WEEK THIRTEEN 

So sunday night we were sleeping at a home stay on an island at lake titicaca.. Monday morning we were woken by a knock at the door at 630 and by 7am we were on our way to the family's farm. It was a good 15 min walk up hill which was a struggle seeing as we'd be awake for less than 30 mins and still trying to adjust to the altitude. 
Once we did get to the farming patch, Biki, our Peruvian sister, showed us what we needed to do - one of us had to use a pick to dig a hole while the other had to drop seeds into the hole and cover it back up. It was some kind of medicinal plant we were planting. 
We did this for about 45 mins before heading back home for breakfast. As soon as we'd finished, our Papa wanted to take us to his potato farm, about another 20 min up hill walk. He then gave us the option to continue walking up to the top of the mountain of the island - which we ended up doing. Altogether it took maybe 40 mins, but the top gave us some beautiful views of the lake for miles and miles; we could even see Bolivia. 
After an early lunch, we said goodbye to our home stay family and caught the 3 hour boat back to Puno. 
That evening, Rudy took us to a cool little restaurant for dinner that had a live show/performance. It was here that I started to feel really ill.

Tuesday I woke up feeling terrible, and I couldn't exactly pin point what it was from. The day was a pretty uneventful one, as we spent it on a bus, which took us to the town of Cusco. It was about a 7 hour ride, in which I slept for most of it. 
We got to our hotel by 4 - the group went on a walking orientation with rudy, while I went and slept for a couple of hours. 

Wednesday I had a change of wind and woke up feeling good. It was a free day in Cusco, but aRudy offered to take us to the 'Gallery', where we could find some cheaper clothes for the inca trail. It was basically an open market selling much of the same stuff between stores. Most of us needed thermals and waterproof clothing. 
Following this, we headed back to the main square where a few of us went to the very popular Jack's cafe for a really yum lunch. We then went and found the Chocolate museum, recommended by Dave, where you can actually make your own chocolate; as well as buy some and walk through the museum. 
The town as two huge cathedrals, right next to each in the main plaza, one recommended by Rudy to visit. It was extremely beautiful inside - a lot of graphic figurines of Jesus and even one of a black Jesus. It was so interesting to seeing the latino twist on the occurrences of the life of Jesus - probably the most interesting was the painting of the last supper, with guinea pig served as the main dish! Also, instead of sheep, alpacas were in all the relevant places. 

Wednesday I woke up feeling terrible again and today was the optional trip to the sacred valley, an area of inca ruins. We spent a large amount of the day, visiting various spots along the way towards machu picchu. It was all very very beautiful, extremely mountainous and very peaceful. I was upset that I couldn't enjoy it as much, as there was so much to do and see. 
We arrived to our hotel in Ollantaytambo by 3pm where the group went for a small hike to see some more inca ruins, while I slept for a solid 2 hours. 

Thursday was the day we had all been waiting for - day one of the inca trail! Because it is rainy season here in Peru, there was apparently large risk of landslide at the camp site we sleep at on the 3rd night of the trail. This therefore meant that all inca trail hikers were required to complete the walk in 3 days instead of 4! So this definitely added to the excitement and nervousness of the group. We were told that day 1 of the hike would be easy, day 2 was 'brutal' and day 3 was hard..
We were up at 630 and in our mini van by 745 for a 40 min ride to the start of the inca trail, KM 82. I was feeling really average today, as I had had a bad night the previous night. 
We met our porters, who would be carrying everything we were going to need for the next 3 days - tents, sleeping bags, a fridge, food, water etc etc. 
We passed the check point where you get a cool little stamp in your passport and then we were on our way! We had all packed warm and water proof clothing, expecting it to be cold, but it turned out to be quite hot shortly after started. 
The first hour and half was quite a simple, largely flat path and it was here that I was beginning to feel particularly weak. For 4-5 days I had been living on bread and butter, with the occasional vegetable soup or banana, and it was obviously starting to get to me. I pushed on to our first resting pointing. Which had a stair climb of about 7 mins. When I got to the top, I was a ball of sweat, dizzy and ridiculously lethargic. I tried to eat a banana and a biscuit and this just made me nauseas. 
We continued on an uphill walk and it got to a point where I had to stop within every two mins. Every negative thought was running through my head and it finally got to a point where I thought I can't and shouldn't keep doing this to myself - who knows what I'll end up doing to myself if i continue on like this. It also wasn't fair to the rest of my group as I was considerably further away from them and would only be slowing them down. 
It took a good couple of hours and every little ounce of energy I had left to get back to the starting point. I was extremely upset and disappointed with myself but I dont believe it was worth further harming myself. 
The assistant guide and I caught a public van back to our starting hotel where I was welcome by Rudy. It was about 3pm when I got to bed; I was woken at 630 to see how I was, but straight back to sleep. 

Friday, I woke up absolutely confident that I had made the right decision about turning back - I was not good at all! I went down to breakfast at 730, and then straight back to my room where I slept on an off until 3pm; in the first 24 hours of getting back to the hotel, I was asleep for about 20 of them. By 3pm I knew that I should try and do something, so I forced myself into the shower and walked to the main square where I just sat for about 30 mins, before heading back home to bed. 

Saturday morning I was feeling a lot brighter, but still very tired and lethargic. Today was day 3 of the inca trail, which meant the group would make it to machu picchu and then stay the night in a hotel in the town of Aguas calientes, about a 30 min bus ride from machu picchu. So at midday, Rudy and I caught the 1 hour 30 min train which takes us to this town, where we met the group in the late afternoon. It was great to see them all again, in such good spirits and hearing all the funny stories of along the way. The way it was described, I feel very confident that I did make the right choice. 

Sunday morning we were up at 5 and on the bus by 6 to get back up to machu picchu; the rest of the group has already seen it (they didn't go exploring) but this would be my first time, so I pretty excited. We were at the site by 645 and what an incredible site it was! It was just how it looks in photos and on tv, but to be there in person felt almost surreal. As it was still early, there was a large amount of cloud cover rolling through the site which just made it that little more mystical. We spent two hours with a guide taking us through several areas of machu picchu before then being given the rest of the morning to going exploring ourselves. We stay until about 1030 before catching the bus back down to the town and spending the rest of the morning at a coffee shop playing cards. 
In the late afternoon we caught the train back to Ollantaytambo and then a bus back to Cusco. The entire group was feeling extremely flat and exhausted from the days of hiking and lack of sleep. So we went for showers once we got to the hotel and planned on a quiet dinner.. We ended up getting home st about 430 in the morning! 

Xx