We took an overnight bus from Puno to Cusco (Puno was disappointing, we didn’t do a lot, probably shouldn’t have stayed a night there). We got to Cusco very early in the morning but luckily with Bolivia Hop were dropped off to our hostel. We could pay 50% of the nightly room rate to check in at arrival (5am) so we did as we were both very tired and Josh hadn’t really slept on the bus. We headed into the center of Cusco after breakfast and headed to Alpaca Expeditions to sort out the rest of our payment for Machu Picchu. Wandering through the town was lovely, it’s a very clean and well kept place with large squares with fountains and pretty buildings. We spent much of the afternoon doing admin, we booked a rainbow mountain tour for the next day, and sorted Colca canyon tour for when we’re in Arequipa as well as accommodation for there as well. The rainbow mountain tour was picking us up at 3:00am from the hostel so packing for the trip and an early night was very much in order.
Well the second day was quite the experience to say the least! Bearing in mind it’s super early, and we were hiking up to 5,200m above sea level we were very prepared wearing lots of layers, armed with hats, gloves and walking boots. This was the case for many of the people we picked up, except 1, he was in old slip on vans, a tshirt and flimsy jumper - we both found this strange. Then once everyone was on the bus the guide told us we couldn’t do the usual route we had to do one 2 hours longer because of the rain the day before, which was very frustrating for us. Since it was incredibly early still we all headed to sleep. Rachel wasn’t in deep sleep and heard said guy mentioned before who was sat behind her mention he wasn’t feeling too great. He was complaining for quite some time, but she thought it’s fine he’ll just stop the bus if he gets really bad. She was very wrong... he starts to be sick and the person he is with doesn’t really do anything leaving it to Rachel to get the bus to stop. We’re all a little confused by what’s happening but he gets back on and off we go, “yeah we didn’t trek Machu Picchu because it’d be too difficult” he says... alarm bells start ringing... rainbow mountain is said to be twice as difficult as Machu Picchu... this couple clearly had booked this tour with their eyes closed. We stop for breakfast 1.5hrs into the bus journey then jump back on the bus for the remaining 1.5hrs to get to the base. About 15 mins in the bus stopped for the driver to check the tyres and the problem guy goes “thank god we’re here I couldn’t take much more of this” this was not great to hear as I knew what was coming... yep he starts to be sick again once again not stopping the bus, but this time he decides he’s had enough and doesn’t want to do it and wants to turn back (which obviously wasn’t possible). We arrived to the base after clearly not a very pleasant journey - the problem guy stays in the bus and does the 3hr journey back straight away.
Anyway, we set off walking. It was pretty ok at first with mostly flat or gradual inclines to walk along, but once it started getting hilly it was very tough, being at ~4700m you get tired so quickly. We were both determined to power through. In terms of determination, the alternative if you couldn’t carry on was to take a horse. Some reading this may not know of Rachel’s past experience with horse riding but let’s just say there was no way she was using a horse, making her more determined not to give in. The hike was beautiful, the surrounding scenery was so colourful and impressive. We got to a point you could see the the top, but unfortunately the altitude got a bit too much for Rachel and the guide decided it would be best to give her some oxygen. After a few minutes we were good to go again on the final stretch and make it to the peak. Relieved is an understatement of how we felt once we reached the top.
We had one more day in Cusco which we used to explore the local market of Cusco. This only took a couple of hours. We spent the rest of the day relaxing which our tour company for the Inca trail suggested as we had a heavy four days ahead of us. In the evening we had a meeting with our tour guide and group just to get the final bits of preparation before getting another early night.