Ok folks, it´s gonna be another long one...

Shortly after my previous post, i transferred to my new hotel and found out that in fact the trek was going ahead as planned, making me wish I´d had a lot more sleep and a lot less Cusquena beer over the preceding days. After a quick brief with the tour leader, in which I found out there would only be 3 of us trekking, i got an early night and prayed that I wouldn´t be affected by the altitude over the next few days.

On Monday we set off to the Sacred Valley, to do a day tour of various Inca ruins. Packing only the bare essentials for the next 5 days, Erik and Monika from Norway and myself clambered onto the bus along with our guide José, and headed for our first stop of the day: Chinchero.

Chinchero is a traditional set of Incan farming ruins (the terraced, step-like ´fields´ which the Incas are so famous for) set on top of a hill within a modern community. The ruins themselves were beautiful, but even more stunning was the church here. It dates back to late Incan times, when the Spanish were using religion to conquer the native Incan tribes. The church was actually built on one of the Incan sacred stones which are spread throughout the area, to encourage the native people to visit the church and so to learn to conform to the new religion. All very interesting, and the inside of the chuch is beautiful: Peruvian baroque, which turns out to be even more ornate than European baroque, as if that was possible. The whole thing is gilded, and it is full of paintings and sculptures to assist the native speaking people in learning about the faith. On the wall outside there´s a faded and peeling fresco commemorating a battle between two Inca men: the Puma, who fought for the Spanish, and the Viper, who fought against. Needless to say the Puma won.

Next stop is the ruins at Moray. At first sight these appear to be an ancient amphitheatre, being as they are a vast circular pattern of steps. However, once again they are actually a farming community. We walked all the way down into them (around 300m deep) via ancient steps, not quite appreciating exactly how hard it would be to climb back up said steps at an altitude of 3300m.

After a rather lengthy pause to regain our breath, we got back in the van and headed for lunch at a nearby restaurant. There is no denying that Peru is incredibly cheap; for 40 soles (8 pound) we ate an enormous buffet lunch, which was absolutely delicious. For anyone wanting to visit Peru at any point, I can´t recommend trying aji de gallina enough - it´s like Peruvian chicken korma and is really good.

Next up were the ruins at Pisac, and more stairs. Pisac was especially breathtaking, as the location boasts not only farming terraces and the ruins of a local community, but on the top of the mountain are the ruins of the sacred area of the village, where all the temples are built. The ruins here are in spectacularly good condition, complete with water features. From the ruins we´d seen earlier in the day, you can understand how the Spanish mistakenly saw the Incas as a primitive race. The same cannot be said of Pisac. The stone used in temples was finished immaculately, and the proportions of the stone were exact and identical. The end result is absolutely beautiful structures, including a perfectly round sun temple and a rain temple which included an incredibly complex water fountain, still running to this day, which uses gravity (among other things I didn´t really understand) to pump water from half way across the mountain. Definitely worth a visit. After a long day of ruin-seeing and what seemed like an Everest´s worth of stairs, we retired to the quiet village of Calca for our last night in a hotel, and more imporantly our last opportunity to wash for 3 days. Yum.

Next day we headed off in the bus again, bright and early, heading for the start of our trek. We drove to Lares town, which lies at 3250m, via a 4800m pass. I´m fairly sure the 4800m pass was just for show, but it was impressive nonetheless. Once in Lares, we headed straight for the hotsprings where we spent a couple of hours soaking in the incredibly hot water (I feel this would have been more beneficial after we´d done any actual trekking), living the good life. After a camp-stove lunch of asparagus soup, trout (yes, I ate trout) in creamy sauce with rice, and of course some Coca (yes, cocaine, bit random but supposed to be good for altitude sickness) tea, we saddled up and set out. It´s fair to say we weren´t exactly weighed down by all our stuff, seeing as we only carried day packs, the rest of our belongings and all the camping equipment being carried by horseback/by our chefs. So off we went, climbing from Lares at 3250m to Ranrayoq at 4175m. The climb was over a distance of 9.5km (yes, that´s a gradient of 1:10 for the mathematically gifted among you) and took 3 hours, not too shabby. Unfortunately, the altitude seemed to give me one hell of a headache, and made me feel a bit lightheaded, but thankfully no sickness or anything more sinister. At Ranrayoq we (well, lets be honest, it wasn´t us) set up camp and had some snacks, before settling down to another fantastic meal of chicken and rice, noodle soup, and corn pudding. After avoiding the ´toilets´ for as long as humanly possible, I finally bit the bullet and braved the hole in the ground. Not an experience I´d like to repeat too soon. At about 8pm we all headed for bed, very cold and not very comfortable, and tried to get a good night´s sleep. Ha.

Next day after approximately 2 hours sleep, I woke to a breakfast of oatmeal, pancakes and toast. Not too bad at all, could definitely get used to the meals at least. Having been warned that today´s trek would be much steeper and longer than the day before, I dosed up on a much-higher-than-recommended dose of Ventolin, packed my snack box and set off. In the morning, we walked for 4 hours from Ranrayoq (4175m) to the Kauchayoc Pass (4482m). The warning about it being steeper was definitely correct. Unfortunately Monika couldn´t carry on after a little while, and was picked up by the horsemen and taken ahead. Erik and I soldiered on, pausing only to regain breath/stop wheezing/mutter bitter sentences, and powered solely by the smallest chocolate bar the world has ever seen and a juice box. At around 11.30am I finally heard José console me with the words "That´s it, that´s the summit", before I veritably sprinted up the final climb, desperate for it to be over. After a mild asthma attack and quite a lot of swearing we finally got to appreciate the epic view before us. During the wet season, the whole area is incredibly lush and green, with quite literally hundreds of rivers and waterfalls within any 10km stretch. As well as this, the tops of the highest mountains are glaciers, making for an absolutely stunning vista in the midday sunlight. Definitely worth it. After an appropriate amount of rest (lets be honest, it was a lot), we started the descent down the other side of the mountain. It´s amazing how much difference there was between how I felt on the way up (praying for death to take me) and on the way down. We were like kids in a sweet shop; bouncing and running and hopping down the mountain side, over rivers and through mud without a care in the world. It might have helped that lunch was waiting for us a mere 15 minutes away. I don´t even remember what we ate that day, I just remember thinking it was the best food anyone had ever made. Re-energised by hot milk and sugar, we set off again for another 2 hour walk, downhill this tme, to our camp for the night at Tranka Punku (3815m). During the whole day we covered 12km, but it felt like a lot more than that, and after a suitably huge dinner we settled down again, amidst a ferocious hail storm, to try and get some sleep.

After another essentially sleepless night, we all dragged ourselves to breakfast looking, and by that point smelling, fairly rough. We were buoyed by the fact that we had only a 12km downhill walk, which would be done by lunchtime, and a hot shower waiting for us. Somehow though, that didn´t make the 5am start feel any easier. The trek took us just over 4 hours, during which we had a rather scintillating political conversation comparing the UK and Peru, and even touching on the Thatcher years. Thrilling, I know. We reached our destination of Ollantaytambo (2800m) just before 11.30am, and had an early lunch provided for the last time by our dedicated chef and herdsmen crew of Basilio, Fernando and Carlos. We then walked the last 30mins back into civilisation, managing to stay awake long enough to shower and borrow some DVDs before collapsing into bed. As a recommendation, if you happen to be sleep-deprived, dehydrated and extremely exhausted, do NOT watch Australia or Benjamin Button, unless you essentially want to spend hours crying. Just a tip.

This morning we got another early start (no reason not to now really) and headed for the ruins in Ollantaytambo. Once again, these feature the now-expected farming terraces, plus some small dwelling remains. However, on top of the hill are the remains of a huge temple complex, which was started but never finished. Despite having really no knowledge of Inca history whatsoever, those in the know have essentially guessed that the construction of the temple was stopped suddenly due to a war, either between neighbouring tribes or with the Spanish. Those of a less factual and more romantic persuasion have theorised that the war was due to a Romeo and Juliet type scenario, whereby the chief of the town (Ollanta) asked the Inca emporor (whose name I have completely forgotten, but definitely begins with P) if he could marry his daughter. Despite being hugely indebted to Ollanta for his loyal service, the emperor denied his request because Ollanta was not of Incan descent. Ollanta and the emperor´s daughter supposedly ran away together and hid, but unfortunately chose Ollanta´s own town, which was conveniently named after him, as a hiding place. Perhaps not so smart. The emperor immediately set out to Ollantaytambo with a huge army, tore down the walls and murdered everyone within. Hence the unfinished temple. A very touching story. Or it could just have been a fight over food, who knows.

After getting our fill of ruins, we headed back to Cusco city for lunchtime, just in time to run a few last minute errands, see Plaza de Armes and get some laundry done before dinner. I fly to Buenos Aires via Lima (yes, more time in Lima airport) incredibly early tomorrow, leaving the hotel at 4am. Ouch. Don´t arrive in Buenos Aires until 5pm, so suspect i´ll be straight to bed when I arrive, but am staying in another party hostel (Milhouse) so could easily be persuaded by a cheap bar I´m sure. The prospect of Valentine´s day AND my 24th birthday looming in the far-too-immediate future is definitely enough to drive me to drink. Hasta luega amigos.