On Saturday evening we had a briefing and met our group for the inca trek (which we had organised through a company called GAP). Sunday morning we headed off in a bus to the Sacred Valley, and spent the day walking around the ruins. Then in the afternoon we headed to a town called Ollyantaytambo, where we saw more ruins and spent the night before being picked up early Monday morning for the start of our trek!

After going through passport control (yes on the inca trail - very bizarre!!!) we started our 4 day trek. The first day was nice...the scenery was gorgeous, as was the weather. We had plenty of breaks and were introduced to our first lunch cooked by the GAP team...all we can say about the food is....AMAZING!!! We had breakfast of bread, pancakes, tea, hot chocolate, and omelettes, three course lunches and dinners and an afternoon tea with hot drinks, popcorn and pastries! By the end of the trip we were stuffed!!!

Considering we had 12 people in our group who each were allowed 6kg of luggage, plus the tents, plus a dining tent and cooking tent, plus all the food and drink, there were about 15 porters who carried it the whole way on the trek. They carried about 25kg each....we had our small daypacks and that was tough enough...you cannot even imagine how fit those guys are...and they are all about 5ft 5 tall!!!

Day 2 of the trek was so hard. We climbed 1200m to reach Dead Womans Pass, which was a steep climb from the offset and lasted about 6 hours (not including an hour or so for lunch), then from the pass it was about 600m straight down to camp.

Day 3 was a longer day, with a 400m climb first thing, some ruins in the middle, then a 900m drop!! Everyone was pretty relieved when we eventually reached camp and could have a hot (although pretty measely) shower!!

Day 4 we woke up at 4am and left camp at 5, for an hour and a half trek to the sun gate where we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. It was stunning!! We had amazing weather - sometimes it is really cloudy and you can´t see very far, but we had bright sunshine and a cloudless blue sky! It looked as spectacular as the pictures show, but of course it is so much more impressive when you are really there!

We spent the morning having a tour of the ruins and then headed to the nearest town Aguas Calientes, to have some lunch and relax a bit before catching the train to Ollyantaytambo and then a bus back to Cusco.

Once back in Cusco, we had a night in the hotel which was much appreciated as the shower was lovely and hot, the room was spacious and the beds were ultra comfy!

We only planned to spend one more night in Cusco in the hostel we had stayed in previously before heading off to Puno and Lake Titicaca. However, the strikes were still going on and there were no buses running from Cusco to Puno (except for one which included a detour, and you had to get off and walk for two hours, partly across an almost dismantled bridge, to get another bus onto Puno!), so in the end we decided to get a flight to Juliaca, then a bus from there to Puno!

We both enjoyed Cusco, it was a beautiful city, but in the end, it was nice to finally leave and escape all the drama and head off to our next stop....Bolivia!!