I have been negligent! *dodges arrows and other various pointy objects lobbed in general direction*. Sorry!!!! I want to let you know that I will continue to update here - especially once I arrive in New Zealand *evil cackle*. So for now, over the next few days I will catch up on what I have managed to slack on. So. The last you heard of me was when I was in Cusco, readying myself to go on a Lares Trek (which had been shortened from 4 to 3 days due to illness of members of our group). Our guides were to be Coco and Mr Smith. Can you imagine?! This was a good sign. Humorous names are always a good sign. But then Coco was replaced by Luis and some of our fun was diminished. Sigh. The name Mr Smith kept us going though. He had a cool hat. Looked like a blue pudding bowl that had been upturned on his head. Anyway, we set off early (surprise surprise) and had about an hour bus journey to the starting point of our trek, partway stopping off to admire the view of the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley was named after the river running through it, whose name roughly translates to 'the sacred river'. The valley is extremely fertile and in ancient times the Incas apparently grew over 70 different varieties of corn alone. Even today about 20-25 varieties are still grown, along with wheat, maize.... The first day I kept up fairly well (we were given a packet of Oreo cookies at the start for snacking. Yum). We were told that the first two days were going to be solid uphill and let me tell you, they weren't lying. Sadly. After about 4 hours of trekking we turned a corner and lo and behold! There before our disbelieving eyes sat a table and chairs, complete with table cloth, cutlery, bowls of warm water, soap and hand towels. This was better than most hostels we'd been to! The food was glorious (after all it IS food glorious food... :) ) and we had esparragus soup followed by gourmet sandwiches (ham, cheese, olives, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc). After lunch we were told it would be another few hours trekking but not long after another hour of an easier path we were at the campsite! We set up our tents beneath a glacier and had tea. Or perhaps I should say 3 mugs of hot chocolate each. And crackers. And pineapple jam. Then we sat around, had the evening entertainment (provided by my tent group) and had dinner, followed by chocolate mousse. In total our trekking entourage consisted of porters, 2 guides, an ambulance (horses) and an ambulance driver, a chef and a waiter (called Santos); but we only ever walked with the guides and ambulance driver. The next morning was an early wake up for a change, followed by tea served in our tents, breakfast and a long, steep uphill climb, which wasn't actually as hard as we'd been led to believe. It was still hard though and for many of the group reaching the top of the highpass was one of the highlights of the entire trip. Then we had lunch (by a large lake) and more walking (thankfully downhill from here on out). I think the only things that really kept me going was Claire nattering on behind me and the prospect of the hot springs in front of me. That night the toilet facilities were somewhat downgraded and we shared a campsite with Andy's group. It was nice seeing everyone again and discovering what had really happened for Sarah's 18th in that bar in Cusco. We also voted that we'd take the shorter route the next day and avoid climbing up another highpass. Thank goodness. The last day of our trek was also Independence Day. We got pancakes for breakfast and had a relatively easy trek to the town of Lares and it's hot springs. When we arrived there was a parade going on so we stopped for a while to enjoy that before walking the final km or so to the springs. There we washed and I was mighty miffed to discover what I had thought was a developing tan was actually dirt and dust. Bummer. And then we went home. And funnily enough did not go to sleep. Oh no. We went back to Cusco, dropped off our stuff and went clubbing where we all danced on the bar in time to 'Cotton Eyed Joe' in the club Mythology (only for gods) and Mama Africa. A member of our team did a spectacular dive backwards off of the bar and into the poor barmaid, spilling over 2 litres of coke over both of them and the other she'd managed to pull down with her. THEN we went to sleep. And sleep well I did. Well, until soon my friends. Adieu. Moi. :)