26/11/12 We had a great night's sleep - our last one in a bed for 3 nights - got up, packed up and went for breakfast. It was then into the minivan with our duffel bags and our guide for the Inca Trail - David. 45minutes later we arrived at the start of the Inca Trail. We collected our hired stuff (Just walking sticks for me), had a last wee stop and collected our snacks before walking down to the first check point at KM82. We also had a group photo taken at the...

The journey to Ollantaytambo took us through the beautiful scenery of the sacred valley for around an hour before we arrived at our hotel. We checked in and got ourselves sorted before going into Ollantaytambo to explore. It's a quaint village with cobble streets, burbling water courses and yellow stone building. The main attraction is the huge Inca terraces and store houses built on a number of the mountains which surround the village. After strolling down one...

24/11/12 Back at the hostal we left our big bags and got into the mini-bus with the first stop being a shop where we could buy some gifts for our host families. Not knowing the ages of the children Neil and I bought a range of stuff hoping it'd be suitable. Back in the van we dove high up over Cusco to the statue of Jesus on the hill - a replica of Christ the Redeemer in Rio - where we got some stunning views of Cusco below. An hour or so later we arrive at Cc...

Bright and early we were awoken from our partial slumber on the bus at 6am arriving in Cusco. A short minibus journey took us from the bus station to our hotel where our rooms were not quite ready. After registering, we left our bags behind as Eli took us on a quick tour of the town starting at the main square, Plaza de Armas around the corner. He showed us the Basilica before pointing out the 12 pointed rock, a very famous stone in a very famous Inca-built wall...

21/11/12 After a fairly nice breakfast at the hotel we were collected by our tour guide for our trip. We said goodbye to Eli and collected a few others before driving a short way to a little shop where we bought some colca sweets. These are made from coca leaves and help with altitude sickness. I was willing to try anything having woken up with a head ache and tummy ache. We then drove up through the Andes and stopped at a little cafe for some coca tea to prepa...