Thursday 19 September - Sunday 29 September

Cusco and the Inca Trail, Peru

We arrived in Cusco three days prior to the start of the Inca Trail to acclimatize ourselves before our 4D/3N expedition along the same trail the ancient Incas used for their pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. We'd booked the Inca Trail (another one of my 'Must Sees') with a company called Llama Path on a friends recommendation way back in April to secure our places as they only allow 500 hikers on the trail per day and it gets booked up at least 6 months in advance. Once in Cusco (gringo central) we hired camping gear like mattresses and sleeping bags, bought coca leaves to help with the altitude and met up with the group and guides for a briefing the day before. We were told to lay off cheese, milk and alcohol before the hike as they could affect you with the altitude...we managed to avoid none of the above. Many cool inviting places to explore in and around Cusco but you gotta be careful if on a budget, it's very easy to lose control here, as we almost found out after the Inca Trail.

Our lively group of 15 'Superhikers' consisted of 3 x French Canadians, 3 x Canadians, 5 x Americans, 2 Brits and us 2 x Saffas. We met up at 4.30am for our first cup of coca tea before we hopped on a bus to the quaint town of Ollantaytambo for breakfast before we began the hike at km82.

Day 1 was an easy day starting at 2700masl of mostly flat walking for 16km along what our local guide, Cassiano, called 'Inca Flats', with a few sneaky uphills to get the heart pumping toward the end, arriving at Camp Ayapata at 3300m just before sunset. We had a group of 20 porters who each carried 26kgs, whilst we carried our day packs, and they brought everything you could imagine up that mountain apart from the kitchen sink. Each lunchtime and night time when we got to camp, they had set up our tents, cooked us a three-course meal and had hot water and a towel waiting for you to wash your face with - this was hardly the 'roughing it' we had expected from Aidan & Lizzie's version of the Inca Trail. Even the squat toilets were surprisingly clean and user friendly.

Day 2 we had been warned was going to be the hardest day, covering 12kms with two peaks to climb and descend before reaching our camp at Chaquicocha at 3600m. We made it up to 'Dead Woman's Pass', the highest point on our trek at 4250m with a little help from the Inca's Green Gold - chewing on coca leaves. The energy and lung capacity coca leaves give you at altitude meant we could keep up with the fit porter team and had about an hour to spare until the rest of our group joined us. Considering we hadn't done much trekking before and the gym hadn't seen us in about five months, we were pleasantly surprised at our performance...and yes...addicted to coca leaves. haha. Going up was hard, but for me, the coming down was harder - especially on the old knees. After lunch we scaled the second pass at 4000m and got to inspect the Inca ruins of Runkuracay and Sayajmarca along the way . We'd made it through the worst bit and ate like ravenous dogs before hitting the hay.

Day 3 was the easiest day covering just 9kms, where we visited the Phuyupatamarca ruins at 3680m and then dropped down 1000m to Winay Huayna at 2680m. We enjoyed a yoga class led by one of our hikers, Erin, on the terraces of Intipata ruins and then had the rest of the afternoon free to sleep or brave a cold shower if you dared before a sunset visit to the ruins of Winay Huayna (Mini Machu Picchu according to Cassiano). That night the amazing cook pulled a cake and sangria out of the bag for Erin & Helen's birthdays and we all went to bed early in anticipation for our 3am wake up to reach the Sun Gate for sunrise over Machu Picchu.

We patiently waited in the dark in a line which was getting longer by the minute, to enter the Machu Picchu National Park at 5am when it opened. As soon as we were in, we were off, hoping to catch the sun rising through the Sun Gate, but unfortunately by the time we got there it was shrouded in a thick cloud of mist, with crowds of people now piling up behind us, we decided to push on down to Machu Picchu where the mist started lifting when we arrived - simply spectacular! It took our breath away, as well as our common sense, as we managed to get the SA flag upside down in our photos as we posed in front of the magnificent ruins. Fail! We were thoroughly exhausted, hot and dehydrated by the time we'd spent a few hours exploring Machu Picchu with our guide, but we had cleverly booked ourselves onto the exclusive list of 400 people who wanted to scale the steep peak Wayna Picchu next to Machu Picchu. I don't know where we found the strength from, but we did it, and the views from up there were unbelievable - definitely worth it, no matter how tired you are.

After making our way back down the mountain and into Agua Calientes, the town below, we met up with our group for lunch and enjoyed some much needed beers. That was a lifetime dream realised right there and it felt so good. Waiting for a train to take us back to Cusco didn't feel as good, considering we were then delayed for over 3 hours due to strikes in Cusco. After others pushed their way onto the train and stole our seats and the train left without us, we had no choice but to do the same when the next train rolled in, after 4 days of grueling hiking...I needed a hot shower and a warm bed badly!! We finally made it back to Cusco at 1am and were so grateful for the comfortable B&B we had treated ourselves to on our return, where we spent the next few days recuperating, and in the pub.