Cuzco

Thursday14th April

Our bus arrived into Cuzco early in the morning and we made our way to the Wild Rover Hostel where we met up with Liam (the manager) who we knew from back home in Dublin.

No problem checking in early thank God. We spent the day walking around Cuzco taking pictures and stopping into agencies to find out about treks to Macchu Pichu. Cuzco is an amazing city ...really historic and full of small cobblestone streets ... really nice place to hang out for a few days.

We had nothing booked for a trek to Macchu Pichu and we really wanted to leave tomorrow to do a trek so we could take it easy afterwards and enjoy a few days in Cuzco. After alot of looking around we eventually decided to do a 4 day Inca Jungle trek which seemed to the best 4 day option for the cheapest price ($170 USD). This included everything .. all transport, guides, accommodation (hostels), breakfast, lunch and dinner, mountain biking, entrance to Macchu Pichu etc. Very good value and it turned out to be a great 4 days. We opted to do additional zip lining and water rafting for another $50 ... well worth it.

We decided to take it easy on Thursday night as we had to be up so early for the trek the next day.

Friday 15th - Monday 18th : Inca Jungle Trek

Amazing 4 days spent on this trek. Would take me forever to detail everything so heres a link with a summary:

http://www.inkajungletrek.com/en-trail-inca-jungle/inca-jungle-trek4d.html

We were really lucky and got a great group for the 4 days ... Anna and Dermot from Dublin, Nathan from England, Tom, Annie, Christina and Katie from Minnesota, USA.

4 days were just fantastic ... mountain biking on Friday was excellent. We also done rafting on Saturday and zip lining on Sunday. My legs were just shattered after the 4 days ... especially the climb up to Macchu Pichu from the town of Aguas Calientes as we had to start off at 4am in the dark. We managed to be among the first 50 or so in the queue on Monday morning. Once you are up at Macchu Picchu, (if you are in the first 200) you have the option of climbing Huaynapichu mountain which overlooks Macchu Picchu .. or alternatively you can climb Macchu Picchu mountain. We ended up doing neither as the fog was so bad there was no way you could see anything. We spent Monday walking around the ruins of Macchu Picchu and got some great photos. Despite the poor visibility, seeing Macchu Picchu was a great end to a great 4 days.

Later that afternoon we returned to the town of Aguas Calientes and hung around before getting our train at 18:45 to Ollantaytambo and a connecting bus back to Cuzco. We arrived back that night about 23:00 .. shattered!!

Heres only a small selection of photos over the 4 days:

Edwin .. our tour guide for the 4 day trek:

Entrance ticket to Macchu Pichu:

A final picture of the trekking group:

Tuesday 19th April - Friday 22nd April

Me and Neil were still undecided on what to do over the next few days ... we could either stay in Cuzco until the weekend or altenatively head to another town called Ayacucho for the Easter celebrations there as we heard that town had a really good traditional Easter festival. Turned out that it was going to be a nightmare getting to Ayacucho (3 buses and a boat apparantly as roads were flooded everywhere) so we decided to hang out in Cuzco until the end of the week before heading to Lima.

Tuesday night was great craic in the Wild Rover bar. Met up with a few other backpackers I had met in Cordoba, Argentina and Santa Cruz, Bolivia. After we left the Wild Rover bar we headed out to a club on the main plaza. A crazy night out!

Linn and Anna .. our Swedish roommates:

A very chilled out day on Wednesday & Thursday walking around the lovely streets of Cuzco, sitting in the plaza enjoying the sunshine and watching the world go by. Lots of walking around town taking pictures and visiting the markets in Cuzco.

Cowhead anyone?

Another great night out in the Wild Rover on Thursday night for our last night in Cuzco followed by some more clubbing.

Friday was spent recovering and just hanging out. We also met up with some friends we had met in La Paz, Bolivia:

Later that evening we went down to the plaza to look at the Good Friday Easter procession through the town.

Back to the hostel to pick up our backpacks and make our way to the bus station to catch our overnight bus to Lima (1,165km, 18 hrs, 110 Sols).

Arequipa

Saturday 9th April

Arrived into Arequipa at 03:45  ... earlier than expected. Myself, Neil, Alfie and Katie got a taxi and made our way to Arqequipay Backpackers Hostel and checked in. Our rooms weren´t available so early but thankfully we were all able to crash out in the TV room for a few hours until the rooms were available. Amazing hostel!

We later checked into our room and then made our way downtown to see the city. We had to change all our Bolivianos into Peruvian Sols as we had no money. We had some breakfast on the city plaza and later in the afternoon, we done a 4 city tour ... Arequipa is beautiful city.

Some pictures of the plaza and streets of Arequipa:

Some photos from the city tour, the surrounding countryside (including visits to a Llama farm and horseback riding), and some friends we met from Paraguay on our tour:

We didnt get back to the hostel until 20:00. Chilled out for the night and took it easy.

Sunday 10th April

Didnt get up to early today but we were supposed to be picked up at the hostel by a tour company to go rafting in the afternoon but apparantly the river was too high after rain overnight so it was cancelled. Hung out at the hostel for the afternoon and then went downtown for a walk around and for some dinner. Quite a relaxing day. Chilled out at the hostel that evening, watched a movie and ordered a takeaway. Needed a day like today just to relax and do nothing. We also booked a 2 day trip to Colca Canyon for tomorrow so looking forward to that.

Monday 11th - Tuesday 12th April

Our trip to Colca Canyon began this morning. Picked up from the hostel at 09:00 and made our way to the town of Chivay north of Arequipa. Some beautiful scenery on the way.

After we checked into the hostel in Chivay and had lunch we went to some hot springs for a few hours in the afternoon and then back to Chivay for dinner and a traditional folk show.

Friends from the Colca Canyon trip:

Next morning, we had an early start, leaving the hostel at 06:00 and making our way through small local towns of Yanque, Achoma and Maca. Very traditional and it was nice stopping of in small villages on the way to the canyon.

We finally reached ´Cruz del Condor´ where we watched Condors and had great views of the Colca Canyon.

Some pictures of the scenery (Misti Volcano) on the way back to Arequipa:

We arrived back to Chivay for lunch before making our way back to Arequipa. We arrived back about 16:30 and myself and Neil went for dinner before heading back to the hostel and chilled out for the evening. Was good to be back at Arequipay Backpackers Hostel  ...

We booked our bus ticket to Cusco for tomorrow evening at 21:00 (623km, 10 hours, 122 Sol)

Wednesday 13th April

Checked out of the hostel at 10:30 and chilled out for the morning and afternoon in the backgarden of the hostel. Beautiful day ... so hot! Later that evening, me and Neil headed downtown for dinner and a final walk around Arequipa, before heading back to the hostel to pick up our backpacks and heading down to the bus station to get our overnight bus to Cusco.