Hola Amigos! Como Esta?
Our next adventure was the famous Inca Trail. We had to go all the way back to Lima to meet our group and get an induction about the Inca Trail! We stayed in a hotel as part of the package (probably the only time we´ll be able to afford a nice hotel on our travels). We met everyone (who all appeared to be Canadian except a few) over a Pisco Sour (Peru´s famous drink) and then got scared at the amount of walking (in particular the uphill parts) and the early wake-up calls that would await us over the next 6 days.

The following morning, we flew to Cusco which is approximately 3,600m above sea-level, as soon as you stepped off the plane you could tell the air was different and Lisa had pins and needles in her fingers and toes. The locals in the baggage collection were swift in supplying us with their Coca leaves to counter the altitude affects. For those of you who dont know, yes the Coca leaf is the main ingredient in Cocaine but is probably then mixed with rat poison and donkey p*** to get the final illegal substance. The leaf itself is legal in Peru and Bolivia, and as it´s such a tradition to accept the gesture, we obliged. It seemed to help Lisa but not Ben, who over the next two days got a wee bit of altitude sickness (Wimp as Lisa said) whilst Lisa recovered from the flu just in time for the trail beginning which was a big boost.

Our one and only sleep in today (up at 7.30am), we then head off to The Sacred Valley. Today was our first taster of Inca ruins and we saw a big inca area with a cliff with a red square at the bottom, this is where they used to throw the Spanish off the edge during celebration, they say the soil is red from the blood. By this point it was becoming clear that our Chinese/American trekker (Fang ) was living upto to the stereotypical reputation of a Chinese tourist. After about two hours he must of taken about 500 photos. He was taken photo´s of photo´s. Yes , you´re probably thinking, "what on earth are you on about?" He was taking photos of pictures in books that our guide Aly was using during explanations. He then became the butt of pretty much all jokes over the next 5 days.

We visited a little village in the Valley, where Lisa got some peruvian gloves and a matching hat (cute) and we saw our first LLama´s and Alpaca´s. One spat in the face of Tom (a canadian guy with us) this meant that Lisa wouldnt stand too close to the Llama´s for a photo (see the photos).

On our way to the Sacred Valley, we were travelling up the side of huge cliffs on a dirt track that was just wide enough to fit our Minibus. We were all laughing suggesting what would happen if another car came from the other direction. So guess what...a car came along. The drivers just sat looking at each other for a while whilst we all laughed saying ¨well there´s more of us than them (17 of us). Eventually the drivers tried to pass one another, it took about 10 minutes of Austin Powers style manoevouring, we were literally hanging off the cliff and nobody dared look down, the other car was riding up the side of the mountain and im sure they must of scraped paintwork. Then on passing we took a closer look as the car finally went past, there were almost more of them than us (about 10 in the car - typical Peru )!

Day one of the trail, up at 6.30 and a short visit to Ollantaytambo an old ruin and fortress (see photo) we both thought this was a bit evil as we had to climb loadsa steep steps at 8am before even starting the Inca Trail, after walking up about 20 steps we were both outta breath, we started to worry! We had 11km today, which Aly called the "training day". 11k may seem easy, but at 3,500m with little oxygen and walking up mountains and down mountains, it certainly wasn´t training for us, it was the beginning of PAIN .

The most incredible thing of the whole trip with the exception of the end product was seeing our 21 Porters sprint past us everyday with all our extra luggage weighing 30 kilos (sleeping bag, blow up mattress, tents, chairs, tables, food and water) as we struggled with our little backpacks, apart from Ben who seemed to be carrying a massive backpack in comparison to everyone else and no it wasnt all of Lisa´s stuff as Ben may have people believe! It really was overwhelming, especially when we were told that these guys were paid a pittance. Later on in the day, we got to meet each one and we introduced ourselves in Spanish and give them some minor details on us (Me llamo Lisa, soy day Inglaterre etc etc). This evening we were also introduced to some little friends who were camping next to our tents, tarrantulas (see photos) nice to know just before you are going to bed! Then head down in our tent up at 6am tomorrow, hiking at 7, and you thought we were having a lazy holiday!!

Day 2 of the Inca Trail was meant to be the hardest day of the trip and it definately lived up to that! From 7am until 11.40am we walked uphill non stop it was hard work on the legs and lungs and at times it felt that the end would never arrive! The group separated out in to abilities today with 4 of the group going ahead of the rest of us! The group we were with were brilliant and we had fun encouraging each other to get to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass! When we arrived at Dead Woman´s Pass (approx 4200m) it was a real sense of achievement and looking back down on the 1500m we had just climbed we felt a sense of relief that the most difficult part was over! Or was it?? The rest of the day was spent walking downhill and Lisa thought this was ridiculous since she had just put herself through agony getting up the stupid mountain!! The intelligence of these Inca´s was going down in our estimations! Ben struggled with the downhill coz it really put
pressure on the ¨auld¨ knees! By 1.30pm we were back at camp where the porters were waiting for us (once again) tents are up and they are all clapping for our arrival! When really we should be clapping for them, they got there about 4 hours before us! Early night again tonight up at 5am tomorrow, is it me or are we getting up earlier everyday??

Day 3 and the porters politely shook our tent at 5am and provided us with bowls of hot water to get washed! Breakfast in our posh tent and off we go again at 6am! We were sure Aly (Our guide) had said day 3 was the easier day but at 6am we are trudging up Inca steps again (why did the Inca´s insist on going uphill all the time instead of round the mountains?) After 2 hours of walking uphill we arrived at the end of the uphill part of the day after passing a few more Inca Ruins. We walked throuh mountain caves that the Inca´s had carved out of the mountain side and Aly stopped to show us many different flowers etc on the way (Fang managed to a take a picture of every single flower, leaf, cloud etc). We arrived at our lunch site which was in a secluded area and you could see for miles, after we had our lunch we came out of the tent and realised we were now completely surrounded by cloud which was a surreal feeling. The best part of the day was when Aly got all the porters to prepare the 30 kilo luggage for all the guys to carry (whilst the girls stood and watched, laughing and taking photos). Ben being Ben managed to run up the mountian carrying his 30 kilos and made it to the top first out of all the men! He then insisted on doing some lunges with the 30 kilos on his back!
The rest of the afternoon involved about 4 hours of "gringo killer" stairs which were hard work on the knees and hips! Again we dont think the Inca´s really thought their routes through before making them!! The steps were on the edge of a cliff at times the steps were only a few centimetres wide, one foot wrong and you are a dead gringo! Back to the camp for snacks which were gorgeous followed by dinner an hour later and a heated discussion about how much to tip the porters and guides! Being English our idea of tipping was way less than the generous Fang who seemed to want to pay our annual salary as a tip gggrrrrr!! After dinner we thanked our porters and gave them our tips they then provided us with a Peruvian song and dance! We then each in turn thanked them, once again being english meant we found this a little cringe worthy but as they seemed so humble, the then cringe worthy situation was no longer embarrassing it was quite emotional. Then we were told the brilliant news that we were to be up at the lovely hour of 3am the next morning so we could be the first in the queue at the check point gate for Machu Picchu! Brilliant!

3am we are woken by the porters and by 3.45am we are waiting at the check point and yes we were first in the queue, an hour and 45mins later the check point is open and we are on our way to the Sun/Cloudy gate! It turns out this was a little race between everyone to get to the sun gate first and was a tough slog. We got to the "Sun Gate" (it was sunny for the first time in a month, so our guide told us) at 6.15am.
Imagine, absolutely cream crackered, stinking as we have had no shower for 4 days, but in front of us is one of the most amazing sights on the planet and we have two thoughts.
1 - We want to get a shower and go to bed!
2 - We want to spend the day at this truly amazing place.

Obviously, we chose numero dos. So we get some great photos as you can see, got a great 2 hour guided tour, Ben got bitten by sandflies around 20 times (therefore not immune to insect bites, as Ben would like to think), we see some scumbag pee in the middle of Machu Picchu and then spent a couple of hours in awe of this great Inca city.

To end the trip we had a celebratory meal in Cusco with our Inca trail group after a long hot shower (heaven. Ben ordered a full guinea pig, head intact, Lisa bottled having a full guinea pig but was brave enough to have a little nibble of Ben´s. (see the photos) Ben went a little green (so Tom said) when he ate the heart, urgh !

To sum up, it was well worth the strenuous journey! The pictures do not do it justice, despite the excellent photography!!!!!