3420m Today was really a day of rest, where no one really wanted to do much. Side effects of altitude sickness tablets and sore legs from yesterday meant that this was going to be quiet. We had breakfast and handed our washing in from the last week and just caught up on reading of journals until around 11am when we finally emerged out of the room to go and get some exercise and to have lunch at Jacks. Around 3pm Fran stated that she was getting cabin fever so t...

3420m We wanted to get an early start as we were due to climb Machu Picchu Mountain. This was always going to a bit of a squeeze as we really should have arrived at the site around 7am. Machu Picchu works on the basis of timed tickets. You can arrive at the archaeological site any time at or after your appointed time. Our ticket had 7am printed on it. Unfortunately, we had to check out first which meant fitting the clothes of Fran and Charlie into mine. Then pay...

2460m It was an early start when we were woken by our wake up phone call and we had left the hotel for the train station by 5:30am. Unfortunately we then met the mass of humanity that was also taking to train to Machu Picchu. While you had the quietly spoken Spanish speakers who would hold a quiet conversation between 2 or 3 of them, we were also aurally assaulted by the VERY loud Americans. “Oh my God, like have you seen that dog? He’s like so cute.” “L...

2830m This morning began early with the sunlight shining through our pod at around 5am. Fran and I lay there admiring the view of the valley 400m below us, constantly scanning the sky to see if we could see a condor. No luck. At 7am we radioed Brian, our guide to tell him we were leaving the pod and coming up for breakfast. Bearing in mind that the guides had to carry everything up with them, breakfast, like dinner was amazing. Fruit salad (not that I had any), ...

3420m It was a nice casual start this morning as we had a shared half day tour booked from 1pm. As such, after breakfast we took a walk to the main square, looking at the multitude of shops advertising 100% alpaca clothes or other tourist gimmicks. These were interspersed with the tourist agencies all offering the same tours to places around Peru. Then of course there were the cafes and restaurants all calling for your service and the street walkers also trying ...