Hi,

Four tired legs writing from Peru.

We landed in Lima after a long trip from Miami and decided to fly directly to Cusco. Cusco has an altitude of 3400m, so we needed 4 days to aclimitise before hiking the Inca trail. Cusco is a beautiful alpine town, very warm days and extremely cold nights. We staying at a great hostel, with warm water showers, duvets and good food! With a view over Cusco.

Thursday morning we started our 4day hike to Machu Picchu. We were in a group of 10, 2 english couples, an aussie-nz couple and 2 brazilien brothers.We had a guide called King of the Mountain and 13 porters, carrying our tents, food, camping chairs, tables and some more.

The first day was very easy, only 10km. The second day is the hardest. We only hiked 12km, BUT we climbed 1200m reaching an altitude of 4200m Sofia really struggled, but then you have the porters running past you carrying 20kilos, that sort of makes you stop moaning! Phil carried about 8-9kilos and Sofia 6kilos, but we still made it to the checkpoint 1.45h ahead of schedule!The scenery through out the hike is stunning,I ve never experienced anything like it! It was great to reach the camp after the second day, chilling in our tent and enjoying a lovely dinner. The food was great throughout the hike. That night was bloody freezing, we had summer sleeping bags!!!

Third day was also hard, initially 400m up and then around 1200m down over 14km. We started to see a lot of inca sites and we could feel we were getting closer to our goal. Up until lunchtime that day the weather had been fantastic, hot sunshine from 7 in the morning each day...BUT...then the rain came in earnest. The next 3 hours we walked through low cloud and drizzle. Again was a blessing reaching the camp. That night we had a hot shower and after that a great last dinner with the group.

Fourth and final day, we got up at 4am and started our hike to the SunGate, only to be greeted by cloud covering the initial view of what we had walked 42k to see. Our group decided to hang back for an hour and it all paid off, it was a great experince to see Machu Picchu - The Lost City appear through the mist. That was the highlight, by the time we reached the ruins we were very tired and jaded. Unfortunately Machu Picchu can also be accessed by train and bus, so we were greeted by a lot of tourbusses of tourists. we felt somewhat cheeted, but knew we had made the pilgrimage over the mountains like the old Incas. We have to say that we enjoyed the hike more, then walking around Machu Picchu. We were also disapointed to learn that over 60% had been reconstructed and using modern day techniques including concrete.

Summary

• 42km hike
• Maximum altitude 4200m
• 2200 steps
• Great scenery and inca sites
• A lot of smelly hikers
• Humbled by porters running the route
• SunGate view- made the toil worth it

Over and Out for now

sofia and phil

PS. Mamma Gustafsson, detta ar nagot for dej! Jag tog 200 kort, men jag tro du skulle ta fler om du var har. Naturen ar helt underbar och Machu Picchu ar ocksa valdigt intresant. Maten var god och man sover okey i talten. Var guide var okey, aven om han repeterade allt flera ganger. Jag kommer anda inte ihag ett anda namn pa all vaxter...