5am. It was so damn early but we had to get up to go trekking. Our guide met us at th hostel an we walked for a while to pick up the other two people in our group Anthony and a girl who I still cant pronounce her name! We got in a taxi to the bus depot and were put on a local bus. mmmmm the smell at 6am in th morning just what you want. Anyway we were just settling down on the bus to sleep and up pops this bloody preuvian guy playing pan pipes. For goodness sake it was 6am in the morning do they never stop trying to fleece us out of money!! Mike was pissing himself laughing so much he had to give over all his loose change. The bus took forever and with the usual locals getting on, half sitting on you and trying to sell you wierd and wonderful food. Mike braved a couple of empanadas.....they were actually ok so I tried one (all the food smells like rotting peruvians, especially the street food so, he tries it, i try his and if it doesnt make me gag I buy one too).

After 6hrs on this bus with people vomitting and the driver craming so many people on it we finally arrive at the begginging of the trek. We are served lunch. Soup (as always) followed but rice and potatos. No wonder we are not loosing any weight here...they are properly carb loading us! I was feeling pretty queezy and so about an hour after we set of on the trek I start vomitting over the mountain. Well as mike says at least I left my mark! It was all down hill the first day which was suprisingly difficult especially trying to dodge the mules with huge loas going by. Our guide Edi was so quick as well that to keep up with him you had to basically run down this mountain. We left him to go ahead and found our own way down. After crossing over the canyon a couple of hours later we headed up to our basic lodge that we were staying in that night.

The whole place is so dry but this was like a little oasis in the mountains with beautiful flowers and even a hot shower! The 4 of us crashed out before dinner and were woken up for the usual dinner of soup, rice and mush...mmmmmm. We have all been drinking the coca tea which is great for altitude sickness and so we hardly slept that night.