Days 13, 14 & 15 - Peru

13 - Lima

My 7:30am flight means I'm up at 4:30 and in an Uber by 5. The drive out to the international airport is long and takes 40 minutes, even at this hour. Astonishingly there's a 20 lane toll booth on the way. Oddly, on landing, most of the people on my flight head to the international connections queue and I make it through customs and immigration quite quickly and am confronted by 100 touts for taxis. Selecting one we head through the industrial and fairly smelly suburbs near the airport. The initial impression of the city isnt helped by the weather here at this time of year, which is grey and a little depressing. 

We eventually make it to Miraflores, and unfortunately my cabbie gets lost and we weave through easily 30 streets searching for the street my hotel is on. The cabbie has no change, and I dash into the hotel to break a 50 sole note so I can give him the 60 we agreed. The hotel furnishings make me think of cheap country motels, everything from carpet to blankets is that 70s orangy brown. After a walk around the nearby Kennedy Park I head to a little burger joint called La Lucha, and order their special steak burger (it's delicious) amd wash it down with some pineapple, orange and strawberry juice. I spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around Miraflores, weaving my way down to the cliff tops, which have a beautiful park and some amazing views. Surfers are out in their wetsuits enjoying the waves, though the water itself doesn't look appealing, whike paragliders make the most of the wind. Walking along the esplanade I come across the shopping centre built into the cliff face and stop to buy some camping essentials (tissues and wet wipes). On the way back I come across a fantastic little hole in the wall cafe called "Despertemos al Mundo" serving locally grown Puku Puku coffee. It packs quite a punch, and is the best coffee I've had in South America by far. 

From there I head back to our hotel for the briefing and meet my room-mate, Alison, a Californian starting a career as a travel-writer. There are 12 of us all told in the initial group that departs from Lima together: 

● Alison and I

● Rusa (aka Rose) from Melbourne, who will be rooming with Beatrice (Bea) from 

● Joe and Pat, American brothers-in-law

● Barb and Julian from Alberta. 

● Alex an 18-year-old doing a gap year before starting to read law at Oxford, who will share with Kevin from Wisconsin. 

● Jean-Marc and Marie-Helene from New Jersey (via France), whose late flight means they'll meet us in the morning. 

The 10 of us go out for dinner after the briefing with our Lima guide, we'll have different guides for each segment. This is where I start my Peruvian food must try list. Ceviche and Pisco Sour - check! Pisco Sour turns out to be much better than I feared, egg whites in cocktails just seem weird, but the drink tastes like an alcoholic lemon meringue. The ceviche marinated in lime juice and seasoned with coriander and onions is delicious. Lima seems to have definitely earned its reputation as foodie heaven. 

Day 14 - Cusco

We catch an early flight to Cusco, the highest city in the world, wih an elevation of 3400m above sea level. We disembark and I can feel my lungs and heart working harder just while strolling down to the exit. The airport staff welcome us by handing out coca leaves to chew. They're a local treatment for altitude sickness, after 10 chews I'm looking around for a bin, it's disgusting! A couple of the Americans do better with it, as they chew only a couple of times and then tucking into their cheek, like chewing tobacco. At check-in they give us the alternative, Coca Tea, which is significantly better! This becomes part of my breakfast routine along with a couple of Nurofen and a litre of water. We do a brief tour of the city centre with our new local guide David and then head out exploring, slowly - as walking quickly isn't an option at the moment. 

The six of us travelling solo all head out together, and one of our stops is the choco museum, which is less a museum and more a chain of cafes and retail stores that happen to spend 20 minutes talking about the chocolate-making process, and give a couple of free samples. One of our group, Bea, succumbs to altitude sickness while we're trying the chocolate liqueurs, manages to find a seat and avoids fainting. 

Our tour orientation starts at 5:30 and we're given the news that the 6kg that the porters carry for us is really 3.5kg, as the bag and sleeping bag they provide weigh 2.5kg, and that this is also all we'll be allowed to take to the hotel in Ollantaytambo too. Anything above that the porters won't carry, we need to carry it ourself. While I packed light, this isn't a lot for 4 nights where the temperature gets down to 3 degrees, and my bag is 1 kg over. Thankfully Kevin brought his own sleeping bag, which weighs a couple of hundred grams, rather than 2kg plus of the loaner sleeping bags, and he offers to take Rose and my toiletries in his duffle. 

We're also reminded to pick up snacks and I buy some coca toffee, and two bags of boiled lollies, Maca and eucalyptus. Dinner that night is at a Pizza place upstairs on the square which we pick because of the free salad bar, vegetables other than potatoes haven't been abundant so far, and aren't likely to be on the treck. 

Day 15 - Ollantaytambo

We leave Cusco this morning, stopping first at the own little version of Cristo Redentor which they call Blanco Cristo, in part to differentiate from the Black Christ last supper in the cathedral, where the menu includes Cuy (Guinea Pig). 

From there it's onto a village called Ccaccaccollo, where we're given a weaving and dying demonstration, where i pick up a baby alpaca wool beanie, and most of us pick up something. We have some serious shoppers amongst us and a few of them leave with grocery bags full of wool products. The town is celebrating their anniversary that day, and they're gearing up for a party that afternoon, with flags and streamers everywhere. 

Our next stop is Pisac, an Incan ruin, where we spend a couple of hours exploring. We stop just before lunch and four of the group split the cost of a barbecued guinea pig to share for lunch, they offer everyone some, and I have a bite, it tastes surprisingly like duck. From there it's onto another G Adventures sponsored stop, lunch! The Sacred Valley is renowned for its crop grow in ability and diversity, and a multi-course lunch of locally  produced food follows, including a potato and vegetable stack topped with ceviche (from local trout). 

We check into our adorable hotel in Ollantaytambo, the gardens are extraordinary combining mostly roses, gladioli, hibiscus and fuschia. The Incan ruin at Ollantaytambo follows, the guys estimate we've climbed 80m to get to the top, all stairs leading up the terraces, and few reasons to stop along the way for scenery, but I've had to stop 5 times to catch my breath, I could be royally screwed doing the trail! 

At the group dinner tonight I have a meat skewers of Chicken, Beef and Alpaca. Alpaca is surprisingly tasty, kind of beef crossed with lamb, and really tender. I've now tried two varieties of the local Peruvian beer, Cuscenya, and I'm not a massive fan. They alternatively taste like Budweiser and Heineken, so it's time to switch back to Pisco.