16-10-10
So, went Paraglyding this morning, a few of us with a hangover, after our first proper night out last night, although i felt fine at 8am when we had to leave. We drove up to the Sacred Valley, which is where we will be starting our Inka Trail in few days. After a bit of waiting around and me being hyper as one of those duracell rabbits, mainly because i was still slightly drunk and excited at the prospect of Paraglyding. I finally got to go.......and ....what a feeling, was the first thing that made me realise where the hell i was and why i was hear. It was the most exillerating feeling ever, couldn´t get this stupid grin off my face. we flew 600m above ground. I had a massive wird feeling off ´wow, i´m actually doing this, this is something other people tell me they´ve done and i get jealous, but i´m now actually doing it!!!´. THe rest of the day was spent mulling around, buying supplies ready to start the Inka Trail in two days time.

17-10-10
So today was a drive to our start town for Inka Trail tomorrow of Owantaytambo. The town was literraly at the start of the Andes with beautiful mountainous back drop, which was lush to see. The people in the village were really chilled, we went up some near Inka ruins, to blow coca leaves for good luck on our trail. Our guide couldn´t find any coca leaves so we used a coca tea bag, which was pretty funny and instead of blowing into the valley, the wind changed direction and blew into us!! SO don´t know if we annoyed the Inka gods or made them laugh?? If you believe in that sort of thing?

18/10/10
Today was start of our Inka Trail, we met our two guides Ifra and Miguel, as our normal guide has to pay for himself if he wants to do it, so we will be meeting him in Machu Picchu. THe guides were quite funny, Ifra was a very big Peruvian, with and incredible moustache (noted for Movember), and kept referring to us as ´People´whenever telling us to ´move´´ etc. Miguel was a bit quiter, didn´t speak english as good, but was very cheeky and funny and they were like a double act most the day. So we started the Inka Trail, relatively easy day today, just the 10k, up and downs, getting used to it. Everyone was using ´walking sticks´although i had hired some, i was only going to use them if i was really struggling. Whilst doing the trail, we met our porters (as they were running past us). THese guys (18) carry our clothes (we carried day bags), tents, tables, cooking stuff...basically they all carry 25kg every day through the Inka Trail, aiming to get to the next day before us to set up. We finished the first day and tents were all set up, food was cooking, porters clapped us in (felt kind of inferior, seeing as they just done what we did running and carrying 25kg). We met all the porters that day also, getting to know each other with a bit of translation, the eldest porter was 55!! The food that night was amazing, 3 course meal, well impressed with the standard considering, their conditions. We had to leave at 6am the next day, so everyone was practically in bed by 9:30pm, very strange!!

19-10-10
Today was to be our hardest day...12k, 7k of it up hills steps etc, 800m climb in total to our highest point on the trek of 4200m above sea level. Weather was pretty rainy and legs we starting to go, but still refused to use sticks (I know i know, i´m stubborn as hell). We left at 6m this morning, and managed to get to the peak at around 10am. Was really hard, but hell of an achievement when we got there, and we knew it was all down hill the rest of that day. Due to crappy weather, when we got to the top you couldn´t see anything but clouds, and it was absolutely freezing, so didn´t stay there long, before trying a bit of running down hill to our 2nd campsite. Got our longest trek tomorrow of 16k, but last day before Machu Picchu!

20-10-10
AS mentioned it was the longest day today 16k of up and down. At one point got the sticks out but after 5 minutes didn´t like them as couldn´t balance properly without free hands, so scrapped that. Saw quite a few more Inka sites today which was really cool, learnt quite a bit about them, although was so tired brain wasn´t functioning as normally, more like when i was in college (close to none existent). Was up and down all day and one part of it, we played ´Catch the Porter´. As one came running past, we tried keeping up with him, which we did for a while, but thought one of us are going to fall flat on our faces at some point, so stopped. I couldn´t get the theme tune from ´Catch the pigeon´´ out of my head rest of the day!! Got to the camp site and it had a bar there, so we had a few drinks after dinner around 8:30pm, just sitting across from all the ice capped mountains in the andes, was quit a beautiful site at night! Didn´t stay long though as we had to get up at 3:30am next morning to go and cue for the last bit of the trail as it opened at 5:30am, and all other groups will go, we were actually getting up later than others, but as our guide Ifra said ´Machu Picchu will still be there, no matter what time we get there, plus we were faster than most other groups!

21-10-10
Woke up still pitch black, felt really odd, fumbling around, although my alarm did go off i didn´t need one as i had the volcanic snoring of my tentmate to wake me up which i kept thinking he was going to erupt at any moment. So we were one of the last in the cue, and one of us put music on so we could sing and dance like idiots in the cue. Standing there, on the mountains it kind of reminded me of the game ´Lemmings´ ready to go through obstacles etc and trying not to fall off the edge!! So we did the trek and over took alot of people, pace is good in this, altough today was boiling hot, so was sweating like Nick Griffin in a Black Power conference. We got to Machu Pichu and that was it.....felt a bit wierd, Machu Pichu was beautiful and we had a tour for 2 hours, but i think we were so tired, couldn´t take it in properly. Was very busy when we got there at 8am, we all felt a bit wierd that the journey was over. THe journey seemed to be the main bit of it, and we all loved the messing about, helping each other out etc.
Afterwards we went to Machu Picchu town where we met our guide Alim at 11:30....first beer to celebrate...tasted soooo good!! Machu Picchu town is a bit touristy and apparently the porters hate it and i can see why, at one point we had 3 people literally fighting over 6 of us to get us in their bar!! 6 drinks for 6 pound bargain!
Went back to Cusco then in the day, i slept alot of it, was knackerd, knees hurt, can´t stop shaking when i stand up, but did the whole thing without the damned sticks!!! I know have buns of steel, and if i don´t see another step in my entire life it will be too soon, if there was a stairway to heaven, i´d tell him where to go and say íts easier going down hill, so i´ll do that´!´

Got Lke titcaca to look forward to now, along with Bolivia next week!!