Inca Kola: liquid gold in Cusco

Our Geckos group arrived together, brains slightly scrambed after aerobatic landing into Cusco. First order of business was to eat Cuy/guinea pig. If you´re going to do it, do it right: deep fried with a look of terror on its face. It was surprisingly tasty though, once you break through the mental barrier. Think Cuy KFC.

Check out Team Geckos: Clockwise from left Susan, Tom, Den, Jeff (with a J), Belji, The Mit and the Mel. Missing from this photo is James the Great. We shall meet him again in a later chapter entitled, Inca Trail: The Gringo Killer. He will be carrying all our packs.

With only 48 hours in Cusco to acclimatise to the altitude before the Inca Trail, we quickly jumped on the coca tea/diamox/Inca Kola diet. it worked marvellously well. dizzy spells gone, headaches a thing of the past! unfortunately pins and needle plagued me for most of the time at altitude. its no laughing matter folks. Imagine your extremities with permanent pins and needles. not cool. Anyways I now have a healthy addicton to coca tea. If only I can find a way to import in large quantities to Australia.

Team Geckos hit the sacred valley trail as a small contingent in Nico´s Group. Our most horrifying experience involved 2 school age girls and their high pitched shrill voices which cut through ear drums and destroyed our will to live. Jeff took care of them... In other news, quite a few people struggled the next day after a highly regarded buffet lunch turned bad. Not a good start to the Inca trail. The Mit, James and myself chased the buffet with a Maccas dinner, the memory of which pushed us through day 2 on the trail. What I wouldn´t give for just one QP. Maybe even the elusive Mc Pollo.