"I hate camping" I say to Becky as we spoon to generate some body heat during what has to be one of the coldest nights of my life. I really shouldn't complain as no doubt in 10 years time someone will have built 5* hotels along the Inca Trail, ruining it forever, but my days the nights in that tent were cold!

Minus the lack of sleep, I have to agree with the majority of South American backpackers and say that Machu Picchu was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. But before we could reach the amazing Inca ruins, we embarked on a 3day, 2night trek up and around the Andean mountains, reaching heights of 4600m (and again of course we blame the altitude, rather than a lack of fitness, for our shortness of breath.) And what an unforgettable few days... Our group was awesome and included 3 Brits, a few Americans (one with an overriding love for his cat, Ted, who unfortunately we didn't get to see any pictures of) Canadian Dave and a couple who currently live in hong kong aaaaand have their own gem stone business (get them!)

On day one we set off early for a tour of the Sacred Valley with our new Brummie and Liverpudian friends (yay for Northerners) and spend the day receiving hugs from Peruvian woman, watching Peruvian women make wool, playing with and taking pictures of llamas and visiting several (some might say too many) markets. We then arrive in Ollantaytambo and round the day off with a visit to our first ruins, an Inca temple. After an early night and a few iPhone games later (which included me taking a quiz called 'Are you racist?' - which for the record, I'm officially not) we rise early in the morning, have breakfast, wait for a girl who has been bitten by a dog and fiiiiinally begin our trek (2 hours late- goddam rabies jabs!) After walking for a few hours the only thing on our minds is food but before we were rewarded with lunch, we had uno mas obstacle to overcome: a snowstorm. While our tour guide - who was called Magaly and absolutely awesome - named this a blessing from the sun gods (not really sure how that works but it was her first time witnessing snow so we'll let her off) the team huddled together for warm (yes cuddling was a key part of the trip) and rejoiced at the sight of our Gap Adventures tent where we knew lunch was being prepared. Here I must mention our porters who were absolutely amazing! We had a couple of herdsmen (for the mules/llamas that carried our stuff) an incredible chef and sous chef, some guys that put up tents and a cute little guy who was our supplyboss. The food we got throughout the tour was also amazing and left us all gagging for seconds. One morning we even got cake for breakfast which was a personal fave of mine!

After lunch we set off walking again, with the aid of coca leaves. Coca leaves are widely used by gringos and locals alike to overcome altitude sickness and are made from 14 alkaloids, one of which is cocaine (and thus causes you to test positive if tested for drugs within 4 weeks.) Chewing the leaves did the trick though and we all powered through until we reached our camp for the night. By the time we got to camp the porters had put up all the tents and were preparing another yummy meal. All that was left for us to do was take in the amazing scenes of mountains and llama poop.

After a competitive game of UNO we all head to our tents for what is potentially the worst nights sleep I've ever had. Temperature levels remained bearable for about 20minutes before me and Becky realised we were in need of many more layers if we were ever to fall asleep. We put on all the clothes we had with us including woolley hats, 2 scarfs and 3 pairs of socks and tried our best to sleep. Becky seems to dose off relatively easily while I wiggle myself in her direction in the hope that her body heat will warm me up. I must fall asleep as I later wake up desperate for the loo. I try and convince myself that I can hold it in until 5am when it becomes light outside but after checking the time and realising 5am is still 3 hours away, I venture outside with my flash light in the hope of avoiding all animal dung on the way to the portaloo. After spending several minutes battling with the portaloo zip in freezing temperatures, I am finally successful and am back in the 'warmth' of my tent in no time. I doze off under the icicles for what feels like 10 minutes of sleep before being woken by the porters with morning coca tea...

So after a pretty rough night sleep, the group reunites for breakfast (still wearing everything we own) eat and head off for day 2 of walking. After a pretty intense trek uphill (which again Becky manages to do twice as fast as everyone else) we visit a family who live in the same Andean community from which our assistant guide is from. After an explanation about the lives these families lead, we are invited into their home. We were all really keen for this and strode up to the house full of enthusiasm. Such enthusiam however quickly dwindled when we were forced to duck and dive under the various dead animals hanging from the ceiling. Not only was it quite distressing that we were being given a talk surrounded by slaughtered meat (especially traumatic for the veggies in the group) but a mixture of this and the guinea pigs living under the bed (saved to be eaten on special occasions) gave the room the most horrendous smell! When Hose asks whether we have any questions we all keep quiet in the hope of quickly escaping the smell but he interprets our silence and shyness and continues with sentences such as "ok well i'd bet you'd like to know about such and such..." and then gives us a 10 minute lesson on topics that we may well be interested in if it weren't for the stench that was making the whole group gag. Despite the odour it was really interesting to gain an insight into communities that are so different from our own and it was a welcomed addition to (and break from) the trek.

After lunch we continue walking until we reach camp where we have a slightly more bearable night in our beloved tents. Again we rise early (cake for breakfast!!) and take lots of group pictures before setting off for our last day of walking during which we passed some amazing lakes and incredible views of the Andies. At one point we obviously looked tired and so Magaly suggested we take a 'short cut' which actually took twice as long and involved walking along a very suspicious and highly unsafe mountain edge.

After lunch we took a bus to Aquas Calientes where, despite the room smelling strongly of damp and having no windows, we were thrilled to be out of tents and reunited with hot showers and warm duvets and had one of the best nights sleep of the trip so far.

So after 3 long, cold but very pretty days in the mountains, we reach the day all backpackers look forward to... Machu Picchu! And the ruins certainly did not disappoint. I was certain that having seen sooo many pictures of Machu Picchu all over Cusco I would be disappointed when we finally reached the top but the ruins (and I'm usually not one for ruins) were awesome. We had a tour of the site which was really interesting but also really weird to think that we were stood on the same spot the Incas were all those thousands of years ago. We had another big photoshoot at the top, pulling out our best Inca poses where possible. We were also able to meet up with some of the guys from our hostel in Cusco and as the weather was so nice, we did what the British do best when the sun comes out... Strip off and sunbathe! We're sure this is what the Incas did too so no worries about appropriateness...

About about midday we leave Machu Picchu and catch a train and bus back to Cusco. The journey is spent deciding how, as a team, we will celebrate our recent achievement and of course the answer is a Cusco night out! After a shower and a sprouse up, we assemble for Mexican food and Pisco sours before heading to a bar called Mythology. As we walk in the club is packed with gringos and locals pulling out their best salsa moves which I must say were very impressive. We all stood at the bar very awkwardly, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone who may drag us to the dance floor and expose our dodgy moves... That is until Western music came on and we all flocked to the dance floor to shake our thang to Usher and co. A very cultured ending to an awesome few days...