The final countdown: Puno, Cusco, Inca Trail & Machu Picchu

Buenos Dias Amigos,

Here another update from your South-American travel boys. After the Colca Canyon, we drove with our huge 4 wheels-drive pick-up truck to Puno at Lake Titicaca (on the border between Peru and Bolivia). In this  lake - which is the highest lake of this size in the world - the locals have built many 'floating islands', which you can visit by boat. Quite a tourist attraction, but still worth the visit. In the evening, we tried Cuy, which is a Peruvian speciality.... This is cavia/guinea pig, hahahaha, it actually tasted quite good, but it feels quite strange to eat such a lovely small pet. In the morning, we tried another 10k run, but we found out that on 3825 m altitude, a 10k run is actually a bit too much of a good thing. Struggling for breath, we just managed 5k.....

After Puno, we drove back to Arequipa. We arrived there around rush hour and the GPS navigation didn't know which streets were one direction or were blocked. In our truck we got lost in the tiny small streets of the old city centre.... Finally, Henk got out in a taxi and Frank followed the taxi with the truck and that's how we found back our hotel. End good all good. Next day, we had an early flight from Arequipa to Cusco, just an one hour flight. Cusco is a lovely town in the Andes mountains and is the gateway to the Inca trail and Machu Picchu. We explored the city with a Free Walking tour and visited the necessary touristic attractions: the mercado, iglesias, Plaza des Armes and the monasteries.  Also - of course - visited the Northface shop for the latest hiking equipment and hiking fashion. We had some time to relax in Cusco and to recover and prepare for the big trail!

Last Friday, we started the Inca Trail, together with 12 other tourists, 3 guides, 14 porters and 1 cook. Last minute we were lucky to arrange a porter for ourselves as well, so we didn't need to carry our backpacks, sleeping bags and mattresses (just our day packs: good decision!). The 1st day was 'easy peachy, lemon squeezy'. Lovely weather, flat trail and not too long hike. So far, so good. The food was great and we even were able to sleep well in our little iglo tent! Yes: no five star hotel on the Inca Trail.... just a little iglo tent. It was not too cold at night and we didn't suffer from altitude sickness. However, the second and third day were a different story.... 5 am wake up calls, breakfast and walking from 6am! The 2nd day was a very steep up and very steep down for approx. 8 hours (hurray for the walking sticks!). Although we were among the oldest of the group, we were able to reach the top of the Inca Trail first! The 3rd day was just a very long hike - with lots of slippery stairs - from 6:00am until 4:30pm. The scenery along the trail is amazing, there are some Inca sides along the trail and you walk through the highlands and cloud forests: beautiful. The weather kept changing, so we had both sun and rain along the track. All in all quite an experience. 

The 4th day we had a wake up call at 3am! We walked to the 'Sun Gate' to get our first glimpse of the Machu Picchu in the sun rise. Unfortunately, there was no sun at the Sun Gate, just a lot of very thick fog. So, we had to go further down to see the old city of the Inca's. Later that day the fog cleared and we were still able to shoot our postcard pictures. Seeing the Machu Picchu in real life is incredible, we wouldn't have thought to be so impressed. It's such an amazing place, it was definitely worth the 4 days hike and one of the highlights of our 2 months trip. 

After the Machu Picchu, we returned to Cusco by train yesterday, where we will recover in a little spa boutique hotel the next few days; we think we deserved it! This Wednesday, we will fly back to Lima from where we will go to Amsterdam on Thursday. It has been an amazing trip, really a roller coaster of experiences. We have met many nice people and have seen so many nice things, really amazing! We are fully re-energised now and really look forward - believe it or not - going home again (okay, apart maybe from the cold and rainy Dutch weather....). We also really enjoyed writing these blogs and even more reading all the comments from you! 

We expect to be back in Amsterdam on Friday, just before Eastern and back to work next Tuesday. We will let you know once we are safely at home. Of course before we forget: Check out the latest video: "Henk interviewing Frank @ Machu Picchu" and the latest pictures. We look forward catching up with all of you in person in the next few weeks!

Love & hugs from the travel boys.

Adios! 
Frank & Henk