Radka's Peru Trek in aid of MIND

10 June 2003 Click HERE to go back to the front page.

Cusco, Peru- place so easy to fall in love with.

I have been back in the UK for only a couple of days now and it already feels like eternity since I've been to South America.

I miss the mountains, I miss the people... I miss everything we had there. Friendships, blue sky, clean air...

Cusco has become my second home with its lovely town square, cobbled roads, old houses with red roofs... really, just like home.

I miss it and I worry that I'll never be able to go back.

I now realise how I always bluff myself, trying to convince myself that I am not leaving, that I can always come back because 'it's only a couple of hours on a plane'. Not this time. The end of this trip was final and very painful.

'Your soul travels on a camel' said my Buddist friend after I returned to London in tears.
It felt so strange not having my heart pumping like mad, trying to jump out of my chest, worrying me that any minute I could die of heart attack, that I'm not going to be able to breathe.... It was so quiet, it almost felt like I didn't have a heart, like it died on my way home and all that was left from the trek were just memories inside my head. I felt a like an empty shell - I left my heart, soul and spirit in those beautiful mountains.

I suspect that my soul travels on a lama and it's going to take a while to catch up with me and arive in London.

I had everything I ever dreamt of - the most beautiful mountains, clean air, people who became my best friends during those few days, people who cared and were there to help... And all this was not being disturbed by anything as we walked on trails where nobody else would go.
I was in heaven, nearly able to touch the sky. 'Breathtaking' (the scenery and, of course, the altitude)

4700 meters! I thought that I'd never make it to this point. I strugeled but it was worth it.
There is nothing better than getting on a top of a high mountain.
I just don't have the words to describe this... you'd have to see it for yourself and fall in love with it for by yourself. Nobody can explain what this felt like.

This girl just appeared one day and started walking with us. She knew where to go, she was showing us the way, became an unexpected guide & was just like a fairy tale creature.
The boys were my mates. They did all the walking with us, carrying some huge bags for our doctor - to make sure that all the unfit tourists survive (me included)

We could not really communicate (apart from 'ok ok', which was their favorite) and so we just messed about. I miss them.

This was a view from our campsite, day 3 - facing where we were going to go the following day.
Our tent was next to the 'lama parking lot'. Could I ask for more? Deffinitely not.

It was getting more difficult as I knew that the trek was closer to its end than to its beginning and there was nothing else I'd like more than to be able to stay in the mountains, which we were going to leave in just a couple of days.

For most people the highlight was arriving at Machu Picchu. Not for me.

For me the greatest part was being in the mountains; looking at the stars, listening to the river instead of sleeping, unzipping a frozen tent in the morning to have a cup of coca tea... not wasting my time thinking - just taking it all in as much as I could.

Here are the people: the guides and my mates. It was so hard having to say good bye...
PS: Guys, love you all (and it's not just the altitude) x