The pretty little town of Ollantaytambo was our starting point for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The night before the trek I had good chicken fajitas for dinner at Hearts café in the main square - it is run by a 76 year old English woman and it funds projects for women and children in the local villages.

We set off from Ollantaytambo at 7:30am to start the four-day trek at the 82km marker. It is necessary to show your passport at the beginning of the trail and they are very strict about checking that the name and passport number match your ticket - one of the guys in our group had a passport number that didn't match his ticket so we were held up for about an hour while that was sorted out.

After walking for a few hours we passed some Inca ruins and then stopped for lunch. The weather was good - generally sunny and warm. We arrived at our first campsite in the early evening and the porters, who were ahead of us, had already set up our tents and prepared us some tea and popcorn (there was a separate big tent for us to eat as a group). We then had an introduction to the porters from our guides, Wilbur and Alfredo. Two of the porters also served as chef and assistant chef and they made us some fantastic breakfasts, lunches and dinners over the course of the trek (and I had a lot of peanut M&Ms and marshmallows in between times). After dinner the first night we played some games and exchanged riddles before going to bed.

We were up at 5:30am on Day 2 and I had very little sleep because one of the girls in the tent next to me was being sick all night. It was a very tough day's walking - it started out okay in a cool jungley environment but then moved on to a very long steep uphill trek under the hot sun to Dead Woman's Pass - the highest point on the trail and aptly named because I really struggled on that section and I was having visions of me having a heart attack and dying on the mountainside! The stunning views of the snow-capped mountains behind us provided some consolation and kept me going.

The afternoon was much easier - mostly downhill and it was cloudy and not as hot as the morning. The path was also more interesting with lots of pretty flowers along the way. By the time we arrived at the campsite that evening everyone was very tired and went straight to bed after dinner.

Day 3 was a relatively easygoing walk with lots of unusual plants to admire along the way. However, it rained intensely and we couldn't enjoy much of the view as the area was enveloped in clouds. We passed some Inca ruins along the way and arrived at our campsite at lunchtime. There were supposed to be hot showers at this campsite but the water was cold and they were apparently a bit grim so I decided to stick it out another day with just a baby wipe shower.

In the afternoon we walked to some more Inca ruins, Wiñay Wayna ('forever young'), by far the most impressive Inca structure I'd seen - vast farming terraces that stretched a long way up and down the mountainside with houses in the middle.

All the food on the trek had been fabulous but the last night dinner was particularly good, with, pork and vegetable kebabs, grilled chicken, spicy stuffed peppers filled with beef, rice and more, followed by a sticky-sweet mango sponge cake for dessert. After dinner we had a farewell gathering with the porters and they sang us a song - it was a lovely evening.

On the final day we were up at 4am and waited in a queue to enter the final stretch at 5:30am - it was only 6km to Machu Picchu and the pace was brisk since everyone was excited to get there. As we passed over the top of Machu Picchu mountain at Sun Gate at around 7am we had an amazing view of the ruins far below, they almost appeared to be floating on top of the clouds. It was still quite a walk down to the entrance and we passed some other ruins along the way. We then spent the morning exploring Machu Picchu Inca city - it's a vast and very impressive structure, especially considering the remote location so high up in the mountains.

At midday I took a bus down to Aguas Calientes town at the bottom of the mountain for lunch - pepper steak with chips and a glass of red wine was exactly the treat I'd been craving after the trek Then we took the train (which runs right through the middle of the town) back to Ollantaytambo. The train follows the river and the scenery along the way was picturesque but everyone was so tired that they weren't paying much attention.

After the bus ride back to Cusco, we relished the hot showers for the first time in four days before hitting the town - we started at Paddy's Irish bar, then went to The Roots club and finished up at Mama Africa where we danced until after 5am. Luckily we had nothing to do the next day so could sleep and relax. A few of us went to The Muse for a late brunch and their amazing banana and chocolate smoothies and we spent a couple of hours lounging there.

Cusco has a palpable buzz about it, as if it's full of positive energy. I don't know if it's the altitude or the fact that so many of the people there are coming from/going to Machu Picchu or what, but there is something very special about this town and I completely fell in love with it.