared any injury. But the most nerve-racking part of the ride was coming back where we had to drive through the city during rush hour. There's nothing like flying through the streets at night praying that you don't get run over.

Once back at the hotel we started our briefing for our Inca trail trek. We were given a list of equipment and bag to put everything in, but also given a 6kg limit. The problem is that when we started packing, we couldn't fit everything in our bag, and when we finally did get it in we were overweight. There is no way you can get everything they tell you to bring in the bag. We had to weigh it three times before everything fit. After Freddy (our guide for the Inca Trail) had finished his briefing, everyone was ready for the 4 day Inca Trail hike.