Cusco…the gateway to the Inca empire, or so it is billed. To be fair it is quite a lovely city with plenty of old school charm , cobbled narrow streets and beautiful plazas and churches. We had a lovely couple of days chilling out here and acclimatising to the altitude (3300m) before heading out on our own Inca adventure. No, not the Inca trail, way to expensive for our pathetic budget but the more youthful sounding Jungle Trek!
We began with a morning mountain biking adventure, all downhill (4200m – 2000m), before embarking of the most hair-raising car journeys we have had all holiday. The second day was merely walking and walking and walking, not really jungle but beautiful. And on the final day we went to Machapicchu, definitely the highlight of trek and one of the highlights South America.
All in all, this was the most expensive and disorganised nonsense that we have yet encounted but unfortunately for the average tourist it is completely unavoidable. The Peruvian Government have made it impossible not to take a tour and the price reflects this. On the upside however it is absolutely beautiful and the spectacular final day really does help to melt away the annoyance that otherwise would overshadow this amazing part of the world!
