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And So To Machu Picchu
I always think there’s something supremely auspicious about train travel, especially pulling out of or in to a great city, it just feels so momentous. This is particularly true today as the Peru Rail train hauls slowly up the steep inclines out of Cusco, headed for one of the World’s most spectacular rail journeys through the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu, a wonder of the modern world. And all this on a significant birthday for Michaela, too. It takes a full half hour for the train to be free of Cusco, the rail track repeatedly switchbacking as it climbs its way up and over the mountains surrounding the city. Once…
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Cusco & The Rainbow Mountain: Life At Over 11,000 Feet
So now we enter the first part of this journey – there’s plenty more coming – where altitude sickness is a looming enemy, so as a result we have developed a strategy long before the day we arrive in Cusco. Flying in from Puerto Maldonado adds to the risk, coming straight from low lying wetlands to a city at 3,400 metres in less than an hour gives no opportunity for graduation, just a steep learning curve in which a large dose of being sensible is called for. We’re not always good at being sensible. Consequently we hatch a plan. There’s a certain regime to follow for the first 48 hours…
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Puerto Princesa And Another Of The World’s Seven Wonders
Tempted fate now, haven’t I? I really should have known better than to instigate a conversation about the fact that the Philippines has been kind to our tummies with not a hint of an upset in over six weeks. Michaela wakes up in Puerto Princesa with all of the warning signs; by breakfast she can only manage half of her omelette and by lunchtime her body has gone into that “I am going to force you to lay down and sleep while I work on curing this problem” mode which we all know from travel. But she’s blessed with what we in football circles call bouncebackability and by Monday we’re…
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From The Coast To The Falls: Heading South
With the buses leaving at awkward times and featuring difficult connections, we opt instead to do a deal with a local driver in Paraty to take us all the way to our overnight stop at Guarulhos, nearly four hours’ drive away. As we leave the jewel which is Paraty behind and head up into the mountains, we ponder on whether crossing the range will take us out of the rain and back into sunshine. In reality the exact opposite occurs – the weather deteriorates considerably and by the time we’re on the freeways our driver is battling spray, surface water and worsening visibility. Pools of rainwater dance and splash in…
