Trekking with Elvis Presley and Enrique Iglesias

Tuesday morning started with a much earlier balcony breakfast as we were to be picked up before 8 to head off on our 4 day adventure to Machu Picchu! Met our guide, Elvis, and the rest of our 6 strong group, Paola the geneticist/cancer scientist from BsAs, Francia and Andreas the married professors from Santiago and Enrique the crazy brazilian! We started out with a spectacular 3 hour car ride up to the highest point of the trip, from where we were to mountain bike down to Santa Maria to spend the night. Stopped in Ollantaytambo on the way, with its own inca ruins on the hillside, and bought bright coloured plastic ponchos as we'd been promised rain and probably lots of it as it's the rainy season afterall. Then carried on to the top "Abra del Malaga" (4350m) along winding roads past the occasional quaint little house with families sitting outside in traditional dress. Unloaded the bikes, kitted up (the crazy brazilian in a wetsuit) and we were off. Lost sight of the brazilian pretty much immediately, musta been due to that streamlined speedsuit. First 40mins was smooth paved road, twisting down the mountain side into the jungle, passing through lots of fords and surrounded by thousands of butterflies! Those shimmery ones that i've only seen in museum cabinets before look infinitely better in flight, their colours changing like a kaleidoscope. Then it was into the hot jungle and onto the rough, bumpy stuff that makes your arms jiggle painfully and hands and bums quite sore. It was pretty much all downhill for around 6 hours until we reached Santa Maria at just 1430m, which was just as well as the few uphill stints did not leave me wanting more. Stopped a couple of times for "agua fria, por favor!" and had my first encounter with a hole in the ground squat toilet. Seemed to be some procedure to it that i just didn't get so the kid ended up just saying "chao". At one point 3 young girls were lying in ambush with water balloons and big buckets. I was third in the procession so they were ready for me and i got well and truly hit. Wish i'd said thank you cos it was just what i needed despite all my protests. Felt good to get off the bikes by the end, even though we'd had a blast, and lie down/take a well earned freezing cold shower at the hostel. Got to know our fellow trekkers a bit better and went for a hearty dinner followed by a sound sleep, ready for an even earlier morning.
Wednesday we were up before 6 and outta the hostel for breakfast of banana and pancake with chocolate sauce, yum!, to fuel us for the long day of walking ahead, about 8 hours. We were to follow what could have been the trail some inca's used to get to their last refuge point when the spanish came, never to be seen again. It was a scorcher of a day, none of that promised rain in sight. We walked through the jungle heading back up the other side of the valley we had come down the day before, heading upstream above the massive river with some outstanding views. Elvis pointed out some vegetation of interest such as the coca plantations, tobacco, banana and avocado plants, a flower that will poison/kill you if you even touch it and a plant with seeds that were used to dye fabrics a vibrant red/orange. Stopped at a house that had a mono called martín (that i got to carry for a wee while!) and a coati (that clawed at my shorts) and hammocks! Stopped later for a two course lunch and discovered 2 of the people in the other group we had been playing leapfrog with were from NZ, one from chch and one from timaru! Carried on along the riverbed for a few more hours (saw a mini bronze coloured snake in the grasses) until we reached the Ullumire hot springs - that's right hot springs! Boy were they good. Lazed around soaking for a good couple of hours with views of mountain passes with waterfalls, a rainbow and the moon came out too. Jon and i found a real hot bath sized pool that was too hot to stay in for long and just had room for two. There was also ones where you could sit and have a fountain of warm water give you a shoulder massage. Bliss. Caught the bus on to Santa Teresa and to our next hostel, a step up from the last. Still no hot shower though. Tried to hit the town but it wasn't long lived despite the promise of happy hour everywhere.
On thursday the group made a unanimous desicion to sleep in and catch a bus instead of walking 3 more hours in the morning. So had a later breakfast of ... pancake with banana and chocolate (or omelette both days if you were jon) then caught the minibus, that crazy brazilian hung out the window, to only 10 mins walk from where we to have lunch! Sat around and played cards for a bit then Jon and I followed Enrique along the traintracks, scrambled up a path, along some more traintracks to a rock over the raging river. Ran back (way too hot for this) for lunch which the others had already eaten so gobbled down our two hearty courses in record time then set off along the traintracks again for a 3 hour walk to Aguas Calientes (just as the group with the kiwis arrived, hot and sweaty from walking all the way to the lunch spot, not like us lazy sods). Just before reaching AC we got to bust out the colourful plastic ponchos for our first taste of real rain, not that it was long til we reached the best hostel yet - including beautiful hot showers! and quite possibly the worlds best pillows. Had our "last supper" in town, serenaded by a musical troupe, and promptly hit the sack.
Next day, the final day, we were up at 3.45 and out the door on the last step of the way to machu picchu! It was a solid hour and a half of stairclimbing, big rock steps, that had the sweat dripping from every pore. Arrived panting at the gate bang on 6am to collect our tickets and snacks from Elvis and enter the fabled Machu Picchu proper. Was quite a cool, cloudy morning, and after having been sooo hot i was suddenly freezing. We were supposed to start our tour but the crazy brazilian was nowhere to be found! So after a while we started the tour without him, Elvis giving us a much needed history lesson then showing us the more important features of the ruins like the sun temple, the house with 3 windows, the sacrificial slab etc. The whole thing is really too incredible to try and describe, how they managed it i'll never know. Lucky the spanish never found it. Right as the tour ended Enrique showed up having had a rather unpleasant morning, many trips to the bathroom. Then at 10am, just as the day was heating up, we all climbed up Waynapicchu (yet more big stone steps!) and wow. Just wow. Jon and I had to catch the early train and had barely left enough time to get there so after Waynapicchu we said farewell to our great little group of trekkers and missioned it back down to Aguas Calientes at top speed. Made it all the way back within a record 40mins! Caught some zzzzz's on the train back to Ollantaytambo then were plunged into the mayhem of a typical peruvian station, every taxi collectivo driver wanting you to fill up their car so they can leave quickly. We were supposed to be catching Bus Lucy which we found no trouble. Apparently nobody else was looking for her though and that included a driver. The bus next to it was filling up quick and the guy in charge seemed pretty keen for us to get on that one instead. Said it wouldn't cost us anything which was just as well as we were completely skint at this stage, having spent every last centimo that we'd taken with us. Only hitch was there was only one seat left, the passenger seat beside the driver. So Jon took that seat and i got a cushion with a view, perched between him and the driver! Pretty cool riding the bus through that countryside back to cuzco with only the windscreen in front of you. Got dropped off right near the centre of town at 6pm and went on a desperate crusade for WATER and lots of it. Had some pizza for a very late lunch then back to the hostel where Jon got hit by the altitude. He was not a happy chappy. We had arranged, to meet the other guys who were catching a later train, in the plaza at 10pm. Slept through that but woke in time to get there around 20past but no sign of them. As it turned out they'd been delayed and didn't make it back til 11 by which time we'd crashed, Jon aided by a cup of coca tea which did the trick fighting off the altitude woes.
So that was that! I swear i have never sweat so much so steadily for such a long period of time in my life and was very glad when i got to take my boots off and change into clean(er) clothes. Was even thankful to be back in the chilly climes of cuzco (you really do need your alpaca sweater there - and alpaca hat, alpaca scarf, socks, mittens, long johns!). Didn't ever get much use outta those ponchos though.