We were picked up from our hotel at 8am and driven to KM 82, where we gave our duffle bags to the porters. We had our pictures taken by the Inca Trail sign then some guy took our picture with an old film camera. Dimas said it was for the government just in case we go missing on the trail and they will know who they are looking for. I hope he is joking!?! Today is the easiest days hike as it is pretty flat. We stopped for lunch ar 12.30pm where the porters had pot up the dining shelters for us. The chef made soup and vegetable patties wirh chicken salad... adds a new meaning to camp food. The best thing about the trail is they sell Inca Kola along the way, whcih has replaced my diet coke addiction, god knows what i'm going to do once I leave South America. They also sell Strawberry Corn beer for the porters, I really want to try it but Dimas reckons it will make me ill as i'm not used to the bacteria in it!! The campsite we are staying at in Yunkachimpa is surrounded by mountains so the view is fantastic plus there is a house near by so they sell beer :-) Tomorrow is suppose to be the hardest days hike as it is uphill most of the day to get to the dead woman pass. Not sure why it is called that, maybe I will feel like a dead woman by the time I get there!

01/08/09
We are woken up at 5:30am to start hiking at 6:40am. The dead woman pass is 4215m above sea level so the ascent up there is hard on the lungs. I felt like someone was squeezing my lungs. Other than that it actually wasn't that difficult, Although i'm used to walking hills. Dimas let us walk at our own pace rather than as a group, Marl, Silvi and I got to the dean woman pass at 11;30am and decided to wait for Don, my dad, Sue and Margert for a group photo, so we all got a nice 1 1/2 break. The campsite is down in the valley in Paqaymayo. We attived at 2:15pm so had a lot of free time before dinner. We can see the next Inca Site, Runkuraqay from our campsite, it looks like tomorrow is more uphill walking. There is no beer at this site so we are kept entertained by playing cards using torn pieces of paoper as chips.

02/08/09
Wake up call is at 5am, I've had zero sleep due to dad and Don´s snoring! We stopped for lunch at 12:05 so I slept for an hour and was feeling fat more human. This part of the trail is actually quite scary as the path has a drop into the rainforest on one side. I feel down some steps and nearly off the edge at one point. Then Silvi told me about a Czech girl who fell behind her group and she dissappeared. They think she must of fallen off the trail but they have never found her body. I started walking alot slower from that point! This is out last night of camping and the site has hot showers and a bar. It was a race to get back to the site first to have a shower. I'm not sure how clean I will actually be as I will be putting dirty clothes back on and sleeping in the smelly bag! Once 'clean' we brought beer and Inca Kola and walked to the final Inca site of Winaywayna which is pretty amazing... although I can imagine Machu Pichu will be far better tomorrow. The chef cooked a sponge cake with was iced, i'm not sure how you can do that on a camping stove! We had a leaving ceremony for the porters and the chef to thank them for all of their work over the last few days.

03/08/09
We are woken up at 4am and have to sit in the bar until 5:20am. We walked down to the check point which opens at 5:30am and made our way to Machu Picchu. As the sun started to rise we realised how cloudy it was, you couldn't even see the person in front! Once we got to the sun gate it starts to rain and Dimas says the cloud probably won't clear today. At that point me and Silvi are nearly in tears and start saying we are going to wait at the sun gate until the cloud clears even if we are still there next week. Dimas starts joking that its cloudy because he didn't sacrifice me to the gods... at this point I had no sense of humour as I wanted to see Machu Picchu like the picture that has been on my computer for the last 6 months. After walking (more like dragging my feet) for another 10 mins we turn a corner and the cloudt clears for a minute and we get a glace of Machu Pucchu, it is absolutlry amazing. After that i'm the happiest person in the world. Dimas gives us a guided tour of Machu Picchu and then we have to say goodbye... we were all quite sad as he is quite funny and a bit crazy! Our train back to Cusco is not until 5;30pm so we get the bus from Machu Picchu to Aguas Callentes and spend the afternoon drinking beer and eating pizza. The train journey is rather rocky but we sneaked on some beer so it made it quite fun. Margert and Sue are leaving the tour tomorrow. Margert needs to go back to Lima to sort out her passport and Sue is going back to work. They both live in Melbourne so I'm going to meet up with them in September once I get to Oz.