14/6/09 The next morning we set off on the Inca trail at last! After a group photo by the official starting point the road was very pleasant, and the track alternated between some sets of steps upwards but also plenty of flat ground. After an hour or so we had our first real climb, and although all the steps were knackering the view was well worth it! The sun was out and it was very hot. Another couple of hours later we stopped for lunch; the porters had all passed us and gone ahead to the site and had put up the lunch and cooking tents before we got there. After lunch it wasn't too bad for a while, and we stopped at an Inca site which had apparently been used as a bartering centre in Inca times. There were a couple of small donkeys wandering around it, which Dave and I made friends with. The last couple of hours of hiking that day were tougher, though, and everyone was very tired when we eventually arrived at the campsite. We had been told that the second day is the toughest of all, so we wondered about if the first day was supposed to be OK physically but had actually been pretty tiring, what must the second day be like? We were introduced to all the porters, the assistant cook and cook after dinner, and they were introduced to us.

15/6/09 The first four hours of today were probably the most physically draining of any long walk I've ever been on. This is how long it took Dave and I to get to the top of Dead Woman's Pass, at the top of the valley we had been walking along the side of the day before, and so named because the top looks a bit like a woman's face and a giant boob (!) The first half an hour or so was fine, actually, because there was sufficient flat bits inbetween all the steps for us to recover in, but then it got harder. We climbed up lots of steps in the woods after that, and then it was just a path on the side of the mountains, leading up and up to the top of the pass. The longest time it should take to get to the top is 5 hours, Dave and I did it in four but most of the others got there before us. The last hour in particular was really tough, because I got a bad pain in my right hip, and every time I had to climb a step it hurt like hell, so I was literally walking through the pain all that time. Even when there weren't any steps, the track was still sloping upwards quite a lot, and it was scorching hot, so we had to stop quite frequently to rest and drink water. I don't want to make out it wasn't worth all the effort, though, because the views got increasingly stunning, and when we finally dragged ourselves up to the top of the pass, it was jaw droppingly beautiful! We took photos and rested, and had the Snickers bar each which we had promised ourselves we'd have once we reached the top. A Snickers has never tasted so good as mine did to me then! We were now at the highest point of the Trail, at 4215 metres. The rest of the group were busy resting there when we arrived. Half an hour after we got there the Canadian couple (who had joined our group for the Inca Trail only) arrived, and 10 to 15 minutes after that we all began the long journey down.
This consisted of thousands of stone steps, with only a few flat or sloped tracks, and although obviously it was easier than going upwards, after a while it still gets tiring, especially when the steps are large. We went down for two hours before we arrived at the campsite for a late lunch. It was quite pleasant, though, because like that morning and the day before, we passed lots of tiny crystal clear and sparkling streams, the views were amazing, and we saw the occasional hummingbird. Like on the way up, we could go at our own pace, so since my hip still hurt a lot and Dave was pretty tired, we didn't keep up with most of the others, though we weren't the last to get to the campsite.
Every day on the Inca Trail we had 'happy hour' at 5 or 5.30, where we had hot drinks and snacks - popcorn, empanadas, crackers. From lunch until happy hour on the second day all Dave and I did was rest, and between happy hour and dinner we played cards with the others. We played cards for a little bit after dinner, too, but soon after that we had to go to bed. This night was going to be the coldest, so since Dave and I were the only ones without sleeping bags, we slept in our clothes and with jackets, woolly hats and gloves on, under the blankets we got from one the airlines we've flown with and used when camping in Australia. Although I did get more sleep than I expected, it didn't feel like it, and at one point when I woke up my entire feet were numb with cold, despite the thick hiking socks I had on, though the rest of me was warm. Also, my hip really troubled me that night, because every time I moved it hurt.

16/6/09 We had been told that after the second day, the third day was easy, but it didn't feel like it for the first couple of hours, because we had another two passes to get up to. The first one was the toughest because there were tons of steep stone staircases to climb, but the view from the top was even better than at Dead Woman's Pass, with lots of forest and mountains behind it with glaciers on top. There was a beautiful Inca site between the two, and on the way down from that we saw more hummingbirds. I never managed to get a photo of them, unfortunately, because they move so quickly! The view of the glaciers grew more and more spectacular on the walk between the two passes, and we were told that the forest we saw was the start of the Peruvian section of the Amazon rainforest. At the top`of the second pass we had lunch, and got our first sighting of the Machu Picchu mountain, though not of the Incan city.
After this we had another Inca site to look round, where we spotted a couple of condors, and then there were literally thousands more stone steps to go down. Later on these were interspersed with lots of gently sloping sections, so it ended up being a really nice walk. Once again it was very sunny, but we passed through a lot of shade too, and the forest the track ran through, on the side of the mountains, was beautiful. My hip didn't hurt any more, too. Like on every other day, every now and then porters passed by us, carrying massive backpacks and loads - we were all in awe of them. The views we got over the valley and the other mountains were brilliant. We all eventually met up at some Inca terraces, climbed down a last steep stone staircase, walked along a track for another ten minutes or so, and then arrived together at our last campsite. The porters clapped us when we walked in, though I felt that it should be us clapping them, not the other way round. After happy hour, cards and dinner, we all put tips for the porters and cooks into two envelopes, and tips for Ephraim and Jesus (our guide and assistant guide) in another, and handed them out after a short speech.

17/6/09 We got up even earlier than usual today, at 4.30, had a quick breakfast and then walked to the control hut and gate, where we had to wait until it opened at 5.30. The other groups in the campsite did the same thing. Then, when it opened, we walked at a brisk pace for an hour until we reached the Sun Gate, a small Inca site from where you get your first sighting of Machu Picchu! The sun hadn't yet risen over the mountains, so the photos I took from there didn't turn out very well, but on the walk down we all stopped and watched the sun creep down and over Machu Picchu itself. The photos came out much better then. It took about 45 minutes to walk down to Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate, and it felt so, so good when we finally arrived there - we got such a sense of achievement!
For the first hour, after getting our passports stamped, we had a guided tour of about half of Machu Picchu by Ephra, and then for the next few hours we wandered round by ourselves. Unfortunately, the night before my feet had started feeling as though something was digging into the soles, though when I looked I couldn't find any stone or anything which might have explained it, and by the time I got to Machu Picchu, it got much worse. I was limping around. Once we could wander round by ourselves Dave and I sat down and I took off my shoes and socks, and I saw that in the middles of each sole of my feet, a couple of patches had been rubbed raw. There was a patch on the sides of my feet as well. I can't explain how they got there, because the insides of my boots are really comfy, and I've worn them loads of times during our travels without any mishap. We wandered round the more of Machu Picchu, admiring it and taking photos, and then sat down for an early lunch (we had been given a packed lunch to carry with us at breakfast.) Machu Picchu is so beautiful, and the standard of Inca masonry is really impressive! After resting my feet for a while, we looked round the rest before getting the bus to the nearby town of Agua Calientes, where we were all to meet up after looking round Machu Picchu.
After meeting up with the others we had a longish bus ride back to Cusco. Dave plastered and bandaged up my feet for me, and we had a rest before going out to dinner. It was Tanya's 24th birthday, so we went to an especially nice restaurant, where the food was delicious. I had a pasta mushroomy dish, and Dave had a gourmet alpaca burger. During the meal my head started feeling really heavy yet slightly dizzy too, and I felt like I was burning up. My feet were really painful, too. Although we went with the others to a local bar afterwards for some drinks, after one I began feeling so bad Dave and I had to go back to the hotel to bed. Dave was really tired anyway, so he didn't mind.