Machu Picchu

It was a very early start as today was the first day of our 4 day / 3 night Inka Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu. We were picked up from our hostel at 5:30am and taken to Lorenzo's Lodge where we had some breakfast. I was particularly excited to see that they had peanut butter which I haven't had since leaving the UK! Our guide, Juan Carlos (JC) , recommended that we have some coca tea as it would help us with the altitude and also give us some energy for our mornings bike ride. It smelt pretty bad however it tasted better than some herbal teas I've had!

After breakfast we got sized up for our jacket and trousers for our bike ride and then jumped back in the mini bus for the 3 hour drive to the starting point. As you can imagine, I was very pleased to see that we would be riding on a real road which was nothing like Death Road in the slightest. We did however have all of the safety gear you could imagine, knee pads, body armour, helmet and gloves!

The ride started at 4,700m and was around 50km in total which was broken up into 3 sections so we could have a rest and also start to strip off as the lower we got the hotter it became! The ride took us along the edge of Cloud Forest, the edge of the Amazon which was pretty awesome but also very cloudy! I also successfully made it all the way down without falling off which was a pretty big achievement!

At the end of the ride, we jumped back in the minibus and headed towards our hostel for lunch. When booking the tour we were told that we would be staying in very basic accommodation however this place is lovely and we got a 4 course lunch.

Our day of adventure didn't stop there though. In the afternoon there was an optional activity of white water rafting. We had ummed and ahhed as to whether we were going to do it but at the last moment decided to go for it! We got picked up from the hostel in a rickety old van with a dingy strapped to the top which if I'm honest didn't fill me with much confidence. When we arrived at the river however there were loads more people with more rafts. We got geared up with our splash vest, lifejacket and helmet and clambered down a steep bank in our flip flops. I imagined that we would be starting off in a really quiet section of water but it really wasn't! We huddled round one of the instructors to learn the 5 rules of rafting after which I was wondering if I could somehow get out of it and go back to the hostel!

I'm glad I did it though. We got very wet and it was pretty scary in places but I managed to stay inside the boat for the duration of the journey which was pretty much my sole aim. There was a section where we stopped and the instructor said "you can get out and jump off that bridge if you want?" Yeah right!

After all the excitement we returned back to the hostel for some dinner. There are 10 of us on the tour altogether, with people from Chile, Brazil, Germany and Sweden.Читать далее