KATIE

Welcome to Cusco, a really beautiful and extremely uplifting place to be - quite literally, at 11,000ft altitude! Have tried the local coca tea and it´s actually very nice, it´s about time I got some more I think! Not doing too badly with the altitude at the moment, bit of a headache but not too bad so making sure we´re drinking lots of water and as I mentioned, having lots of things with coca in it! We have a really good group for the tour, met them all last night and then travelled from Lima together this morning. We were introduced to our guide Ali who seems great and had a bit more information about the days ahead given to us. It´s going to be cold and very probably very wet too! On this note, I went out and bought alpaca warm lined gloves!! It's been a beautiful sunny day here though, but apparently it's been raining most of the last few days and as I´m sitting here now in an internet cafe we can hear the rain on the roof so it's obviously returned.

You can feel the strength of the sun when its out though, think James and I definitely got some colour this morning when we went out! Really looking forward to the tour now, and very excited - just hoping the altitude sickness will be ok!!

Anyway, I love this town and really glad we booked an extra day here at the end of the trip to explore a bit more!

JAMES

Not too much of an early start this morning - left the hotel at 6.30, we had been prepped for a possible 4.30 start! But we were in Cuzco by 10am, following a pretty scenic flight up into the Andes. Not your ordinary approach either as there was a bit of ducking and weaving to be done around the mountains before touching down. As Katie said, it's a really cool town! Not had too much of an energetic day, just wandered in and around the main square, bought a few bits for the trek, and enjoyed the sunshine - it is very strong at this altitude, but then we are more than 2.5 times higher than Ben Nevis. Not feeling too many effects of the altitude, other than an increased pulse rate from 55 just before the marathon two weeks ago, to about 85 now! In truth though, that is probably more to do with the amount of booze and fags consumed in the past fortnight!

The thunder is rumbling away as I type - a good job we each splashed out 60p on some delightful rain ponchos earlier! Keep an eye out for the inevitable photo of 16 people in fashion items. Met the group last night, they all seem really nice. Generally aged between 25 and 35, but there is one American couple in their fifties (who lived in Shenfield for 3 years and 3 of their 7(!) kids went to Brentwood School!). I think we have 5 English, 6 Americans, 3 Canadians and 2 Danes, so a fair mix!

Just want to get cracking now - tomorrow is an easy day - a trip to the Sacred Valley and Pisac market, and then on to our overnight accommodation in Ollantaytambo. Just hope the rain stops...