Just returned from a 5 day trek via Salcantaya Mountain and Machu picchu Inca ruins- one of the more physically challenging things I've attempted in my life..we trekked just over 76 km´s through arid mountains, jungle, rivers..in hot and cold, uphill and downhill ...and up to an altitude of 4600 metres just near Salcantaya mountain.

According to our guide, Salcantaya has never been conquered by climbers however I recently discovered that this was another fallacy that our guide had miraculously pulled out of his arse...other gems included, "only five more minutes until we are there", " the horse will carry your backpacks" and...my favourite, " tomorrow we will walk all downhill and flat"... Despite, the suprises along the way, this trek had magnificent scenery, we had a great group of Aussies and poms; and  it was an unbelievable achievement to finish the trek in one piece!!

We arrived at Macchu Picchu at 5.30am on day 5 and had an interesting tour detailing the history of the Inca empire and the sacred significance of Machu Picchu..after this as if we hadn´t done enough walking, we opted to climb the one hour trek up to Waynapicchu- the Mountain overlooking Machu Picchu and the house of the temple of the moon ( Inca culture often involved a balance between the sun and moon ). This truly made the trek worthwile and it was amazing to visit a place of such cultural significance!