My my my its been a long time since we spoke, i have ALOT of catching up to - and alot of remembering to do on my part so apologies for messy randomness, and missing things out but I will try my best!

Think I left off in Crazy La paz, so now we have the Inca trail to talk about which i actually recorded in note form so we should be good here! This takes me back!

We had a few days in Cusco before we started Inca..where me and Sian had some pamper time in hotels which was nice, bit of a detox after La Paz!! We had nice beds, nice food, tvs in our rooms with the e chanel! We ordered room service!! Was amazing! Also met our group who we were doing the hike with and everyone was so nice! Inparticular someone called caroline who was from ireland, who me and Sian officially stole and she continued to travel with for thr next 2 weeks, we all got on like a house on fire. Night before Inca we all sat in our room, ordered ice cream, watched GOSSIP GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Was amazing to have some propper girly times!! Oh yes...and we also bumped into 2 guys we met in mendoza too who were really nice!

So - our tour was a 7 day package, the day being tours rather than trecking. So day number 1 we had a sacred Valley tour. Had some lovely lunch, went to see Gaps (Gap adventures was the company we went with) local village they sponser and use alot of the men as porters on the trail. Lovely little village, showed us al lthe alapaca stuff they make and we got to take photos freely - thats the kids in the photos, SO sweet!! In the evneing after some more tours our group all went out for dinner for pizza and pisco sours! Forgot to mention 2 of the guys in our group we'd also met before in Buenos Aries which was cool!!

Day 2 - we started some trecking!! The tamest day of the 4 day treck - we trecked 12k. Saw lots of Inca ruins! YOu also before you start the actual trail get a stamp in your passport!! how cool! So that was good! It was a pretty tough day, lots of up and down but million sof breaks so wasnt to bad at all. WE stopped ofr lunch half way and got clapped into camp by all the porters, they were so sweet! Then at the end of the day we got clapped into camp again by them!! We had a group of about 15, and we had about 30 porters, who all carry about 25 (something i forgot the measurement!! whatever it is that you have in the airport as your allowance when its 20, its that but 25!!) They all pretty much run it too...in SANDLES!! Tourist do the trial in 4 days, but every year the porters have a race and the quickest is 2 hours 35. RIDICULOUS!!!! So after arriving at camp, we all settled in and then met our porters propperly. Us and them all had to stand around ina massive circle, introduce ourselves and say if we were married or single!! So funny, they were all sooooooooo sweet! Randing from 18 - 60!! mad!! There were 2 cooks, who always let me help cook!! Hehe, but yes, they cooked us some amazing food!! Literally the best food we ever ever had since travelling, 3 courses, always soup, always amaing stuff inthe middle, snacks, everything. INCREDIBLE FOOD! In the evening we all watched the starts then squeezed caroline into our tent and went to bed!

Day 3 - We had our wake up call by the porters with a bowl of hot water and some coco leaf tea at 5.30AM! Lovely!! Everyone tells you day 2 trecking is the killer, and ours was no acception! Its when you treck to dead womans pass, which is the highest point of the whole trail. It was super super tough! We were allowed to take this one at our own pace, so me and dave (the guy caroline was travelling with) braved it up at a pretty good pace and we were all told to stop half way to meet, and when i found out i was the first girl to hit hald way it was ON!! I went to the loo and found out the boys had set of from our group allready, so i sprinted up this stupidly steep hard hill to ctach up with them and treck up to the top to keep up!!! was sooooooooooooooo hard!!!!!!!!!! Like SO Hard!! But amazing, and I was the first girl to get to the top!! And....4th in total!! Such an amzing feeling getting to the top, i think it was baout 4200 metres?? amazng!! After about an hour and a half of waiting for our group to all get to the top, we had a good 2 hours of down hill steps which was pretty tiring too, but eventually got to camp and collasped!!!! (was also first girl to camp!! hehe) Had lunch, then snacks, the more dinner - we were literally force fed!!! WE also bumped into one of the guys we went to the Boca footy mtach in BA with on the trail! WE set up camp for thenight, our tour guide told us ghost stories....we had yummy dessert then we all went and played card games and went to bed!!

Day 4 - This is supppsedly thelongest day, 10 horus of trekcing. Which it was!!!! This time our wake up call was at 5AM!! We had thr 2nd and 3rd highest pass's on this day too - just not as high as dead womans pass! Very up and down today and pretty damn hard but i was well on it!! Being the first girl to hit the 2nd high pass...and the first PERSON to hit the 3rd!! Yayyyyyyyy! We saw dear....beautiful views, played lots of games, had chats,went through caves! Was soooo fun! Was told I was an excellent hiker by our tour guide, determined, fit, yet the most ladylike hiker he'd ever seen...hehe dave also told me i hiked very ladylike like, and like i looked liked i was holding a cup of tea whilst i walked!! We saw the mountain which Machu Pichu was hid behind which was a pretty cool moment..and then Me Jonhny and dave had a hardcore race to camp where we were practically running it, and i was leading the whole way......until johny was like, 'oh whats that' pointing behind him, i stupdily looked, he sprinted past me, and i automatically wacked my stick into his shins, he fell over, rolled down thehill abit but managed to still bloody win despite hitting him!! hehe, but i stil beat Dave, so i cam second, wooooo! Once we were al in camp we hit showers, was 5 sol for a warm one or free for cold. We did the cold.

I think i may have actually died a little bit during that shower. The most freezing thing i ever experience and i sat totally demorolized in my tent after from pure freezingness. HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!! But at least i got clean!! Had a lovely dinner, we all tipped the porters and gave it to them in a big ceremony!! Then the cooks made us all a gap cake!! so cool! said gap and inca on it with jelly and stuff (theres a pic n the album!!) soooooooo lovely!! The me caroline, Freddie, simon and Jonny went down to the bar for a frw drinks and cards..as we were supposde to be up early for machu pichu the next day!!

Day 5 - My god this was a day and a half!! So we were up at 3.50AM! 3.50!!!!!!!!!! Cos we all wanted to get ther first! So i pulled out the big stops today....was a steady treck for the first hour so we all pretty much ran, then the second hour was just as tough as the 2nd day but i continued to beast it, at the front setting the pace and it was o hard i cant even tell you i was going waaaaay to fast!!! The sungate was the high pass and for the last 200m there is these steps which you practically have to crawl up which i still ran!! Then there is more steps which were longer but still crazy steep where i nearly died and coudlnt go that fast any more so had to let the 3 guys pass me!! But i still got up there in record time!! The guide was so impressed!!! And it felt good!! So i passed out for a little bit at the top before the last strech which was al ldownhill steps but still really hard, and there was NO way i wasnt going to get to machu pichu first! No way!!! So i ran ran rsan ran ran ran ran ran ran..............used all my strength and energy.....AND GOT THERE FIRST!!!!!!!! Oh my god it felt amazing, and the view of the city was incredible!!!! We had our group shots after everyone got there, and then I pretty much collapsed, and thought that that was it for me, had crazy cramps and cried from the pain!! Silly Kate!! But I won so its all good!!! About half an hour later when i could stand again we did the tour, think i just pusdhed myself a weeeee bit to far!!! Got our 2nd stamp in the passport, looked around, had our offical tour of machu pichu which is incredible, got some lvovelt photos!!! Such an amazing expereince. So we all then pottered about in the local town, had lunch etc...then got our train back to Cusco. This was not just any train!!
WE had fashion shows on it, dances, music, food! So funny!!! Once we got back, the whole group all went out for dinner, we borrowed caroline clothes, her MAKEUP! Everyone barely recognised uss!!
I tried guniee pig! URH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not cool! But a lvoely evening, and good way to say goodbye to everyone, apart fromthe guys who stayed around in cusco for abit!! Caorline, Dave and Johny!

I LOVE INCA!!!!

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So then it was Cusco....AHHHH CUSCO!! The last and best stop in south america, with a hostel where everyone we had met along the way was in, so we literally knew everyone, it was so much fun!! felt like Uni! This was pretty much another La Paz so doesnt need much description but il try and sum it up as best as I can in my 15 mins left of credit on the comp!!

Carolien checked into the same hostel as us, intending on staying for 1 night - we conviced her to change all her trsvel plans for the rest of south america and stay 6 days like us!! We all went out every night drinking, had girly getting readies, make up!! Hair dryers, straighteners, it was a dream!! Shopping!!! Markets, nice lunches, dinner, watched LOOOOOOOOADS of football, went to a million irish pub,s english pubs, was nice to have some home comforts!! We all met Johnhys mates (johny was on ica) who were all from newcastle so teamed up with them alot of the time who were a good a good laugh!

We did pub quiz;s, lots of drinkig, lots of dancing on tabels inthe hostel bar it was immense!!! Met some guys called Chris and Mike who ive totally fallen in love with and still very much in contact , cant wait to se them back home!!! Sian, myself and those 2 did something pretty damn special too!!

So, we were all in this club called roots, and all night we were challenging them to a dance off, so we had one, few silly moves, press ups, the running man, sit ups, and before we all know it, a bunch of pro break dancers start joining in slowly, then we look u pand this massive circle has surrounded us and we wer inthe middle of a pro dance off!! so we slooooooowly back out and leave it to the break dancers! Apart from jumping in afew times to do a rolly polly and another running man!! Was hilarious, afterwoulds i guess they saw me dancing propperly and i got invited to take part in this break dancing they wereputting on...but i passed! im no break dancer!! hehe Awesome night!!

We saw kevin a loki (the hosel), staff from wild rover in la paz, the 3 blondie guys ed macca and lam, laura from la paz, the irish girls form la paz, i could go on the list is ENDLESS but we knew everyone ,and everyone was lovelt an dit was amazing!!

I taught chris salsa, we ate ROAST DINNERS AT THE REAL MCCOY - HIGH MOMENT IN MY TRAVELLING MONTHS!!

One night was fancy dress night - musicians, so me caroline and sian dressed up as punk rocker chick things, bought t shirts and ripped them up and made it work! we looked amaing, and SHOULD have won but chris and mike won and i have no idea why but there we go! Everyone danced the can can onthe bar and it was all ok again!!

Forgot to mention a guy called James who was also there in cusco who caroline had met early travels who we hung out with everyday, he was amzing, hilarious irish guy i love him!!

On our last day, after 6 nights of solid partyness, our whole crew (Well about half of it anyways!) which was about 10 went out for lunch before saying our goodbyes to caroline (cos literally everyone else was getting the bus to lima with uss!!) which was not fun, i miss her so much!! So we got a cama bus - where we knew every single person on the bus - 24/hour bus to lima!! was hardcore! But ok cos we knew everyone!! Then we had to say all our goodbyes to everyone, the irish girls, laura and the wild rover staff! horrible!! they were all going to thr oasis concert!! Buutttttttt..lukily james had a flight out of lima to la too, a half hour after ours so we got to hang out with him in the airport which was fun! then he gave me and Sian pressies, who ge gives to cool people!! He has a bag of marbles that were given to him to represent not losing your marbels, and all special people he meets he gives a marble, and take a photo of us holding it looking like weve lost our marbles!! such a sweetpie!! LOVE HIM! we have such a long list of people to see in ireland, sian and me plan to go in december and do the rounds!!!

Sorry about the bad decription.....its just hard to remember it al lin so much detail and it slal prety much partying, meeting up with old freinds from south america and drinking anyway!! But i think cusco may top the best place we'd been too....stunning city. Literally gorgeous, the best people all in one place and genrally just incredible!! Oh and also!! I met up with Dan from uni in cusco too, he was my next door neighbour 2nd year!!

So i think that just about concludes south america, the most amazing expereince of my life so far which i will treasure for ever and ever and ever. I loved every second, have met life long freinds, and will never forget it.

THANKYOU!!

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P.s - bring on new zealand!!