When I didn't survive the inca trail but found my love in Macchu Picchu

This photo below was taken about an hour before my body decided to break down and not do the inca trail, which I had looked forward to since October. 

I really tried to power through but after 5km I had to realise that I had to give up, I felt too ill to walk even the way back and could not have walked about 15 km a day for 3 days in that condition. I felt really sad and dissapointed that this bad luck that seems to hang like a grey cloud over me wouldn't just leave me alone. Not only that - I knew I had paid like 650 US dollars for this and that I would probably never see that money again. What I had to do instead was to go back to the nearest town to where the inca trail starts (ollantaytambo - which I never will be able to pronounce) and check in to a hotel for a few nights to just rest instead. 

However, I am very very very proud over my other half who actually manage to survive the whole trek. It wasn't easy for him at all (especially since I kind of had to force him to go on without me), especially since the weather on this trail is very unpredictable and can be very rough (which it was apparently, around 0 degrees at night and lots of heavy rain). 

After those 3 days in bed I did feel much better and could at least join our group and see my love for the first time in what felt like ages in Macchu Picchu.

I had to learn the hard way how expensive it is to visit Macchu Picchu without doing the inca trail. And to be honest, seeing Guy was the best part of Macchu Picchu, other than that I just think everything is way overpriced. I had to pay 68 US dollars just to get the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, also known as Macchu Picchu town. Then I had to pay 12 US dollars for the bus from Aguas Calientes to Macchu Picchu. I was meant to walk this road there, but my guide Jimmy protested because the rain was way to heavy that morning. 

You also have to pay for entrance and probably a guide aswell if you want one, but since I met up with the inca trail group and had already paid for the tour, at least I got to take advantage of the last part of the inca trail and experience the Macchu Picchu tour with them, where our tour guide showed us around.

About Peru Trek - this is the cheapest company we could find who are serious and have had good reviews and since I didn't actually do the trail I cannot say too much about them. But from talking with Giy we have agreed that the whole administration am side of it all and like the office people are pretty bad as they are not very flexible what so ever. You pay a deposit when you book the trek months in advance and you can do that via credit card, but you have to pay the other half cash - this is a lot of money to take out from the ATM since you cannot take out that much at the same time and since it charges a high fee every time you take cash out.

Even worse, when I asked for vegan meals they simply just said "no, not possible" because it was gonna be too complicated for the chef so I just thought, alright - I just have rice and veggies or whatever I can have. As you know it never came to that, but Guy said that he was the only vegetarian out of 16 people, so you may think it could've been as easy to do all of the vegetarian food vegan instead of doing 3 different dishes. I also find it hard to believe that they would have been so strict with their anti-veganism if intolerance to certain foods was the case..

Saying that though, the actual staff (guides etc) that comes with you on the trek are absolutely wonderful! We had two guides with us and one of them, Jimmy, became like my best friend when he helped me through my sick fase. He went back and got me a hotel room, took the train with me to Macchu Picchu town, showed me where to go and was a real rock in the moment I needed it the most. Thank you Jimmy!

Like I said, I still get dissapointed when I think about it all but I am happy that I got to see Macchu Picchu nestled between the mountains anyway, but like I mentioned, it does bother me how much you have to pay to see it. There is not really any ways around it. I actually enjoyed the view from Macchu Picchu more than the actual ruins (yeah I mean it is still really cool how this was just like a hidden abandoned city for many many years and all the history behind it of course)

The weather up here changes worse than the Swedish summer does. One minute it was raining loads and the next it was hot and sweaty, in that tropical way. Unfortunately it was really cloudy when we were here, so the views weren't as great as when you google time. But still, I guess it's pretty cool to be up on clouds aswell.

To be able to say that I've done some walking around Macchu Picchu, me and Guy took yhe tropical forest walk downhill back to Aguas Calientes, which took like 40-60 mins and got treated to a papaya juice for the effort from the their guide Freddy (probably because he didn't have to pay 12 US dollars for us to go on the bus back instead)

Aguas Calientes is small and it just screams of tourism. The whole town is evolved around pleasing tourists, there are spas, markets and restaurants everywhere you look and it is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e because everything is imported from Cusco. 

We managed to find a restaurant on the outskirts of the busiest area which did a vegetarian set menu with starter, main and drink for 20 soles anyway. And it was probably one of the best meals I've had (probably because this was my first steady meal in about 3 days) - rice with spinach and avocado. It is always the most simple things that taste the best and that makes my heart go boom.

After many hours of just being bored again and waiting around in Aguas Calientes, we were finally back in Cusco for our last night on these high altitudes. I do blame the altitude for our bad luck and can already feel our luck changing here in Lima. But more on that later.