ok well our start of the tour was a lot later than we had originally thought as due to bad lima weather (always foggy) the first flight to cuzco was cancelled so we didnt have to leave til 8 instead of 4 so rather happy about that!! Got on flight and arrived in cuzco in the arvo and headed to bed staright away to get acclimatised to the altitude. Later on we got up and had a look around the town at the cathedral, fountain etc. That night we had dinner with some of our group and also tried Chicha drink which is black corn - its supposed to taste like ribena but i didnt like it much. Next day we headed to Ollantaytambo in the sacred valley. I really should mention our tour guide here - his name was Percy and he was a really knowlegable man - he has done the inca trail over 300 times so knows it well. He is from the region so speaks quechua and spanish. Anyway, we drove passed the white Christ which was a gift given to cuzco from fleeing WWII jews. We stopped at an arquelogoical site where i bumped into gemma and natalie who i had met on my outback tour in OZ. We drove into a local community in the hills where we saw local women weaving, llamas and local artesan stuff. We had lunch in a place called pisaq where we drank cup loads of coca tea to reduce the altitude sickness. After eating we went to a locals house where the woman showed us how to make alcoholic chicha and showed us loads of dif types of corn. Also, we saw the cute guinea pigs but they were only there to be fattened up to then be eaten - pobrecitos!!! Furthermore, we learnt how to play the drinkin game called sapo (frog). Arrived in ollantaytambo in the early evening where we bought a walking stick from the locals which was recommended to us from loads of people. Then had an early dinner with tour people again before settling down to a last nights of decent sleep before the trail!! Day 1 inca trail Woke early and headed in the bus where we drove to Km82 where we embarked on the voyage of the unknown........ok well not really but this was the beginning of the trail. It started off ok as was rather flat but the group quickly split with the faster ones speeding ahead and the slower one strailing behind - but as normal i didnt fit into either of these groups so me and jo just walked in the middle of them!! In the mornng we walked for about 4hours then stopped at an ice cold river to dip our feet into. Our lunch was really good had soup for starters then a mains which was the same for the rest of the trail but at least it was good food. So in the arvo i continued chomping on my coca leaves - man i think i was addicted and struggled up the hill towards our camp spot for that night where i found the faster group already there doing thier stretches! Dinner was served at 7ish then after nothing to do so slept as tomo very early start. The best thing abou tthe camp spot was the number of stars you could see - literally thousands - so beautiful! Day 2 Hardly slept at all as q cold and really uncomfortable and had to wake at 5!! Today was the hardest and longest day of the trail. The mornings walk was 4hours more or less up hill up dead womans pass - now this part was an absolute b***** plus it was a really hot day which didnt help matters. So i struggled and huffed and puffed up this friggin hill and made it up only 30mins after the faster group so was pretty happy with that. To get to lunch was about 1hr30 down hill which you think would be easier as down hill but hurts your knees so much!! Now you think here that im moaning like hell but thats not the case im just explaining the difficulties of this trail - the scenery on the other hand was amazing and totally worth all that struggling up the hill!! In the arvo we had 4 hours more down hill towards our camp site and made it before dark - thank god - as some groups who left later than we did walked in the dark down the stony track whihc couldnt have been easy! So anyway, this camp site wasnt great as the toilets were a lil distance but thats prob a good thing as they smelt!! Day 3 Again i didnt sleep well at all but today was no way as ahrd as yesterday - me and jo still stayed in the middle of the two groups as were comfortable with our pace. Today was a load of up and down so q varied. Whilst walking to our lunch spot we saw a snake so Amy took a photo and when we showed it to percy he informed us it was poisonous - now im not sure if he was having us on or not or was deadly serious but inthis case im gonna say that i saw a poisonous snake as that soounds better than it couldve been poisonous!! In the arvo we had to walk downhill and along the railway track to our camp site as 2 months ago there was a land slide at the sun gate so had to find an alternate route so walked down towards the town of aguas calientes -we had the choice of stayin in aguas calientes or camping but we all chose to camp as thats why we were there. Our second choice was to either walk upto machu picchu in the morning by leaving at 4 or taking the bujs - me and jo both decieded to walk as hadnt walked all that way to then get the bus to machu picchu. Anway, at this camp site the local porters and the guys from our group played a bit of footie then had dinner and collapsed for the night! Day 4 woke at 3.30 and struggled to get up! We left at 4am and walked to aguas calientes where we said goodbye to our second guide Hubert who had a baby girl the day before so we were then led up the hill by one of the porters. I struggled like mad up the hill as didnt feel too good but the thing is we made it! We arrived at machu picchu before sun rise and sat there looking at the ruins watching the sun rise over it but not much of a spectacular scene as loads of clouds around. Then we started our 2hr guided tour of the ruins led by percy - it was amazing to see the ruins and see they all were. After we looked around and then got some much needed food! Spent some more time in the ruins then decided it was too friggin hot to stay there anymore so got the bus to aguas calientes where we had to meet. I was feeling pretty rough by this point so on the train on the way back and on the bus i pretty much slept!! Got back to cuzco and died!! The trail was really hard but totally amazing - really worth it and the ruins at the end are so much better so see in person than in photos!! So that was the inca trail part of our tour - we are off to the amazon basin tomo to look at some wildlife!! love nikki xx