With at least a week until our first package of parts arrived, we figured we better do something to entertain ourselves.
Tom was up for a big trek, but personally I felt like our trip as a whole was a pretty big challenge, and therefore did not feel the need to push myself to the edge of my fitness ability in order to see Machu Picchu, when I could see it for less expense and less physical torment.
So we booked the Inca Jungle Trek - a happy medium involving four days walking, biking, rafting and zip-lining. It had been a while since we'd done any organised activities and we were pretty excited about not having to think for ourselves for a few days (and, dare we say it, being apart from Betty for a few days!).
The first day involved a three hour minibus ride up to around 4000m, where we got off, donned an excessive amount of bicycle safety gear, got given our rather shabby bicycles, and sent off down a 40km long hill.
Despite originally thinking it was a little bit lame to be kitted out in full mountain-bike gear to cruise down a road, the whole thing actually ended up being rather fun. After an initial 10km behind the guide (presumably to check we were all sane enough to be trusted to cycle down a mountain road on our own) we were given free reign. With Tom's many years' of mountain biking experience he was off before the guide could barely say go, and the rest of us cruised down the mountain behind him.
At the bottom of the valley it was back in the minibus to take us to our first little town for the night. We were taken to a little family guesthouse where we left our stuff before being swiftly shipped off to do some white-water rafting. This also exceeded my expectations - the rapids were bigger than expected and a lot of fun, particularly while being basked in the rose-gold light of the end of the day.
After a good feed and a good sleep the next day was our big hike. We were up at 6am and by seven we were on our way. We started at the valley floor on a dusty track, slowly ascending into semi-jungle where we got bitten alive by sandflies but also witnessed some pretty cool nature. For example, a pineapple growing. I for one had no idea that pineapples grew one at a time out of a little bush on the ground, and was pretty fascinated by the whole thing. We saw trees laden with mangoes and avocados, huge bunches of bananas and were also introduced to a wonderful seed pod, the contents of which are so rich in colour that they're used for natural cosmetics.
After six hours of walking it's safe to say that I was strongly regretting wearing my steel-toe biking boots as hiking boots. But I tried to keep the whinging to a minimum (and probably failed) as we continued on, traversing at one point along a mountain side path that was barely a foot-width wide - part of the original trail of the Incas. We wobbled across a very rickety suspension bridge and finished the walk traversing a river in an open basket hand-winched along a metal cable!
The day ended at the absolutely packed hot springs - full of young travellers finishing their day's hiking in the naturally heated waters. Despite how busy it was it was still lovely to relax our tired muscles in the warm water before crashing in Santa Theresa for the night.
In the morning it was off ziplining! With so many groups to get through there was a lot of waiting around and not a lot of care taken in your personal experience, but all the same it was certainly a thrill whizzing across a ravine on a thin bit of wire. The final part was walking across an extremely narrow and wobbly suspension bridge, which from the safe mountain-side looked like a walk in the park, but once you were on it was a completely different story. I managed to just about hold it together until I got to the other side, where I decided that was enough adrenalin for a while. Tom of course had no problems and was just getting frustrated with why everyone was going so slowly (probably because there was a very real chance of falling to our deaths, but whatever).
The second part of the day was a long walk along the train tracks to the Machu Picchu town. I don't know if it was because we were already knackered or because it was a very long, straight road to follow but it felt like it went on forever! Eventually we made it to the town - a funny little place in the absolute middle of nowhere - yet jam-packed with tourists which in turn sends the prices sky-high. It was cute all the same, and we got a very early night before the big ascent to Machu Picchu!
We got up at 4am to make sure we were at the entrance at the bottom of the valley when it opened at five. We joined the hundreds of others in taking each of the nearly 3000 steps one by one, as the first light of the day gradually began to light the way for us. We waited for our group at the top, and were sat listening to our guide tell us all about the Incas and the history of Machu Picchu as the sun broke over the top of the mountains, sending huge beams across the valley and lighting up this spectacular wonder of the world.
While the whole thing is extremely touristy which can somewhat take away from the experience, the site itself really is breath-taking. If you can find a quiet corner with an uninterrupted view and imagine how it was all constructed; how the Incas went about their daily lives in this amazing place, then it really is awe-inspiring.
After a few hours soaking it all in, we head back down as the number of people began to get unbearable. We walked back along the railway until we met the river once more, and decided it looked to enticing to simply walk past. So we had a refreshing dip to finish off a pretty special day, before finishing our walk and enduring a very bumpy and uncomfortable six hour bus ride back to Cusco.
One thing's for certain - we certainly wouldn't be taking any more buses any time soon! But we'd had a pretty amazing four days. Now we just had to play the waiting game for our parcels, before we could move on to Bolivia and country number twelve!