Cusco

I flew from Lima to Cusco where I was able to link up with Tara in the airport. Cusco was once the capital of the Inca Empire. It is 3400m above sea level so the altitude was a bit of a struggle.

Accommodation: Kokopelli. Great hostel and it was really nice to be in a private room that felt more like a hotel.

-Day One: We checked into the hostel and then went to a travel agent to book some tours and get ourselves organised for Machu Picchu. We met the self proclaimed "Alex the great", the travel agent. In our case he turned out to be not so great. He was an American Peruvian with a larger than life personality that promised us everything under the sun. To add to the mix, during our time in the agency, I became extremely unwell with altitude sickness. Alex was shouting how once he had it so bad he thought he thought he was going to die. Not the best thing to hear. My head was suddenly pounding, my blood pressure had dropped and I was freezing cold to the point they were worried I was hypothermic. The owner of the agency ran off to the pharmacy to get me some magic pill which thankfully kicked in around 30 minutes later. If it hadn't taken effect when it did, they would have been sending me to the local hospital. It was cocoa tea for the rest of the evening.
-Day two: Thankfully I felt mostly myself again, with milder effects of altitude sickness. We went on the free walking tour of the area and browsed through the craft markets.
-Day three: We went on a tour to rainbow mountain. However, Alex the Great forgot to book us onto the tour. It was meant to be a 4am pick up from our hostel. After a long wait and trying to contact the agency, a car eventually came to collect us at 6am and brought us to the closer set of Rainbow mountains called Palccoyo. After a stressful start to the day, we had a great time. We met some little Alpacas that stole the show.
-Day four: We went to explore the Sacred Valley on a quad bike tour and went to salt mines.

Recommendations:
Book as much as you can yourself.
Try traditional Peruvian chicken.
Free walking tourLeggi altro