Empire of the Inca

dawns on the Inca trail views from Lake Titicaca

[least enjoyed] headaches! more guidance on gut and altitude issues would be good never met the Lima agent

Our group of 12 had numerous illnesses - diarrhoea; vomiting; fatigue; headaches. I was acclimatised after 5 days and felt fit.

 

modesty forbids this

 

Mr C travelled in April 2012

There were so many amazing moments. The group we were with were great to get on with, friendly, fun and supportive. Our guides were friendly, helpful and full of knowledge, informatiom and passion about their country.

Lake Titicaca is huge and there is such a community spirit on the islands. They were so happy to share their homes and culture with us. We also realised how hard their lives are - medieval farming methods mixed with solar panels and mobile phones. The families we stayed with made us very welcome and comfortable, basic though it was. We peeled potatoes and beans to prepare for our evening meal. And it was pancakes for breakfast!

Cusco is an interesting city. As well as the sights and Inca history make sure you visit the Coca Museum. make sure your guide boks the Fallen Angel restaurant - strange, quirky and great food too!

Travelling by nearly every mode possible including the taxi bicycles and motortbikes.

Horse riding in the Sacred Valley was briliant and I didn't want to say Goodbye to my Peruvian pony. I know the paragliding and white-water rafting groups loved their experience too.

The Inca Trail is without comparison. It was an amazing 4 days, harder than we expected (we did Kilimanjaro 2 years ago - this was harder in that it was constant up, down and up again!!) but the scenery, challenge and the final achievement of the Sun Gate and the first view of Macchu Picchu, unbelieveable.

The Rainforest extension was again completely different but brilliant. Our guide again was brilliant and so enthusiastic and so desperate to find creatures to show us. We listened, smelled as well as looked (wild boar definitely SMELL and are very noisey!) as we explored the jungle. The black caiman that came too close to our canoe provided a great if scary photo opportunity! Oh and hammock therapy is well reccomended!!

 

Our tour leader for the Inca part of holiday was brilliant. Passionate about her country, history and culture as a whole. She knew her facts, advised us what to visit and booked some great places to eat. She was experienced in handling a number of problems, including that of altitude sickness, especially when that involved my friend needing a doctor.

In the rainforest, again Carlos was brilliant, full of knowledge and experience and a total love of the jungle and his country.

 

My only concern with this holiday is going in at 3800m - it is high and you don't come down til day 4. After doing kilimanjaro we knew the effects of altitude and the 'Climb high, sleep lower' mantra. This didn't happen and I don't know why we didn't think about this when we booked. The group we joined on the Classic Peru package had acclimatised better. I didn't suffer on Kili, but we felt the altitude as soon as we landed and suffered from headaches and nausea. This did spoil the experience of Lake Titicaca. Perhaps we should have done Classic Peru. And if doing the rainforest don't get Methloquin malaria - high altitude can cause nausea etc. In fact malaria hasn't been in the area we went ot for 16 years. We chose prevention over taking medication - mosi-repellent clothing and 100% deet repellent and total cover up. It worked for us and others in our group.