On Tuesday 15th April we flew from Lima to Cusco to begin our acclimatisation for the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu trek through the Andes as part of our 23 day “Highlights of South America” Tour.
Lima is at sea level and Cusco is one of the highest cities in the world – 3399 metres (11,155 feet).
On arrival at the airport we were greeted by a Peruvian band, which was a really nice touch.
We wondered why there were so may oxygen bottles in the public areas at the airport but it didn’t take long to find out – at 11,155 feet some people have trouble breathing and just walking slowly is quite tiring, when not acclimatised.
We had accommodation for 3 nights in a centrally located hotel in order to acclimatise and also to do some local sight seeing.
Some of our group developed altitude sickness and were not able to go on the Machu Picchu Trek.
The night before we were due to leave Krys informed me that she was really quite unwell with altitude sickness and that she wouldn’t be able to leave on the trek in the morning.
We had been chewing copious quantities of cocoa leaves and fortunately upon awakening in the morning Krys was feeling much better and decided to try to go on the trek after all.
We commenced the 82 km trek at Piskacucho where we strapped on our backpacks, had our Visas checked and our passports stamped and set off across the Urubamba River via the suspension bridge not really knowing what lay before us
There were 12 in our group plus our porters who carried our tents, supplies, cooking gear, sleeping bags and gas tanks etc
Each night we camped on the side of the trail – no electricity, no toilet facilities, no showers or washing facilities etc – so for four days when we wanted to go to the toilet we just looked for a convenient bush – sometimes of course someone may have been to that spot before us – great.
