Peru = Alpacas, altitude and ancient ruins = ace

We loved Peru. It´s another slice of the international pie with a very distinct flavour, coca.

Coca is the plant from which Coca Cola built it´s empire and the cocaine industry also flourishes, but before all this abuse it was and still is an important ingredient in the Andean culture religiously and practically for altitude sickness and pretty much all other ailments you may have right up to childbirth. And now it´s an important part of my daily ritual in the place of my long love, coffee. I´ve been drinking 2-4 cups daily to the joy of my numbed mouth and soothed heart.

The altitude of Peru was fine initially apart from some heart thumping moments walking up the hill to our hillside hostel in Cusco and around Machu Pichu. The coca tea helped too but after the first week of extreme altitude and crap hostel's and the coldest weather we've faced bar topless bus tour in Paris, I´ve finally succumbed to my first cold of the trip. Bums. So here I am sunburned from Machu Pichu with a cold. Will the irony ever cease.

Machu Pichu was mystical, surreal and grand. We missioned up at 5am to make the first bus and arrived at 7am, disappointed to find that there was no 2 hour hike up as we thought but a gate straight in. Our guidebook was rather misleading and my sleepless anxiety of a early morning hike in the altitude was all for nothing. It took me a while to realise this however as when we first came through the gates it was so misty that I couldñ´t see jack apart from some rather large rocks and several alpaca mowing the lawn.

Felix our German comrade since the Galapagos Islands suggested we climb Wayana Pichu first, the peak at the end of the complex, as it´s a great viewing point and only allows 400 people up a day. Great call. We were some of the first 10 people up that morning and were in the best spot possible to see the mist clear.

Surrounded by the huge jagered peaks of the Andes, with mist flying upwards like water flowing against gravity in the growing morning sun, we climbed the steep stairs, with the help of steel rope, fighting off the strain of the altitude that was causing our hearts to thump and breath to leap from our lungs. It´s not a great distance but at that altitude its hard going. The only grace is that we did it at 7am and not at 10am like the second 200 people in the heat of the morning. Oh dear, they were actually moaning as we skipped past on our way back down!

Thankfully, the beauty of the ruins, the exotic lush alpine forest, the sharp crown of mountains, silver shining rivers 1000 meters below, the buzzing hummingbirds and slowly clearing teasing mist forced us to stop every few minutes to take snapshots and just breathe it in on our way up. A good thing so we didn't burst our hearts under the strain.

As we climbed the mist would briefly part and the image of Machu Pichu would flash past us, a second later swallowed up again. The higher we got, the better the angle and clarity became until we were at the top of the hill, sitting on huge grey boulders at the far edge of the ridge, in silence, watching the ruins reveal themselves. It was pure serenity. We sat there for two hours enjoying one of the best views of my life.

A 600 year old, geometric, organic, jewel of mans creation in the natural crown of the Andes, Machu Pichu is mesmerising. After the mist cleared, and the small cloud ribbons fell away from the peaks, the sun burst through the sungate on the opposite side of the mountains and sent a ray of light directly across the valley striking the main complex of the ruins directly. Think Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc, the scene with the light ray in the cave marking the spot on the mimi city, but on a huge and real scale. If we had been down there we would have seen the light burst right through the three windows, a sacred temple through which the sun's rays pass illuminating the "Sacred Plaza" beyond. All proving how well the Inca designed the city around the movement of the sun and stars.

It´s an amazing structure built around the astronomy of the region. The site is believed to be selected because of its position relative to sacred landscape features—such as its mountains, which are in alignment with key astronomical events that would have been important to the Incas.


Deservedly a world wonder, we spent the day exploring, and went away grining ear to ear, dehydrated and exhaughsted with about 700 photos up our sleeves (plus video). I´ve managed to get it down to just over 400 keepers but thats as far as I can get it.

Damn world wonders!