We arrived in Cuzco and instantly felt pretty light headed. We soon realised that it wasn't the fact that We'd just stepped off the scariest ever flight (Peruvian pilots don't seem to have much compassion for their passengers) but because the air is so thin up here.

Pete was pretty confident that having done the Annapurna Trek in Nepal, the altitude wouldn't affect him at all and initially it didn't at all.......

The rest of our group had managed to get in the Inca Trail but we booked too late for the passes so were doing the Lares Trek. 3 days of just us, the guide, the cook and a porter!

After a day visiting sites around the sacred Valley to acclimatise we were picked up at dawn to start our adventure. We felt very lucky that our guide, Alex, was a real sweetie and knew we were in good hands. He took us to the pharmacy first thing as I'd managed to pick up some kind of cold/flu thing and was starting the trek with a snotty nose and temperature. Great!

The first day of the trek was supposed to be the easiest (only 4 hours of trekking) but I found it really difficult mentally and with the breathing. Altitude turned me into an 80 year old lady, taking baby steps and stopping every 10 steps to wheeze for 5 minutes! About 20 metres from our camp I actually shut down just thinking that I really couldn't make it. Pete was a superstar and him and Alex practically dragged me up the last few steps.

Alex was a fantastic guide. We thought it would be pretty awkward being just the 3 of us ( the cook and porter RUN on ahead!!!!) but when he wasn't telling us the history of Peru, both modern and Inca, he liked to talk about his favourite films and had a penchant for the classic action and horror films of the 80s; think Indiana Jones, Nightmare on Elm Street....

Day 2 and I woke up feeling amazing. Pete however was in trouble. Worse than the worst hangover imaginable, he couldn't even eat breakfast as his head felt like it was about to explode. We'd camped at 4200m the equivalent of the highest point on the Inca Trail and still had to get to 4600m, the highest point on the hardest day of the trek. Alex got us up though!! Like a trouper he played motivational tunes to us from his phone to get us up the last bit. So we had The Eye of the Tiger and the Rolling Stones' Paint it Black as the soundtrack to our mountain triumph! Imagine feeling like Rocky at the top of a mountain seeing for miles in every direction and not a single other soul around, it was so exhilarating! We also knew it was downhill next, not for long as we had another peak to climb afterwards, but by lunch it was downhill for two days. We stopped for lunch and Pete's headache took over again. He couldn't eat and just lay face down on the ground for an hour and a half. As soon as we got up to walk again he was fine, but we never realised how painful downhill can be on the knees and calves. After 4 hours more walking, we were exhausted when we finally reached camp. However we had a new discovery. A two inch strip of sunburn across to bottom of Pete's back from his lunchtime siesta! At this point it was pretty red but by two days later it had blistering and we'd realised he had 2nd degree burns!!

Day 3 was pretty easy in comparison. A short 4 hour walk to Ollantaytambo, arriving so proud of ourselves, burnt, head aching and wheezing! We ended with a train trip to Aguas Calientas, the closest town to Matchu Pitcchu, to get a good nights sleep, ready to face the iconic Inca ruins the next day.

On the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientas we get a bit mushy thinking about how lucky we were with our trek. All the other tourists are flocking to the windows as we travelled through beautiful valleys. All I could think was, 'we were higher and way more isolated, this is nothing in comparison'. Even though it was so hard, having finished we could look back on the trek as an amazing achievement.

Matchu Pitcchu the next day was absolutely awesome. Everyone has seen the photos but you can't even get a fraction of the size and grandeur from them. A fantastic climax to the previous few days!