We awoke quite late on Friday morning as we make the most of possible lie-ins before we start the Inca Trail. We decided to go for a bit of a walk through the 'real' Cusco to the stadium once we had raised ourselves from our pits. After walking for around an hour, we made it to the stadium only to find that it was being renovated. We enjoyed the walk anyway in the bright sunshine and seeing a different side of the city to the tourist centre. After finding our way back to the centre of town, we had been advised that we should now be able to claim our free meal from Wednesday at a Japanese restaurant. The restaurant was called Bambu and is just off Plaza de Armas. It is the best meal we have had in Cusco and one of the best we have had in South America. We had a starter of sweet corn soup each while Beth had sushi and I had chicken teriyaki and fried rice. A big thank you to the free walking tour for sorting out the problem for us!!

The rest of Friday was spent preparing our backpacks for the Inca Trail and we then had a briefing with our guide at 6pm. It was pretty much what we expected and he advised us of the route and what the Inca Trail will entail. Days 2 and 3 sound like fun!! Beth's face dropped at the wake up times he advised us of. 6am will feel like a lie in by the time we have finished and anyone who knows Beth will know that she never sees even 9am on her days off!! We both left feeling excited and can't wait to get started now.

We have moved hostels today to the Millhouse hostel which was included with our Inca Trail trip. We have arranged to go back to our other hostel, VIP House, when we get back on Wednesday for two nights. The new hostel seems pretty nice and our room is very good. We have been to the supermarket to stock up on snacks for the trip. We have purchased 18 bars of our favourite chocolate, Sublime, to keep us going. This is a bit excessive since we are only away for 4 days but we do like a bit of chocolate!!

So we are on the eve of the start of the Inca Trail and we both can't wait to get started. It's an early start at 5am tomorrow and it's around a 13km trek to our first campsite. The only thing we are hoping for is not too much rain so we aren't soaked through for the full 4 days. However, we have purchased some 80's shellsuit pants to protect us in the event of some rain!!