Got up early to drive out to out starting point for the trail. We met up with our porters... Who outnumber our group (and each of them carries 25 kilos of stuff) and they loaded up and started sprinting off into the distance. We had to show our passports before starting because apparently there has been some pretty violent crimes on the path before so the have started tracking exactly who comes in. The first day was pretty easy as we walked along fairly flat grou...

After leaving cuzco we drove to Ollyantambo, which was only about 45 mins but on the way we stopped at a couple of local houses to see their livelihoods. The first house we stopped at was a chocolate house. The girl there showed us how to get a cocoa bean, roast it, grind it up with raw sugar, melt it down and reset it in a brick shape and voila... Chocolate!! It is a far cry from Cadbury but it is still amazing!! Took a block for the road and went next door to a...

This morning, after some help from Deb the Travel Doctor, I was as right as rain. After brekkie we headed off to the Cuzco markets near the town square. Amazing. These markets had everything from local handcrafts to juice stands to areas where you can get a pig slaughtered. Truly awesome. There was so so much I wanted to buy but we get another free day in Cuzco after the inca trek, so I'll be going back for sure. Some of the group bought thermals for the trek, bu...

Up at 5.30 to leave by six to avoid the strike. Means we will be waiting at the airport for 6 hours for our 20 min flight to Cuzco. Boo. I will spend the time thinking about the piranha I caught. Beat that one Noni!!

So we left the Amazon at 6.45 this morning and made it back into peurto maldenardo without any hassles by 8. Our flight left at two so we waited for 3 hour at the jungle lodge office... Watching a DVD on this guy that sounded like bear grylls but wasn't... And making endless cups of tea. We walked up to the corner store and basically bought the place out (they sold beer too!). Finally we drove to the airport and checked in before having lunch. We then waited and ...