We were awoken at 5.30am again today and neither Sarah nor I were feeling too great, we were rapidly developing colds, with sore throats, coughs and streaming noses, not nice! Caeser who woke us assured us that coca tea would sort us out so we gulped it down gladly!

It was Sarah's 24th Birthday today, what a place to spend it! So at breakfast she had a few cards to open from me and Naimh and Craig, the Irish couple who had made her a card too!

Today was to be both the longest and the most beautiful day with lots of Inca ruins, flora, fauna and stunning views awaiting us in a challenging 10 mile day with 2 passes. There was however the promise of a hot shower when we reached the campsite!! The day started uphill in the ascent to the second pass. On the way we saw an Inca look out site, Runkuracay. After another 150m ascent we were on top of the second pass 3950m above sea level and from here we had amazing panoramas of snow capped mountains.

Whilst on top of the second pass we were invited to join in an old Inca ritual by our guides, where we thanked various gods for the good weather, prayed to the mountains and left coca leaves for pacha mama, the earth god. This was really interesting and nice to see guides carrying on ancient traditions. On the way down we saw Sayaqmarka, a well preserved Inka town, probably the best ruins yet!! And from here we could see the spot where we would be having lunch, just the other side of a valley, it looked pretty far away but within half an hour we were there, really hungry after a long morning of walking!

After lunch we climbed to the third and final pass via an Inca tunnel, right through a rock on the hillside, amazing to think that it was constructed over 600 years ago!! From the third pass we could also see that a nearby hillside was on fire, started by a local bonfire that had got out of control, despite the fact that fires are banned inside the Machu Picchu national park. By the evening this fire had completely spread up and down the hill it was on and glowed brightly at night like a town on top of the hill!  We could also see Salkanatay (6300m) the highest peak in the local area.

Just after the summit we dropped into large Inca site called Phuyupatamarka, this was one of the last sites on the trail to be discovered. From here we still had quite a lot of height to loose before the campsite and we ventured into the cloud forest with hundreds of plants and flowers, previously we had mainly been in mountain scrub. We passed through more Inca tunnels but our campsite did not seem to get any closer. Sarah and I were walking with the Aussies Grant and Debbie who were pointing out many of the plants to us as Debbie works in the botanical garden in Cairns!

Eventually we arrived into the campsite and after a quick cuppa we headed out to WinyWayna a massive Inca agricultural complex, with massive terraces, where the Incas experimented with crop growing. This place was amazing but because we only just made it there before dark the pictures do not do it justice!

Back to camp for dinner, Sarah was the only one who could be bothered to shower and was rewarded with a lovely hot shower!She was also in for a surprise as the cook produced an iced birthday cake for her and we all sang Happy Birthday to her! How he managed to bake a cake on a gas stove in a tent I will never know!

Tonight we also took part in the ritual of tipping the porters, where we all put in our tip and then shared it amongst them, the majority going to the cook and assistant cook.  We also had a little speech where we thanked them in Spanish and shook their hands. 

As it was our last night and to celebrate Sarah's birthday we all had a few beers, although not too many as tomorrow we have to be up at 3.50am - ridiculous!!

Love A&S