Inka Trail Followed by Hot Springs

16km of trekking

Early start. Up and up a very steep and intense hill (mountain?) for about 2 hours to get to the start of an original Inka Trail. Google the Inkas if you're interested cos that would take WAY too much writing and I was only really half listening to all the history stuff to repeat it properly anyway! All I'm going to tell you is that this Inka Trail was extremely narrow with a sheer drop on one side..eek! The views were beautiful looking down onto Urubamba river. We stopped (thank god. I was knackered. Being the oldest (and fattest) person in the group I was now lagging way behind everyone) a few times en route. One time he said I need a volunteer, as he stopped next to a bush. Everyone said no, so it was up to me to eat the tiny 4mm green thing. It was a CHILLI!! An extremely hot one! But I pretended it was ok so the others ate it too he he...wimps!

We saw bananas in abundance, tiny mangoes, an avocado, lemons, oranges, pineapples all growing in bushes right next to us. We stopped at a family home (also wanting to take advantage of the tourists) who owned a Capuchin monkey. He was tied up on an extremely short piece of rope but we were assured this was only for our protection and he was normally allowed to roam free. (well the protection of our property - he has a habit of stealing things and one time a tourist took whatever he stole back, which resulted (quite rightly in my opinion) in a bite.

We walked more then stopped at another family who had a Beaver. Yes a beaver. On a table seemingly on display for us to take photos. He was called Alfredo and was extremely tame. As was the teeny tiny Emperor monkey called Mona Lisa on a much longer rope who jumped on our necks and cuddled us at every opportunity. At this stage we were given a talk and display about the cocoa and coffee leaves and were allowed to taste pure cocoa mixed with honey. Delicious.

We passed by 2 men building a house. by actually MAKING their own bricks first! They put some mud mixture with grass and other stuff in a hand made brick mould and left it to dry in the sun for 3 days before it was dry enough to use! Flippin mental!

We crossed a bridge and Marco said we could have a swim in the river. I was so hot, sweaty and sore from the mosquitoes biting my mosquito bites, this was a must! The reason there are no pics with any other group members actually IN the water is cos they are NO FUN AT ALL! Not even the German kids! And at this point I think this was the best part of the day for me! Walking around in my soaking wet clothes afterwards was no different from the sweaty ones!

We crossed the massive river on a pulley and cart device. You need to see the pics to understand this one. I'll even try and get the video on cos it was fab!

We crossed the massive river on an old rickety bridge which swung and bobbed up and down at every step. Brilliant fun! Obviously I took great delight in terrorising my other group members at this point by running and jumping around on it while they were tip toeing along being careful of the missing planks of wood. Older, fatter AND the most immature it seems.

Lunch, followed by even more walking. To Santa Theresa hot springs. Delicious. We all had a giggle taking underwater pics and let the aches and pains from all the walking melt away. How unfortunate though that we had to put our disgusting (and in my case still soaking wet from my earlier swim) clothes back on!

We got to our next hostel with plenty of time to clean up before dinner at 1930. Out came the keys again and I was expecting the same room situation but I actually screamed in delight when I was given my own room! Finally the knickers (and everything else) can be hung up!

My mosquito bites are now at the stage where the blisters are popping. Imagine gremlins when water is poured on them and you've pretty much got it. I feel disgusting.

WARNING: disgusting talk

I now have brand new definitions of clean and dirty clothes. Dirty is when you've been sweating like a pig all day and your clothes all stick to you. Sweat is dribbling from the top of your head all the way down to your boots. You have pee in your pants due to either going natural or using the disgusting, no loo roll, no toilet seat (mum why did you never teach us to hover?) drip dry toilets that are typical of Peru. Snot is wiped all over, well, anything you're wearing cos the toilet paper you have for emergencies is soaking wet with, yep you got it, sweat! Clean is everything else. Regardless of the fact it's been worn every night for the last 6 nights and has stains.

Zip lines tomorrow. WOOP WOOP! xxx