19th July 2012: Via Ferrata and Zipline

Day in Cuzco:
Send off Francis in the morning, and wait for the tour agent to come pick me up for a day of via ferrata and ziplining. The guys come 20 mins late, but I nonetheless make it to site.
We stop by the side of the road by a container office, where the usual brief and disclaimers take place.
I have joined a fairly large group of people with LOTS of children, the youngest being 5 yrs old!!!!! We start off with the via ferrata section, which is basically climbing an awesome almost vertical wall of 400 metres..!!! We are secured using the usual harnesses clipped to a metal wire lifeline, and progress by grabbing and stepping on U shaped anchors within the rock surface. 
Starts off ok, but gets scarier as we progress higher... 

Note: Pic below Courtesy of Rachel Castillo

The highlight of that section is walking on a metal wire to cross a section of mountain, with nothing but a column of 300 m of air between us and the ground.

Note: Pic below Courtesy of Rachel Castillo

One of the persons starts to get scared almost midway into the climb, and had to be brought back down for her own safety.
The rest of the group progress at snail pace, with the little children literally strapped to the backs of the guides.

We have a small snack at the end of the via ferrata section, and proceed with the ziplines. Views from the top are as expected, stunning. Classic stuff ranging from slow mo, to very fast, to tandem slide. The final zipline is actually a combination of rappelling at the beginning, and ending with a controlled (by the guides) slide down the guide wire.

We finish the activity at 5:20. Snag is that I was meant to be back in Cusco at 6.00 for my pre Ausangate trek...!!! and was assured by the contact that I would be back by 3.00 p.m. And it takes at least 90 mins to get there...!!!! Quick call to agency, which advises me that I can have the brief separately, not ideal, but no choice, given the circumstances...!!!!
Also means I don't have the chance to say proper goodbye to Sarah...
Only dropped off at the travel agency at 7.15, and I have a very short brief. Had very little to eat all day, and food was most important at this point. Quick chinese in a sort of 'base mine' and I return to the hotel for my preps.
Now, I was really counting on those 3 hours after the day's activity to back up my photos to an externall Hdd. All my cf cards (totalling) arnd 80 gigs were full, so that was a job that was of utmost importance to me for my photo shoot in Ausangate. Problem is that the pcs at the hotel are really show, and it takes approx 45 mins to back up my bigger cards(32gb), and half that for my smaller cards, and I end up going to bed at arnd 3 am...not ideal before such a demanding trek...!!!!