Fear not Blogfans, we are back!!! Bet you were all waiting by your computer screens salivating for the next exciting installment from our South American travels, well your wait is over, here we go........

Date stat fans will be excited to know that we are EXACTLY half way through our travels, 85 days gone, 85 to go, and with that monumental stat, it seems only right that we can blog about some of the best four days of our lives when we embarked on the world famous Inca Trail!!!

You must have so many questions about the trail, how did we do? how was it? how did we cope without hair washing? or showers? well its fair to say that, without being too modest, we smashed it! It was AMAZING!

Let us begin....a 5:00am pickup with our legendary guide Alex, two Canadian heroes (Matt and Alison) two Americans, two New Zealanders, four Indian Californians and the one and only 70+ Mr Tristan from America!!

After driving to kilometer 82, taking on a healthy breaky, and purchasing our wooden walking sticks we were ready to start, well, some of us more than others with Mr Tristan taking a liking to the roaring river beside the entrance gate and doing his best to fall in before we´d even passed the first checkpoint! Mr Tristan was not long for this Inca Trail having to take horseback rides and piggy back rides from the Heroic porters to reach the first campsite!

The scenery of the trail was superb and breathtaking and helped ease us into a speedy rhythm of walking which would earn Jen and I the reputation of being slightly crazy for walking so fast, but we just loved this so much!

Needless to say, once we hit the front of our group we didnt look back and over the next four days our relentless pace would not let up! Our arrival at our first camp base was greeted by rounds of applause from the porters, however, we were a little embarrassed given that we carried next to nothing, the porters carried 28kg each and we walked and they ran!!

The 19 porters were just superhuman for the duration of our tour, setting up our camp and cooking us the most amazing food, making sure we were packed full of carbs and this was essential for what is known as a very hard second day of trekking...

Did someone say this was meant to be hard?!?! EASY EASY EASY!! What was meant to be a four hour ascent to Dead Womans Pass took Jen and Brad 1.5 hours! The porters even commented that we were "muy rapido" upon arrival at camp! Going down was a lot harder on the legs however, indeed, the afternoon trek was made more interesting with Brad´s frantic search for an appropriate bush to be at one (or two) with nature.

With the "hard" treking done, the third day was mainly downhill and helped by the fact that Matt, Sam, Jen and Brad ran down as it was easier on the knees! Fun and games followed with the porters who we found out also love to play "Pass the Pigs"!!

A 3am start for the final day and the gentle approach the Machu Picchu, we couldnt wait, and the once there, it was so worth it! Our view from the Sun Gate was shrouded in clouds, but once at Macchu Picchu the sun was out, for a while, before pissing down with rain! The scenery again was mindblowing and we enjoyed a 2hour tour with our fantastic tour guide Alex, the same tour guide who loved to tell us Peruvian jokes about gays, perhaps he was trying to tell me something?!

Our tour company Llama Path were outstanding and if any of you blogfans are tempted by this trail, and we would definitely recommend it, then you have to do it with these guys, they are AMAZING!!

Once we finished the trail we descended to Aguas Calientes for a pizza, which we inhaled in one go, 8 for 1 Pisco Sours, and hot springs that smelt like urine but felt so good.....a special mention also for Matt and Alison from Niagra Falls, we will do our best to get to you in February!!

Back in Cusco, Jen was off for a full body massage and facial for 8 quid, she tells me girls will appreciate what a steal this is! With the Inca Trail done, we had to get out of Cusco before we got too attached to the city and the Mcdonalds there, so we brought our flight forward by a day to get as far north as possible with Mancora our beach destination!

Now we like to move on quickly to the next place, but our arrival in Mancora breaks all records, we were meant to stay two days, within two hours our bus was booked for the following day, its not that we dont like Mancora, its just that a beach littered with dead birds, eels, no running water and no electricity is not our idea of paradise! We´ll get our beach fill in Central America!

And so here we are, sat in an internet cafe in Cuenca having had a fry up in our last South American country of Ecuador! Tomorrow we head for more massages and hot springs in Banos, but in truth all eyes are on the Galapagos where we´ll be this time next week!

Till next time blog fans, enjoy putting your Christmas decorations up!! xxxxxxx