ponchos, porters, wet wipes and wooden sticks - the inca trail.

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Lima wasnt as horrible as id expected, and the hotel we stayed in (loki) was right in the middle of everything. after our adventures the night before in santiago, i have to admit we ate mcdonalds for lunch - and god it was good. we pretty much just lazed around in lima for two days, and gaz arrived on th second (without his bag, which we still have no word on - i cant believe how difficult it has been to find out where ut is). the pollution is pretty bad and i think we just needed a bit of rest and recouperation!

Next we were off to cusco, about and hour away by plane. cusco is absolutely beautiful and the areoplane landing came pretty close to doko - flying over mountains onto the runway. we stayed again at loki hostel (again - there's one in lima, cusco and la paz), which is a really great place. cusco is kinda the gateway to all the inca sites and where we started the inca trail. the town inself is beautiful and at about 3,000 ft. some people get horrible altitude sickness and are layed up in bed for days, but luckily we were all fine. most people feel a little short of breath - and cusco has so many stairs - but i think i must be an adopted mountain gorrilla, cos thin air agreed with me.

The inca trail is a 4 day trek that goes through mountains and inca sites, and ends at Machu Picchu. We had an awesome bunch of 16 people in our group - mostly young, and some older guys, who's dream it was to make it to Machu Picchu. We bused from Cusco to the start of the trail, where you check in at the gate. unfortunately Sera had put her British passport number on the form when she booked but then brought her Australian passport - you wouldnt think it was a big deal, but it was. She had to go back to Cusco (few hours away) to go get her other passport, while the rest of us started the trek without her.

The first day wasn't super hard, but we had our packs, which were heavy to carry. I think we trekked about 9km that day and stopped for lunch and at a few places on the way. We were silly enough not to book porters to carry our packs, bed rolls and sleeping bags, but luckily we arranged some for the harder third and fourth days. the porters are amazing, we had 21 guys who carried all the gear - tents, food, etc up to 25kg each. They run the trek (which can be steep and slippery) to arrive at each lunch/dinner spot before everyone to set up and cook the food, which was really great the whole time.They run with all this stuff ont heir backs - you name it - eggs, gas bottles, tents, and sometimes in just sandles or crappy shoes. They hold a race for the porters to do the 42km inca trail, where the high altitude is more than 4,000 ft (which makes the air pretty thin) and the record time is 3hours and 40 minutes - we did it in four days!!!

By nightfall at the camp there was still no sign of Sera, and I was starting to get worried, but luckily, just before bed she made it to the camp with the second guide who went with her.

The second day we climbed to a summit at 4,200ft and it was hard-going up all the steps. I think we did 12km that day. the camp we stayed at that night was surrounded in ghost stories beacuse it was at the bottom of Dead Woman's Pass, which is supposed to be haunted by a lady in white - wooooooo. Was a bit creepy and Gaz and I slept with butter knives under our pillows. he he.

The third day was mostly down hill through rainforrest, and boy did it rain. It pretty much pissed down the whole day and the road was slippery and monotonous. we were soaking wet but thankful for the plastic ponchos that kept us half dry. As for the other half - my feet and pants were soaking wet and it was so cold. This day was supposed to be the most beautiful, but it was so misty, we couldn't really see much. As cold and wet as I was, Im so glad that i dragged myself out again when we got back to the camp at night to see another inca site about a 5min walk from the camp, which our guide took us to, but many people dont go to. it was a beautiful place and it got dark while we were there. we kept seeing little lights in the ruins and started to freak out (and we may have all let out a bit of a scream) but it wasnt any mystical inca magic they were just fireflies - it was really cool.

On the fourth day we got up at 4am (most other days we got to sleep in until atleast 5:30am!) and headed for Machu Picchu. It took about 2hrs to get there and when we did i was absolutely amazed. I was looking forward to seeing it, but although people go on about it, i didn't think it would be as incredible as it is. We were all pretty stuffed by then, which was a shame because i think we would have been exploring the ruins more, but i think the fact that it was such hard going, made it even sweeter to be there. you can catch a train to see machu picchu - and you could tell the difference between all the bedraggled trekkers and the people fresh of the luxury train, but the trail was really rewarding. its supposed to be the same trail the incas took on a sort of pilgrimage.

We left machi picchu a bit earlier than i would have liked and headed to the nearest town for lunch at a restaurant with all out fellow trekkers, or "family" as our guide Puma dubbed us.

Back on the train to Cusco (3hrs), our group got absolutely smashed - we were that really annoying group who were loud and drunk, while everyone else was tryig to sleep. It was great fun.

The Inca trail was hard, but beautiful and rewarding. Our group was really fun, and it was inspiring to see the older guys keep up and make it to Machu Picchu - made me really appriciate how lucky i was to have the opportunity to do it all. All i can say is thank god for the ponchos that kept us dry, the porters who saved our backs, the wet wipes that helped us stay a little more fresh after 4 days with no shower and wooden walking sticks which saved more than one or two falls in the mud.

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