By now airport security had become predictable and routine to the point we were ready for the checks before the guards even spoke, however this time was to present a new experience. Having flown back to New Zealand from Fiji, in order to connect to South America we had to go through international transfers instead of the normal route.

After setting the alarm off and the usual search and bag checks, David was still beeping with the body scanner indicating his ribs were made of metal!!!!!!! The guard dismissed this and let him go, but three steps towards freedom another guard stepped forward and pulled him aside saying he was going to test him and his bag for explosive traces. The guard claimed this was a random check, (YEAH RIGHT) so there he was both him and his bagged swabbed and the samples tested which luckily came out clear and yes it was lucky as the simplest things can show up as positive and then you really are in trouble especially when your internal organs are beeping.

After the mornings interesting events and two flights done we waited around ten hours for our connection flight up to Lima which is where our Inca trip would start. The flight got us into Lima at 11:55pm, but in order to keep hotel bills down we had decided not to book one for this night as we had quite enjoyed our overnight in Auckland airport previously. Lima airport though was a whole different ball game, the place felt uneasy the minute we entered. Throughout the night we had to move a couple of times as the night police seemed very dodgy and kept checking us and our things out in an uneasy way, eventually we took refuge in starbucks coffee shop where the staff were lovely and obviously used to this happening. We had free internet all night and nice big comfy chairs, so that’s where we stayed.

The morning came and we decided it was time to depart to the hotel and we went in search of a reliable taxi firm we were told about, we soon discovered the aircrew had not told us of the time difference and the flight schedule had not indicated it either which was very odd. This basically meant we were unable to leave the airport for another hour, which in Lima airport feels like days.

Our time finally came to head for the hotel and it was not a moment too soon, Carina had slept in the airport while David read books and kept an eye on her and the bags. So once in the taxi David was snoozing in no time now they were in relative safeness. The hotel looked like a palace to us at this point, although it was just your bog standard room it was the best thing we had seen, we had seen three day times two night times passed through so many time zones we had arrived the same day we had set off but three days later!!???!! Yeah we were confused too, so much so we slept all day and only just woke in time for a late evening meal.

We spent three nights in Lima in total as we had booked in early before the trip started to help us acclimatise, we did venture into town a couple of times but the vehicle fumes were so bad you could hardly breath, and it was far from a friendly place so the majority of our time we spent planning other parts of the trip.

Having met our group we would travel with on our third night, followed by a introduction from a Gap rep on day four we were picked up early morning and took a transfer flight to Cusco. As our coach took us to our hotel for that night the weirdness of the trip took form, as we saw a Lama eating grass in the middle of the city!! More inductions were done at the hotel in Cusco but this time with Mario who would be our guide on the trip, after which it was time to explore the city.

Cusco was a much friendlier place than Lima and very oldy worldy, the roads were all still cobbled and the buildings still made from stone and displaying great architectural knowledge and pizzazz. By late afternoon we had to return to the hotel not only to skype home but because we feared altitude sickness kicking in, we drank coco tea at the hotel which apparently helps fight the altitude effects. Sadly the next day the tea had not worked enough or we had not had enough as we both woke with terrible headache and our entire bodies ached. This was basically the lack of oxygen from the altitude sickness as the air was so much thinner than we were used to, a few morning brews of the coco tea and the effects started to wear off and gradually did so throughout the day.
Although the briefing in Lima had been our official start date of the tour, this was the first where we actually did anything other than try and get used to the altitude. We first headed into the mountains to visit a real working village in the way of Alpaca wool weaving, the villagers weave various things such as clothes and blankets from the wool of the Alpacas or Llamas they keep, the process takes them three months to weave one standard size blanket!

Following the village visit we visited what the locals call a real life museum but is actually more like a zoo, full of Alpacas and Llamas. Now the difference between the two is that Llama have bigger heads than Alpaca and the Alpaca have a curved neck, but both species originate from Camels. We were given lots of vegetation before been shuffled into the animal pens to feed the Alps & Llamas which was quite an experience as they all want to be first in which doesn’t give you much room when they shunt you up to the fence.

Several visits to archaeological sites gave us an overload of information about the Inca people but one of the most fascinating things was what they did with the cliff faces of mountains overlooking the places they inhabited. See if you can spot the faces of kings and animals on the pictures and look for the crown on the kings head. For you that don’t know the Inca were the first people to make earthquake proof walls which was done by carving interlocking boulders for the walls but in random shapes, again see if you can spot these in the pics. The carvings in and on the cliff faces had been planned for years before they were done, normally in line with a specific date such as a birthday or other special day. What we mean by this is that one day out of the year the sun would rise on the exact spot of the carving, no other day would this happen ther than the specific date required. Now this makes the Inca pretty advanced in that they new maths and measurements as well as astronamy as they used the earths axis and alignment to work this out, which puts them years in advance of us as it was centuries after the Inca time that this was discorvered for the so called first time.
The final site we visited was in the last town before the start of the Inca trail, which was also to be our home for the night in a hotel which you would mistake for a house as it was down one of the many maze type allies in the town, but once you got through the door and into the courtyard the hotel was built in a square on two levels with all the rooms opening onto a balcony over the courtyard. While out and about that night Carina and a couple of girls from the group had ended up talking with a local women who was selling paintings and also had a gallery that herself, husband, and brother all painted. Now normally we would not entertain looking at most so called artwork but these paintings were astounding, they were like nothing you have ever seen before. They would blow holes in any of the famous painters you can name, so much so that over half the group including us bought at least one painting. We will however keep these a secret until we get home as they are staying with us, as they represent certain things about the Inca and our trip to the area all of which are unique.

The whole group went out for a meal and drinks that night in deep anticipation of the start of the actual trek the next day, spirits were high and the bags were packed.

6am and it was just getting light but we were up and readying, we had looked forward to our shower this morning as it would be our last shower for 4 days. But us and everyone else in the hotel got nothing more than a freezing bolt of water, all due to the fact the water supply had run out until early morning so had not had time to warm up. The showers were the main topic of conversation over breakfast, until our guide arrived to collect us and then it all changed back to excitement of the hike.

A short bus ride later and we were geared up and heading through the first check point which marks the start of the trail, it was already hot in the early morning and we had around eight hours of walking ahead of us.

The first few miles of the trail were mainly flat but on rough paths, which along the way passed some small villages where we bought fruit from the locals they had picked from the nearby cactus plants. The fruits were seedy and sweet, similar in taste to a passion fruit pomegranate mix.

Just before our half way point we had to tackle a steep hill which took no more than 15 minutes to climb but made sure everyone was short on breath by the summit, with the added bonus of being told by the guide that we had this to come again tomorrow but for 4 hours straight! Just after reaching the summit we had a well earned rest at an archaeological site and which the Inca’s had built in the shape of a snake set in a valley at the foot of a hill, after some info from the guide we plodded on to our dinner spot. As we arrived our porters greeted us with bowls of water to wash our hands with, before showing us to an already erected tent with set tables. This meal and all that followed were two to three courses depending on the size, all followed with tea, coffee, hot chocolate.

After our dinner the second half of the day was uphill but on a constant gradual incline instead of a short sharp one, we passed through several more small villages resting in a couple before arriving at our camp for the night which sat at about 6,500 feet above sea level. Our tents had already been put up by the porters who once again had set the tea tent as well. The evening was filled with introductions between our group and the porters with the guides doing the translations, after which the conversation lay heavily with the second days task called dead woman’s pass.

Day two 5am and we were woke to have our coco tea, which was to try and avoid altitude sickness as we climbed dead women’s. The pass reaches 14,000 feet at its summit and is the final part of the four hour first half of the day, its name is due to its shape as from a distance it looks like a breast and nipple of a women laid down.

After a sizeable sweet breakfast the moment we stepped out of the field that had been our camp site we immediately started uphill with no gradual introduction, but although it was straight into it the cool morning helped. We walked for around an hour before our first stop, which was much needed as we were now in a sun trap valley and warming up fast.

Along our second 1.5 hour journey we passed a small thatched house which belonged to the shamen, now a shamen in Inca terms is a spiritual person who is able to tell your future by just speaking to you and messing with the coco leaves. Sadly we did not meet him as this is a lengthy process we did not have time for, so we can not comment on the reality of this. However question this power in earshot of any South American and you will surely feel the wrath! Our second rest spot had fantastic views of a snow caped mountain and a sun filled valley with sweeping mountain terrain, however getting there was a different story. We had wound our way up through a rainforest trek along a waterfall, which was amazingly beautiful but the steps were more boulders which in parts were waist height!!

Part three of the walk was the Dead women’s pass, this was the push to 14,000 feet, all uphill on an uneven rocky winding track with no shelter from the mid day sun just to make it that bit more interesting. The rocks on the path were loose as this is original Inca path from the 1800’s, now to just to give you and idea of how we felt going up this hill imagine this: someone has put their hand in your chest and is squeezing the bottom of your lungs like a stress ball! Basically at this altitude we the air was so thin we were only using HALF our normal lung capacity, the result of this means your muscles ache like hell as they scream for more oxygen.

After a gruelling climb we reached the top of the pass at different times as did most of the group depending on each persons fitness level, but soon after the first half of the group reached the top and had taken in the views we had no choice but to move. The summit of the pass is above the cloud and is known as part of the cloudy forest, the weather at this height is unpredictable to say the least. In seconds it went from scorching sunshine to low visibility and chilled temperatures cold enough we could not stand still.

The descent from the pass was into a valley that we could not see the bottom of due to the twisting countryside, but if you look at the pics and see one of what looks like sharp rocks, well that is the one of the so called steps! These were steep and jagged rocks acting as so called steps and proved a challenge alone, without the need for thin air and cold winds but this is a one way ticket walk.

He descent took almost as long as the ascent and was as hard in a different way, our guide had let us go on at our own pace and told us where to find our camp. As you can see there was no mistaking where our camp was as the red and yellow tents stood out prominently from the lush green landscape and white clouds below us. Arriving to set up tents and a cold drink was like luxury in a five star hotel after this walk.

The remainder of our group arrived around 2 hours after us in various conditions of fatigue and relief, our dinner time conversation shared each persons experience of the trek so far, but aching limbs were foremost. We had no further walking that day as it would be physically impossible.

Some interesting but not widespread facts are that the 'Inca' is not the original name for what we call the Inca people, it is actually 'Ketchua'. The language the 'Ketchua' people spoke was not spanish which again is common mistake, it was 'Ketchuan' which only the oldest of the south american people or the rare few younger guides now speak so it is slowly fading away.

Day three lead us level with what had been camp level for a while but soon went uphill again, but as always we had a twist. It had rained all night and was drizzling that morning, which in itself was fine. The problem was we were not just going uphill almost vertical but we were going up uneven rocks, and as with all water in the mountains it must com down but today it was coming our way as this was basically a waterfall when it rained. Several people fell on this part of the walk but only their pride got hurt, thankfully we avoided that.

Throughout the walk we saw endless amounts of Orchids, but today we found our favourite which was the clown orchid which you can clearly see on the pics, its quite unique. We visited more archaeological sites learning more about the Inca as we went but spent a lot of this day walking in cloud as we were still in the cloudy forest.

Arriving at our camp for the last night we were both exhausted but excited, everyone took an early night as we had chosen to be up at 3am in order to be at the front of the queue for when the gate opened to trek the last 7k to the sun gate. The sun gate is what it says, a stone gate at the top of the mountain overlooking Machu Picchu through which the sun rises. We had been up on time and down to the gate in the dark, but were saddened by the fact the cloudy forest had chosen rain for the day which sadly is more common than not.

We almost ran the single path trek when the checkpoint opened, until we came face to face with the monkey steps, which is almost a vertical wall with uneven rocks built into it which you use a steps, the name monkey steps is used as they the next step up is at your chest height and you need all fours in order to get up it therefore climbing like a monkey. This bit slows everyone down regardless of who you are, it took almost an hour to reach the Sun gate all told and three of us arrived 3-4 minutes before the rest of the group. However as we stood looking out from the gate the group arrived then froze as they saw what we did, which was nothing but cloud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A wave of sole destroying despair swept across the faces of the group as the realisation of having walked four days in tough conditions for this view, had just vanished into thin air literally!!!

Our guide informed us that this was not going to clear for us to see the ancient Inca world and we may as well start our descent, reluctantly we did so with an aire of sadness sitting bitterly in our group.

Reaching Machu Picchu site our group sad on the hill side looking into to mist attempting to make out the remains, when as if by the mystic power of either the Inca or sheer will power of the group the mist cleared in a split second. Hysteria and panic ripped across the area as everyone dived into action to get a picture before the cloud came back, while trying to take it all in.

As you can see we got some pretty good snaps and actually think that it looks better with the mist, it sets what the Incas really were and still are which is mystical!

Contrary to popular belief the Inca people live on to this day, but where you may ask. Well when the Spanish invaded with guns and the Inca realised they could not win a war with primitive weapons the king ordered they flee to the jungle. The jungle is so vast that they could never be tracked, plus they have the upper hand been the only people that know how to survive there. Geologists have tried to find them but can not get far enough into the jungle a the Inca keep moving leaving artefacts the same as the ones found at Machu Picchu and passing other jungle tribes who tell the Geologists they passed through but also have no idea where they go. From the Inca point of view they have no reason to want to be found as they think it is the Spanish trying to find and kill them, so the legends live on but in secret and out of reach of our world!