Inca Jungle Trail was very
incredible. We had a briefing the night before so had a really good idea
what to expect for every part of the journey. I had a really fun group
which consisted of two guys from Argentina, two girls from the UK, and a
girl from Holland. THe first morning we were picked up bright and early
and taken to pick up the mountain bikes. From there a little breakfast
stop at the kind of tourist places I hate but I had already prepared pb
and j so none of that bs for me! Then continued to drive up this crazy
crazy huge mountain, like we were driving up to the sky literally. It
was so cold when we got out. Luckily we got super cool outfits to put on
to keep out the water and add a little warmth and warn cars in our
orange vests of the road. It was all downhill with absolutely amazing
bikes... I think even better than my dads! The scenery was incredible.
We went 50km downhill in two hours! I really wanted to take a bunch of
pictures but it was difficult since we were going so fast. After the
biking came a nice needed lunch break, which was standard but delicious
chicken, rice, soup, and some veggies I believe. With fruit for dessert.
After the biking was rafting! I originally hadn´t planned on rafting
but in order for the rest of the group to go they needed one more person
so I agreed to join. It was definitely my first real experience. I did
it in Bali... but I would not count that experience as rafting.. it was
kind of like
tubing with one cool water slide in there. I had to
translate for the English girls because our 16 year old guides who had
come from school and after eating lunch didn´t speak much english. I
think we started on the hardest part and it definitely took us a few
minutes to get our rhythm but no one fell out. They said the rapids were
class 3 to 4... I have no idea for anything to compare it to. After
rafting we headed in a
collectivo minivan together to do a short little
hike to our homestay. Just as we started off our tour guide said that it
would start to rain very soon.. literally three minutes later it
started raining. However we were also sweating at the same time so it
was really irritating wearing our plastic ponchos, sweating, with
flashlights, up a hill! When we finally got there they had some
delicious fresh pineapple juice ready for us and then dinner ready an
hour later. Dinner was standard but really delicious. After dinner we
had a little bit of time to hang out and Ezekiel played some guitar for
us. We all went to bed exhausted, I hadn´t had a good night of sleep
before and then added on top all the activities of the day! 
The
next morning we had a pancake with banana for breakfast, I decided to
have my drink of choice, coca tea to get me ready for the day of hiking
ahead of us. Before we set off, we had our faces painted with a natural
bug repellent and sunscreen.. It came from some sort of flower type
thingy. Carlos our tour guide gave us all unique designs. Unfortunately
with all the sweating they looked like nasty fake tans in a few hours.
We also learned about all the fruits grown in the area, banana,
pineapple (did you knwo comes from the ground kind o f looks like an
agave plant!) cocoa, coca, and coffee. We tried the fruit of the coffee
flower and it was super delicious, we all wanted to keep eating it
throughout the day. We chewed on some coca leaves to help with the
altittude as well during the walk. I didn´t really mind the taste but
the other girls in the group were not a fan. With some sugar added I
could drink the tea alll day. I don´t feel anything from the tea but
energized but having the ball of coca in your mouth for about 30 minutes
makes your nose and tongue feel a little bit numb. During the walk we
had lots of explanations about the incas who are actually quechas, Inca
was only the leader of the quechas. But somehow everyone including
guides still say incas. They could communicate messages through a relay
system based on these paths they built from Lima to Cusco in just 26
hours or something crazy like that, the same amount of time it takes to
take a bus. Each inca would run 8-10km and pass on the message to the
next. Carlos taught us all kinds of cool things like that during our
walk. Lunch that day was spghetti which I really didn´t care for.. we
are in peru, why are you serving us spghetti? To finish our walk of the
day and arrive at the hot springs we had to sit in this little cable car
to cross the sacred river once again. One of the many times we got to
cross this raging brown river. Apparently other times of the year it is
clear... I´m not so sure about that one! Once again dinner was standard
peruvian fare and the hostel was a little cramped with all four girls
together in one room but nice. We had enjoyed amazing hot showers with
fresh water from the hot springs so no one had to shower. After dinner
we had all planned on just hanging out together. Then Happy Hour Pisco
Sours got the best of us, as did Ïnca Tequila. We headed to the
¨discoteca¨afterwards and had a really fun crazy night of dancing.
Mostly it was just our group, the guides, and then one other group
joined us later on in the evening. 
The next morning... was
early and a little rough to say the least. Right after breakfast we
headed to ziplining. I actually didn´t want to do it because I had done
it before and really wasn´t quite in the state to do it, but they said I
had to! It was absolutely beautiful though! After zip lining we had a
car ride to start the walk along the train tracks to aguas calientes
where we would stay for the night before heading up to Machu Pichu. In
the town called ¨hot water¨we had really cold showers. Not to mention
that walk was in the rain after lunch and quite tiring staring at the
train tracks the whole time and then in medium awkard sized river rocks.
We had a little bit of time to relax before the best dinner yet which
was like a four course meal with salad, soup (tomato soup! YUM!), garlic
trout, and I think there was some sort of fruit for dessert. After
dinner we pretty much went directly to bed, we were so exhausted from
the night before and had to be up at 4am to start our journey to Machu
Pichu! 
4am came way to quick, and the rain of course was
already ready for us. We plopped on our ponchos and hit the road because
we had to be at the top by 6am to start our last part of the tour. It
was something like 1700 steps that we had to climb and so we were
totally bundled to start with and then sweating within minutes of
starting the journey. THankfully Carlos had told everyone to bring a
change of clothes because the completely soggy from sweat clothes would
make us really cold at MP. The rain kind of let up a few minutes every
now and again and same with the clouds. There were actually two seperate
two minute periods where the clouds cleared. The first time I thought
it would be clearing for good and just savoured the moment and the
beauty and majesty of the complex. The second time I realized that I had
to act quick with the pictures if I wanted any. Thankfully I was in a
good spot and a 12 ish year old super tall skinny American kiddo did a
great job with snapping a few shots. The rest of the time I just enjoyed
walking around the complex. MP was not rediscovered until the early
1920s so it was sitting and growing in grass and a crazy hidden mountain
for like 400 years after the Incas abandonded it. They think that 400
ish people lived there. They were very creative using the sun to make
shapes, and how to form the buildings using the natural stones already
in the area. They let 5000 max people in per day during high season and I
was there during shoulder season, so my guide estimated there would be
about 3000 people there that day. Once 10 rolled around, you could see
all the people who had just made their way up for the day on the train.
There are tons of tours going on in all sorts of languages and people
that like to hop in and join other peoples tours like a few did with
ours. So the people and crowd definitely take away from the magic a
little bit but it was still such an amazing sight to see and so lucky
that I had the opportunity to go there. 
The
next day I had planned to do some rock climbing with one of the guys in
my hostel from Colombia but we couldn´t even find the guide for rock
climbing. That morning I enjoyed sleeping in a little bit, until the
Argentinean artesians woke me up with their talking. Got a bus ticket
that night for Puno, got lunch and massages with the Inca Jungle girls.
This bus ride was much smoother and I slept pretty well, and then
arrived and was planning to go meet up with the girls again in their
hostel, but there were travel agencies at the bus terminal where I could
leave my big bag and do an over night home stay on Lake Titicaca...
For all you Dumb and Dumber fans, yes Lake Titicaca is actually a place.
In Quechua language it means gray cat, or another native language it
means puma chasing a rabbit according to my guide. I hung out at the bus station and met a girl from Chile doing the same tour. We waited in the bus station until the tour picked us up. We first visited Uros Floating Islands which were pretty cool how they are constructed completely with reeds. There are 80 something of them in Lake Titicaca, each has a president. Once there are a certain number of families on the island they must build a new one. After the explanation of the island they got out all of their hats, scarves, and blankets and hassled us to buy things. I got back into the boat because I didn´t have enough money actually to buy anything! The next stop was the island where we would have our homestay. Our host dad came to greet us and take us to the house. We got lunch when we arrived which consisted of Oka which is similar to a potato but a little sweeter, some fried cheese, tea, and aves which are kind of like huge green beans I guess. I had them a few times with my family in Ecuador as well. The main industry on the island is tourism so again I kind of felt a little strange. After lunch we had nap time, which was much needed! Then another guided hike with our guide. This time we went to the top of the island which was really difficult at such an altitude. At each corner of the island there were different temples that the people used for certain holidays, such as sumer and winter solistice, etc. The sunset and the clouds were really beautiful but I was absolutely freezing even with the loaned out hat from my host family. Luckily it didn´t rain. Dinner was soup and a kind of egg potato salad. Speaking of potatoes, there are wayyyy more varieties of potatoes in Peru than in Ireland... Everyone was a little shocked for sure. After dinner we got to put on their traditional clothing and head to the ¨party¨. Again it felt very insincere as though they do this every other day and have to do it. But we listened to the band and danced some. The Chilean girl, and a Peruvian couple was with me in the same host family. After a little bit the party was over and everyone was so sleepy so we were quite realived to head back and sleep. The number of blankets on the bed was probably like 8... Heaviest covers I´ve ever slept under, but eventually got warm and slept really well.
The next day we headed to another island. The
Chilean girl and I had a little bit more free time before we had to meet
the group in the plaza so headed down the way a little bit... and from
there lost the group. We have no idea if they told us the wrong time
when we asked someone how much time we had left but they were no where
to be found. Turns out that they were at lunch in a restaurant so we
couldn´t see them... So we rushed all the way to the boat and then
didn´t want to climb back up the 500 steps. The captain of the boat was
there and called our guide. Apparently they had been looking all over
for us as well. One last adventure for the over night trip was that our
boat broke down. I find this a pretty usual occurence where the motor
stops or they have to switch, its just what happens.. however this was
the first time that the guys on the boat couldn´t repair it. A few
people started to freak out which was interesting to watch, most
everyone else was very calm. We ended up getting rides back on the fast
boats with the day tour groups but had to sit on the floor. I had
planned to head to the border town and cross the border first thing in
the morning but was too tired and starting to get a cold so decided to
just stay the night in Puno and catch the bus in the morning. That was a
warp for Peru! Inca Jungle Trail
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