Hola amigos y familia

 As you can see from the updated photo album, we have just trekked the famous 4 Day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (and this morning caught a flight to Lima).

 The trek was brilliant, with great weather, a great group and a great bunch of porters, cook and guide.  We imagine that the photos speak for themselves in terms of what is encountered on each day.......?  Anyway, we didn´t find the trek all that difficult but we had practiced some hiking before hand at altitude.  In saying that though, I (Shane) did experience a decent dose of altitude symptons (pins and needles in the extremeties, nausea and dizziness) on reaching the highest pass! 

The trek covers a total of 49 kilometres (with Day 2 being the longest - 16km - and most difficult) and not much of that is level.  Along the way, you pass many other ruins (some very recently discovered) which form part of the original Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  Along with the ruins we were also lucky to hear and see much wildlife and fauna, including, hummingbirds, eagles, geckos, spectacled bears (only heard them) and many types of flowers and plants.

On Day 4 after rising at 4am, we made our way to the Sun Gate for sunrise and were lucky enough to see MP free of mist and cloud (this clarity only lasted about 5 minutes before the mist enveloped the whole site).  The rest of the morning was spent exploring the ruins and climbing the neighbouring mountain, Waynapicchu, to enjoy the best views.

The whole journey was incredible, but it is one of the tourist activities in South America that is so built up and talked about that, for us, the final arrival at MP was almost an anticlimax!  Shocking to say, we know but for us the trek itself was more enjoyable than the actual sight of the ruins.  No doubt others will have a different opinion but this is our postcard and we can write whatever we want!  So there.

But hey, if you haven´t been there yourself, get along and make your own opinion!

 Lots of love

Shane and Sarah

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