WOW! The Inca Trail was quite something! Although we didn't do the traditional route we still got to do a fabulous trek around the sacred valley on original Inca routes. It was really tough going, especially on the third day when we had to climb up to 4800m! We were all breathing poorly and had headaches by the time we got to the top. It was an incredible view from up there though, even better than the previous day where we looked down on some stunning lagoons! The camping was good - we had cooks who did 3 course meals every night and they woke us up each morning with a cup of coca tea and hot water to wash in! It was like luxury camping...I'm not looking forward to going back to the camping we did before on the truck! Machu Picchu was incredible too. We had to get the train and the bus there rather than walking in though it really didn't matter. The views were incredible despite the weather being pretty poor. It really is as amazing as it looks in te photos and its fascinating to see the buildings...how do they not fall down?! We also got to spend some time in two communities on the trip. On the second morning we got together with some local children and helped plant trees with them which was fun. We had to learn Quechua to communicate with the kids and we tried to teach them a bit of English. We spent the next night camping near the head rangers house and we got to see how he lives which was pretty cool. We spent ages asking him questions and then he tried to get the Canadian man we're with to marry his eldest daughter! He declined in the end as he didn't think he'd make a very good potato farmer!