11th May and we were off on the Inca Trail, the only thing we had actually planned on our round the world trip about a year ago! The four day walk to the lost city of Machu Picchu is known to wind through the zone where the snowcapped Andes Mountains meet the lush Amazon jungle; a 27 mile route that many experts believe the Incas blazed five centuries ago as a holy pilgrimage that prepared visitors to enter Machu Picchu. So after little sleep again, we were picked up from our hostel at 4.45am, by Edwin who would be the assistant guide on our trip. Led down to the bus in the main Plaza, we joined the other 12 members of our trekking group, along with the head guide, Manny, and set off on a two hour drive past spectacular mountain scenery to a small rustic dusty town called Ollantaytambo. Here we stopped for breakfast, and grabbed some coca leaves to take on the trek with us in case of altitude problems. After another hours' drive we arrived at 'Km 82', the official start of the Inca Trail, grabbed our bags, gave some of our stuff to one porter we'd hired (mainly Sophie's stuff), got a stamp in our passport (?!) and off we set. Our group consisted of an Australian couple, a Canadian couple, an American couple, a Swedish / Chilean couple and an American family including two children (Grace - 8, and Jack - 10)! We were also accompanied by our two guides and about 16 extremely fit porters! Our first day was reasonably gentle, with about 4 hours of gradual up and down, passing small Incan ruins, the Vilcanota river and the snow capped peak of Veronica at 5860m. Just as the rain started pouring down we managed to escape under a somewhat leaky tent to enjoy our lunch - 3 courses of yummy food! After a couple of hours walk in the afternoon we reached the village we would be camping in that night, Wayllabamba, where the porters had already run ahead and set up our tents for us on a grassy plain, overlooking a small valley backdropped with sheer cliffs; not a bad camping spot! After a filling carb loaded dinner and a very confusing discussion about whether we would prefer to stay in a hotel the final night or do more walking the following day and get up earlier on the last day, as their usual final camping spot had collapsed with the unusual amount of rain that year, we all hit the sack pretty exhausted and in anticipation of the notoriously 'difficult second day'.

After a big breakfast of cereal, toast, yoghurt, pancakes and fruit, and a long queue outside the one toilet for our campsite, we were ready to get going! The first part of the day consisted of 4 hours of trekking up continuous steps through green cloud forest. We were accompanied for most of it by Grace who was marching ahead of her mum, having been trained back home running up and down steps for the last few months! With a slight sense of responsibility as she sidled near the cliff edge, she was a good pace maker, and with her counting out loud every step, kept us going until our first break of the day for our 'second breakfast' (as per usual we were eating the best we had for ages whilst on an organised trip). After this was a final 1.5 hour ascent up steep uneven steps, where we struggled for breath against the altitude, passing a couple of grumpy grazing llamas on the way before finally reaching the highest point of the trail at 4,200metres; worryingly named "Dead Woman's Pass". Briefly stopping at the top, we were lucky enough to see a grey Andean deer on the mountainside, skittishly grazing, always on the lookout, but moving up and down the steep slopes far more gracefully than any of us! The final walk of the day was a 600m descent down more unevenly worn steps, unfortunately in the rain. As the rain got worse we both stopped to throw our ponchos and waterproof trousers on, the hassle of finding them in our bag and getting them on meaning we got pretty wet in the process anyway. Sophie joked that Trevor's giant bright green poncho made him look like a cross between the hunchback of Notre Dame and a bogey! Having decided to rent hiking poles for the first time on this trek, after hearing about the sheer amount of steps involved, we were extremely grateful for our decision and found going down far more easy than on previous hikes! Reaching our second night's campsite, 'Pacamayo', beaten by super Jack who was the speediest of everyone, but gave all the adults heart attacks as he more or less ran down the slippery steps, we were pretty exhausted and ready for lunch! Two hours after lunch, a short nap in our tent, and listening to some hilarious discussion about missing sleeping bags and identifying them by smelling which one smelt of the right farts outside the tent, it was dinner (they feed you a lot on these treks)! After getting to know everyone in the group better, and discussing all sorts of travel stories, favourite foods, and Manny trying to force Grace to eat more food than she wanted to, we were off to bed, with the sounds of croaking frogs and meowing cats to accompany us throughout the cold night!

The 3rd day of the Inca trail was arguably the best, taking us 15 km from Pacaymayo to Wiñay Wayna. Wake up was around 6am, the porters serving hot cocoa to our tent, followed by a hearty breakfast at 6.30. The cook surprised everyone after breakfast by randomly bringing in a cake he had baked, it even had icing... Not quite sure the reasoning behind the cake, it was no one's birthday and breakfast isn't normal 'cake' eating time! That said no one complained, and it's no easy feat to bake a cake at 3000m above sea level from a tent! Once packed we all set off ascending for about an hour to around 4000m, mist still hanging over the hills and mountains surrounding the valley. We then descended for a while following a steeply paved inca path dropping off to deep precipices either side. Eventually after an hour following the trail and trying (and failing) to keep up with Jack and Grace we reached the Inca ruins of Sayacmarca. Sayacmarca's english translation 'Inaccessible Town' is certainly that. Built on a small outcropping that is surrounded by unassailable cliffs it looks like an impenetrable fortress. We spent about 10 minutes exploring the ruins, Sophie set off a minute ahead of Trevor and he spent the rest of the time getting rare glimpses of Sophie, Grace and Jack among the labyrinth of ruins, like some type of chase scene from a Scooby Doo cartoon. Rejoining the trail we continued following the 500 year old Inca track built impressively through and around the mountainside only stopping for a brief break at a small camp where we gobbled down the rest of our pringles, sharing them with the kids and a stray dog nicknamed 'dogster' who had been following us since the 2nd day of the trail.

The track then climbed up to a 3rd pass (3,700m), passing once again through cloud forest full of hanging mosses and small bursts of colourful flowers, including delicate orchids named 'madam dancers', looking just like women with swishing dance skirts on. We were treated to excellent views of several snow-capped peaks including Salkantay (6,180m) and Veronica (5,680m), and made our way through a dark tunnel carved out of the face of the mountain, which everyone later remarked as one of their favourite points of the trek! We stopped at this windswept 3rd pass for lunch, the porters already present with a 2 course meal ready in our tent. After lunch We continued through forest, another magical tunnel, and getting glimpses of stunning views of the valley below whenever the mist was blown apart for a few minutes, before reaching the Intipata ruins, incredibly built on expansive terraces, seemingly creeping out from the forest beside them. We stopped here for a while taking in the view from the ruins; snowcapped mountains in the distance and a huge cloud forest valley leading down to the Urubamba river and Wiñay Wayna, our last night's camp before the final trek to Machu Picchu the next morning. Trevor wanting a better view nearly 'face planted' on the giant inca steps when trying to rush to the top... With light fading and sun setting over the ancient ruins, we headed down to camp which was around a 30 minute descent. We almost didn't use the camp as unseasonal rain had led to some minor landslides and had left it waterlogged in some areas but luckily there was still enough space for us to pitch our tents (by us we mean our hard working porters)! We all gathered for dinner and then tipped and thanked the porters after hasty speeches and handshakes. They would head back home the next morning after camp had been packed up, leaving our guides and the group to continue onto Machu Picchu alone. Everyone hit the sack early that evening as we had to be up around 4am for the final day's hike. Brushing teeth and using the camp toilets wasn't a fun or hygienic experience, they were in a poor overused state, and this was all compounded by the fact that we were told it would be best to keep our boots inside our tents that night...

4am came around very quickly! We were soon rushing to get dressed, the porters waiting impatiently outside of our tent so they could pack up and leave (maybe we shouldn't have tipped them the previous night...) We were each given a small packed breakfast and headed out to queue at the entrance gate to the final leg of the trek which opened at 5.30am. The trail from the Wiñay Wayna campsite to Machu Picchu took about 2 hours. The trail contoured a mountainside and droped into forest before coming to an almost vertical flight of 50 steps aptly named 'monkey steps' as it was most likely designed and only easily traversed by monkeys on all fours! At times the tricky, complex route that the Inca Trail takes seems almost absurd; if it had been down to us the whole thing would have been abandoned as a construction project! We all took a while to wake up that morning but needed to tread carefully as the trail wound past some very steep drops. Finally Manny and Edwin led us up to the final pass at Intipunku or 'Sun Gate'. According to our itinerary "Suddenly the whole of Machu Picchu is spread out before you in all its glory"... Unfortunately for us there was no 'glory' as the morning mist hadn't cleared and we could hardly see a thing, spending the next 15 minutes or so eating our breakfast and chatting before deciding to carry on and down for another hour to the fabled ruins themselves. The mist was starting to clear when we arrived, just in time for the hoards of tourists who had bussed in to take photo's. After 4 days of hiking it was strange to suddenly see so many people and we spent the next 20 minutes or so fighting Chinese tourists to try and get some decent photo's from the classic Machu Picchu vantage point...

Afterwards Manny led us down to the entrance to the ruins where we passed 'dogster' who had made it the whole way with us and was now enjoying a well deserved nap in the sun on a nearby bench. Manny then guided us through the ruins, and despite the number of tourists Machu Picchu was pretty awe inspiring when spread out before us, and on a much greater scale than most photos illustrate. Manny gave us a tour for about an hour explaining some of the theories behind the purpose of the site, its construction and some of the functions that the various buildings may have served. We were all quite tired and while he was very informative we sadly must admit we both struggled to stay awake, hiding behind our sunglasses to sneak a quick nap. It seems that the whole site was a retreat for the Inca nobility, its impressiveness marked by its sheer scale and how difficult the construction must have been in such an isolated location. After the tour was done we were able to explore the ruins ourselves and spent an hour doing so with Reuben and Linnea, the Chilean, Swedish couple. Sneaking back to the entrance we also managed to get some better photo's now that the crowds seemed to have died down near the entrance...

Heading back by bus to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes we all met up for a farewell lunch, followed by more speeches and a few beers. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the town, which had a bit of a tacky tourist feel to it, before getting on the train back to Cusco. Arriving quite late at night we were glad to get some well deserved sleep at our hostel! The Inca Trail was the only thing we had pre-planned before setting off on our travels, and while we had been on several hikes by now it definitely lived up to expectations. The trail had some amazing scenery and was steeped in history, which you could feel as you walked along the well beaten path that the Incas had followed with dedication so many years before us. We also had a great group and were looked after exceedingly well by the guides and porters. We would highly recommend 'Peru Treks' for making it such a fantastic experience!

On our tired return to Cusco, without any further Spanish lessons (finally), we decided to make the most of our remaining time in the city before heading to Lake Titicaca. Therefore in our final week we visited 2 museums; 'The Museum of Pre Columbian Art' and the 'Machu Picchu Museum'. The former we're sure is interesting to some, though we found it mind numbingly boring, but the latter was quite informative and much more relevant to us for obvious reasons. We visited 2 Inca ruins; Saqsaywamen (pronounced 'Sexy woman'...no lie), located on the hills around Cusco which were quite impressive, though the high point was watching several shaggy looking llamas chasing each other... Later that week we took a bus to Pisac in the 'Sacred Valley' and hiked for 5 hours around the ruins scattered upon the valley and surrounding hillsides. Normally this wouldn't take so long but neither of us wanted to pay the extortionate price of 25 Soles to get a taxi from the end back to town. That's a whopping £5 between 2 of us....everything is comparative though! The views of the ruins and valley was worth the walk and we were escorted back down to the town by a random friendly stray dog who kept stopping and waiting for us to catch up (or perhaps he just wanted food)!

We also stayed in the cheapest hostel in town to try and save money, which unfortunately meant sharing disgustingly dirty bathrooms, having dry rolls for breakfast with enough butter provided for only one cm of those rolls, and listening to the sound of a mad man run up and down the neighbouring courtyard every day as the sun went down! It was however nice to be able to get out and enjoy Cusco a little more, which although is now rather touristy, has a real energy about it, with women in traditional colourful dress and long plaited hair selling you their wares on the streets, old fashioned boot polishers lining the sides of the street (which we very excitedly used), school children waving to you on a school trip out into the town, the hustle and bustle of colourful markets full of locals buying their daily produce at each turn, and always some kind of parade and dancing going on in the main square...you can't say the town lacks culture, colour or a constant fiesta vibe! On our final day in Cusco it was our friend Miriam's birthday so a group of us went out for a meal where she was serenaded by the resident musician, and had a few drinks in town. We had an early train the next morning at around 7am so we didn't plan on staying out too late...we finally hit the sack around 3am. Thus our time in Cusco came to an end. It was the longest we had stayed in any place on our entire trip. We had met some great people and seen amazing sights, whilst even managing to learn a bit of Spanish, but we were both now eager to move on and see what else Peru had to offer!