I thought "oh dear..." when I met my guide at 5.30am Monday morning, and the first thing he asks me is if i know how many days long this trek is and if I have an itinerary... Thankfully we realised this wasn´t because Manuel had no idea what he was doing - he had just got back late from another trek. The trip was very successful...

We got picked up and I met the others in my group, a bunch of friends from Chicago (3 boys and 2 girls, two being an engaged couple), our cook and assistant cook and our muleteer, before and we all drove to Mollepata for breakfast and to get our stuff loaded onto the horses. The first day of treking was fairly tough, it was a hot sunny day - eveytime we walked past a stream we drenched our hats, hair, whatever, in water and it´d be dry in 5 minutes... the path wasn´t steap, but it was rocky. Walked for just over 3 hours then stopped for lunch (hallelujah!). The group took a break while the guys put up our lunch tent and cooked us a delish lunch of soup and a stuffed avocado. Pleasantly surprised and impressed. Continued after lunch for another 3 hours or so, fine but struggled the last hour. The temperature dropped, and we were walking up an very rocky, uneven path (apparently most people do this part on the morning of the second day, but if we do it now it will make tomorrow easier...). Arrived at our camping spot with no horses, and no Walter (Walter was our cook, he became very popular with us..!). After clearing the last spot, the horses and the guys usually overtake the group to start setting up the next spot. We were slightly concerned since it was a very exposed (windy!), very cold, spot and most of us had left our jackets and warm hats etc in our backpacks, so Manuel ran back to find them. When they arrived they just said we were fast walkers... oops, poor guys. We helped set up the tents, since it was so cold we squeezed into 2 tents for warmth, the girls (me, Wendy and Peishan) in one, and the boys (Chuck, Peter and Donny) in the other. They even brought our dinner to us in our tents - hot chocolate, popcorn, soup, chicken and rice - yum my! Just before bed we popped out our tents and caught the most amazingly stary night sky - milky way and all.

Woke 6am the next morning to some coca tea (Oh i havn´t mentioned the coca leaf yet. Traditionaly the Incans chewed the leaves when life got hard walking mountains. It´s very common to drink coca tea here, its offered everywhere - the school, hostels, restaurants... and its recommended for altitiude sickness, tiredness and all sorts. Trekers are advised to bring some with them to offer to the porters and muleters etc. Yes it is the coca plant, but in extremely low concentration it has no effect... even so, it is illegal to take outside of Peru. It's supposedly trying to become illegal in Boliva, but its still everywhere here too) after a very cold night. I had slept in my whole walking gear - socks, gloves, hat and jacket and still struggled to be comfortably warm in my sleeping bag. It was a very clear, fresh morning, and after a breakfast of toast, pancakes and jam we finally appreciated the spot we were in with the gorgeous view of Salkantay mountain ahead of us.

This morning it was all uphill (or mountain shall i say), and it was veeery steep. We started at 3800m and were at the Salkantay mountain pass of 4600m in a couple of hours. It was tough, mainly from the fact its harder to breath at his height, but I found it fine. From other people I´d heard from, a lot took the option of riding a horse up. We felt proud after seeing others on horses, and realising we were doing fine. After the obligatory photos at the top of the pass, we started our decent. The horses and "The Walters" (we called all the guys this as there was 2 of them...) passed us at the pass and were already down at the lunch spot cooking when we arrived, and ate another good lunch. Wendy was feeling ill so for the next part of the day opted to take a horse. We decended into the upper jungle - it was interesting to see the change in scenery with the greenery coming back to life. Going down is tough too, especially when it´s really steep dusty paths..! But as usual I was at the front with Manuel and Chuck (the guy even wandered around off course sometimes... extra hiking are you mad? hehe). I walked behind the horse most of the way down. I felt sorry for it. Even though i like to horseride i can[t help feel sorry for the horses used on these treks. We passed so many mules which were drenched in sweat...! Gave the horse a little break after i saw it scrape its leg on a rock on a steep part. Peishan got on for half an hour later too. The weather got much warmer, and we had soon striped off of all our layers and we caking on the mosquito repellant...

The second campsite was nice. There was lots of other groups, various wildstock just running around and local huts for bathrooms (ahem) and a couple shop windows for drinks etc. Me and Peishan shared a tent from here on. After trying some Chica (Corn beer. I´d tried the non alchoholic purple chicha at the school) and before dinner I got my cards out and we all sat around the table in the dark with minimum light (a few candles) and played Good Morning Mam (or Morning Jack..). Was an absolute blast. Peishan was the speediest most competitive thing on the planet!! I introduced one where we just shouted "AHHHHHH!" - we totaly screemed the campsite down! After another delish dinner, we decided the plan for the next couple days and crashed out. I found today enjoyable, maybe because i was just getting used to it, but even though it might have been tough, I didn´t feel like i was struggling.

I struggled Wednesday morning though!! I think it had caught up on me. It was mainly a downhill trek (very steep at times) and I wasn´t up for it. I was pissed off with every step i had to take. But i still trooped on, still near the front (i think its easier for momentum). The views were lovely in the morning. We were treking through tropical forest along the side of the Salkantay river, now pretty big. It was a nice day too, which made it harder for me (find it much harder when the sun is beating down on me). At a break stop we had a snack of a few passion friut. I don´t think i´d ever had one before but i loved it! Must search out some when I´m back in the UK. We were supposed to have lunch after 3 hours of walking but having not seen the horses we carried on all the way to the village of La Playa (5 and half hours straight walking!). All the little children walking home from school excitedly waved and greeted us and we walked past them. Before lunch we took a trip down to the river, climbed over a couple rocks and soaked our feet. It was bliss. We all sat there for some time just enjoying the spot. At the place we were having lunch there was a shower (an outdoor tap) so i took the opportunity to wash my hair under it. Woo hoo.

Thankfully our walking for the day was over. We all rejoiced with a cup of beer at lunch. To get to Santa Teresa (our campsite) we took local transportation. The bus was full, thankfully, so we got to take what i guess you´d call an open top cattle truck...! The most fun of the whole trek! It was totally authentic. There was a ledge above the driver cabin so us three girls hopped on up and spent the whole ride dodging banana tree branches. It was a bumpy ride, with beautiful views, and scary turns, with locals jumping on and off in all the tiny villages (one or two houses) we passed along the road. These are the kind of moments a traveller looks for. When we arrive in Santa Teresa, the truck drivers offered to take us to the local hot springs for a couple of hours and wait for us, while the guys set up camp. We gladly took the opportunity (if even for another truck ride.. ha) and i took showering stuff in the small chance there would be a place to have a much needed shower. We arrived and were pleasantly surprised. It was like a tourist resort, with two large pools at slighlty different temperature and a waterfall from the mouintain running into another pool. AND THERE WERE SHOWERS!! Cold, but who cares. I jumped straight in even before exploring the pools. We spent a good hour or so, pruning ourselves before getting changed in the dark (there was a powercut, they were doing some work on the local hydroplant) and getting back into the truck feeling refreshed.

A restaurant just near our camp spot had kindly allowed us to use there facilities while we were there. The power came back on as we started to play more card games around the table - yay. Walter cooked us an amazing last dinner..! We had pizza (!) for starter. How he cooked it with only pans i have no idea. Amazing. For main we had stuffed pepper and yucca. So delish. They had bought the veg locally so it was amazingly fresh. Best yucca ever. Even had a chocolately pud thing. We will miss Walter.

Got up early again and took the truck to the Hydroplant, where we said goodbye to Walter and William (the cooks, the muleteer had left the day before). We got onto train tracks and walked for three hours to Aguas Calientes. Walking the tracks got annoying, especially due to them being uneven and rocks getting in the way. I perfected walking along the rail itself (with no walking poles, like the othes!) - i should be a tightrope walker! Arriving in Aguas Calientes at lunch time we checked into our hostel. What luxury it was to have a hot showers and a warm bed! We had to wait for our bags arriving later so me and Peishan had a productive afternoon of checking out the local happy hours. "Happy hour" in Peru i´ve learnt is "happy night" in Cusco and in Aguas Calientes "happy days...!" We got deals for 4 for 1 drinks plus nachos. So we had 4 drinks each (in 2 places!) including 2 pisco sours each. Aguas Calientes is at the foothill of Machu Picchu and it is where everyone stays the night after their trek before getting up early for the big day. Therefore it is basically a tourist town with lots of accomodation, loads of restaurants and shopping, so theres not much to do. We spent a hour or so also checking out the market, but its the same as everywhere else... i did buy a pair of earings though. We collected our bags and had quick showers (best shower so far on trip!) before meeting for dinner in a restaurant. I had a stuffed avocado, i don´t think i've ever eaten so much avocados or guacomole in my life (its very common in Peru!). A couple of the boys wanted to get the 5.30am first bus to Machu Picchu. Fair enough but after feeling the strain of the trek us others managed to persuade them the 6am is fine (we still had to get up at 4.45am!).

So after getting up ridiculously earlier Friday morning, and after the most amazing buffet breakfast ever (such a nice change from bread and jam that you get everywhere else... hostels, the school, theres no escaping it), we got on the bus to Machu Picchu with Manuel. We we got there Manuel didn´t take us straight up to the photo point (where everyone else goes first), he took us straight into the city while it was still quiet He gave us some history of how is was discovered and gave us an hour or so tour of the city. The sun rising over the mountain and hitting the city was wonderful. Machu Picchu was designed with everthing in account. Light plays perfectly with the city. We learnt lots of interesting facts about the city but even thought Manuel was a great guide I had the feeling that getting a proper Machu Picchu guide would have been much more informative. Manuel left us after the tour and reccomended that we climed Wayna Picchu now if we were going to do it (only 400 people are allowed to climb Wayna Picchu a day. Wayna Picchu by the way is the mountain in the background of the photo). All of us, except Wendy decided to do it. My legs were soo umbelievably tired but I knew it would be worth the climb. It was tough work, and took just under an hour to climb, but the view of the city was great. We took a number of photos including a photo of holding Machu Picchu in my hands. Hung out at the top for a bit. Seriously so dangerous.... you definitely don´t see families up here! Climbing back down was hard, it was so steep that sometimes we climbed down the tiny steps backwards. I was amazed that with one slightly wrong stepping at some points you would be straight off that mountain into nothingness..!

After walking around the city, finding a llama willing to pose for photos and taking a couple of proper photos of the city too (!), the sun was beating down, and i was beginning to feel uncomfortably hot. We took the bus back down for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in cafes before getting on the train back to Cusco at 5.30pm. At first I was distracted by the passing scenery but as i was going backwards I begain to feel a little off I ate a pastry thing we had bought the night before (a couple others ate theirs too) but i soon began to feel really ill. The last hour was tough, and coming into Cusco, the train didn´t seem to know where it was goind, retracing its steps, going back and forth. The bathroom was closed as we were just about arriving but i couldnt hold on, grabbed a bag and you guessed it...

We got picked up and dropped of at our hostels. I checked in fine, got on well with the two guys in my room (I can make friends even when I´m feeling awful! I´m good!), but as soon as our lights went out I was in the bathroom at least twice an hour form then on... it was horrible. I didn´t know what to do with myself. Nobody was around and i had run out of water. Knowing I needed to drink as nothing was in my stomach, I finally mustered the energy at 3.30am to go downstairs to the nightguard and ask if there was anywhere i could get water here. There was none but he suggested a coca tea. So i made one, not sure if it would help at all, but it was a last hope. It didnt work for an hour or so, but i must have finally fallen asleep near 5am, because i woke up the next morning.. Felt better. I think i´d gotten food poisoning. Managed to have breakfast and still feeling really rubbish somehow still got the jobs i needed to do during the day done. I had some lunch too but couldnt stomach dinner, as by eve I was feeling really bad again. Went to bed early, cancelling meeting up with the guys from the school until tomorrow.

Sunday, although still slightly queezy, i met up with Mika anf Tim. We went to the local market and bought what we thought were passion fruit (mika was also a new fan) but they wern´t. After a couple worng attempts (giving them away to local street children) we realised theres was a type you use for cooking. We finally found what we were looking for and had a little fruit snack. Afterwards we headed to a maket futher out of town, Molina, as we´d heard it was the place to go for very cheap dvd and cds. I bought a few spanish films my Spanish teacher had recommended in class, and a popuar salsa group´s cd. Chuffed. Think i might send them home though...

In the eve we me and Mika had dinner at a resaturant called Jacks. It was Eglish owned and absolutely amazing! We could have eaten everything on the menu! But we didnt. Afterwards we met Tim in the Plaza, went for a coffee, saw others from the school, left Tim with them and went out for a dance. I wasn´t up for much as was still feeling queezy but wanted to give it a go. Mythology was dead so we went to Up Town. To our surprise an impressive salsa class was going on, they had many more salsa teachers and we ended up just watching people dance - just as enjoyable. There was one Peruvian guy who just knew how to dance..! I wished if only guys i the UK could dance like he did... ha.