Hey there!! I'm in Cusco now and it's lovely here. Have spent the day buying thermals as tomorrow we begin the Inca Trail and don't get back until Thursday!! We have our pre departure meeting tonight so thats enough to get the butterflies going. It'll be fine though and we've been told lots of stories about how the porters carry the tents and run ahead of us to put them up and prepare gormet meals and hot chocolate etc. Apparently we eat 5 times a day, which apart from making me feel like a hobbit is very good! We arrived in Cusco yesterday after a 10 hour bus journey and prepared ourselves for an evening of dress up and photo sessions. We all put on traditional outfits but boys dressed as girls and girls as boys, then we had our photos taken both in a studio and out in the plaza. We had total celebraty status with randoms taking our picture. My face hurt due to laughing so much, mainly at the lads skipping across the plaza! We are having all the pictures put on a cd, which will be ready when we return on Thursday so I'll put them on then. Right so now I have to go and get my bag sorted with all my things to take on the trail. 'We've been given a 5kg limit and our sleeping bags weigh 2kg so not much room left. I'm hiring a sleeping bag as you do not know how cold it is here at night and especially on the trail where its really high. I have so many thermals but I'm still anxious. I'll e-mail again when I get back with the pics. Should be some good ones there! Take care all Gem xxxx