Lost And Searching: Peru - Cusco & Machu Picchu

We flew straight to Cusco - with a stop in Lima, there are no direct flights from Bogota - so we could start with Machu Picchu. The stop in Lima was one of 15 hours overnight...

Our friend Alfredo, who we met in Cartagena was so nice to offer us a place to spend the night while waiting for our next flight. A very big thank you to Alfredo!

A tip when taking a taxi in Peru: walk away from the airport and then take a cab. You'll be paying a lot less than if you take one in the airport. We once paid double, because I was a chicken and afraid to take one further away. The taxi drivers in the airport try to scare you a little bit so you go with them.

Cusco was cold! But beautiful! I have never seen so many churches in one place! Normally I visit the church in every city or town, but this time I didn't have the courage to start...

On the first day we joined a free walking tour and learned more about the culture, architecture and we tasted the famous Pisco Sour! If you want to do a free walking tour, be at 12.30 (noon) at the statue in the main plaza. Look for the guys in the blue shirts! Marco is the guide, he's a cool dude!

Not to miss out on when in Cusco: Mercado San Pedro. The local market where you can buy veggies, fruit, meat, clothes, seeds, juices, food,...

We had to look for a travel agency to book a trail to Machu Picchu. We compared more or less 6 agencies but they all offered the same price, except one. We booked there of course! The next day we would start the Inca Jungle Trail for 4 days!

They picked us up at 6am and we were brought to a place to have breakfast with the entire group. The group consisted of people doing the trail in 3 and 4 days. The 3-day group was large and was full of men (lazy asses, they would take a bus in stead of hiking); in the 4-day group there were only 3 of us: me, Liesje and Victoria. This is what I call girlpower!

After breakfast we drove up a mountain, off which we would bike down. The ride was about 1h30, always downhill, on the road, making hairpin turns and watching out for cars & buses! We had to cross 14 small riverpassages, meaning "getting soaked".

The after lunch activity was: rafting on a 3+ level rapids river. This activity was not inclused in our package. Since I rafted on a 5 level rapids river the week before, I skipped this one. I was the only one, but I didn't care.

Our guide, Oscar, guided me up the mountain to our accomodation for the first night. I have to say that the hike was an amazing experience! It was uphill and I had a hard time sometimes, due to the hight, but we stopped a few times. The stops were so much fun!

In the first finca, I met a badass monkey. He was sweet tough, he kissed me a few times. But they warned me for him. He's a robber! He always wants to steal from people! He tried to steal one of my bracelets. Naughty boy!

In this place I got the opportunity to do a local products tasting: organic chocolate, black corn juice and an alcoholic drink with a snake inside te bottle. I forgot the name unfortunately...

Before setting off for our final climb, we had a dress-up party. Oscar made me a real Peruvian married woman, carrying a child. Unlarried women would have flowers on the hat ;)

For dinner we had some Alpaca meat! It tasted delicious! Another local delicacy is the guineypig. I haven't tried that, but if I ever have the opportunity to do so, I will, just out of curiosity.

We started the day with a tutorial about all the products that grow in the area. The most important product was the potato. In Peru there are over 300 species of potatoes growing!

Before starting our hike we must protect ourselves against all sorts of things: the sun, insects, other animals. Oscar used the juice of an 'achote' to draw our faces. Achote is a fruit with a shell like a chessnut, but inside are red seeds full of juice. These are usually used as a natural colorant and they even use it to make lipstick.

On our journey, we hiked along a piece of ancient Inca trail. We found a little cave "ushnu", carved into the mountain where they used to make offerings. And so we did...

Oscar gave us each 3 coca leaves, which we had to hold in our hands - the leaves standing next to each other - face the Salcantay mountain, which was seen as a God, and say thank you for all we have. We cound also set an intention or ask for a favor and ultimately place the coca leaves inside the cave, as an offering.

The morning activity on the third day, was ziplining. In Colombia we did "canopy" which basically is the same thing. This one was higher and longer tough, but not included in the package. After seeing a short video about it I set my mind on ziplining in lining position - supermanpose - and fly above the valley. BUT...it was raining. Not continuously, but it didn't feel like lots of fun, so I skipped this one too. Maybe also from a budgetary point of view.

Luckily I had a poncho with me because it was raining all the time. It was only a 2 to 3 hour hike, but to me it felt harder than the day before just because I was soaking wet.

Once we arrived in Aguas Caliente, we tried to dry up a little, do some snack and food shopping for the next day in Machu Picchu (up there it is super expensive!) and go to bed early. The next dat would be D-day and I wanted to be fresh!

The alarmclock was set for 4am. Normally this would be too early - even for me! - but I woke up full of energy. Machu Picchu was calling me!

At 4.30am we were on our way, walking to the gate that would give us access to the 1700 stairs we had to climb up in itder to reach the entrance to the Sanctuary. The climb was tough, tougher than to the Lost City, which was only 1200 stairs. But we made it!

Once we got inside the ancient city, we started a guided tour for about 2 hours. I find the Inca civilization very interesting. What I have noticed the last few weeks, is that lots of ancient civilizations used to be able to read the sun, the moon and the stars. I find that fascinating! I might dig into astronomy one if these days to understand more!

Surrounding Machu Picchu are a few mountains you can climb. The most famous one is Huayna Picchu, but to go up there, you have to book long in advance... On this mountain you can visit the temple of the moon and take the famous picture of te city.

In order not to disappoint and to give everyone a chance to see the city from up high, they made a path on the Machu Picchu mountain, which is even higher than the famous Huayna Picchu. You still have to book the entrance to this mountain, but you can do that the same time when you bookyour entrance ticket to MP and it costs only 5$.

The hike up the Machu Picchu Mountain was even harder than the hike in the morning, 2000 stairs to climb!! Oh my legs! From time to time we took a rest of a few minutes. Why not take the time to restore the breathing and being mindfull and gratefull for this opportunity:

After descending, we climbed some more. This time it wasn't so steep. I wanted to visit the Sun Gate. When the sun rises, it shines its light through the Sun Gate straight into one of the windows of the temple of the sun in the city! When we reached the Sun Gate, I thought it was the perfect setting for a sun salutation! After the third cycle, all of a sudden we hear a few thunderstrikes. With my sun salutation I was thanking the sun for being there with us (I actually also asked for sunshine while doing the ceremony on the second day). It didn't start raining, but it was as if the sky was responding to my thanking, as if it was saying "You're welcome".

A few shots in memory of this sacred place, that will be in my memory for ever! I feel so lucky to witness this with my own eyes. My first new world wonder, live! Let this be the kick-off of my journey to all 7!