Machupichu jungle trek

Today I embarked on a 4 day jungle trek up to machupichu which included downhill mountain biking from 4000m down to 2000 and zip lining.

Day 1:

Marcel and i were picked up from the hostel in a van with mountain bikes on the roof and we were then joined one by one by a Catalonian guy and German guy and a group of Brazilians, we then proceeded to ascend from Cusco to a point at 4000m more or less where breath was short and rain was cold. It remindeweme of skiing in that you are flying along and your eyebrows are frozen and you can barely open your eyes. After a rapid 1000m decent the rain was only mild and we had great fun.

In the evening we arrived at a very small town called santa maria where we stayed in a postsiful little hostel in the middle of the jungle. We ate some dinner and chilled out playing cards for the remainder of the night.

Day 2:

We woke up bright and early and ate breakfast and set off on foot up a mountain where we were eating fresh fruits along the way such as avocado, mango, coffee, lemony type things and my favourite passion fruit.

The first stop was a lady who had a really cheeky monkey called hayro who would go through your pockets and untie your show at rapid pace he was also a serial sun glasses thief

The second stop was amazing and had some really cool stuff some kind of giant rodent which I forget  the Spanish name for and no one could help in English maybe You can help we also tried pure 100% chocolate which was amazingly rich and raw cocoa beans which we very nice too. They also had Inca tequilla which had a snake in the bottle used as a medicine of some kind. They then brought out this tiny monkey who would sit on your shoulder and hold on (maybe too tight at times) we then had our faces painted with traditional Inca patterns which was quickly washed of with sweat the second we left :-P the next Place we arrived at was in the middle of a raised point in the valley which I took a photosphere of which can be viewed here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/118350531057161466312/posts

There were all kinds of different plants and animals along the way 

Day 3:

We awoke at a reasonable hour and jumped in a bus to the zip lining spot. Upon arrival I was greeted by a giant German shepherd who I was fussing over for 10 minutes, after this we were given our safety brief and we headed off to the first point. This was my first time zip lining and it was nothing short of exhilarating. There are more pictures to come! After the 6 or so zips we jumped into the bus again and headed to hyroelectrica which, you guessed it was a hydroelectric power plant which is where the train tracks up to aguas calientes started. After getting a stamp on our passports we set off on our 3 hour walk along the tracks. About 10 minutes in we stopped for lunch to gather our energy and to reconvene with the other tour groups. A nice beef steak with rice a veggies and we were on our way, we spent the walk talking to the other travellers exchanging stories andadmiring the beautiful sscenery.

Upon arrival to aguas calientes we were shown to our (suprisingly clean and with hot water) hotel room and given a few hours to chill out before getting dinner. 

Day 4:

We awoke at 4 am to start the walk up to the machupichu entrance to try and get to the front of the que. We arrived among the first and rushed to the front to wait for the doors to open. They opened and we decided to ditch the guide who was being slow and helpful and we ran onwards to try and get pictures without tourists in (other than us of course) we were within the first 6-10 people in there and there were even rabbits which I'm told are a rare sight and only come out when there are no people. After a quick tour and pictures we headed up another 1000m metres to the top of machupichu mountain where we were above the clouds and could just see the tops of the neighbouring mountains. The views were simply astonishing and caused inevitable introspective reflection. 

https://plus.google.com/photos/118350531057161466312/albums/5956293854215138097/5956293853701664178?pid=5956293853701664178&oid=118350531057161466312

Cusco

On Monday Marcel and I departed to Ica to ride the 17 hour coach to Cusco (3500m) I helped the taxi driver with his English homework in return for a reduced charge.

The coach was more luxury than anything I had ever travelled in with full personal android entertainment system and almost fully reclining seats. After my ears popped about ten times and a few movies passed we had arrived in a beautiful mountain city which was a a big contrast to the stressless slow pace of the coast. We are staying in the kokopelli here which entitles us to 30% off as a result of working in the last one.

The first night was strange, feeling low on energy and lacking in appetite. Upon awakening the next day I felt rejuvenated although still slightly out of breath and ready to check out the town. Alpaca is a huge trade in this part of Peru and I had already got my eye on some woolen garments. So I headed eagerly to the Marquez San fransisco to sample the goods. I had a thoroughly good time going to each store and bartering to as close to half price as I could get and was generally successful, this was a huge confidence boost in both spoken Spanish and general bartering (something I'm not accustomed to)

We then went to the San Pedro food market to look for something to eat, they have endless rows of fruits, meats, cheeses and other inexplicaple food related items. Including brains, snouts, frogs and hearts from various animals. We settle for an epic meal time style sandwich with an array of ingredients.

Paracas

Please excuse the lack of updates

Last night was my final night in paracas and this post will be an attempt at a summary of the activities.

Generally paracas was a place for people to relax between long bus journeys or several day lenght treks however, it was first destination and I settled into well to low energy lifestyle. The people I met were amazing, from all walks of life both backpackers and the locals who worked there. I was very sad to leave but will be sure to return.

Activities included kayaking to go and look for dolphins (which I was sadly unsuccessful at) I will try again next time. I took the tour of the islas ballastas which had innumerable birds, also penguins (yes penguins! This is not a typo) and sea lions this was interesting and fairly inexpensive. We also tore through the national reserve on 200cc quadbike which was amazing fun.

My last night I was working and it was also a world championship kite surfing competition so we hosted the after party and got irespondibly drunk. The following day I said my goodbyes emotionally as always ands headed yo cusco with my companion Marcel.