Hi guys we´re baaaaaaaaaaack!

Inca Trail = INCREDIBLE

I´ll start off by expaining last Saturday. We arrived at the lovely hotel for our meeting at 6pm, after a mad dash from the Irish pub watching the rugby with some Guinness of course!! We met the other 14 people, it then turned out that all of them hadn´t booked in time as Inca permits ran out in April so we were doing the Inca Trail by ourselves, with 5 porters, 1 cook and 1 guide. We were gutted at first but this turned out to be the best thing as you will find out later in the email for various reasons.

Day 1. Sacred Valley was lovely had an amazing buffet lunch, visited some local communities and trekked some small Inca sites. We stayed over in Ollayantaytambo in a nice hotel with private room and hot shower.

Day 2. Up at 6am, met Roger our guide = AMAZING! Had crap breakfast then set off to KM. 82 (beginning of Inca Trail). We were given a duffel bag to give to the porters with a 6kg allowance then carried a small day pack and had waking sticks. Got our first passport stamp and set off. After 5 mins Roger stoped and we did some little ceremony with Coca leaves and prayed to Pacha Mamma to keep us safe etc and promised to look after the trail and nature. We trekked for about 3 hours with mini snack breaks (took 8 snickers and loads of sweets and dried apricots mum and dad don´t worry). Stopped for lunch at a locals home and it was great food, Roger then said ok guys, 45 minute siesta, ha ha couldn´t believe it so we slept on the grass next to the Urabamba river. Luxury. We got to camp about 1 hour later and had popcorn snack then dinner and did another ceremony. Bed at 8.30pm.

Day 3. Up at 5.30am, trekked for a few hours up ´dead womans pass´ we had heard it was the worst bit so we were well prepared and came with lots of positivity and plenty of energy and zoomed to the top past all the moaning Brits and Americans. Another ceremony at the top, the views were excruciatingly beautiful, took hundreds of pics. We had a shot of whiskey, good luck apparently then trekked 2 hours all downhill to camp. Not as great as it sounds as Adds´ old knee injury decided to reoccur, luckily Roger had some ´magic´cream and a bandage and gave Adds his walking sticks. Arrived at camp with amaxing views out of our tent then had tea and bed at 8.30pm again. FREEZING night so Roger got us a big thick blanket from his mate.

Day 4. Up at 5.30am again and trekked for 5 hours through the ´cloud forest´ this is literally an altitude at which the clouds sit so you are walking through the dense jungle with a sheer cliff face on one side and cannot see a thing around except white cloud. It was pretty hallucinogenic. When we got to lunch spot I was exhausted and couldn´t eat so I layed down on the floor and felt worse and worse. We went to see an amazing Inca site called Intipata. I managed to walk for another 2 hours to camp and still couldn´t eat. Went to bed about 9pm didn´t sleep well and woke up at 2am to throw up out of the tent in the freezing cold and rain........sad face!!

Day 5. Up at 4am (another sad face), threw up a few more times. Apparently I have a parasite and basically didn´t eat for almost 3 days but still managed to trek.......hardcore. Anyway, we trekked for 2 hours to Machu Picchu and got to the ´sun gate´ we couldn´t see a thing, cloud everywhere. Almost cried, however, we powered on and did the 1 hour trek down to the site. Roger gave us a 30 min rest then he tool us into the Inca Citadel and we walked around for 3 hours learning tonnes about the Incas etc. Very fascinating. After this, he left for Aguas Calientes to wait for us and said take as many hours as you want here. We witnessed the most amazing thing, sun burning the clouds off from around Machu Picchu and Wayña Picchu (the big mountain in the background). Again, almost cried. It was so spectacular how it was just revealed to us as the cloud slowly evaporated..........! Spectacular. We sat on one of the terraces for one hour just staring. After that we walked as high as we could and took the famous postcard pictures (millions in fact). At about 2pm we caught a bus to Aguas Calientes and waited for the 5pm train. The train was fine but took ages and was dealyed so we arrived back at the hotel about 11pm totally exhausted.

Day 6. Got up and moved out of the hotel back to Loki to meet friends. Managed to eat a chicken caesar without puking yippeeeeeeee!

Yesterday I (Liz) went for a massage which was lovely (proper backpackers us you know ha ha), also went our for the most amazing, cheap, gormet sushi last night with Sophie and Louise. We leave on Sunday (tomorrow) for Arequipa. We are spending 5 quid extra each to go full Cama bus (basically you get a fully reclining chair, food, drinks etc.......with a company called Cruz Del Sur........supposed to be the best in Peru). Cant wait for that. We are meeting the three girls in Arequipa on Weds and all doing a two day trek to the Colca Canyon then we will have one last night out before we part ways. More separations grrrrrrrrrrr!!

Had our last night out in Cuzco last night, well I say our, Adds didn´t quite make it and went to bed early.......too many cervezas ha ha! We have just been for lunch on the Plaza de Armas and are going for a Thai meal tonight then coming back to watch movies with people.

That is all the news for now, hopefully one day we will get some pics on this bloody thing. Next blog will be from Arequipa.

Lots of love to you all

The Inca Trail experts.........!!!!

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