we left saturday for the sacred valley tour before machu picchu. our guide nancy picked us up and we set off on the bus. after a long joureny we arrived at our first stop a womens weaving center, set up by gap adventures. got a tour of the village and the processes used to dye the wool and the sort of wool they use. all natural proccesses. they use sheep, alpaca and lama wool. baby alpaca wool being the softest. watched the women weave and took some photos.

we then left and dorve on for a while longer to the top of a mountain where we walked up and took a walk around some inca ruins. bit of a test for the inca trail though. looking back that was unbelievalbly easy in comparison! after the tour we had lunch at a village nearby. wandered round a gorgeous little market. then set of for ollyantatambo. hada nother walk round some old inca ruins. showed us where they got all teh garnite form to build the villages and temples. was amasing they got it all from a mountain accross the valley and hauled these huge lumps of stone upto about 10ft tall and 4ft wide down the valley and up the otherside! crazy people! aparntly at 1 time it was publicised that aliens must have done it becuase it was impossible but it wasnt aliens and obviously wanst impossible! just abit crazy.

after the tour we wnet abck into teh village and checked into teh hotel. had lunch at a really nice restaurant tehn early night in prep for the next few days!

1st day of the inca trail we got up early and on a bus to the start of the inca trail! got our passports stamped at the entrance had abit of a pep talk from nancy and set off on the 40k walk!

the first day of walking was ok not easy but ok. few up ands downs to test us but on the scale of things pretty easy. at lunch tiem wwe arrived at acmping area and all ready and waiitng for us the porters (18 of them to the 12 of us) with a dinning and kitchen tent set up, bowls of hot water to wash our hands with and a 2 course meal! nice! ate adn relaxed for an hour before setting off again. the afternoon wasnt as long, we vsisted some ruins on the way and arrived at camp at about 4. and again bowls of water, our tents set up plus the dining and kitchen tents. got introduced to the porters had dinner and sat chatting with the group and our 2 guides (an assistant guide joined us louis). very early night.

2nd day was horrific! wed been told it was hard but nothing could have prepared me. after walking for about half an hour of constanlty up hill. alex who had been sufering very badly from altitude sickness had to go bakc with louis and rejoin us on the 4th day at machu picchu wich sucked but she was really ill and the day was so hard i barely made it at full health! so we acrried on me and nacy having to run to catch the group whcih just about destroyed me lol. walked from 7-10 an then had a brreak. by this point evry1 wa lagging, me and rosie made it first along with preena, kady and emma. had a well needed hour break fropm walking with popcorn, drinks snakcs! then set off for the hardest bit of the day! when i say hard hard doesnt even describe it! alex had gievn me her ipod to listenj to and without it not sure if id of made it! me and james morrison had abit of a moment with its a wonderful world half way up, got abit emotional at teh view and where i was! me and kady pushed each other on to the top, actually using my walking stick to drag myself up the mountain. looking up at where we had to walk was very demoralising i must say evry time i turned a corner it seemed to get even further away. took us an hour to get to the top of dead womans pass and as it was supposed to take an average 2 hours i wa svery proud of us all and especially myslef. id doubted my fitness being away 4 months form football but i impressed myslef! me preena, rosie and kady made it first with the rest following shortly! at teh top had a celebration dance to prodidgy! and took in the stunninbg views (photos will coem shortly). oh did i mention we started at 3600m and the hgiherst point we climbed to was 4200m whcuh was dead womans pass! i guess thats why its so hard then! then took the long downhill on the other side of the moutain to camp. arrived at about 2 and had lunch at about 2. then snacks then dinner then bed! lots of food! seems everythis based around food doin the inca trail.

3rd day an last full day of walking! long day tho. the other days were 11k and then 12k whereas the 3rd day was 16k! not as hard though. well the first hour was up hill and quite hard. we stopped at some ruins and picked ups otnes to perform a tradition at teh top. we got to teh top and all placed our stones on other piles of stones. whilst doing so make a wish and the higher up your stone is the more likley it si to come true. so we climbed even higher up. and no im not telling u what i wished for! had an early lunch at 11 as it wa steh alst palce to stop. then had a steady rest of teh walk. got to some ruins and could see camp and also some terraces that preena chose to do an extra long wlak round! madness. we took the shorter option whcih still tookk hours down to teh camp. when we finally got there colapsed ion the bar (yes theres a bar bit menatl!) and had a very needed and much deserved cold beer! had dinner at camp and had written something for teh porters.

the proetrs i ahvent talked about much but need a say! they are amsing they carry like 40kilos of stuff on their back up the route tat we ahve to climb and found so so hard! evertime we nede something they were there and do an asming job for what im sure is pitance! on the way up dead womansd pass on the 2nd day we gave water and food to a coupel ebcause they do it all in a few hours and wihtout and supplys! the fastest guy in our group could do it in 5 hours it took us 3 1/2 days!

so anyway we got tehm together said a huge thankyou to them in spanish! sang a song and they retuirend ths gesture too! we then took them all to teh pub for drink!

4th and final day we got up at 4 and queued at teh entranec at 5 till 530 ready for the gates to machu picchu to open! when they did we all rushed through but within minutes emma had triopped and fallen on her ankle. her scareams in the dark where horrible heard for miles i bet! so her friends stayed behind to hobble with her. the rest of us carried on to teh sungate to wait for them ether so we didnt miss teh sunrise! got ther an hour or so later and sat for an hour watching and waiting. it was beautifull! so worth everything we had done over the previous 3 days! felt rather strarnge as the group was completley split up alex had gone and now it was just preena rosie kady and myslef waiting for teh tohers ot come! so not quite complete! still spectacualr though. as we acme round the corner of teh gate we all held our braeth and hands to see machu picchu for the first time! after a while peggy arrived and gave us our tickets and told us to go meet edgar as the tohers would be hours yet. emma was in alot of pain! so we walked down to be greated by edgar and chocolate! nice! then carride on and met alex sandra and kirsty and ben at the ruins! ( the other 3 had doen the lars trek instead of teh inca trail) waited for the tohers to get there in the sun, and then got our tickets and passports stamped at teh office. sent emma off to the docs and we had a guidede tour round machu picchu. deicovered a funny fact, machu picchu a ketchua word means old mountain but said incorrectly like machu pichu (1 c) means old penis! so dont go getting it wrong! also the incas are named incorrectly. an inca is a king, they shoulod be called the ketchuans as that is teh language they speak or andians as its in the andes! so yeah had atour took loads of photos! and then preen rosie myslef peggy sandra and tica all decided to climb wynapichu the big mountain in the background of teh photo there! not sure why thing we were going abit mad at this point. took about an hour an d a half with time to sit at the top. the views were spectacular. mach picchu is cleverly situated surrounded by mounatins so feels like your on a island surroundedec by a se aof mounatisn whcih is empahisied even more at teh top. we were literally sitting on a few big rocks at teh top no barriers or anuthin. such a good feeling of being free and so close to teh world but so hgih up and awy form everything. was completley silent! no birds nothing! didnt realise peggy and sandra are afraid of heights so was a challenge for them. after getting bakc down we went into teh nearby town by bus agua calinete means hot water as it has natuarl springs. had lunch then went with preena nad rosie to teh hot spa for a soak! was lush! spent a coupel fo hours gpoing wrinkly there and then left to catch teh train and tehn bus back to cuzco! arrived abck in cuzco at 10 and went strught to bed!

thurs our first free day in a while had a lie in then got breakfast wndered the town, had a massage whcih was so so needed! and jus did bits and bobs all day. had dinner with kady and jen that night before going out. had a big nihg tout to celebrate alot of fun! cuzcos a very good night out! unfortunatly im still paying for it now. well not sure it was that night out but sionce then ive been ill. not happy! spent our next 2 fre days trying to get beter alot of it spent watching films, in bed, sat by the loo etc! cheap few days though fortunatly! on our last day in cuzco we got up and went ot the cathedral and had a look around was very beautifull then went back to teh hotel and a guy came and picked me up to go horse riding! kady was supposed to go with me but she hurt her ankle and couldnt. had a 2 hour ride round saqsaywhaman another inca site whcih was fun. not amsing as it was just me and my guied was spanish and didnt speak english so a slight barrier there but still fun. and my horse was ace. after i bumped into preena and we explored the ruins and just sat in the sun for a while longer. wnet abkc to the hostel wher iw a ill again byt his point questioning a 3 day hangover? maybe not a hangover not sure what though. i spent teh gnith apckinga nd in bed while evry1 wen tofr a last night meal.

left cuzco on sunday for puno. had a very very long all day bus journey arrived and had a v late lunch. took kady to teh docs to get her ankle seen to had abit of dinner and bed.

mon we got up and our taxis were tricycles really fun. 2 people in 1 and a man on a bike driving tehm you on the front! got on a boat and drove out to an island on lake titicaca, walked to teh top and had lunch, looked round the village at a nice phoot exhabition a documnetary of teh island. then walked back down to teh boat and went to our destination island for our home stay!

ill carry on tomorow and upload photos promise!

xxx