Well the plane didn't even get very high and we could see all the towns and mountains along the way. It didn't even take an hour and we were landing!

We grabbed our bags and got on a bus to head to our next hotel! We had an hours nap before meeting back down in the lobby for an orientation walk of Cuzco city.

Achim was suffering badly from altitude sickness so didn't join us! In the month of June Cuzco celebrate everyday!! So we walked down to the main square to watch the small children perform! It was very sweet.

We saw churches, monasteries, markets and museums. We were shown a secret tunnel that went from convent to monastery where they would meet and occasionally fall pregnant woops!!

We queued at a famous cafe for lunch where was very yummy and whilst we were eating an old man collapsed due to altitude it was very sad I didn't enjoy my lunch after that and continued to worry about him!!

Callum, Fiona, Ed and I made our way around the city seeing different squares etc. We then visited the local craft market which we spent a couple of hours wandering around. I brought a gift for Mum and Dad, some gloves for the trek and Ed got a Spanish football shirt. Afterwards we headed to the pub to watch the football, us ladies didn't want to stay long it wasn't the nicest of places! Ed informed us that some disgusting individual had pooed in the urinal. Haha. I decided to head back as I had had a lot of sun and needed water and a rest my head was banging!! On the way back a man showed us his stolen shopping bag and wanted to sell real Ray Bans for a mere 10 sole, I refused the bargain as it was sad someone had purchased them and now lost them!! I slept under the cover for around 2 hours and didn't really want to resurface but we had a meeting with our Inka guide for a briefing.

Our guide Kiki didn't give a great first impression. He told us in detail our plan for everyday and what to pack. He gave us duffel bags to fill with only 2kg of clothes as it was all we were allowed and kept telling us he was the coolest man in the world. Which we obviously found quite comical. Callum and Fiona couldn't do the climb with us as it has sold out and instead we're doing the laress trek!

After the meeting only Callum, Fiona and Pedro came to dinner with us and we tucked into a yummy Peruvian cuisine! We were back late as we ate later than usual and jumped into bed after a good shower!!

Another early morning on the 8th as we were heading to the sacred valley before commencing our Inka trail trek. Our first stop in the valley was a secluded town in the mountains where we were taken to where the woman make alpaca and llama garments and souvenirs. We were shown how they use native plants to dye the threads and how they weave them altogether. The women remember up to 50 designs it was fantastic to watch them. We got to feed the llamas and alpacas afterwards and play with them, one spat all over Eds glasses it was very funny!!
After we waved good bye to the community we headed to Pisca to view various ruins within the valley. The terraces are so impressive and to reach the top was tough! Two of our group opted out but we saw it as training for the trail the next day!

We then headed to the small town for lunch. G adventures the tour company we are with have built a beautiful restaurant and taught local people dishes and cleanliness to provide the area with a restaurant people will travel to visit. We enjoyed a buffet style lunch which G provide for us which we all thoroughly enjoyed! Ed enjoyed a friendly kick about with a few children and near the restaurant were baby donkeys we went to see before catching the bus to our final destination for the day- Ollantaytambo.

We checked in and near our room slept a baby pup which Ed and I had a play with error leaving to view another Inka site in the small town. We took lots of photos and enjoyed the walk around the new Inka site and were amazed at the size of the boulders they carted from one mountain to the other. Incredible!!

Afterwards we had a walk around the markets and I invested in a sun hat for the Inka trek as I have been warned about sun stroke in the high altitude! We wet off alone and chilled out and played with the puppy before meeting everyone for dinner. The scots were still not feeling right so stayed back and us, the Germans and Pedro went to a cheap local eatery. We stocked up on carbs for extra energy and had burgers and chips!

The local town like the rest of Peru were celebrating thorough out the night into the early hours so we found it hard to sleep!

We met very early morning to weigh our bags which we were only allowed 2Kg!! And then waved goodbye to the Scots and Pedro and headed with Kiki to the start of the Inka trail.

We met the portas that took our bags and they supplied us with sleeping bags, an inflatable mattress and 2 trusty walking sticks. We set off and enjoyed our morning walk it wasn't very strenuous and our guide Kiki was shocked with our fast pace.

We met lots of people and animals along the way. Donkeys helped take copious amounts of goods up the mountain whilst portas ran by to reach the lunch spot before us. We were shown typical plants used for medication and dyes which are still used today!! We had a few steep hills which Kiki said were in preparation for tomorrow which scared us all. We enjoyed lunch near a river and the portas impressed us with an incredible spread for lunch. We had a soup with garlic bread and fish, rice and vegetables it was delicious!!

Later that afternoon Ed and I both started to feel bad and we were happy to arrive at our first camp site extremely early!! When we arrived the porters clapped us. We were insistent that instead we clapped them as they practically run the whole way. Our tents were set up with our mattress and sleeping bag inside!

The porters gave us warm water and soap and we had a wash and a small nap before meeting for tea, biscuits and popcorn around 5! We spent a couple of hours playing card games and talking about the trek and previous experiences Kiki has had!

Again we were served an amazing meal and headed to bed around 8pm we were tired and the porters needed rest!!

On the 10th was the challenge day! We were up early and ate breaky quick before packing our things and getting to the second checkpoint! We had our stamps in our passports and watched as the Porters ran past us straight up the mountain! It took us four hours and we reached the top it was a tough incline the whole way!! During the climb both Ed and I were experiencing bad stomach pains and there were a few tears on my behalf. I wouldn't have made it up the mountain if it wasn't for Katerine and Kiki we all stayed together and helped push one another to go further.

I'm not going to paint this beautiful picture of the climb that day as it was hard and long but we made it and the views were incredible. We had reached 4200m at Dead woman's pass and the boys enjoyed a celebratory beer! Us girls had treated ourselves to a chocolate bar!! It was definitely worth it!!

Again we reached the top earlier than expected and started the 2 hour downward steps towards our second camp site! It was painful and our legs were shaking when we arrived!! The porters once again clapped us and took us to our tents and gave us warm water to freshen up.

We napped before having our lunch and after napped again we were all shattered!! We watched the sun disappear and wrapped up as being at 3600m above sea level we were very cold!! That evening we spent playing cards, enjoyed tea and dinner and headed to bed fairly early! By this point Ed and I had very dodgy stomachs. The camps had no showers and squat toilets, it wasn't fun!! Kiki told us a few stories to lighten the mood about individuals who really struggled it lightened the mood a lot!!

The third day of our trek was an early one as we wanted to beat the other groups. We had great pace and made it to the lunch site hours before anyone else. Of course there were more climbs but we made it!! The Inka sites along the way were fascinating!!

Our tour guide had fallen ill too we were a tragic group haha but we still trudged through! Our lunch site was incredible!! We were above the clouds and could see all the mountains around!! Kiki sat us down and asked us if we would like to finish the trail in 3 days. We were all very tempted but we thought lets make the most of this journey. We relaxed at lunch and the porters cooked us another delicious meal and made us a cake which we were thoroughly impressed with!!

We shared our lunch spot with several llamas and watched as marathon runners ran through our camp! They had started at 4am and were planning to finish in 10-12 hours!! So impressive!!

The 3rd day was beautiful the scenery was fantastic and we were properly introduced to our porters!! It was emotional. We were told their names, how old they were, how many years they had done the trek, what they carried and where they were from. We had 9 porters for the 5 of us and most were late 40's two younger ones were 22 and 30! Our chef had done the trail for 20 years!! Each carry 25kg thanks to regulations which is still for nominal as a few years ago they would carry double! After every porter we clapped and thanked them profusely for their efforts!!! We then introduced ourselves and we shook all their hands!! At the end Katerine gave a speech in Spanish to show our appreciation, we wanted them to know that every time a porter passed we looked for their faces and said said enthusiastic hellos and told them to take it easy (despacio)!!

We had all decided to give 100 soles each to share between them all!! They are farmers when they are not trekking and have very poor back grounds! This money will go towards buying different foods for their families instead of just potatoes and vegetables!! They came and hugged us and in Quechua the native language of Peru they said back to us this saying 'Tupanachis Kama'! This translates to until next time as they know we are good people they will see us in Heaven.

That moment alone was my all time favourite of travelling!! They are such good people and work so hard I couldn't thank them enough! Ed tried a bag on to see how they manage and made sure to ease before setting off back down the mountain!

The rest of the afternoon was not fun we had to travel downwards from 3950m to 2700m which was over 3000 steps!! Our legs were like jelly and we were bored of steps!! It took 3 hours! Porters ran down these at such impressive speeds!

We had made it to the final camp and we were one of the first wahoo!! We sat at the last Inka site and took in the views it was incredible! We had tea together played more cards enjoyed our last super together! We had steak and chips!! We both had terrible stomachs and couldn't keep food in us but we still had an amazing experience!! I felt very emotional going to bed!! Being at only 2700m a lot lower than we are used to we were so hot in our tent!!

Our final days in the mountains! We woke up at 3am skipped breakfast as we were too excited and headed for the last check point!! I hugged all the porters which they unexpected and said an emotional goodbye!! They had a very early train to catch back to their towns before dropping off our bags at our next hotel!!

We had to wait around for like almost 2 hours for the gate to open at half past 5 and we were away!! Visiting the toilet that morning was horrendous!! We were first in the queue and set a fast pace to reach the sun gate for sunrise we didn't care what hills, bridges or stairs we came across we just steamed on to finish!! The journey was mostly in the dark, the clouds were so low it was beautiful!!

We had done this journey as a team and had been so encouraging towards one another! We decided to cross the line together at the top as no one deserved to see Machu Picchu first!!

We had done it!! We took lots and lots of photos before anyone was around!! We met the rest of our group and began our tour of our last Inka site!! It was for nominal! Kiki was a brilliant guide and the group nominated me to do the thank you speech! It was a bad mistake, as soon as I spoke tears came to my eyes! I told him we wouldn't be here without him and that he was an incredible motivator! I gave him secretly a tipped we had gathered together as a group as he is planning to travel to London in February!! I was tired and cried a lot haha!! The others laughed but he was very misunderstood and we had some lovely conversations. We had a group hug and waved goodbye!! It was my favourite experience so far!!

Ed and I went off alone and found an empty terrace to take in this experience and it's views! We were very tired and ready for a shower, a change of shoes and a western toilet!! It started to get very hot so we headed down by bus to the town of Aquas Calientes and waited for the others at a restaurant for lunch we were starving!! The others arrived shortly after and we ate together exchanging stories between the Lares and the Inka trails!! And of course were lucky enough to watch the opening ceremony of the World Cup.

We grabbed all our belongings that the porters had left for us and caught the train back to Ollantaytambo. This was a lovely scenic train that took almost two hours travelling through the valleys below the mountains we had climbed!! The train had windows on the roof and informed us of spots we have previously been.

After our train journey we then had a private bus back to Cuzco which took till 7pm we were so desperate to wash and sleep after not doing so for 4 days now!! We watched the sunset in the van and dropped in and out of naps until we finally arrived. We checked in and were reunited with our clean clothes!

We bagged up our dirty washing, showered and headed out for a yummy soup. We both still felt bad so didn't want to eat much! We came back early and it didn't take long and we were fast asleep. Due to continuously waking up on the mountain we didn't have the best nights sleep hopefully this changes tomorrow night.

Today was Friday the 13th and we all met for breakfast! We spoke about the things we wanted to do in Cuzco as we now had 4 days to soak in this beautiful city! I caught up writing my diary, we sorted our bags out and got our clean washing back, we were ecstatic! We relaxed most of the morning and watched the football game between Spain and Holland in a local bar with the Scots! It happened to be a good game and Holland won 5-1!

After we headed to the Inka museum to see different artefacts found on different Inka sites. There was a mummy too which was interesting to see!! We headed back after and grabbed some water!

We met later for a yummy organic dinner with a Pisco sour! The Germans and Pedro came which was lovely but I headed home with once again a bad tummy :(! Another rubbish night sleep. In hoping I feel 100% again soon!!

On the 14th we ha another lazy morning and skyped home which was nice!! I announced when we shall be coming home too and to wish dad a Happy Father's Day!! We had a wander around the city just the two of us after and visited the chocolate factory. On the way Ed dropped his really good phone :( not cool as it's no longer working!!

After eating Eds feelings in chocolate we headed to the San Pedro market which was interesting haha! We saw skinned Guinean pigs, pigs and a man putting snails on peoples faces! It was all a bit much for us after we saw the dogs peeing up against the stalls and eating scraps of meat they could pull off the surfaces! Yuck!!

For lunch we visited a sweet bakery ran by nuns we sampled some very yummy treats and headed back to the hotel. On the way back we popped into a massage pallor and booked a massage for tomorrow our legs were feeling very tense still!!

We relaxed before meeting everyone at 5 to see the England game!! The sports bar was huge near us and we enjoyed the tense game and still proud even though we lost 2-1!

We met again around half 7 and headed out for a Japanese! Just the scots came tonight and the food was delicious!! We sat on pillows and shared sushi yum yum!!
After dinner we decided to hit a salsa club and learn some moves it was fun! Fiona and myself were whisked off by two men it was funny I don't think the boys enjoyed it as much as us girls!!

The 15th was our last day in Cuzco! We woke up and met early and headed out for a small trek. We trekked to the top of Cuzco hills and saw the most important temple in the Inka times! It would have been massive if the Spanish hadn't of knocked it down! We then visited the underground caving system which people have been lost in before. We sampled a few of the smaller ones and that was enough for me try we're very tight. After admiring the views for a while on top we visited the moon temple which in October the moon directly shines a light through a small hole!! Then we passed by the Mother Earth ruin where people were meditating. Finally we wandered to the white Christ before venturing back down to the city! Everyone was very tired and hungry! A few f us headed to green point a popular vegan spot and enjoyed lunch it was yummy! Ed didn't enjoy it die to the lack of meat haha!!

At 4pm which wasn't soon after lunch Ed and I jetted off for our massage. It was amazing and sorted our muscles right out!! We had a relaxing evening alone and headed to Bembos a Peruvian style Maccers! It was vile haha but we were so tired we ate what we could and headed back straight to sleep!!

We had an early start the next day and a long bus to Puno!! We met at breakfast checked out and headed for the bus terminal!!!