We caught a 6 hour bus for Arequipa on the morning of the 8th. We were the only gringos on the bus and Kat had to help the locals to find their seats as they couldnt read. We spent the afternoon exploring Arequipa and making plans for the Colca canyon tour starting the following day - another 3am wake up and 2 days of hiking ahead of us! We wanted to find traditional local cuisine for dinner and tried stuffed chilli peppers and ceviche. The peppers were tasty but...

At 8am Monday morning we took a 6 hour bus from Cusco to Puno. Arriving at yet another top class hotel we had a couple of hours to sort our selves out before dinner.... Guinea pig! About 5 of the group tried it, it came out whole and got taken away to be cut up. It tasted like the brown part of a chicken/ duck but wasnt enough meat to fill up the guys (Jon went on to order a double cheeseburger afterwards). We all went to a rock and reggae bar after dinner (Posit...

On the Sunday we had planned to visit the Inca museum in Cusco, however it wasn't open. Therefore after a much needed lie in we ventured with the rest of the group to the English restaurant followed by the highest Irish bar in the world (Paddy's bar) to watch Usain Bolt win the 100 metres. The afternoon was spent in the market where we bought alpaca jumpers and then enjoying the beautiful views surrounding Cusco.

Day one of the Inca trail was easy going, a warm up day which allowed us to enjoy the sunshine and amazing scenery along the route. Our group consisted of 14 gringos (the local name for white people) 2 guides, 2 chefs and 16 porters to carry everything - the tents, cooking equipment, food, drink and six kg of our luggage (around 25kg in total). They were also expected to beat us to our campsites (although that probably wasnt hard at times!) to get everything sort...

We arrived in Cusco at around 3pm, everyone starving by this point! The city is 3395m above sea level so we were warned that altitude sickness might kick in and we were aiming to acclimatise before our trek to Machu Picchu. We went to a restaurant called Jack's which we all welcomed as it was English food and served huge portions! We had a wander around the city which is really beautiful, with the main plaza surrounded by mountains and scattered with villages whi...