Taken me a while, sorry….

Sorry kids. Been acclimatising. Not just to the altitude either, which, incidentally, has hardly affected me at all, luckily. I didn´t bother with the pills, just stuck to the coca leaves and tea, which seem to have done the trick. Bar a few headaches and the usual shortness of breath, I have to say I felt I did an okay job. But Omar, I´m sorry “It´s pretty easy”. REALLLY?!?!?!?!? Not all as fit as you m´dear!
So, how was it? Well, I was challenged just the right amount. The group I was with was diverse enough, a mix of Germans, Aussies, Irish, Indian, Canadian and two English. Oh, and a few Americans but none of them did the actual trek, just spent the start and finish with us, having taken the train (and subsequently earning themselves the group moniker of Lazy Yanks. Sorry Amy, if you end up reading this! xx)
Yep, nice crowd, the tour company, G Adventures, I cannot praise highly enough. Awesome at every point and while not cheap, very good value for money.
Oh, can I just add in at this point that while I was in Lima for 30 hours, trust me to join a city tour comprising only a LatAm fund manager and his wife, from New York. Seriously. Had his wife not kept giving me evils I probably would have tried to interview him as a startup boutique and sell it to one of your trades. Ah well…
But I digress…Back to the Inca Trail. The walk itself was amazing, had plenty of time to think, and surprised myself at the stuff my brain has been filtering through whilst both walking and sleeping – or not sleeping, as the case may be in freezing cold, p*ssing rainy tents! But I´ll save all that for another blog, maybe.
The view once you step over the top… I think in having seen that picture postcard view a million times over the years, it was a bit like ´great. There it is. Take a few pics, and move on.´ That said, the site itself (I´m embarrassed to admit, I had to ask someone when we first got there, Ís Macchu Picchu the mountain, or the town?´ But felt marginally less ignorant in finding out it is in fact both) far surpassed my expectations. I didn´t realise it was that big, that well preserved, or that diverse. So well worth the trip I would say. Sarah – agreed, but the third day for me was somewhat spoilt by the weather, which just put me into autopilot ´get me to the end as quickly as possible´ mode!
We all arrived back Sat pm, into Cusco, and the lovely German couple on the trek had got engaged when we reached the top, so we´de all agreed to meet for drinks later on to celebrate a) the completion and b) their news. Exhausted, but happy, we all resisted the draw of ´Mythology´or some such name of the Cusco ´disco´(ahem) and had a little shimmy with our tour guides for a few hours. Didn´t quite manage the 24 hour challenge (we´d woken up at 3am to beat the crowds to the sun gate at the top, but fatigue won over the dancefloor!) but had lots of fun.
Now in chill mode, wandered round the arts district this morning, have found an amazing Peruvian artist I plan to contact when I get home to purchase something off her, and now going for a massage. NO, not a happy finish ;o)
Tomorrow off to Arequipa to see some volcanoes and canyons, apparently.
Hasta luego,ç
Besos, Sxxx
PS just tried to add pics – no funciona. Lo Siento.
PPS Forgive me any typos. Still getting to grips with these keyboards!