nasca - cusco

Left this so long that im sure i´ll forget loads, also lost my camera so got no photos to remind me. have borrowed a friends from the group but its quite patchy. will do my best.

Day 5 - Arequipa
We arrived early in the morning after taking the night bus. It wasn´t too bad, reclining seats instead of beds but it had wifi! During the day we had free time so me, Rob, sam and matt wandered around the town and looked at catherdrals and a huge nunery. We spent the afternoon just relaxing in a park with two others from the group (danielle and mandy) who we bumped into in the nunery.
Tired from the night bus the night before we all went to bed pretty early after a team dinner.

Day 6 - Colca Canyon
Things are really patchy and will have to try to update this again when i´ve got a camera with more photos on it.
We got up at 6 and got a bus to the colca Canyon. The views on the journey were absolutely amazing, some of the best i´ve ever seen and we stopped regularly to take photos. We stopped at about lunch to walk around the canyon and see a local community We then got back on the bus and contiued travelling until we got to our hotel for the night. It was incredible. A really cute, picturesc cottage type affair in a tiny little village. There was no electricity or internet and it was freezing cold but awesome. After we had dropped our bags we went for a walk in the local mountains before heading to the hot springs at night. It was fantastic, it was a series of huge outdoor pools which were really warm and the night sky was completely clear so the views of the stars were amazing, i even spotted the southern cross!

Day 7 - colca canyon
We got up at 4am in order to get the bus to the canyon. After a really nice buffet breakfast we got on the bus and went to the canyon. The reason for getting up early was to see all the condors in the morning. They sleep at the bottom of the canyon but use the warm, currents in the morning to rise up and fly out of the canyon. It was incredible, condors are huge (3m wingspan) and there were 7 or 8 flying around and they often soared over us and came withing 5m or so which is really quite scarry. We then did another walk arround the canyon before heading back to Arequipa on the bus stopping occasionally for photos. In the evening we had a huge bbq at our hotel and we all sat on the roof, it was delicous. Afterwards the sub 25´s minus rob (who had been taken ill with a horrific tummy bug) (me, matt, sam, tom, katie, mandy and dannielle) went out to the local bars for a couple of quiet drinks...

Day 8 - cusco
We had to get up at 6:30 for our flight to cusco which was fine as no one had been out late the night before and wéren´t hungover. The flight was pretty uneventful apart from a certain member of our group "getting plane sick" and throwing up during the flight. Unfortuantely between getting off the plane and luggage claim i lost or had pick pocketted my camera. I was devastated as it had all the photos from the trip on it and i had some great ones. When we arrived in cusco we went to the black market which is a huge market (surprisingly enough) full of rip off goods etc. I bought a new camera here as i knew i needed one for the inca trail. In the evening we headed into the town where the locals were having some sort of party in the main square with everyone in traditional dress and dancing. It was pretty cool but knowing we had to be up early again the next day we went to bed quite early.

Day 9 - Ollantaytambo
We got up early and got the bus to ollantaytambo. On the way we visited a local community that gap was helping and saw how the dyed wool and made clothes. We saw how they lived and even got a tour of their alpaca farm. Next we visited the pisac ruins which were old Inca ruins in the mountains. It was amazing how they built the city so high up. On the way to the next set of ruins our tour leader neil gave us a suprise that wasn´t in the tour. We visited an animal rescue centre that saved animals from the black market etc and nursed them back to health. It was amazing, there were parrots, lamas, turtles, birds, some weird mini bears and panthers. At the end of the visit we were allowed to go into the condor cage and they flew all around us, it was awesome. After that fantastic surprise we headed to ollantaytambo and saw the ruins there. Huge terraces built into the mountains and temples etc. it was incredible. We then visited the local market in order to get a few last minute things such as hats and gloves for the inca trail!!!

Day 10 - start of the inca trail
We had yet another early start (i don´t think gap adventures understands the student life style) in order to travel to the start of the inca trail. We had to pack all our clothes we would need into a small duffle bag not weighing more than 6kg including roll matt and sleeping bag (aout 3kg) which ment that you couldn´t take all that much. When we arrived at the start we handed our duffle bags over to our porters and were amazed. Not only did they have to do the trek, they had to do it carrying huge packs weighing 20kg, containing all the camping equipment and tents etc., they had to get there quicker than us. The trek must be easy then!
We got going and it turns out the trek isn´t as easy as first thought. We were at roughly 2600m and the alltitude makes you out of breath really quickly. Luckily the first day was only about 8km and was pretty much flat. We walked as a group so we were pretty slow and it was gorgeous sun shine with phenominal views, one of the best days of my life.
We stopped for lunch around 1 and found a couple of huge tents already set up. The porters had raced ahead of us and set up a tempory camp and clapped us in as we arrived (which was ridiculous seeing as they had done it in half the time carrying 20kg packs) and gave us all orange juice. We sat out in the sun for a while waiting for lunch to be ready and could smell something amazing so we were getting pretty hungary. We then went into the tent and sat down to be told that we were extra lucky as we had the Gap´s head chef for the Inca trail with us, he´d won the award 2 years in a row. We all thought that that is something they tell all the groups and even if it wasn´t how good could a meal really be when cooked on a camping stove.
We were blown away, it was an incredible 5 course lunch with soup, garlic bread, some fish, some chicken and cake for desert. It was the bets meal we had had in Peru so far and it was all cooked in a tent!
As soon as we had finished the porters started packing up and headed off down the trail in order to set up camp. We continued on for 45 mins before we reached camp to find everything set up for us, all the tents and even our roll mats and sleeping bags laid out in our tents for us!
We spent the rest of the day playing cards and talking before being greeted with afternoon tea and snacks at 4pm followed my another amazing 4 course dinner in the evening. I´m going to have to stop describing the meals but every single meal we had was fabulous and consisted of multiple courses. After dinner we played cards for a little longer and then went to bed. This was the start of the "sons of anarchy"(a TV show) phase. Me and rob started watching an episode on the galaxy tab just before going to bed in our tent. Dave overhead it and asked if he could come watch it too. Katie then walked past and saw us all snuggled up watching it and came and watched it as well. We were all cramped together in a two man tent watching a tv show on a tiny screen but it was really fun.

day 11 - Inca trail
We were woken up at 5:30 in order to get a good start on the trail as today was the hardest day. We slept at around 2700m but then highest point today was at 4500m! We were told we could go at our own pace today as this section seperated the men for the boys! We started off around 7 and it was freezing cold so i was wearing pretty much all my clothes. Despite starting out with the best intentions of sticking together the trail soon became really hard and so most of the group slowed down. The most manly, fittest and good looking of the group (me, sam, matt, mike and tom) raced on and powered up the steep slope. It was hard work and despite it being -3 we were down to t-shirt and shorts. We continued to the half way point of the climb where Tom decided to wait for katie. After a breif pause for a couple of snacks we continued. We got to the highest point (dead womans pass) in about 3 hours, the guide said it would take 6 so we were pretty proud of our achievement. We spent the next 3 hours relaxing o the top of this muntain in the sun with the most amazing views i have ever seen. Words can´t descirbe how amazing it was. Ater about 30mins we saw the porters all rush past but we wtill pretty pleased we had beaten them up. After 3 hours the rest of the group made it and we had a lot of group hugs and photos.

I´m now being kicked out of the internet cafe for being on too long so will have to continue on the my ipod or tomorrow.