Historic Cusco

Another overnighter on a bus and we finally arrive in Cusco. We aim for our hostel and hope for an early check in like we were afforded in Arequipa but it could not have been more different. We ring the bell at the locked front gate at 5:30 am to no answer. A man walks out of the gate so we entered and walked to the door of what should have been our hostel. To this day, we still do not know if Pacha Mama Hostel operates as a hostel. We stood there for about an hour, calling, messaging, ringing the bell but no one let us in. We ended up finding other accommodation at VIP House who took in the orphaned, weary travellers. 

After exploring the beautiful historic town of Cusco up in the mountains at 3400m, we spend the next 2 days acclimatising before our big hike.

The first day is scheduled to be mountain biking, but unfortunately Doug’s stomach doesn’t agree and it ends up just being Dory and David. We chose to take the budget tour operator on this one, opting to catch a public bus with our dodgy hire bikes up to the start point. Thankfully our guide Wasca was a wild and untamed thing, and provided us with a fantastic day of adventure- we just didn’t realise how often we’d be stopping to fix the bikes he had given us.

All in all, a great day was had exploring the mountains and the countryside around Maras and the salt mines, before grabbing a sneaky bus for the bus back to Cusco. One particular highlight here was that as Wasca was riding a bike with no chain at this point (it was a long story) we opted to get off the bus one stop early, so that he could find (on the fly) a route in through the backstreets of Cusco which only involves downhill and the occasional flat.

The next day its Dory’s turn to have the upset stomach from hell, but she soldiers on as we snake our way up through the mountains for a 5 hour drive to Rainbow Mountain. Despite her best efforts she was looking like giving up on the summit, until our guide hailed a Pony shaped Uber (Puber if you will) to take her the rest of the way.

But thankfully with that little assistance, Doug, David and Dory were able to reach their highest point yet at 5040m above sea level at the peak of Rainbow Mountain… and take a bunch of great photos in the process.

“I’m so high right now.”