Ollantaytambo

Mountain biking at 3000 metres is hard! Our guides, Ronald and Oscar, took us on an awesome trail around the Andes mountains. At 3600 metres, thats 2000 meters higher than Ben Nevis, which is the highest peak in the UK. At that altitude, breathing was a great difficulty and I forgot how to breathe at one point! Going down the hill was really hard as we had to be super technical with our bike handling, it was narrow and very rocky and I had to concentrate very hard to get down safely and not fall of the side of a cliff. When we got to the bottom of the trail, there was a major landslide so we had to carry our bikes over the mound!

Next, we went for lunch in the middle of a field! There were 2 dogs and one looked like a racoon, and one was very naughty and kept biting the other dog when we gave him attention, and 3 donkeys! There were 2 foals (baby donkeys) and a mum donkey! (Move over baby sea lions because the baby donkeys have taken the #1 spot in the cuteness contest). The foals were so adorable and fluffy we just wanted to squish their faces! There were also sheep.

After lunch we went to visit a place called Moray and it is a big hole in the ground with lots of terraces and the Incas (ancient indigenous people) used it to grow various plants from the Andes, including Coca leaves. It was a high altitude but the centre ring is the same temperature as where the plants can grow, and the next layer is a bit colder and so on, so they would test and modify the plant seeds so they could stand lower temperatures.Read more