10/12/09 - 22/12/09, Peru

We know a few of you out there have been to Peru before and loved it so it´s fair to say that before arriving we felt under a little pressure to make the most of it! But we are starting to feel a little jaded now after 9 months on the road and the budget has been squeezed a smidgen too so we weren´t sure if we would really manage to do Peru justice.

However, our plans took a twist and were given a boost by meeting an Irish couple in Santiago who are pretty much doing the same trip as us but "the other way round". This reassured us that we´re not crazy or, there´s 4 crazy travellers on the loose at the moment? So with renewed energy we set about deciding what sights we could fit in to our 2 weeks.

The first relic (there´s a few to choose from in Peru) being the bizzare Nazca Lines. Ancient pictures in the desert, which you can only see from a plane or UFO as some theories imply. Sadly, even with renewed optimisim we couldn´t afford the UFO tickets, but we did get 2 out of the 6 seats going on the microlight plane. Luckily, our contacts had also warned us to ¨skip breakfast and take a travel sickness tablet¨ - these turned out to be words of wisdom!

And when we arrived at the airport (a pretty small one it has to be said), like most backpacking tours there was a little jostling to see who was going to get the best seats - but we (Graham only) had a secret weapon - chubbiness!!! Being the heaviest of the passengers Graham was upgraded to the cockpit to balance out the weight ratio with the ¨portly¨ pilot - result! And I was able to sit right behind next to the airvent, which stopped things getting really messy later :)

Now, a wee trip in a microlight would have been an experience for us in itself (beats the pricey red letter days you have to fork out for at home), but we were also flying and banking heavily so we could get good views of the Nazcas - very weird! And massive! The shadow of the plane was just a dot in comparison. A fascinating trip - 30 minutes well spent!

So on to the next stop - Cusco and the gateway to Machu Picchu. At this point we hadn´t had any real intention of trekking the Inca Trail but a couple of fellow backpackers let us in on the secret that in low season you can just turn up and get a cheap deal. It sounded too good to be true but it sparked our interest. Of course there´s always someone who says ¨no way, you have to arrange a permit 6 weeks in advance¨- for the record this turned out to be s**t*!

But we needed to get to Cusco and its dizzying altitude of 3600m before we could check if we were in luck. And we set out to do this in comfort in ¨cama¨ luxury - i.e. the really comfy seats that recline way back and make the memories of the buses in India seem like hell ....... but ...... there´s always something you´ve overlooked. Like the road from Nazca to Cusco being the windiest road ever! So no matter how comfy those seats were, there was very little sleep to be had. Although there was still a positive - Graham won at ¨bus bingo!!" That´s how far our Spanish has come on - we can count! It was a pretty good prize too - if we´d been planning a return trip to Lima on the ¨bus with no sleep".

Bleary eyed we arrived in Cusco but this was soon followed with breathlessness too (try saying that when you can´t breath!) - damn altitude sickness! But the good news was that the rumours were true and we did manage to get a good deal on the Inca Trek - sorted!

However, similar to jet lag the altitude sickness basically grounded us for a few days with the only thing we could do was worrying about whether or not we´d just wasted money on a trek when we couldn´t even walk to the Plaza and back! Graham wasn´t worrying about whether the altitude sickness would kill us......it was worse than that.......we could have wasted money!!!

We are pleased to say that no such catastrophe occurred and we made it all the way to Machu Picchu.....but it was tough, by the afternoon of day 3 I just wanted to cry!!! And Day 2 which they call "Dead Woman´s Pass" or the "Gringo Killer" wasn´t a walk in the park either!

I´m starting to think trekking is like childbirth - really painful at the time but you go back and do it again later?....... at this point in time I´m never trekking again ...... nothing wrong with taking the train :) Saying that, it was an amazing experience to actually do (and complete!) the trek and follow in the footsteps of the Incas - they really did pick the most serene locations to settle down. Machu Picchu has made it into our top 5 highlights of the trip so far :)

But after all that hard work we thought a wee massage wouldn´t go a miss to help with the recovery process ..... mmmmm ....... you can imagine my giggles when the last words I heard from Graham before he went for his massage were -"bad time to have a dose of the runs!!!!!!" ........ sure was ...... particularly as it was a full body massage which included the buttocks!!!! .......we did leave a tip :(

Off now to Bolivia for Christmas and we´re pleased to say feeling like we had made a real effort in Peru - and maybe we´ll be back one day to see a bit more ..... Machu Picchu is definitely somewhere we wouldn´t mind seeing again and again!