Dad and I have just got back from an epic holiday around Peru. It was always Dad’s dream as a child to go to Peru and in particular to go to Machu Picchu. So after Mum passed away he decided to take action on that bucket list and take me along with him for my 40th Birthday present. I was really pleased to be going somewhere where they celebrate Mother Earth, Pachamama, and thought that it was fitting that me and Dad went there together to spend time together remembering Mum, and I decided to take a rose with me to place at the top of Machu Picchu. I also thought that this would be great training for our Hadrian’s Wall walk in May.
Dad booked the trip with Travelsphere, it was the Epic Peru trip and we were out there for about 20 days.
We started off at Lima, working our way down the coast via Paracas, Nazca, Arequipa, Colca, Puno, Cuzco and then finally to the Amazon Jungle. The country is incredibly beautiful and so wonderfully diverse, the people so friendly and we were lucky to have travelled through it. I never dreamed that I would be able to explore somewhere like that and we have made so many wonderful memories and great new friends on our explorations.
I’d like to thank Elisa in particular who looked after us and in my eyes is one of the best Tour Guides I have ever come across. It was hard work, not a holiday, but a great adventure and I now have the travel bug to explore so much more.
Machu Picchu was incredible, the walk up was harder than you think because of the Altitude effects but I made sure I drank lots of Coca Tea to try and help. Every corner that you turn around in Machu Picchu you can’t help but exclaim ‘WOW’. It really is mind-blowingly beautiful and it was so emotional too. I am so proud of Dad for making it up there. It really challenged me to overcome my vertigo in places too.
The hardest part of the trip was the trek through the Amazon Forest. They don’t call it a Rain Forest for nothing and we did visit in rainy season. We took part in a 6k trek to Sandoval Lake in Peurto Maldonado. Our Guide advised us against it as there had been storms all night and she said that it would be flooded along the way and not very good for my knees or easy for my Dad. We selected our wellies and our walking sticks and headed off. Two hours later after doing the first 3k to the lake I think my Dad seriously regretted it. We had a break in the rain whilst we went around the lake in a wooden canoe and had a little picnic watching all the wildlife but then on our 3k trek back the heavens opened again. 
This rain was like nothing I have ever seen and the path was more like a river of mud like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rather than a path. Dad did it though, I led him and one other companion back to the start of the route and I am so proud that we did it. He may have fallen over but we did it!!
Now we are back we are raring for our next challenge of walking Hadrian’s Wall and if you would like to sponsor us to support the work that Cancer Research does then please donate via our Just Giving page as every single penny helps.
If you would like to find out more about the trip we did here is a link to Travelsphere’s Epic Peru: Epic Peru
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