In Cuzco now about 3400m above sea level. Zoe isn´t the slightest bit affected by the altitude, where as I seem to be on the verge of death.

Was a bit touch and go when we first arrived whether or not I´d actualy make the trek as I had a fever and my head felt like it was about to explode. But a lot of drugs seemed to help and we soldiered on. Went to see a few Inca sites and a current community, all dressed up in traditional garb, by bus before the trek and the ruins at Ollantaytambo which were all very interesting (see pictures). Then we bought some bamboo poles (sounds gay but thank f*ck we did or we would never have made it) and off we all went.

First day wasn´t too bad, but the altitude does make walking a struggle. The second day consisted of walking up about 4 million enourmous steps to a height of around 4600m. That was fun. Then the 3rd was up and down finishing on the 4th with just a couple of hours to Machu Picchu.

Lukily we had a whole troop of rather energetic Peruvian porters to carry most of our stuff, set up the tents and cook us all (fairly decent) food. These guys really can make time up the trail. They basically run the whole way ahead of us to set everything up, each carrying around 30kilos of stuff. (In the annual race the fastest runners, many of whom work as porters, make it to Machu Picchu somewhere between 3 - 4 hours - the current record holder being over 40 years old when he won).

We had a pretty good group of people which was lucky as many of the other people we encountered on the trek were unbelievable nobs. Guide was reasonably interesting if a bit creepy and none of us died - though some of us came fairly close.

Saw lots of lovely mountains, rivers, ruins, flowers, birds and bugs (some rather large and not so lovely). Machu Picchu itself was very impressive (in a lots of stone walls cleverly put on the top of a mountain kind of way), but I wouldn´t rank it amongst the wonders of the world - which they wanted us to vote for. So we didn´t.

Now, as it is probably unhealthy for me to continue popping pills at the current (rather exessive) rate, we are heading off this damn mountain and avoiding as many others as possible. Unfortunately this bascially means missing out the whole of Bolivia but that´s life.

So heading off to Arequipa in southern Peru to see some Condors.

TTFN.