Well i think that we can all safely say that we all hate early mornings – yes, you guessed it, another early morning, although we do have to admit that the smell of hot porridge seeping into our rooms did give us that extra urge that we needed to get our bums out of bed! With the delicious breakfasts that we’d all become accustom to, (Ed. And who might be making these delicious breakfasts??? Lol), yet still enjoyed, we set off to start our acclimatisation trek which we were all secretly – hold up, hold up , we’re girls, since when are we going to hide what we feel about things, so yup, we all complained about doing these treks and seen as we had already experienced the Colca Canyon trek we dreaded today’s trek in fear of what was in store for us!
Nevertheless, we did indeed set off (only because Cliff and Mrs Douglas said we had to) – beginning with the SacsayHuaman trail leading to the Inca Ruins of the same name, before doing this part, Cliff being a typical guy, took us up the steep hill, yes yes on a de-tour so that we could appreciate Cusco from above and of course at the same time embrace the opportunity to see the huge white statue of Jesus, which not going to lie, did turn out to be quite breath-taking – probably sounds so cheesy, but honestly it really did!
Next, we went to the Inca ruins at Q’enko. Here we took the time to enjoy a lovely lunch –squashed salad sandwiches, crisps, with cereal bars, which I can tell you is exquisite after trekking at high altitude in the heat for a long time. After a long, relaxing lunch soaking up the sun, we thought that we’d try walking to the next village – yup it was only another 1 hour 30 minutes walk- Sad times (Ed. lol). This wasn’t going to be easy, especially as we all (Ed. All? Maybe just one Ria!!! ) hate walking up-hill.
When enquiring about this ‘walk’ to the next village, no-one warned us about the off-road trek, with the horses every-where virtually blocking the pathway, or the horse faeces that followed closely behind, or the potato filled drying areas, well now that was erm... certainly interesting to walk past, watching the faces that some of my fellow challengers pulled, as they passed this.
Well, hands down it was a successful trek and we all made it – this deserved a bus trip back down to the main square/plaza, for a brief team meeting Ed. must be the best ever location for a Team brief ever in the middle of the Plaza de Aramas next to the fountain, then we all proceeded back to the hostel so that we could freshen up. In small groups we headed down to the town, where we had a chance to purchase more souvenirs at the local crafts market. Haggling with locals where they speak no English at all is well, erm.... to put it nicely...challenging, but we all managed to get there in the end. (Ed. how much retail therapy do you ladies need???)
With the famous worldwide fast food restaurant lurking around the corner, none of us could help but to have a sneaky little bite to eat – yes you guessed it, the one and only McDonalds! Mmm. I can reassuringly say..I’M LOVIN’ IT! (Ed. hahahahahahaha)
Running back to the hostel in time for dinner past the cars, who don t seem to understand the meaning of zebra-crossing or traffic lights is certainly an experience that one cannot forget – only to find back at the hostel that dinner hadn’t been started yet, well that was worth running through the town! But when dinner had been served it was indeed exactly what we needed with the high nutrition in the vegetables and spaghetti, and of course our standard lively (Ed. Noisy) dinner-time conversations , the evening was pleasurable.
Currently, we are all preparing for tomorrows acclimatisation trek with no idea as to what to expect! Wish us luck for tomorrow’s full day of trekking!
By Ria Lakhani
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