Day 35 - Cusco, Peru (22 April 2012)

Day 35 - Cusco, Peru  (22 April 2012)

Today we got out to the Museum de Arte Precolumbino for 20 soles (NZ 10) each.  This museum has an extensive collection of gold, silver and shells from the early 10^th century.  They also have old relicts and ceramics.  It takes ages to get through all of this.  It is really interesting as it was all from the 10^th century or older.  After this we head to the supermarket to get some snacks for the Inca Trail.  We buy lollies, chocolate, biscuits and Gatorade.  We then head back to the hostel and relax for the afternoon.  I am feeling alot better today, infact Im feeling so good I am getting very anxious for the Inca Trail.  I feel like I can dominate the hills we are going to encounter.  Natural athlete haha!!!  We then go out for an early dinner at a British restaurant called the Real McCoy.  It is so delicious.  I get a meal with meat!!! It is fantastic.  Didnt want to have a beer though, I want to save that satisfaction until after we have finished the Inca Trail.  After dinner we then head off to the SAS office to meet our guides and the group we are touring with.  We are told that we will be picked up at 5.30 the following morning and then drive to Ollantaytambo for breakfast.  We will be dropped off at kilometre 82 to begin the hike after breakfast.  The first day is reasonably easy (we are told...) and we will walk 14 km.  The last hour of this walk is a steep uphill walk, but this is a good thing as we will be cutting some of the hill out that was meant to be part of day 2.  We are also walking further than the other companies as their camp site will be full of animals that make noises throughout the night and it is very dirty (apparently, our camp might be worse but the company is trying to make it sound lovely).  The second day will be our hardest day and we walk 16 km and the first three hours are all up hill.  We have to walk over Dead Woman’s Pass on this day which is at a height of 4,250 which will be our highest altitude.  We will have lunch on this day where the other companies will camp for the night.  The third day will be an easy day of 10km and it is all down hill.  We arrive at camp at lunch time and get to rest up for the big day following.  The last day we get up at 4am and we walk the 6km to Machu Picchu.  We should arrive there at 7.30-8am.  We get our sleeping mats and porter bags and then we head back to the hostel.  We pack all the gear we need for the hike into our porter bags and then we check in our backpacks into the hostel (we have booked a couple of nights after the Inca Trail at the same hostel, makes sense as they can look after our gear for the four days we are away.  Early night tonight with a big day (or four days) ahead of us.