27th May 2005 - 1st Day The moment we had been waiting for finally dawned at 5.30am!!!!! We were picked up from our hostel by our tour guides, Max & Emillo, for the four day trek to Machu Picchu! The bus took took us (13 trekkers, 2 guides, 1 cook & 21 Porters) to The Sacred Valley town of Ollantayambo where we had breakfast and I purchased two walking sticks made from bambo. After breakie, we headed out of town for another hour, criss crossing the Urubamba river and railway track, we saw the first backpackers train going to Machu Picchu for the day and I all I could think was I wished I was on it! We started at km82 (not named) where we all got our passports stamped, I hassen to add this is mean\'t to be the easy day!!!!! Andean Flat is what our guides said we were walking, as far as I was concerned, I was climbing mountains! Needless to say I brought up the rear, along with a lady called Liz, who as it turned out has become a good friend!!! We have no boundries now (Liz, you know what I\'m talking about - hee! hee! hee!) Ben and I hired an extra Porta to carry our over night kit and clothes, thank heavens we did, I diffinately wouldn\'t have lasted! The Porters were brilliant, MAD, but brillant. They basically had to get to camp before you, so they just ran the whole distance! Up and down like complete nutters!!! The scenery was spectacular, we basically walked through valleys of snow capped mountains, along the Urubamba river and seeing Inca ruins along the way. Climbing down some Inca steps (which are a complete nightmare, they are not even in height or width - EVER!) which are are killer in the legs! We arrived at camp around 4pm, the tent was pitched on a terrace over looking the mountains - just awesome! (Its so hard to put into words just how stunning it all is!) We had dinner at 7pm and then everyone went to bed.............waiting in antisipation for the second day......the hardest of the all the days, climbing to \'Dead Womans Pass\'...............