After waking up at 5am, excited about the next four days our bus collected us from our hostel at 5.30am! On the bus already was most of our group which in total it consisted of us, an Irish couple, an Australian couple, seven Americans and a Puerto Rican making a group of 14. In addition to this there were 19 porters, our cook Jesus, the assistant cook, our guide Victor and our assistant guide Ceaser. 

We slept for most of the 3 hour bus journey where we arrived at Ollantaytambo for a substantial breakfast and pick up walking sticks and anything else we needed for the trek. We then drove for another half an hour to km 82, which is 2600m above sea level and the start of our Inca Trail. 

The trail is very controlled now, with only a certain number of people allowed to walk it, your tickets have your name printed on them and we had to show our passports to gain entry! The first day was to be the easiest, we had to climb about 400m in total, excluding the further ups and downs of the notorious "Inca Flats!!" and about 7 miles to get to our first campsite.

The day started really easily, we left the bus and were given a snack of chocolate and fruit and after passing through a checkpoint we crossed and then followed the Urubamba River which is a tributary of the Amazon.  The Amazon is apparently the longest river in the world 160km longer than the Nile! We then followed the Kusichaca Stream up a beautiful valley, not far up here we saw the first set of Inca Ruins on our trek called Willkarakay. It used to be quite a small settlement and was most likely a resting place for people on the trip to Machu Picchu.

Shortly after this we crossed the stream to have lunch.  As we got to the dinner tent all our porters stood and applauded us, it was quite embarrassing, we had hardly broken into a sweat and we were being applauded! It felt like we should have been applauding them for carrying all our gear. The 16 of us (trekkers and guides) then sat down for lunch. It was more than either of us could have ever hoped for, consisting of an appetizer of avocado salad and garlic bread, followed by soup, followed by a main course, with easily enough spare for seconds or even thirds and loads of fresh vegetables, something we have both been missing in South America, then there was a small sweet and mate or tea. After gorging at lunch time a siesta was required!

Thankfully we only had a short walk, although uphill to our first campsite at Hatunchaca. Again we were clapped in by the porters on arrival, bear in mind that the porters had cleared the tents and cooking equipment from our lunchtime site, passed us on route, despite all the weight they carry, put up all our personal tents as well as the cooking and dining tents and made us afternoon tea - these men are machines! We also found out that the record for the 28 mile Inca Trail is held by a porter in a time of 3 hours 45 minutes, the same trek that was taking us the best part of 4 days!!

Before dinner we rewarded our efforts with a cold beer before we were introduced to all the porters, whose ages ranged from 20 to 55 years old! We also had to introduce ourselves to everyone, translated by the guide! Once these formalities were over it was time for dinner which was massive again and by 9pm after a couple of games of cards we were ready for bed!

Unfortunately my trail shoes that have been fantastic for the past 10 weeks had already given me blisters, I just hoped this would not ruin the trek for me.

 Love A&S xxx