Rain, Snow and Sun! All on the Inca trail.

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4am came very quickly. We collected our bags and walked through town to the meeting place in one of the squares in Cusco. The Llama path team had Coca tea ready for us. This is meant to help with the altitude. When all 16 of us had arrived we jumped on the bus for 1.5hours till we reached a village. Here we stopped and had a big buffet breakfast. We all filled up on eggs, bread, pancakes and fruit, ready for our long day ahead of walking the first part of the Inca trail. We started to introduce ourselves. We have 10 Americans, 2 Portueguse, 2 Norwegians, me and Phill.


After buying last minute supplies of water and ponchos, we jumped on the bus for another hour to the start of our Inca trail at kilometre 82. We arrived in the rain. Not a great start. Here we took starting photos with the sign and checked in, getting our passports stamped.

Day one had begun, we trekked in the rain to our lunch stop. This was mainly flat with a few up bits in it. The rain had stopped by the time we had lunch. The porters who carry everything had made an amazing 3 course lunch with tea to finish. We all had a good feast. Here we were introduced to the toilets which are all squat, and all disgusting, probably the worst part of the trek. After our lunch and a short rest we carried on hiking. Today we would cover 14km which is the longest distance but also the flattest. We stopped at our camp Ayapata (3300m / 10829ft) were our porters had already arrived and set up our tents. Here we chilled out with happy hour, this was popcorn, crackers, hot chocolate and tea. We then had a rest before our 3 course dinner. The food today has been great. How the porters carry all this food and cook it in the middle of know where I will never know?

By 8pm we were all tucked up in our tents ready for a good nights sleep before day two of the trek which is meant to be the hardest.

At 5:30am our porters woke us with tea and water to wash. We had breakfast and prepared for the day ahead. It had rained all night and was still raining. We did the first 2 hours of trekking today all up hill through the jungle in the pouring rain. We all met at the bottom of dead woman's pass in the cold and wet a little grumpy. But ready to trek up to the top which would take us another 2 hours to the top of the pass, at 4200m / 13779ft.As we trekked up the weather got colder and colder till about half way up it started to snow. The snow got heavier and heavier until everything was white. We took the climb very carefully but quickly as none of us were prepared for snow and we were very cold. The guides and porters had not seen snow this low down at this time of year since 2010, so it was a big shock. Sadly due to the snow we could not see dead woman's pass.

So it was up and over and a carefull climb to the bottom for our lunch stop. Here we had come out of the snow back to rain. The porters ran around trying to get us all warm and dry. Finding spare clothes, cups and cups of tea or hot water. Even making hot water bottles for us. They then filled us with hot soup and a tasty lunch. By the time we had warmed up we were ready (just) for the afternoon, we're we would climb the 2nd pass and walk down to our camp for the night another 4 hours away at Chaquicocha (3600m / 11800ft). We set out expecting the worst. But the rain soon eased off and the snow started to melt. At the top of the 2nd pass we started to see the amazing views we had been missing in the rain and snow. The trek down to our camp was enjoyable and some of our clothes even started to dry out! Today we had walked another 16km.Once we were at camp the porters brought us hot water to wash and some hot chocolate to warm up. It had been a really tough day and we were all glad we had completed it safely. After a lovely dinner we all headed to bed, with fingers crossed the rain would end and we would have a nice day tomorrow. At dinner we found out that we were lucky to have got over dead woman's pass, and that it had now been closed so other groups were being sent home. This showed us all how lucky we had been.

Day three we awoke at 6am and had a lovely breakfast. We then set out for our walk, again in the rain!Today was only a half day of walking as we had covered more distance than most groups in day one and two camping further along the path each day.We walked for around four hours stopping at various sites along the way. The rain eased off when we got to our camp at Winay Wayna (2680m / 8792ft). After another lovely lunch we headed to the Inca site of Winay Wayna were we took photos of Llamas and the Terraces. After dinner we decided as we had had a rest full afternoon we would awake early to try and be the first in the queue for the final part of the trek to the sun-gate. We all went to bed early, excited for the final day.

Day four we awoke at 3am, we skipped breakfast and headed down to the final checkpoint and gate. We were first in the queue and had to wait till 5:30am for the gate to open. We spent the time playing UNO eagerly awaiting the opening of the gate to the final stretch to Machu pitchu. We were all glad we had woken early as the queue grew very quickly with around 150 people in it.When the gate opened our group walked quickly for an hour to the sungate.Here we had our first view of Machu Pitchu. This was why we had all been trekking for the last 4 days. The view was great and the sun had come out!.We all spent time taking photos and walking for the next hour to Matchu Pitchu itself.Along the way we had lots of great opportunities for lovely photos.One of the men in our group took the opportunity at one of these view points to propose to his girlfriend. This made the group very happy. Marco our guide gave us a tour inside Matchu Pitchu, it was very warm. Me and Phill spent time watching the Llamas be fed by the tourists and we chilled out in the sun.In the afternoon we caught the bus back to town were we met back up with the group for lunch.A few of us then headed to the hot springs to relax and soak our aching muscles.We then caught the late train back to Cusco.

The trek has been an amazing experience that I will always remember. It has shown me how far I can push myself.

After a night back in Cusco we flew to Lima. Here we have 36hours to eat before leaving Peru.We had dinner at Astrid y Gaston. We're we had a 23 course tasting menu. This was lovely and had some very different dishes on it. Including of course more Alpaca and Cuy.

After a lazy morning we headed to Chez Wong for a very different Chinese/Peruvian meal. We started with Octopus and flounder Cerviche. Followed by sweet chilli stir fry, and to finish black bean flounder. Very yummy.

After dinner Peru has come to an end. We have a night flight to Chile then another flight to Easter a island. I am very excited about this next part of our amazing trip....

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