The final morning's wake-up call was at 3am as Freddy wanted us to be one of the first groups in line to gain entry through the final passport control of the trip, and into the final section of trail. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though, as we had both fallen asleep at 8pm so had had a good night's kip. Just like the third day, we powered through the last of the hiking to the Sun Gate and stood in amazement as the sun rose over the sight we had walked all this ...

After breakfast and being formally introduced to the Chaskis the following morning, we began our challenging ascent. Anne and I agreed that for this section, we would walk at our own paces, as conquering this peak and getting through the day was the main objective. However, after arriving at the lunch checkpoint before Anne I felt slightly guilty, so I dropped off my bag, picked up two Powerades from one of the stalls - the last shops before we got to Machu Picc...

As beautiful as the country is, when looking back on our time in Bolivia our initial memories will be of the sickness we encountered along the way. And so it almost seems quite apt that we would both suffer one last bout of gastro problems on our final day. Luckily, however, we were still able to make our early afternoon bus across the Peruvian border to the town of Puno, as we edged ever closer to what was now becoming an almost dreaded excursion: the Inca Trai...