We had to get up really early this morning to get our bus to the canyon in the hope we would see some condors. We went for a short hike and then stood at a viewpoint and waited to catch a glimpse of the amazing birds. After a while we managed to see three of them flying together which was amazing...they were quite far away so it was hard to see them in detail but just to get an idea of the sheer size of them was awesome. We were lucky and did manage to see quite a few of them in the end however it was near impossible to get a good photo of them but we gave it a go! We then drove to a viewpoint and stopped to get photos from where u could see the town Chivay below us that we were going to for lunch, the view was stunning. We eventually reached Chivay where we had lunch, bought some snacks and then got back on the bus and headed back to Arequipa. On the way back we stopped at the highest point which was at about 4915 metres above sea level and here we could make a wish. This involved taking 3 coca leaves and burying them in the ground whilst making your wish and then placing 3 stones on top of each other on the site where u buried your leaves. Once we´d arrived back in Arequipa the others went out for dinner but i wasn´t feeling well again and was ill that night. So i saw the doctor who told me that i had a parasite and salmonella (cant spell it!!) and he gave me some antibiotics and i was hopefully going to be fine to do the inca trail which started in 3 days!

The next morning we had to be up early again to get our flight to Cusco where when we had arrived and checked in i spent the day in bed resting, whilst catherine went out shopping and met up with an old school friend, Andrew, who was living and working in cusco. That evening we had our briefing for the Inca trail and met our guide Henry that was going to be with us for it. We spent the evening packing for the trek having to make sure that we didn´t pack anymore than 6kg in our holdall as that was the max that the porters would carry for us. We then went out to a really good restaurant for dinner and went to bed.

The following day we did the sacred valley tour with our guide Henry, which involved us driving to Pisac where we visited some inca ruins and went on a short hike. We then had some lunch and visited a local sort of pub where we were told all about how chicha (a local alcoholic drink) is made and we also got to try some. At the same place we were also shown how to play a local game that involved throwing coins into holes and then the person with the highest score wins. The ultimate player was the one who could throw it into the metal frogs mouth, we all gave it a go but Henry was the only one who managed to get it into the frogs mouth. They also had some guinea pigs in a pen at this place which were soo cute! Me and gemma wanted to hold one but we weren´t allowed as they were food for the people!. We then got back on our bus and drove onto Ollantaytambo where we were staying the night. We also went round some inca ruins here which were really interesting and it was amazing to see the craftsmenship of the runis that still remained. We went on another short hike and saw the temple of the sun that had never been finished by the incas but was still very impressive. We then did some food shopping for the inca trail, had dinner, chilled out at the hotel and then got an early night ready to start the trek the next day.