COSY CUSCO
After we signed our disheveled selves out of rehab (ie the hotel room), we ventured out to discover the adorable little city of Cusco. There are so many incredible markets selling Alpaca wool knitwear, jewellery, fresh food, handwoven rugs, paintings; you name it, you can find it there. We walked around a bit more and were coaxed into a local tour agency that offered treks in the area. Obviously, the Inca Trail is the number one tourist attraction in this area but we had heard about an alternative trek to Machu Picchu called Salkantay that has far less tourists, is twice as long and a third of the cost of the touristy Inca Trail so we signed up and after our brief ‘brief’, we went out to grab some hiking essentials for our 5 day adventure. The North Face and Kathmandu shops had us tempted to deck ourselves out to the hilt; however, after just shelling out a small fortune (for us simple travellers), we had to make do with our poor man’s hiking kit which would eventually backfire on us throughout the trek, but more on that later. We gathered our bits and pieces from the markets and went back to the hotel to start packing as our ETD was scheduled for 4am the following morning. Another quiet night saw us have a hearty dinner (Alpaca steak for a big hit of protein and deliciousness), packed our hiking kits and an early night to bed so we could best prepare for the trek. If only we knew what lay ahead of us…
theflightclub 