Day 15

Tuesday 16^th November 2010

Another poor attempt at a night out last night – home by 9pm!! We watched Ed Byrne on the lap top and settled down for another early night.

This morning we had to be up bright and early though because we were going white water rafting on the Urubamba River. We drove for a couple of hours south of Cusco. Here we were given our gear – wet suits, striking yellow jackets and helmets. After a quick safety briefing we were off down the river with out fellow adventurers, John from Colarado, Hayley from New York  and our Peruvian guide.

It was another beautiful sunny day and the scenery was staggering as we splashed and lurched our way down the river for the next couple of hours. It was lots of fun!

At one point we were encouraged, egged on, dared and bullied to leap into the icy waters. So naturally we agreed – and immediately regretted it! It was noticeable that none of the guides were stupid enough to take the plunge.

After lunch back at the camp we then had the opportunity to cross the river by a number of different zip lines. The best bit being was when Franky stopped some 10m from the end of the line and had to haul himself back to shore!

We were driven back to Cusco in time for our pre-Inca trail briefing. We have felt a lot better today but are still feeling the effects of the altitude and after the briefing we are really wondering what the hell we have let ourselves in for! A gruelling 9 hours walking for 3 days followed by a 4am get up and another 2 hours walking – sounds like fun doesn’t it!?

One of girls in our group, Angela, had previously been in Cusco for a month learning Spanish and so offered to take a few of us to a ’really good local restaurant’. We tried 'Chicha' the local corn beer - kind of sweet with the consistency of egg!

Not being one to shy away from trying new things I plumped for the guinea pig, along with Calluma and Will while Franky opted to stay safe with the lamb. Now I wasn’t bargaining for half a guinea pig complete with head, feet, claws etc that had been both roasted and deep fried until it was as tough as old boots. After a polite taste to say I’d tried it I left well alone, as did Callum. Will on the other hand devoured his leaving not a scrap of meat – not even the brain!!!!

We weren’t really in the mood to party after that so it was a quick trip to the supermarket to pick up essentials for the trail – namely our body weight in chocolate in case they try to feed us guinea pig there too!!! Tomorrow we’re off to the Sacred Valley and overnighting at Ollantaytambo before starting the hike on Thursday. All being well (ie: if we survive this) we’ll be back in Cusco on Sunday night and so will try to blog on Monday.