We started the day with our last shower for 4 days and headed to breakfast. At. 7.30 we said good bye to Inca trail folks and waited for our team who arrived at about 8am and we headed off for a long drive as we end up back here in Ollantaytambo - so we need to be at least 40km away. First stop after a couple of hours was at the Inca site with the moonstone carving that gave our trek it's name - then off to the start , which was not without it's issues - a road...

Luckily for me the bus was delayed and we left Cusco a little late - I had joined the Imodium club - a very rare event - but thankfully it took effect before we left! We headed out of Cuzco to visit some women who were preserving traditional ways of preparing wool, dying it and weaving clothes,scarves, rugs etc - the whole process was explained by the President of the Community enterprise in excellent English - they supply many of the outlets in Cusco and beyon...

We left Puno and Lake Titicaca and drove across the altiplano, the high plains separating the Andes from the jungles. Although it was quite a long drive, the scenery was interesting and often spectacular. We stopped at Pukara, a pre-Inca town where the stone work seemed to indicate that they had a penchant for chopping off heads and eating children! We next stopped at La Raya Pass, the watershed and geographical dividing line between the altiplano and the Vilcano...

As usual we woke early - today's view from our bedroom, and the breakfast room, must be one of those to die for - the sun rising over the Andes and lighting up Lake Titicaca. We all gathered together at 0800am and headed off with David to Acora, a small town on the pan American highway to Bolivia ( 3 hours further on) to see the action at the local weekly market where women, predominantly, had brought their goods and were bartering for others eg beans for pumpk...

We left Chivay at 0630 - it was very cold thanks to the clear blue skies, it also meant the overnight precipation had dusted the mountain tops with snow. The coach was freezing - and took a long time to warm up. 10minutes out of Chivay one of the bus drivers (we have two) realised he had left his wallet behind so jumped off the coach and was left to walk back then somehow link with us later - but thanks to a bus revolt we turned round picked him up and returned ...