Once the Brazilian adventure was done it was off on a two week tour of Peru. I was doing Peru as Solo travel and had the dream of seeing both Machu Picchu and the Amazon on the same trip. I was able to find a tour company who offered a two week tour from Cusco that would take you to both sites with some quad biking and white water rafting in between! It was the perfect set up and I couldn’t be happier with the decision.
At the end of the Brazil trip I caught a bit of a cold so I
was arriving in Peru a little under the weather. I thought the cold was bad…until
I was hit with splitting headaches from the altitude. Cusco is located at about
3,400 meters above sea level. And evidently I was not prepared for what this
meant. The first adventure of the trip was a hike that would lead to Machu
Picchu. It was the Lares Trek and would be 4 days and 3 nights of hiking and
camping. The night before I was feeling pretty rough and having my doubts.
When I woke up for the trek I was thinking about pushing it
back. Was not feeling my best and hiking/camping was going to be tough
especially when we would be reaching a summit at 4,500 meters!!! In the end I
pushed through and got on the trial. I was joined by three Aussies, Blake,
Mitch, and Ben, who were all the same age as me and ended up being great travel
companions. When we got on the trail it wasn’t difficult terrain but even after
a few steps you felt like you needed a break. We hiked 3 hours the first day
before setting up camp. The second day was the killer. It was only about 6
hours of hiking but this day we reached the 4,500 meter summit and the group
was in pain. As we walked through it was hard not to be amazed by the scenery.
We were the only ones out there walking through remote villages with tribes
wearing colorful clothing. We were passing groups of Alpacas and Llamas roaming
the mountainside. And feeling the fresh air across as faces as we were gasping
for more oxygen. Once we made it to our camp for the night we decided to go
down about 1,000 meters to a lower camp site on a local bus to get away from
the altitude…it was a great decision all around. 
After our second camping night we started to make our way to
Machu Picchu. We took a train to Machu Picchu town to spend the night before
waking up to catch sunrise at one of the World Wonders. When we got up to make
our way to Machu we were shocked at how many tourists there were. Even at 5am
there were hundreds waiting in line for buses to get to the site. Once we were
there the site’s massive size drowned out some of the crowds and we were
awestruck. Truly a city in the sky. Our guide Frank, who was legendary, gave us
the full tour before we were able to explore on our own. I will say that Machu
did not disappoint, not one bit. It was even better than advertised and once I
was back in Cusco it was time for part two of the trip…the Amazon!
My portal to the Amazon was through Porto Maldonado. I took
a 10 hour overnight bus from Cusco to get there and spent 4 days and 3 nights
in the jungle. To get to my lodge I actually took a one hour boat ride on the
Amazon River where we pulled off on a bank and had to walk across planks of
wood in the mud to get to our huts. The resort was full of little bungalows, a
communal eating area for all meals, and even had a pet monkey and macaw on
site! While I was there we had different activities each day that included
jungle walks, a trip to a nature lake, searching for caimans (Amazon
crocodiles), finding tarantulas, bird watching, and more. The wildlife was
amazing and it was refreshing to see how undeveloped the whole area was. You
definitely felt like you were away from everything and it lived up to its
reputation.
This trip was the longest solo trip that I have ever done
and there are definitely highs and lows that come with that. It is liberating
to be able to do whatever you want, wander around, and constantly meet new
people. But when traveling you don’t realize just how much down time there is.
This is usually filled with small conversation, card games, sharing a meal,
etc. But when you are traveling alone sometimes you just want to share the experience
with someone. Particularly being part of tour groups and staying in hostels you
aren’t hard pressed to find people to spend time with but by the end of the two
weeks I was ready to get back to Doha for some familiar faces and places.
I could go on and on about both Peru and Brazil but this
offers a good snapshot. My time in Doha has been short…about 48 hours…as
tonight I head to Ireland to see the one and the only William Nestor. I will be
joined once again by Kevin but Brandon is flying out from the US as well!!! Can’t
wait to get there and have everyone together. I will post photos from all the
trips post-Ireland. Until then!!! Ramadan Kareem and Eid Mubarak!!!
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