There was a long blog post that got lost over a bad connection…you guys will just have to wait till FJ and I are back – not long at all now, we´ve got the physically hard part out of the way but now we´re into mentally difficult territory. There´s been a bit of an issue with internal flights so A LOT of Spanish is being used and both of us are really having to think. Also in two days time we´re going to do a homestay on an island of floating reeds with an Uros family (who may speak about as good a Spanish as we do but from a first language of Quechua point of view) on Lake Titicaca, both of us are quite apprehensive about this and exhausted from the trek at altitude. We´re taking today out to just get our heads together.
We did treat ourselves to an awesome hotel last night (after all the camping very high up in the cold we deserved it) and sat on the balconey (overlooking the TRAINS!) smoking and talking and watching out for rather large bats. I am enjoying travelling with FJ, it´s definitely a different experience sitting and talking about what you´ve just done with someone you actually know rather than some random met in a hostel. However, it was nice that I´m slow when it comes to trekking as I got to hike along a lot of the trail effectively alone, and, it would appear that that´s how I like it.
Oh yeah, FJ is terrifying at altitude, obviously he´s fit what with cycling everyday but dear gods that boy is fit and I didn´t see much of a change in his pace from usual, with the exception being descending from Dead Woman´s Pass (which is at 4200m). We did manage to walk into Macchu Picchu together but this was largely due to both needing to pee and waiting for a gap in the tourists to coincide with appropriate bushes. Possibly this ruins the romantic beauty of the place for some of you but there are some really useful bushes and rocks to the left of the trail, about fifteen minutes before you get to the top of the city.
I have no words to describe what it was like walking into that place.
(But anyone humming the Mysterious Cities of Gold theme tune would not be far off the headspace I was in).
It blew my mind. Also there were llamas.