Hi everyone,

We made it back safely from the four day walk to Machu Picchu, albeit a little smelly and half frozen from sub zero temperatures at night. It was an amazing experience and one of the highlights of the trip.

We started the trek on the 11th and spent the first three days hiking up and down the Andies surrounded by beautiful scenery and passing Inca ruins along the way. We found the walk overall quite manageable but the second days hike to 4200m all uphill for the first 3 hours affected Nicola quite badly and she was sick in the night and felt ill for most of the next day until we had decended to a lower altitude due to altitude sickness. The third day was mostly downhill and the ruins and mountain scenery were fantastic. We had a really good group of 14 people made up of South Americans, Americans, two other Brits and two Bermudans. Our guide was also a top bloke and all the porters, who carry up to 30 KG's all the way, were really friendly. On the last day we were up at 4am to walk the final two hours to Machu Picchu. The place is amazingly scenic and we had a perfect clear sunny day for great views. After 4 days walking we felt great to have arrived at the citidel and were not dissapointed. The first sight is something we will never forget. We even walked up the steep mountain behind the ruins, as in the picture, for more views out of choice!

We got the train back to Cusco and had a well deserved nights sleep before dragging ourselves out of bed for the bus to Puno. Today we have visited the Uros people of Lake Titicaca, who live on floating reed islands just off the port town of Puno. It was a very unusal and interesting place and the people are all very colourful and friendly. we got some great pics of the locals so will put them on the site with the Machu Picchu pics asap. Just spent the two days eating the 50p set three couse meals and picking up some souvenirs. Off to Bolivia tomorrow and the capital of La Paz.

We have had a great time in Peru and its a beautiful place, shame we only had 10 days. We did manage to try the local speciality of Guinnea Pig before we left Cusco for the Inca Trail. Its not something I will try again but it wasn't that bad. Probably like eating roast rat. All skin and bones, with the skin probably the highlight. Problem is that they put the whole thing on your plate organs and all, with the poor little thing staring up at you. Will put a picture on too so you can see what I was up against.

Cheers for now.

Michael and Nicola