My alarm woke me up at 5am and I turned the light switch but no light. Me and my dad soon found out there was no electricity in the hotel for some reason. So my dad had to go down to reception and they gave us a wax candle in a glass Coca-cola bottle. We took our duffle bags down to reception and put our rucksacks in storage. We had a quick roll and jam an tried to eat it in the dim candle light. At 6am our bus arrived and picked us up, it took us to a nearby plaza where we picked up our porters and guide, Milu. We then drove high above the city of Cusco through the poor suburbs into the Andean mountains. We were soon above the clouds, a stark reminder of how high we are; 11,000ft. We arrived at the Inca village of Ollantaytambo and were immediatley set upon by Peruvian vendors selling coca leaves, wooden "sturdy girl" sticks, hats, stupid water bottle carriers etc. I bought a bag of coca leaves, camouflage hat and a sturdy girl. My dad got himself a sturdy girl too. They all urged us to buy: "Amigo only 5 soles, es necesario (you need it)". We hopped back on the bus, delighted with our "sturdy girls". The bus then drove us along a precarious dusty road to "Km 82" (the starting point of the Inca trail). We walked across the railway lines through a control where we had to show our passports and tickets. We then walked uphill with our new trail mates from Cork, Ireland. Our group was an eclectic Celtic mix; Kathy- a lawyer, Naomi- gardener, Padraig- accountant, Sean- IT consultant and Anne-Marie- physio. They all packed in their jobs to go travelling around the world. We continued walking at a steady pace with Milu pointing out things of interest; such as Witches broom (used by Incas as a contraceptive) pod-like fruit (super for your health) Trumpet flower (hallucenogenic properties). There was also a cactus with white mould-like stuff on parts of it. When the mould is collected and rubbed together it becomes a dye which is apparently semi-permenant (4 days). My dad was the willing guinea-pig and had a red cross marked on the back of his hand. We continued further along the trail stopping for a break at a wooden shelter. We ate the snacks provided to us by the trail company. There were several groups resting there. A pig and dog were sniffing around our feet for any crumbs whilst two opposing stall girls cried out in unison "Agua, gaseosa, gatorade" every time a gringo hiker walked by. While we rested here a loud irritating American was spraffing away about her trip to Europe. She was talking about all the funny accents and tried to imitate a Scottish accent. It was the worst imitation ever, I thought the English were bad with the usual quip: "Och aye the noo" but this was awful. I wanted to walk over and say this is a Scottish accent. We continued up the mountain and had to climb some knee-jarring steps. We reached the first Inca ruin called Llaqtapata. It was really impressive and well..huge. We had a great view of the ruins and then walked further up the mountain until we reached a small village. We chilled out while our porters (special mention: these guys are super human, they carry 25kg on their back and run by us so by the time we reach camp they`ve got the tents, food etc all done) made our lunch. I went to the toilet which was just a hole in the ground and stank (open cesspit). We were starving and slurped our soup, gulped our spaghetti bolognese and chips, then sipped our mate de coca teas. We continued on through some dense forest and reached a small village selling the alcoholic corn drink "chicha" denoted by the red stick hanging from the village entrance. We finally reached our campsite nestling in a valley near the Inca site of Wayllambamba (3,000m). We chatted on the grass outside our tents and waited on our dinner. An adorable little leathery-skinned Peruvian girl came down with a yellow bucket full of water and beers. I bought some water from her and she sat with us for a while laughing for no apparent reason (maybe that I`d been ripped off for my water :) We had some popcorn and crackers while we waited on the dinner. Later for dinner we had: soup, trout, mushrooms and veg. Followed by cups of tea for dessert. It was really dark outside and the stars were absolutely spectacular! We played the addictive card game called s***head. Anne-Marie was s***head everytime....we went to bed at 9pm as we are getting up at 5.30am!!