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From Cali, I left the girls going to Ecuador to do their Galapagos trip (blog post to follow I’m sure!!!) and flew back up north with Kieran and Ciarán to Santa Marta. The flights were a nice change from the long bus journeys we’d been taking.

We booked the tour to start the next morning and going on others advice and the state of their legs coming back from the trek, we stocked up on sun cream and insect repellant.

We left about nine the next morning to meet our group (turns out we were the entire group) and first drove about four hours by jeep to a small town at the start of the trek. There we had lunch and then headed off with Omar, our guide and Luis, his 15 year old nephew. The first day there was quite a bit of walking uphill, but also 2 swims in natural pools which was lovely, before we got to our campsite for the night, where we slept in hammocks in an open air wooden cabana.

Next morning, we started walking around 7.30am and woke up quickly with a nice walk through the river – water up to mid thigh, there was no point even trying to save the shoes as we would be walking through more along the way. We got to our next campsite around 12.30pm and relaxed for the rest of the day.

This was our pattern for most of the trip – walking in the morning, then relax in the afternoon. On the third and fourth day, there was a ridiculous amount of rain in the afternoon so this made total sense. Below a photo of us crossing the river and below it the same river later that afternoon once the rain started.

On the fourth day we got to the Lost City itself. Although the ruins are not as impressive as Machu Pichu, it was still quite impressive to see and worth the walk. The Tayrona people built the Lost City around 700 AD, but by 1600 they had been almost wiped out by the Spanish. It was discovered in 1975 by people looking for gold and then excavated in 1976.

Decendents of the Tayrona still live in this region and we passed some of their villages on the way. They wear long loose white clothing, have really long hair and the men look remarkably like the women. Our guide informed us that the indigenous people own the accomodation that we stayed in along the way and they have access to free medical care and education. Unfortunately, very few actually go to school and many are in bad health and many die young. They often don´t recieve medical attention till it is too late and the use the money they receive from the accomodation to buy modern processed food which they find hard to digest.

Me at the Lost City below:

From Lima, we caught the bus to Huaraz with Movil, and checked into La Casa de Zerela, more of a guest house than a hostel, quite nice. Huaraz is a smaller city, about 8 hours from Lima. Here we organised to go on the Santa Cruz trek (4 days, 3 nights) with Huascaran agency. The following day Sally (Kieran´s  friend from Devon, a tour leader for the last 3 years in South America) arrived from Lima and we walked around town and got our supplies!

Thursday morning we got up early and met our two guides ( Epi and Janina) at six at the office. After four hours driving up the mountains we met our two mules and the mule man Alberto and we were ready to go! The mules carried all our tents, food, big bags and we just had to carry our day packs.

The first day the walk was pretty easy and we got to our campsite around four. As with the Inca trail the food was really good – for dinner that night, we had soup, trout and chips and a hot cinnamon jelly type desert that tasted much better than it looked! There were two tents for the four of us, plus one for cooking, one for eating and an extra one for the guide to sleep in. We also had our ¨toilet¨tent, which surrounded the freshly dug hole in the ground – surprisingly less smelly than those ¨proper¨ toilets at the inca trail campsites!

The next morning we were woken at 5.20am with a cup of coca tea. After breakfast (pancakes and tea) we started the hardest day. Most of the morning was literally going up the side of a mountain, really tough with the thin air due to altitude, and quite scary with the drop below, but the scenery was spectacular. We reached over 4,700m at the highest point (Punta Union Pass) , eye to eye with the bottom of a glacier.

For the rest of the trek the walking was pretty easy so we could just take in the scenery. We had all types of weather over the 4 days – rain, sun and snow. The nights were pretty chilly but we did have two sleeping bags each! We arrived back to Huaraz around 3pm on the last day and went for some pisco sours to celebrate!

We had a briefing the night before in their office (llama path tours-you can check them out on the internet). There was 16 of us in total in the group. The 5 of us, Emma and Eugene a couple on their honeymoon from near Ballymena who were lovely, Stacey and Tim who were moving back from Australia from New York who were really fun, Valerie and George (a couple from Calgary who were 58/64!), Melissa and Stefanie who were about 23 and from Canada and then Ben, Alice and Hannah who were from Oxford. Typically it was the 3 from the UK who ended being the odd ones of the group. They were typically public schooled brits. Will tell more about them later!

Day 1 we were picked up at 4.30 in the morning in the main square in Cusco and then we drove about an hour and a half to this little village Ollantaytambo for breakfast. Then we drove another 40 mins to the start of the trek. Its really strict getting into it and you have to have your passport and everything ready. Even if someone in our group had cancelled nobody else could have taken their place! Then we did a pretty easy hike for the first 2 hours and then just stopped at the top of the first pass and took photos. Its crazy- theres a couple of villages in the middle of it all! The rest of the day we saw two Inca sites and then eventually landed at our campsite. We were sharing 2 bed tents which were grand. The toilets for the most part were squatting toilets in the ground but at least most of them flushed. The smell off them was horrendous though, I refused to go in the middle of the night!!!! The food on the trail was amazing- they had two chefs the whole time but I couldnt take complete advantage because as usual I was getting awful stomach cramps. The first night of the tour was actually Elaine’s birthday and randomly one of the Canadian girls birthdays as well. We were all introduced to the porters that night so we had to stand around in a massive circle and saw where you are from and your age. Then at the end they brought the two girls into the middle and had made two fresh cakes for them, they were literally still warm. It was amazing that they can come up with things like that in the middle of nowhere. All the porters had to introduce themselves as well and say what they were carrying and how many children they had. One guy was 54 and carrying 25kgs!! The season to be a porter is quite limited so they do a 4 day tour with all the stuff and then start the next day again, they dont even take one day off to recover. I was asking why they aren´t able to keep some of the standard stuff at some of the campsites, like the tables and chairs, but the government wont allow them to have anything permenant there. I suppose it gives jobs to a load of people as well which otherwise wouldnt. Our guide Raul had been a porter for 3 years before becoming a guide. He studied tourism in college for 4 years before he could become a guide so its taken really seriously here.

We got up the 2nd day at 5.15. This was the toughest day by far. It was basically all uphill in the morning up to the Dead Womans Pass at 4200m. We were pretty much the last ones up before the older couple but the rest of the group were super fit. Didnt care though as we made it in the end. The altitude all got us as well so we would literally walk about 10 steps and take a break. Then another 10 and a break. We had bought coca leaves and coca toffees which help with any side effects. I tried the leaves first because they were stronger but I put them in my mouth and dry reached. They were so foul I would have rathered the altitude sickness. We all just went on the toffees then because they gave us a sugar rush as well. This was the worst day of my cramps- We had all hired walking sticks so I ended up walking like Nana for the most part. Didnt care what people thought!!!!! The girls were calling me Granny O Grimm. That was about 5 hours walking before lunch.We kept on meeting this group of 4 going up the same pace as us. A mom and dad and the daughter with her boyfriend. They had managed to get on a tour last minute (I have no idea how) so didnt have much of the proper gear at all. The mom was a bit overweight and was doing it in jeans. When she got to the top of the Dead Womans Pass she just burst out crying with relief. It was actually really nice as we all kind of knew how she felt and other people started welling up as well. After that it was about another hour or so to the camp. All downhill. Its kind of frustrating to come down all the height that took you so long to climb! Lunch was lovely. You arrive in and they have bowls of hot water to clean you up and cold drinks on trays.
Then after lunch it was 2 hours uphill and 2 hours downhill which was grand. That night I just conked out. Everyone was nearly too tired to talk so we just fell into bed. Other groups dont do the 4 hours after the Dead womans pass but looking back it was so nice to get it out of the way and know that you had an easy day ahead of you.

The third day was pretty easy in comparison. There were no massive inclines. Everything was much more gradual so instead of just looking down at the ground like the rest of the days we could actually look at the scenery loads. We were above the clouds for loads of it and just walking through really lush vegitation so it was fab. We got to our campsite by about 3 in the afternoon and just had lunch. Then there was a building a few minutes away (still in the middle of nowhere here) that had hot showers and you could buy drinks and chocolate. Washed for the first time in 3 days which was amazing. Then we met at 4 and went to see the final Inca site. It was an amazing terrace that went on for ages. All the sites have been mostly restored but you could see from this one that parts of it were left as is. It just looks like any other forest so I dont know how anybody ever actually discovered them. This is where the drama started. In all of the reading material and at the briefing before we left we were told that its expected that you tip the porters. Different figures were given. It says at least 60 in the leaflet, which was then 75 at the briefing which was then 100 when Raul reminded us we needed to do it on the last day. Everyone else had just kind of wandered off to look at the ruins so myself, steffi, the australian couple and Eugene from northern ireland were the only ones left. We said we would base it on 75 per porter, 200 for the chef,and 200/250 for the guides. That would have worked out at about 125 soles per person which is about 40 euro. At the briefing the night before I thought it was a bit cheeky but when you see what the do you have no problem giving it. We said it to everyone then that to bring it that night to dinner. All of a sudden the Brits were having a problem with it. They said that they had already paid for the trip and that they werent going to be paying extra. Alice was saying that shes 20k in debt and is going back to do medicine, and Benjamin was saying that he wasnt going to pay out of principle. Still cant figure out what that principle is. The canadian girls didnt know if they had that much either. It was just annoying because if 5 people didnt pay out of 16 they would just assume that we were all being cheap and didnt give enough. Eventually the two english girls said theyd pay and the Canadians gave what they had left but Benjamin wouldnt pay. We started to call him Benja..mean after that. He was so aware that everyone didnt like him (turned out everyone thought he was a gobshite even before that) but he just brazened it out. Whats worse is that theyre all from Oxford and all went to boarding school and everything so are loaded. They had also travelled across the US which is the most expensive country you can go to so he was just being a cheap bastard. That night the girls went down after dinner to have a drink but I was wrecked from the walking and wanted to be awake the next morning so went to bed early. There was a massive thunder and lightening storm which was amazing. The whole tent would just light up.

The next morning we got up at 3.30 and had breakfast quickly. We then had to walk about 15 minutes in the dark to the checkpoint which is the entry to the actual site. The sooner youre down there the better chance you have of being up at the sungate when dawn is breaking. We were probably the third group to get there. Then you just practiaclly run for about an hour. You cant even stop to take photos because all these groups are behind you! That was one of my favourite bits. The clouds were down below us in the jungle and everything was still really cold and it was light but the sun wasnt up yet. After about 40 minutes we got to the “Gringo killers” reälly steep steps that you had to go up on your hands and knees. Then we were at the sun gate. At that point youre still about 40 minutes away from Macchu Picchu but youre looking down at it. That was my favourite bït of the whole trip. The only people up there at that time are the people who have done the trek. Everyone is just on a high and we took loads of photos. Then we went down into Macchu Picchu and again just walked around and loads of photos. Cant really say much more about it as its just like in the photos. The only thing is that theres aboiut 2000 people wandering around. Then we got the shuttle bus down and had lunch with the group for the last time in Aguas Calientes which is the most expensive town in Peru as its just tourists. Then we got the train for 2 hours back to Ollantaytambo and then göt a mini bus home. We were wrapped up in bed asleep by 9 o´clock. We were sharing the dorm room with a guy called Alan from Inniscarra. He couldnt believe that we weren´t goïng to go out and celebrate.

Well I think that just about covers it. Have just being going out here since and taking it easy during the day. Going up twoards Ica now as were cutting out Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. Theres no point in going unless we hike and its meant to be tougher than the Inca and were just too wrecked.

Click on the thumbnails below for the slideshow box to show up.