I really enjoy writing my blog while I travel, and I hope everyone enjoys my stories! The trouble then becomes that there is long gaps as I scrape my pennies together again for the next trip. Well, I realized I had some pretty good adventures before I thought to document my travels, so I have decided to add in some Flashback Fridays!
In 2019 I decided it was time to cross a major bucket list item off my list and go to Peru to hike the Inca Trail. I had been fascinated by it for long time, and the idea of walking along a trail that is hundreds of years old. The amount of work it must have taken to build this trail for a hundred miles from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. The city was “lost” for centuries as well before being “rediscovered” by an explorer in 1911. I use the quotation marks because the American explorer found it after being told where it was by a local boy and a family was living in the ruins farming the land.
For my trip, I flew into Cuzco for a few days ahead to try and acclimatize to the to altitude. Spoiler - it didn’t work. Anyways, I made some friends to explore with. My flight from Lima to Cuzco had some problems so we were all deplaned and had to wait about an hour to reboard. My remedial Spanish was enough to understand some of the information so I was “translator” for a lot of the English speaking crowd. One guy mentioned he was flying in to meet up with several friends so I made plans to explore Cuzco with them.
Cuzco is an amazing city, it has its Incan roots with Spanish colonialism stacked on top. The quality of the stone work the Incas were capable of is astounding, massive blocks of stone fitted together without mortar so tightly you can’t slide a piece of paper between them.
Lots of hills too has Cuzco sits in the basin of a valley, with the town centre at the bottom and the sacred temples at the top. I quite enjoyed trying the local drinks, a Pisco Sour became a quick favourite and the local beer too. As well we all tried some local delicacies. I didn’t mind the llama but I found the guinea pig to be pretty greasy.
After a couple days my new friends moved on with their plans, and I joined up with my tour group. I used G Adventures, and they seem to have a great organization. We spent the first day driving out along the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, which is the town closest to the launching point for the Inca Trail.
We stopped at a weavers compound that is sponsored by G where local weavers still work in traditional methods. They showed us their work, and I bought a gorgeous scarf.
We had an early start the next day on the famous Inca Trail, so most of us were happy to have an early night to be ready for the next amazing adventure.
