So hello again.  As I write this I am in Cusco recovering from just completing the Inca Trail...  I am going for a massage later today to help my achey muscles!

Cusco is exactly as I remember it...  and just as lovely - athough there seems to be more people hassling you on the street trying to sell you everything from a shoe shine to postcards to a puppy dog!  Today I have spent relaxing and doing some shopping and generally recharging batteries.  The Inca Trail was tough, but thoroughly rewarding.

We started the trail on Tuesday, when we had an easy few hours walk across mostly flat terrain.  It perhaps lulled us all into a sense of false security, thinking that may be what the rest of the trail was like....  how that view changed 24 hours later!  Day two was definitely the toughest, and all of us were digging pretty deep in order to get through.  Around five hours of steep uphill climbing, with little or no breaks - made worse by the fact that the rain had set in for the day.  As we hiked from around 3,000 m above sea level to the highest point at 4,200 m the rain turned to snow and things got pretty grim.  The highest point is called "Dead Woman's Pass" - apparently due to an obscure rock formation that looks like a woman lying in rest.  I think actually it is due to the state of you when you reach the top - I was indeed that dead woman!  Exhausted, cold and wet we stayed only a minute or two for a quick celebration, before having to walk a further two hours back downhill, every step feeling like the uphill struggle was being robbed from us!

The only thing that kept us going that day was the thought of our crew setting up camp ahead of us.  We were a group of 22 people and our crew was 24 strong, including guides, cooks and porters.  When we reached camp that day I could have married the very sweet man who handed me a hot cup of tea as soon as I walked in, then pointed out a tent which had been put up and had all my gear in it ready for me to climb into my sleeping bag to warm up!  Throughout the whole trek, our crew were just amazing - the food we had was easily up to restaurant standard, and was all prepared using gas stoves and the most rudimentary of equipment.  Plus everything had to be carried everywhere we went - those guys were worth every penny they get paid and more.

Day three of the Inca Trail starts off as difficult as day two, but this time the sun was shining which made all the difference!  We visited several archaeological sites along the route breaking up the day, and the afternoon's hike was just stunning.  The trail was less steep, and generally more flat and took us through beautiful sub-tropical rainforest scenery.  We reached our campsite that afternoon to watch the clouds swirling around the mountain peaks aking everything feel very surreal and erie, but breathtakingly gorgeous.

Day four we got up at 2.30 am (yes, you read that correctly!) to make the final push to Machu Picchu in time for sunrise at the Sun Gate - the first major viewpoint of the lost city.  Strange that the most treacherous part of the Inca Trail is left to be completed in pitch dark with just a head torch to light the way, dew making the downhill path perilously slippery and when everyone is soooo tired!  Nonetheless we made it to the Sun Gate just in time - only to find that the fog, ist and cloud was obscuring any view we could possibly have expected!

Slightly disappointed, we pushed on to the site of Machu Picchu desperately hoping that the cloud would burn off.  This time we were far from disappointed.  Within a couple of hours, the fog had cleared revealing a beautiful day, and some of the best views of the lost Inca city.  It was every bit as magical as the first time I saw it nearly four years ago.

Somehow after the exhausting hike to Machu Picchu, I managed to summon the energy required to climb Wayna Picchu - that's the tall mountain you can see in the background of all of the photographs - and yes, it really is that steep in real life!  It really was the icing on the cake to see the site from above on such a clear day!

Now back in Cusco it feels slightly unreal that I have actually done the Inca Trail.  There's a real sense of achievement and of having accomplished something beyond my normal boundaries.  I can't say it wasn't tough, but all I can say is that the brain has a funny way of forgetting so quickly all about the pain of doing something when you finally complete it!  Machu Picchu is definitely worth it!

Anyway, I'm off for my massage soon, and an early night I think before our long drive to the Colca Canyon and Arequipa tomorrow.

I'm just about to update all my photo albums, so have a quick peek if you want to see what I've been up to!

Keep in touch.  Loads of love

Nikki xxxxx