S: Wakey wakey at 5.30 am. Straight into a car that had 7 passengers instead of 5 and off we set to a town called Mollepata to have breakfast. Breakfast was great, scrambled eggs and bread with coca tea. Now coca tea is very good to help with altitude effects, so we were all very generous with the coca leaves as we might need it later, interestingly these leaves are used to make cocaine, when you drink the tea it gives you a little extra energy also. We walked for an hour to another village called Cruzpata with our guide Joél and two porters Luis and Hasus. Joél was full of knowledge pointing out new plants and explaining in Peru they use more herbal medicine than conventional. We had already planned to visit Lake Humantay, which meant the truck needed to take us a bit further along the route. We arrived and started our climb just below 4000m - Altitude sickness is not to be taken lightly. First of all, you are breathing about 4 times quicker than normal due to the thin air. And both James and I had headaches, which we knew could happen. Once we reached the top, the scenery was breath-taking and so worth the walk up to it. We saw our first glacier overlooking the lake which was bright blue from all the minerals in the water.

J: We also saw an avalanche in the mountains around us which was amazing. Although Sam had some extra issues with the altitude; at one point she looked at Taylor and said "Taylor (looked at me) What's her name? Oh yeah Taylor". Then shortly after, Sam pointed and said "there's a man on the mountain with us....." she was talking about our guide and he was only 10 meters away at this point lol.
After a large lunch Joèl cooked we set off further up the mountain to get a head start on the next day, we walked until it got dark then set up the tents at Salkantaypampa, we skipped dinner as we were full.
When I woke up in the middle of the night the lower half of my sleeping bag was wet as the tent had leaked in heavy rain through the night, and with minus temperatures outside it made for a long cold night!

S: So up in the dark again, nobody felt like a massive breakfast as it was still raining, so a quick roll with hot chocolate and we were ready to go. We started the ascent to the Salkantay Mountain Pass. It was slow going due to the oxygen getting thinner but finally we got to 4800m and what a view we had!! Snow, glaciers and avalanches, we were in a scenery heaven. But it was freezing so we took the mandatory photos and started our descent. Just so you all knew James and I were walking up in our hiking sandals, much to the dismay of our guides. But from the moment we passed the pass James's started to die a slow death. We continued to walk for another few hours and stopped for lunch, we ended up feeding the local stray dogs. The meals they cooked us were great although there was a lot of food - especially rice and pasta which is exactly what you need hiking. We arrived at the village called Chaullay, then all of a sudden, we were in mosquito hell, James knows I don't react particularly well to their bites, so we just carried on, poor Taylor got bit to shreds whilst resting. We arrived at the campsite, someone's back garden lol. As we were early we tried to teach the guys brownie (an easy card game) and they just about got the hang of it with a couple of beers. I'm not sure if they occasionally tried cheating and blamed the language barrier.

J: The next morning we woke up and Taylor got a big soaking during the night which was better for me not for her, Sam was in the middle and so far had kept dry. Overnight our walking route had been washed away due to rain creating landslides. We had to take the local taxi/mini bus along the road which nearly getting stuck in the mud, but it got to the point at which the road bridge had been washed away in the river. We were able to cross the footbridge still thankfully and we walked the rest of the way to our camp.
Joél knew the lady here well and arranged a special traditional meal for us; we marinated various meats, collected fire wood and built a fire to heat up rocks. Once the rocks were really hot we moved the rocks into a pit, added the meats wrapped in banana leaves with some veg, which we covered in cloths and mud then left it to cook.....

S: I was a little worried when an hour later they started to take off the covers but to our amazement it was all perfectly cooked. We had so much meat, potatoes and beans to feed an army, but it was soon demolished. James and Joél enjoyed gnawing on the bones like animals. One thing I love about Peruvian cooking is they don't waste anything. Once we had finished our massive meal, it was time to go to the hot springs in Saint Theresa and chill out and get clean. So the 7 of us all climb in a 5 seater car and off we drove through the villages. It was scary in places that had obviously been affected by the rain. But we soon forgot those fears as we entered the hot springs and relaxed. They were incredible, and we felt all our aches and pain disappear. We did have to have a communal shower though in cold water to wash, but this time we had our swim gear on lol. Back at the camp site we had our most luxurious night, the guys had put the tents up and we were laying on two mattresses under cover. We were so chuffed that we were going to be comfortable and dry. Although we had agreed to a 3am wakeup call......

J: I nearly missed that Joél and I spent some time trying to fix my very broken sandals with hot glue from my survival kit, and duct tape he had.... They seemed ok at that point.

J: 3am seemed to come around quickly and felt extra hard to leave the driest & comfiest night's sleep so far, but we quickly set off up the mountain on part of the Inca Trail. It's usually shut at this time of year as its dangerous, but we saw no indication of it being shut, or at least Joél didn't pay attention to the closed gates and warning signs as we walked past. Still in the dark we met a couple of wild horses on the track, we kept to one side as Joél approached them, one bolted past us and we all leant into the rocks as he wasn't stopping for us, the other stayed still while we all sneaked past, it was a bit of a dodgy moment but we survived the horse encounter along with the various landslides (which is the reason that trail should be closed). Then we hit the top of the mountain and in the distance was Machu Picchu! When we first decided to travel, Machu Picchu was the first thing I dotted on the map to visit so this was a special moment having our first glimpse, I was defiantly living the dream at that moment sitting on some Inca ruins eating breakfast and gazing at Machu Picchu!!

S: Unfortunately the clouds were low and we couldn't see all of Machu Picchu, so we all laid down and had a nap lol. After this we tidied up and got on the way again. Another 3 hours passed but we saw our first Python in the wild, it was still a baby at 3ft. Then we reached the Hydroelectric plant which is fuelled by a man-made waterfall. It is massive, you could see the workers going in and out of the mountain. We finally reached our lunch location where the railway goes to Agnes Caliente. After dinner we loaded all the heavy bags onto the train with Luis and Husas and started the last walk of the day. It was on the railway track which was beautiful but where my sandals had worn down every step was like walking on nails. I knew that I had to find some extra energy in me as we were all feeling the effects of walking 50 kilometres a day and we knew we were so close to the end. We had to go through 3 train tunnels and every time we went through we had to walk extra quickly as the track was in use lol. Eventually we hit the town and our hostel is the first one, I don't think the three of us have been so pleased to see a bed and sit down lol. After a shower, 'oh to be clean', we worked out a plan for the next day as we were swapping guides for one that specialises at Machu Picchu. We all went for a last supper and said our goodbyes to the guys that had made our journey to Machu Picchu amazing and without them it would have been a lot harder.

J: We woke up early again to started our walk up to Machu Picchu which was a 400 meter climb up very steep steps, we had to make it up by 7 which only left us an hour to make the 90 minute walk. Taylor was really fatigued and decided she couldn't make it up, we kept going and made it up in 45 mins! And what a view to be welcomed with, Machu Picchu was finally there and touchable..... But we couldn't stop as we had a booking to go up Huayna Picchu at 7am, so walked though Machu Picchu and started another 400-meter ascent to the top. This is the highest point of the Inca ruins and it has a stunning view over Machu Picchu. Only 300 people a day are allowed up and we were lucky to get tickets at short notice. Once we made it to the top we simple sat and enjoyed the moment/achievement/view. We didn't talk for at least 5 minutes simply stunned by the beauty in front of us. We went to the very top and then made our way down as our time up there had come to an end, the walk down was extremely dodgy as the steps were tiny to put my feet on, but still steep, people even went down on all 4's. Health and safety haven't got there yet lol.

S: Once we got down in one piece we headed to the entrance for our guided tour. On the way we spotted Taylor who had bussed up, so she didn't miss out. We sat with her admiring the view and resting our legs, they were so fatigued, I don't want to walk anymore hills lol. Unfortunately, Taylor didn't feel up to the tour and got a bus back down. We only took 4 bananas and some nuts between us, as food was expensive up at Machu Picchu and we had spent enough getting there. The tour guide was very interesting and if you look at the aerial view it looks like a Condor and they think the town was actually called Condor rather than Machu Picchu. We visited the three-window temple where each window represented the past, present and the future, and not forgetting the sacrifice table. All the stone comes from the mountain which made it easier to build and people lived there for a hundred years (1450-1550). There are different theories as to why it was vacated, the first one was everyone left to fight the Spanish or that Small Pox wiped out the whole village. I think the one fact that shocked us the most is there used to be a stone monument in the centre of Machu Picchu and basically the Spanish President helicoptered in rather than walked, so they knocked it down and offered it to the locals and they said to put the stone back. A couple of years later the American President also helicoptered in to Machu Picchu and the stone was destroyed. Apparently if you have enough power you can destroy historic monuments. We started our walk down after being there for 7 hours, I can tell you that we both did not want to do this lol. We walked down as fast as we could managed and at the bottom we held hands to keep our spirits up to make the final couple of miles. We made it back to the hostel absolutely shattered but it was a life changing day.

J: Even I have to admit it was a long day at the end of 5 of them. My sandals had unbelievable just about held together but Machu Picchu was the last walk they would take, and I had to bin them. After a hot shower we went out for some dinner as I felt about ready to eat my own arm. After dinner and a very small walk around the town we got our train & bus back to Cusco.

S: When James said he was hungry he meant it, we had dinner when we got back and then found some local food called Papa Rellena. Papa Rellena are made of a boiled egg, meat and vegetables wrapped in mashed potato and then deep fried. James thought these were great and had two before we got on the bus. He had already brought sandwiches for the bus.