I am sitting here with every muscle in my body aching, a stinking cold and a mouth full of ulcers but the last four days has been worth all of that and more. Late last night we got back from the four day walk along the original Inka trail to the ancient city of Machu Picchu. Here is our diary from the trip... Ps you may thikn it´s spelt Inca but the correct Peruvian is with a K in it!

Day 1 - 31st August
This morning we woke up at 4.45 for our 5.20 collection by Peru Treks. Apprehensively we climbed onto the bus as we have been worried about this trek for a long time- since booking it in fact! We were reassured, however when we met Freddy our hilarious guide. After a thorough explanation of all the ways to get the most out of coca leaves we sat back and enjoyed the stunning scenery of the mountains all around us and the glacier in the distance. After two hours we arrived in Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley to buy last minute supplies and eat breakfast. Here is also where we collected the 21 porters for the 16 of us walking the trail! Back in the bus and half an hour later we arrived at the starting point Kilometre 82. After sorting our packs out we had our passports and tickets checked and stamped and set off across the bridge over the Vilcanota river where Charles' new Inka hat flew off and he had to climb down and retrieve it from the riverbank. Below us we could see the porters having their loads weighed. There used to be no limit to the amount the used to carry and they often ended up with around 70kg but new laws mean that it is now 25kg- still a huge amount when were struggling just to haul ourselves. The trail climbed steeply up and along we went- on our way! After 15 minutes we stopped for Freddy to show us the cactus parasites that are white until you crush them in your hand and they turn into a crimson liquid. Traditionally the Peruvians have used it for dying fabrics but he used it to paint warrior stripes on our faces- we were ready for action! The train went past and he solemnly said "see that? Those are the lazy people. From this day on you will never be lazy and Machu Picchu will always be sweeter for you." At this point our porters
ran past us; a theme that was to continue throughout the day. We walked for another 2 hours until we came to the top of the hill where below us we could see the remains of the extensive Inca ruins of Llactapata (sometimes called Patallacta) This means "upper town" in Quechua which is the language spoken by the indigenous people who live in the mountains and were not reached by the Spanish Catholic missionaries. Freddy was one of these and taught us a lot of Quechua along the way! Anyway these ruins were discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911 and was primarily and agricultural station used to supply Machu Picchu with maize, the staple food of the Inkas. The settlement consisted of over 100 buildings, houses for the workers and soldiers, five baths and a circular temple. Freddy sat us down and told us about some of the Inka history and how little of it has been discovered as there must have been hundreds of villages spanning out from Cusco that are still overgrown. He said that one of the reasons the history has been so well preserved is because the Spanish Catholics never reached this area, something that he felt very pleased about. This was illustrated in the Temple of the sun that we visited In Cusco where you could see the holes in the wall where the gold and silver had been ripped down. They had also destroyed most of it in order to build the Catholic church and still to this day it is lived in by monks. He said that the people had taken a quiet revenge and had done small things like painted Guinea pig (a Quecha delicacy) as the meal being eaten at the last supper and humming birds from their jungle in the background. We picked up our packs again and walked back to the trail as we had taken a detour for our history lesson. Half an hour later we arrived at our lunch stop where the dining tent was already set up and waiting for us. As we arrived the porters all started clapping which was really embarrasing seeing as they had done all the hard work. After an amazing three course lunch we set off again along the rocky trail and walked the rest of the day's kilometers encountering donkeys and horses along the way ferrying goods. At 4 pm we arrived at the small village (I mean tiny- 6 huts) of Wayllabamba at 3000m. The name in Quechua means grassy plain. This is where we would camp the night. Again the porters had overtaken us and all of the tents were set up together with all our stuff laid out neatly. And again we arrived to more applause. After enough time to catch our breath it was off to the football field for the sporty among us (of which they are many) to play the porters at a high altitude match, needless to say we participated from the sidelines and the porters won! Apparently tomorrow is the worst day as lots of uphill and high altitude so it's an early night for us at 8pm.

Day 2- 1st September
We had been warned by everyone that this was the worst day in terms of difficulty and I would certainly agree with that although we haven't experienced tomorrow. It definately come in at no.1 in terms of the hardest physical things we've ever done.We managed to end up in some kind of supergroup of people- lots of Australian rugby players and very fit Canadians so it had been pretty stressfull. Although we were taking it at our own pace it was horrible as they had to wait for us for ages at each stop. This makes it sound
like we were slow but throughout the day we were 1 hour ahead of schedule. Anyway we woke up to the roosters at 4.30am although woke up is quite a strong statement as it wasn't the best night's sleep ever on a very hard floor in the middle of a farm. At 6am the lovely assistant guide Gusto brought us coca tea in bed and we packed all of our stuff before a yummy pancake breakfast. At 7.30 we set off up the huge hill ahead of us following the left bank of the Llulluchayoc river.It was very very hard. The hill gradually got steeper and steeper and eventually turned into massive steps. Every single one was an
effort- especially for the poor porters carrying everyone's stuff.
Every time we came across one collapsed at the side we gave him coca leaves and water which they were very greatful for as they have to buy it for themselves and most just drink from the stream. If we had known this before we would have brought far more supplies for them. On and on we trudged up and up the steepening steps and after 7km our dining table appeared like an oasis in the desert! We sat down and had cheese sandwiches and freshly made popcorn
which we were starving for despite it only being 10am. After a short break the next phase began- another 5 km up hill to the first and highest pass of the trail at 4200m- Abra de Huarmihuañusca or Dead Woman´s Pass- known as this because the profile looks like a sleeping woman. This is also the point where three trekkers have also had heart attacks and died so I guess the name has a dual meaning. As we climbed up breathing became increasingly harder and we had to stop every 50m or so to settle our hearts and lungs due to the altitude. One girl in our newly named "take it easy and enjoy the view" alliance of 5 that had splt up from the superfit had oxygen due to altitude sickness. The views were stunning- Beautiful valleys, rolling mist and the glacier behind us. We reached a fake pass which we had huffed and puffed to thinking it was the top but sure enough as we got there another hill appeared in front of us! Eventually we reached the summit and were rewarded with an amazing view of the next valley. As we were leaving the valley in which we were walking we peformed a ceromany to thank Patchumama or mother earth. This involved us all bringing a stone from the valley where our guide piled them up with some coca leaves. We then toasted it by pouring some rum over the top and then a shot was dealt out to each of us. Freddy´s world revolved around Pachumama and she was on our journey every step of the way. When the weather was great it was because she was looking kindly on us and when there was no mist it was down to her too. What goes up must come down and sure enough the final part was 800m down very steep steps. We enjoyed the stunning views of the new valley whilst the crazies in our group ran down. On our way wre encountered a collapsed porter. He was one that someone had hired for the day from the last campsite and so was on his way home- doing the walk we'd just slogged through again back the other way. We stopped to give him coca, water and a couple of snack bars and
discovered that he was 81 years old. He was wearing very old thin sandals
that he had stuffed with grass and straw for extra padding as they were obviously really rubbing. He said he felt sick and talking to him made us realise that they are not superhuman but battle through it better than us as there are few jobs in the mountains and being a farmer is not very lucrative. Unbelievable stuff. We arrived into our camp at Pacamayo tired at 2.30pm in time for lunch. Freddy told us that his last group had arrived there at 6.30pm so we felt very proud of ourselves! The ones at the front had raced down being all macho and missing the stunning view but they had to wait for us for lunch so not much point really. I stopped feeling guilty when we told them about the porter we'd met and they said "yeah well that's his job and he probably puts it on with everyone to get stuff." like he has much of a choice what job he does in these mountains and he wouldn't be well retired in the UK by now. After our yummy meal freddie introduced us to all the porters including who is the head, youngest, oldest, fastest (he did today in 3 hours with a 25kg load) and all of their names. I had
booked with Peru treks specifically because they have the best record for treating their porters fairly and this was emphasised by Freddie who is actually self employed. In many companies the porters do not get tents or a sleeping bag and often only have a piece of tarpaulin to sleep under. With the temperature getting down to -10 at night that's pretty unpleasant and even more so in the rainy season November- January. We were told that now we knew them we were to call them Chaskys which is their name in Quechua.
Having arrived early we are now lying in our tent shivering as it is freezing cold here. We are wearing everything we´ve brought and waiting for dinner as that means it'll soon be bed time (8pm again- just what we need after our day!) I have quite a bad headache from the altitude and just had a bit of oxygen as it was doing the rounds. It certainly helps but it's not gone completely and just walking 10metres to the loo had me puffed out so fingers crossed for tomorrow.. Our tent is on a lot of rocks but hopefully I'm too whacked out to feel them!

Day 3- 2nd September
Unfortunately we were not tired enough to be immune to the rocks underneath us and neither of us slept well at all. In the middle of the night I had horrible pins and needles in my fingers and toes which is a sign of altitude sickness but in the morning when we were woken at 5am it was either gone or completely overshadowed by every muscle in my legs screaming at me in pain! Everyone had said that the second day was the worst and so we had not actually thought further ahead than that. As you can imagine it was then a nast wake up call to be faced with another massive hill. After an hour huffing a puffing we arrived at the small circular ruins of Runkuracay that occupy a commanding lookout position overlooking the Pacamayo valley below. After stopping there for a short while it was another 45minute climb uphill to the top of the second pass at 4000m: Abra de RunKuracay. This also brought with it a stunning view and also the most authentic part of the Inka trail with pretty much all original paving. After stopping to catch our breath and take in the scenery it was a very steep descent down stairs to Sayacmarca (Inaccesible town.) The name describes the position of the ruins perfectly as it is protected on all sides by sheer cliffs. no one knows the exact purpose of them but they are quite big and contained many fountains and a ceremonial rock. On descending from here we met the oldest porter on the trail who looked like he should be at home and didn´t even have a proper rucksack. The people who had him on their trek did not even know he was the oldest or seem very concerned at how their porters were treated. he seemed to be doing quite well out of everyone else though as everyone wanted theri picture taken with him and gave him sweets, chocolate and coca! We then rejoined the trail and passed Conchamarca in the shadows of Sayacmarca which may have been a tambo for weary travellers of a customs house. The surroundings now changed into the jungle with orchids, hanging mosses, tree ferns and flowers and we stopped for lunch. After lunch was the most beautiful section with huge drops either side to sunning valleys and very impressive inka tunnels carved into the rocks, here the more ambitous in our group swopped packs with the chaskies and carried them for an hour- bringing a grin to their faces and apparently setting a first as none of them knew when this had been done before. The beautiful path continued up to the third and final pass at 3700m. The view again was incredible of the snow capped peaks of Salkantay and Veronica. From here it was what Freddy called the "Gringo Killers" 200o immensely steep steps down the hill, some up to a foot in height. However what kept us going was the view of the terraces of Intipata in the distance. Down and Down we went with our feet, knees and calfs crying out to us. After about 2 hours we had passed many small ruins and gone through another tunnel and we reached a fork in the road. many turn right and go down to the camp but we went for the longer route to explore the ruins. We were rewarded for the extra hours walk magnificently. We were the only ones at the stunning terraces that we came onto at the top and then walked all the way down, giving us the oppurtunity to stand at the bottom and look back up at them which was awe inspiring. It was such a clever way of farming as each terrace had it´s own micro climate enabling them to grow hundreds of different things. After exploring here it was a short bone crunching walk down to our final campsite of Wiñay Wayna. The name in Quecha means forever young and is named after a variety of pink orchid. Abel the cook surpassed himself for pudding as he brought a huge cake out iced with "Good Journey" with no oven this was cooked over steam in a tent in the middle of nowhere and he was highly apoplgetic that some of the icing had run bless his heart! After dinner we said goodbye to our porters individually and thanked them by shaking their hands and giving them their tips.

Day 4- 3rd September
It was up at 3.30am. We had been listening to the pouring rain on the tent all night and I was very upset that after all of this effort we might not have a nice day to see what we had come all of this way for. Pachumama was looking on us kindly however as when we left our tent at 4am having packed all of our things the rain had stopped. We gulped down a coca tea and then all went to the locked gate of the campsite to be at the front of the queue when it opened at 5.20am. Our plan worked because we were the first and as soon as they were we all ran through to get through the last 7km to Machu Picchu before sunrise. We ran as fast as we could in the dark with our head torches on. I have honestly never pushed myslef so physically in all of my life. It was up hill down hill, over big rocks and then up some vertical monkey steps. So called because they are so steep you have to use your hands to climb them. It was worth it however as at 6.30 we were the first to arrive at the sun gate high abpve the ruins and were rewarded with a stunning view of them completely empty with the sun starting to rise behing the mountains. I burst into tears, partly because of the beauty but mostly I think with relief that we had made it! We stayed there dumbstruck and enjoyed the view and then started the descent to Machu Picchu to see the sun rising from behind the glacier and go to the watchmans tower to get that amazing photo. Suddenly I realised why we had put all that effort in, every second was worth it. The people who come on the train can never appreciate the sheer beauty of the place empty and seeing it for the first time from above at sunrise as they come in through a visitors gate at the side. After taking some photos before the tourists arrived (we exempted ourselves fomr them!) we headed down to a cafe to get some breakfast for half an hour. Freddy then gave us a great tour, telling us about more Quechua traditions, showing us how to put our head against the ceremonial fountain to stay forever young and describing to us all that would have gone on in the temple. Apparently the site was uncovered when Hiram Bingham met some farmers who casually told him they were using an old site with terraces. Their 12 year old son then gave him a tour of where he had been playing and the site was eventually uncovered and restored. Many tragedies have happened over the years such as the sun dial being broken by a crane filming a beer commercial and a luxury hotel being built at the bottom that means power lines now go over other Inka ruins but the site itself is stunning. Freddy as you can imagine felt very strongly about anything that had affected the ruins and was part of a huge protest 3 years ago when the president wanted to build a cable car up to it. i can see why! We explored it and sat at the top and gawped at it and walked to an ancient Inka bridge behind it, Every step was incredibly painful through our aching muscles but felt amazing. We felt that we had rights over everyone there and we told a couple of people so when they pushed us out of the way "excuse me we´ve walked for four days to get here!." After 6 hours we had to leave to get the bus down to the nearby town of Agua Calientes which made us very sad. We felt that we had not had enough time there but it was part of the tour as we had to collect our tickets to return to Cusco on the train. We spent the afternoon exploring the town and shopping in the market and then boarded the stunning old train at 6pm to chub back to Ollaytantambo where we got the bus the rest of the way. As you can imagine on getting back to our hostel at 10pm it was straight to bed and into a deep sleep!
The Inka trail will definately be a highlight of our lives and the view from the sun gate at 6.30am one of the best I will ever see I´m sure.