Day 18 – 23/08/09
LARES TREK day 1

Our porters and chef!! The Lads!

In brief...walked for 4 hours on Sunday to base 1- at an altitude of 4700m that’s the same as Mount Everest base camp!!! That was all up hill!! Guess who made it there first...yes ME (Danielle)!! Winner!!

I got such an adrenalin buzz out of it!! And that wasn’t the coca leaves... they taste awful! Rob had a mouthful and he said it did numb his air ways making it a lot easier to breath. Mouth of Coca Leaves!

Either way we were pretty giddy that night! But when it got to bed time wow it was cold! I put on all my clothes...8 layers of tops in total & 2 trousers and 2 socks, hat, gloves and scarf!! I was roasting- During the night I got up to go to the loo...or hole in the ground! It was totally frozen outside... -5!!! ahh! Unfortunately Rob was freezing all night cuz his sleeping bag is for summer months! So I got plenty of cuddles that night!!! Ha ha!
Up at 6 the next morning for a full day of hiking! We had a huge breakie, pancakes and hot coco!! This is not camping, this is luxury!

Day 19 – 24/08/09
LARES TREK day 2

Morning Wake-up Coffee!! Freezing...

Day 2 was tough! Up hill was so steep and rocky- but worth it when we made it (Rob was first- his power legs kicking in) to the first pass -between two mountains, also highest point at 4900m! It overlooked a glacier and a lake! Then came the hard part… Down hill! Both Rob and I are not down hill people! You see I consider the up hill a challenge, and an achievement when you reach the top….down hill is about cautiousness and prevention of ankle breaking!! Ha ha! Donnelly competitiveness coming out...no..! Anyway by the end of that day we had gone through many local villages, so we got to see loads of kids legging up the hills to meet us or to get the bread that we were told to buy for them! We were all huffing and puffing on this trek but these kids weren’t even out of breath and they ran past us so they could jump out somewhere else!! Local Bob the builder....

We were so tired we didn’t know they were the same kids and we ended up giving them loads of bread!
Anyway, that night we chilled out at camp, at a lower altitude -3600m- so much milder, still at about 1 or 2 degrees though!

1st pass at highest point 4900m - Group ShotFirst time to see an ipod...he watched the Simpsons, and didn´t want to give it back!! Rob´s Fweind!!

Day 20 – 25/08/09
LARES TREK day 3
This is what you call first class camping!

We were up so early this morning at 5 am! It was so cold, but we trucked on! 6 hrs of farmer’s treks and some new treks made up by our guide and Rob, we were going up a really steep hill full of vegetation to reach ancient Inca ruins and Rob was hacking down the shrubs to clear the way for all us girls!! Then more down hill to a village (most modern one we’ve seen in two days!) then we hoped on a train and arrived at our hotel with leg cramps and in serious need of a shower! The village was just for trekkers heading to Machu Picchu. So not much to do other then have a hot shower and relax before the next day!

Inca Calfs!! (after walking 47km)

Day 21– 26/08/09
MACHU PICCHU

We were up at half 4 in the morning, and headed down to the bus station where we assumed we’d be some of the first in the queue… we were wrong there were at least 300 people there already! Anyway we finally got up there and unfortunately it was quite misty. So we didn’t quite get a full view of it for sun rise but the cloud added to its mystique appearance!

So we had our tour of Machu Picchu, understood the area and how advance the Incas were for their time. Then we wandered around ourselves, taking it all in and viewing the whole site from the top, now that the mist had cleared it was pretty spectacular, and nice to just sit and remember how we had got here. We may not have done the original Inca Trial but the Lares Trek had serious altitude heights and extreme weather conditions so it was quite an achievement when we sat there and realised we had trekked 47km in three days to get here!

That afternoon we made it back to the city of Cusco. We were all pretty chuffed with ourselves so headed off to Paddy’s (the worlds highest Irish bar) to celebrate! We headed on to a local club, full of local and tourists so it was a great laugh…needless to say that was a good night!!


Day 22– 27/08/09
SACRED VALLEY

We woke the next day at 8.55am, our tour started at 9…. But we made it! Another day of Inca sites…more ruins and more steps, which was a lot harder today! After the Sacred Valley we had an hour or so in the market, this is one of the largest tourist markets here! Of course we had to buy something so Rob got a Peru T-shirt and I got a bag – for all my wooly clothes that I’m currently collecting! We had the evening off to ourselves to sleep before our next adventure to the jungle!!

Day 23– 28/08/09
AMAZON JUNGLE

Early flight at 7am, on our way to the jungle!!! Also with 3 new people to the group, 2 Aussies and 1 Paddy! Looked in a few places for a Rambo red headband but no joy! When flying into the jungle you could not see anything but vegetation, miles and miles of it.
Cautious Kate last min prep for the jungle!!

The humidity was awful stepping off the plane, 33degrees and 90% humidity. It was an hour and a half boat journey down the Madre de Dios River. The water was exactly the same as in any jungle movies, really dark and muddy and only 7 meters deep. When arriving to our hotel (Eco Lodge) which was in the heart of the jungle, the first thing we saw was a tarantula spider the size of my hand!!!!!!! Not the best thing to see the moment you step into the jungle. Lunch was locally presented in a banana leaf using bark to hold it together, with rice and steamed chicken inside, very tasty. Making our way to our lodge we were taking in the surroundings, swimming pool, games room, snooker and fuss ball. It was a great place. Our Lodge

Our room was on 4 stilts 3 meters high to keep all the bugs and animals away. It had no windows only netting to keep the flies out. It was more then what we thought we were going to get! We had a chill out room in our lodge with 2 hammocks which we slept on every evening.
In the afternoon we went to monkey island, (sorry Aaron no chimps) we saw 3 different kinds of monkeys, black spider monkey, brown capuchine, white capuchine. I scared the crap out of Danielle by hiding in the bushes; she thought that I was a monkey attacking her!!!! Very funny!!
After dinner we headed out at 8pm to go caimans watching. We were in the middle of the river and it was pitch black, with the local guide talking to us about the stars, until he said “ok lets be quiet for 7 minutes and listen to the jungle” well if you know us, we even get the fit of giggles in a lift let alone being on a boat in complete silence for 7 minutes!! It was so quiet until Rob let a little laugh out, this got Danielle going and then it was over, giggling for 3 minutes of the 7, very embarrassing as some people actual wanted to listen!! But we did manage to spot a few caimans (alligators) in the end which was pretty cool. In the middle of the night Danielle woke up shouting, thinking there was a spider in her hair, until she found out it was my hand in her hair!!!! Classic!!! The two of us went to bed not feeling the greatest probably from the changes in altitude and in temperature.

Day 24– 29/08/09
AMAZON JUNGLE

We were woken at 6am, to head off on a 5km jungle trek. Luckily it was early enough so the temperature was still cool-ish! We were covered from head to toe because we had been seriously bitten the day before on Monkey Island! The temperature obviously did start to rise and we all started to look and feel like we were melting! These extreme weather changes are playing with our bodies!! To Rob’s disappointment we didn’t get to see any pumas, but we did see a huge bull frog and a large group of centipedes all moving together! There were loads of trees that had different functions for the local tribes, like a ‘drum tree’ well that’s the translation for it, not the correct name – if you hit the tree with a log of wood it made a really loud noise that echoed for a radius of 3km! There was also a ‘garlic tree’ that was several meters high, and the bark stank of garlic… this is not edible but used to fend off evil spirits and vampires! We also got a chance at being Tarzan and Jane -swinging from vines!!

After lunch we went piranha fishing, unfortunately we only got nibbles from tiny little see-through fish!!

Chillin on the Amazon...

Then we headed to a non polluted area of the Madre de Dios for a swim. (There are many gold mines along the river and the mercury used pollutes the water) Rob had forgotten his swim shorts so went for a dip in his super tight cycling shorts… this got all the girls going!! Full Moon!!

We really need another guy on this tour otherwise my Rob is going to be mauled!! Ha ha!
That night we chilled out in the bar, a nice evening off after a long day in the heat!

Day 25– 30/08/09
CUSCO

Flight was at 11am back to Cusco, where we happily had a day off, which was needed because we have been doing something everyday. So we bought phoned home to catch up with gossip from family’s and updated our blog. It was amazing just to chill out for the day after the Inca trail and Amazon. But it was not to last as we will have a 6 hour bus journey to Puno (Peru) the next day. But that’s what we are here for, right???