It had to happen sometime... (Cusco & Machu Picchu)

It's no secret we're happy to be out of Puno, having spent less than a full day in the place. Thankfully we seem to have survived the Puno challenge - eat-out and hope you can sleep the night, poo-no. Which is a blessing because we sleep this night on a bus, sin bano. At this stage in our travels we're less concerned about the potential for stomach upsets than we used to be, confident in our hardiness. Before we left Australia our travel doctor gave us a shot of cholera vaccine, mentioning that it also protects against a number of other food nasties and we credit this for an unscathed run. And we've just spent a month in Bolivia without any huge problems so it doesn't occur to us to tread cautiously 2 days out from a 5 day hike to Machu Picchu. Our luck was always going to run out...

Delicious breakfast and coffee

But our first meal in Cusco is a delight. Our guide book had told us good things about Jack's cafe and further recommendation from our hostel owner is all we need to head straight there after an early morning arrival in the city. Maybe we've been away from the cafe a scene too long but the food and coffee is as good as anything we've eaten in Melbourne. A huge meal fuels us for a day of exploring around the city and we don't eat again until dinner. Cusco itself is beautiful; the streets and buildings evidence of its title as the oldest city in the continent and the capital of the Incan empire, but the main plazas are plagued somewhat by relentless hawkers and touts. We wander off onto side streets and set about finding a tour company to trek with. 

Cusco central plaza

It's easy to see how people spend longer in Cusco than they anticipated, but we plan to see more of the city after our trek and so with a tour company chosen the 4am departure on day 1 rolls around quickly. We settle on the Salkantay trail, which is one of a number of alternative options to the Inca trail. As much as we would have liked to have walked the original Machu Picchu trek, bookings for the Inca trail sell out months in advance and our travel itinerary never extends further than the day after tomorrow. The Salkantay trail has a good reputation as a challenging walk across spectacular landscape, winds up at Machu Picchu and only needs to be booked a couple of days in advance, which ticks all the boxes for us.

But by lunch on day 1, we're ready to pull the pin and stump up for a $50+ cab back to Cusco. It's always difficult to pinpoint the exact culprit but it at this early stage it occurs to us that the bargain chifa the day before (Chinese food) could have been a false economy. We've been climbing for 4 hours and Nic and I have been languishing at the back of the group, taking turns to dash into bushes at the whim of our cramping bowels and stomachs. The initial onset cues exactly with our arrival at Mollepata, 2 hours from Cusco, where we take breakfast and make introductions to our group of 16. Neither of us manage to eat much and I survive a clammy and horrifying moment on the bus ride to the starting point of the track only to make a mess of my meagre breakfast on the roadside. 

Our guide does his best to reassure us that it's just altitude sickness but we know better: this is the lowest we've been in 5 weeks, aside from 4 days in the jungle. The climb is steep in parts and we're not particularly fit and we have little energy as a result of our IBE (Involuntary Bimodal Evacuation). Other than a few sips of coke we can't bring ourselves to eat lunch but the time sitting down and catching our breath helps settle things a bit. The thought of forfeiting $400 for the trek in addition to the cost of the taxi encourages us to persist until the first camp and we decide we'll make the call the next morning if things are still bad.

Fetch me my brown pants

It turns out to be a very good decision because things pass quickly, so to speak, and by nightfall we're able to force some dinner down. The following morning is another 4am start as it's the longest day up and over the Salkantay pass at 4600m. We realise to skip another breakfast will be a mistake and do our best to stock up. We're lucky that the sun rises into a clear and windless morning, providing views of the mountains and down the valley. As we get closer to the top of the pass it's apparent that some of the group are struggling with the thin air, which is thankfully not a problem of ours. Three of the group pay to get carried over the pass on horseback. We're already feeling much better and able to laugh at the horrors of the day before, and it's a consolation to restore some credibility after being the group stragglers. The views of Salkantay Mountain rising above us as we rest at the pass are spectacular.

The track zig-zags up the bottom of the picture. Our guide calls it The Gringo Killer.

Resting afterwards. All gringos still alive.

Mount Salkantay

With the sickness and longest day behind us we end up having a great time over the remaining 3 days. The weather stays clear and sunny, with no more than a few minutes of rain (and it's meant to be the rainy season) and our group is a mix of great people from all over the world. On one of the evenings the guides wager a few beers over a game of football: South America vs The World. My inclusion in the World side is mostly a numbers thing and I try not to disgrace NZ's proud football heritage. The plucky prematch statement that the All Whites were the only unbeaten team at the last World Cup falls on the deaf ears of my French & Italian teammates. We lose, partly because our team can't match the sprinting locals at 3000m but mostly because I am truly shit at soccer. Anyone for cricket?

Happy to have Eeyore carrying our gear

The best is saved for the last day, when we make the climb to Machu Picchu. Another early start, this time 3.30am, but it's all worth it when we find ourselves the first at the entrance gates for the 6am opening. I'd seen the postcard photos of Machu Picchu plenty of times before, with the ruins sitting beneath the sugarloaf-esque peak of Huayna Picchu, but in context with the surrounding mountains it's even more special. When the Incans were kindly sharing their empire with the Spanish, only for the Spanish to ransack and destroy most of it, somehow this spot was kept secret. Good thing it was because it's an amazing place to visit. We buy the additional ticket to climb to the top of Huayna Picchu, a steep and challenging haul up ropes and rock faces for a birds eye view of the site. Definitely recommend this option (though don't bother with the Grand Cavern at the foot of the mountain - not worth the effort).

We're the very first to arrive here in the morning and see this view. No-one else around. A few hours later and the place is crawling with people and cameras. Overlooking is Huayna Picchu, which we climbed also, the track up hidden somewhere in the shadows on the left face.

Evolution has missed a beat here. Nowhere to hide for this caterpillar.

Sunny skies in Cusco 

From Machu Picchu it's a train and bus combo back to Cusco for a few days to relax, wash-up and see more of the city. And a few more visits to Jack's cafe...

It's an impossible task to get this up-to-date, but we're getting closer momentarily. From Cusco to Arequipa to Ecuador and we'll have finally clawed our way back from the lapses in Brazil!

xN&G