Going through customs at Lima airport was a little amusing. The immigration officer was very serious as you would expect but once we did the formalities, I asked her about the bracelet she was wearing as it was either from Turkey or Greece. She was wearing a bracelet of 'little blue eyes' or matia that warn off evil spirits or curses. If you have been to Greece or Turkey you know what I'm talking about. She immediately started smiling and burst with enthusiasm when I explained that I had Greek heritage. It was a present from a friend and she asked me what the significance of it was. Now explaining this in English can sometimes be a little tricky let alone in broken Spanish. Eventually I got it across that it keeps 'bad luck away'…close enough. She thanked me and I entered the country with a smile…all very random. Off to get my connecting flight to Cusco.

Cusco itself has its own charm but is quite overrun with tourism, yet this was to be expected being the base to visit Machu Picchu and surrounds. At first impression, Peruvians are a bit more reserved than Colombians but still very friendly and helpful. Tourism has been here a lot longer than Colombia so more people speak English although I try Spanish as much as I can especially when I'm out of the town centre. I'm generally using the same phrases and words to ask for what I need but occasionally can make a joke with a local on the bus.

So the main event was of course to hike the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. OK so I didn't do the whole 4 day trek (stop mocking me people you know who you are!!) but the one day experience gave me what I wanted and in the end, it proved to be the right decision. The tour guide said to be ready at 3.45am. It was surreal waiting by the hostel door at this time being completely sober watching all the revelers making their way home after a Saturday night out walking as if they were doing the slalom. So this is what it looks like being on the other side of the fence! My tour guide picked me up 15 mins late and was in a rush and apologetic. I hope this wasn't a sign of things to come, but it did start to feel that way. We had to get to the train station at Ollantayntambo, which was about 1.5-2 hours drive away, so the driver was trying to make up time. Just outside of Cusco, police were doing some random checks on cars. They stopped ours and there was no problem but the policeman still asked the driver to get out of the car and come into the station. Our guide started shaking his head and when I asked him, he confirmed what we were all thinking. The policeman was asking for some cash to let us go. I had heard police were corrupt here but now I saw it for real.

Arriving at the train station, our guide started to stress and get serious (he was making jokes with me the night before in the briefing session) so this was uncharacteristic. Well, it was because he forgot all our tickets and passes for the whole experience…this was not getting any better! For once though the pedantic nature of logging everyone's details and passport numbers into a centralized system (even just for the train) proved to be of use as we could retrieve and reprint the train tickets. First hurdle overcome. After about an hour on the train, it stopped at what seemed in the middle of nowhere (there was no station) and we all got off. Our small group (myself, our guide and a middle aged Belgian couple) made our way to the check point that was 'km 104'. We still had no passes to get into the trail so our guide had to try and get the guards at the check point to retrieve them also. This took some time as the system was not functioning as it should and our guide was getting really stressed. I guess he was somewhat embarrassed as we later found out this was not the first time he had done this. After about 45 mins of waiting we got the all clear and began the trek.

Well to describe the scenery as breathtaking would be an understatement. Yes many people have done this trek and I haven't done many before but it is something special. It wasn't particularly easy and in parts the steps seemed to go up at almost 90 degrees but then you would stop and look around where you were and just stand in amazement. Along the way our guide explained the significance of the valley and the river running through it, the different Inca trails and settlements along the way and the practice of growing and chewing coca leaves. Yes I did chew some and it may have had a slight effect but it may also have been adrenaline running through me, as you needed to focus on where you were putting your feet. One foot wrong and it was a long way down.

We were very lucky that day as the weather was clear and warm the whole time. Sometimes the jungle gave some respite from the heat but at times I felt I could just sit on one of the rocks and admire the vastness of the valley all day. After about 7 hours of trekking we finally began the final ascent to the sun gate. What an exhilarating feeling this was. You climb the steps and all of a sudden the sky opens up and in the distance you see the sacred city basking in the distance in all its glory. Some people cry at this point for various reasons (probably from the sense of achievement) but now I understand this. I wasn't crying but the experience looking down on it following the trek is an amazing feeling. Our guide has done this hundreds of times and he still gets goose bumps reaching this point. We were all so glad we didn't get the train with most of the other tourists. We climbed down even closer to the entrance to the city and some stories were told and personal experiences shared. Our guide told us about an amazing Australian lady who did the trek last year and he thinks about her every time he does the trek now. It's a heart warming story that would be sure to make anyone teary. The Belgian lady at this point revealed that this was also a special achievement for her personally, as 7 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and beat it and now she did this with her husband, as it was a lifelong ambition. I was just silent.

After many pictures were taken we made our way down to Machu Picchu Pueblo (or Aguas Calientes) to spend the night before returning in the morning to have the detailed tour. I mentioned before that the decision to do the one day trek proved lucky as the people who had done the 4 day trek arrived around sunrise but the weather was very cloudy and wet and they would not be able to see anything until hours later when the tourists started arriving. We felt lucky that we got to see it in the sunlight following the trek. Our guide gave us a detailed description of the place and shared a few of his own personal stories and theories. Slightly different to what I had read and some of it seemed a little far fetched but he was very serious when conveying his stories and we all felt we got our money´s worth. Oh yeah, his name was Elvis!