Early to rise to a nice warm cup of coca tea again, we wearily climbed out of our tents to a lovely view of Veronica, a nearby snow capped peak. We were tired and sore from day 2 but we had to press on. The uphill started almost immediately. We had about a 300m climb to the first ruins of the day, Runkurakay, a circular building that was believed to be a resting place for Chaskis (runners or messengers) on their way to Machu Picchu. It was a good place for us t...

Wake up time was early, though we were awake even earlier thanks to the local roosters. We were served a nice hot coca tea in our tents before getting up for breakfast. The valley was so beautiful and peaceful in the early morning but there was a flurry of activity with everyone packing up and preparing to set off. We had only about 10 minutes of relatively flat trail to get the knees warmed up before we started our 1,200 metre ascent. Today we would all walk at...