On day two it was an early start. In fact it was a very early start for us three, as we were woken by loud banging coming from above our room at 5am, after which none of us could get back to sleep. Pft.
After breakfast it was back in the van for a 40 minute drive. We'd been given the option to walk or drive this bit and as we were told it was a very uninteresting hike/walk, we opted for the latter.
Here we started our walk towards the real Inca trail. We wound up through the valley, stopping off every now and again for Juan Carlos to show us some local wonder. He showed us natural makeup, Coca leaves growing in the wild and a coffee farm, and we had a snack of termites (they taste quite woody!).
At one of our rest points we parked up and JC talked us through a whole table of Peruvian objects, a mixture of local fruit and veg, and stranger things like pickled snakes. Then came one of my favourite parts of the day - we all got to dress up in traditional Peruvian dress, and have our faces painted with the natural red makeup! Totally unexpected and so much fun!
The further on we went, and the higher up we got, the more amazing the views became. At the highest point we had made it to the part of the Inca Trail that we would walk and the steep drop at the top would have been dizzying for anyone with vertigo. We then worked our way up and down and round the valley and on our next break JC gave us coca leaves to try. I've drank a lot of coca tea since we got to Peru, it reminds me of green tea, it's supposed to help with adjusting to the altitude, and Cusco is bloody freezing so I needed something to warm me up! But another, very traditional way of absorbing its benefits, is by chewing it. So, we all had a good chew. I can't say much happened except for my mouth feeling a little numb, but it was cool to try it!
We hiked for the rest of the day, and also took a small cable car over a river - how the locals do it! And I think we were all quite happy to get to the hot springs after our longest day of hiking!
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