Sorry we´ve not been blogging for the last week - we´ve been in the wilderness trekking for the last few days.

We arrived in Cuzco (3600m above sea level) on Tuesday (I think) where even taking a small flight of stairs leaves you seriously breathless and slightly nautious. Not a very promising start to a four day trek along an Inka trail which tops out at 4,250m above sea level, walking for upto 8 hours per day along often steep and always uneven paths.

We arrived in Cusco and decided that the best way for us to aclimatise was to trek to the highest Inca ruin we could find in walking distance from Cusco - Saqsaywaman (Sexy Woman). Great site but the climb nearly killed us both! It did gave us a good idea of what lay ahead though.

Before we tell you about the Inca Trail I just want to qualify that this is without doubt the hardest physical thing that either of us have done before, by a LONG way. The distances may not be very great, but the altitude and the gradient we covered were mental....:

Day One: 8 miles - beginning elevation 8,500ft, ending elevation 9,850ft (6hrs).
Day Two: 8 miles - beginning elevation 9,850ft; high point, 13,800ft; ending elevation, 11,500ft (8.5 hrs) - including Dead Women Pass.
Day Three: 9 miles - beginning elevation 11,500ft, highest points - two separate passes, 13,500ft and 12,000ft; ending elevation 8,700ft (8hrs) - including the excitingly named Gringo Killer!
Day Four: 5.5 miles - beginning elevation 8,700ft; ending elevation at Machu Picchu 7,800ft (4hrs),

The whole experience was made a harder by me (Richard) catching a rather nasty stomach bug on the end of the second day which left me feeling quite rough (to say the very least) and slightly concerned about the lack of amenities along the way (drop and squat describes it best!).

That said, the views along the way were absolutely breathtaking and reaching some of the higher summits was amazing (there is some video that I will try to attach a little later) however eventually arriving at the sun gate just as the sun was rising and seeing the mist clearing across the valley to reveal the lost city of Machu Picchu is something that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Nothing that I can type here will come close to describing that moment.

The physical pain we felt afterward is a little easier to describe however.... hellish!

We´re back in Cuzco now and are going to try and find a quicker internet connection to upload some pics and some vids to make the whole blog a bit more interesting (not really in the mood for funny at the moment - decided it would be better to go out boozing last night with our group to celebrate rather than going to bed....!).

Anyway, will update it again just as soon as we can.

Rich & Jo.