Day 20: Peruvian Flat

Our day started at the very ungodly hour of 4am. Though we'd packed the bags the night before, collecting all of the left over electronics and clothes from the dorm still had to be done before we could board the bus to Ollantaytambo. Eventually we made it though, with our fellow group members all aboard the bus to our first stop: Breakfast. This in itself was a minor debacle - apparently I ordered an extra plate of eggs for myself. So with the encouragement of our new British friends, Chris and Billy, I blatantly lied to the cashier while paying and told her we had only ordered two plates of eggs and two juices (that's what you get for not following table dockets). We were all very surprised that I managed to get away with it.

After an hour or two more of driving on gravel roads, we finally made it to Km 82 where we were to begin our trek, except there was another small problem: the sleeping mats and bags were too large to fit. It took much deliberating and stressing, but the pair of us finally decided to hire an extra porter to carry it for us at the cost of 120 soles per day, an expense we had not accounted for nor expected. By 9.30am though, we were on the move, having passed the first checkpoint, and taken our group photo in front of the 'Camino Inca / Inka Trail' sign, and on our way! Our guides, Edwin and Darwin, informed us that this was the 'flat' day, but by flat, he meant Peruvian flat - our hills.

When we stopped for lunch, we were fully expecting a mere sandwich and water and not much else. What we did not expect was a three course meal featuring soup, mains and tea - and the food was incredible too! As we learned that day, the porters fly up and down this trek and beat us to the lunch and dinner sites, set up tents and prepare our food, all before we arrive. And then have the nerve to applaud us on our efforts. That aside, a definite highlight of the first campsite was the tiny black puppy that crawled into my arms while we sat on the grass relaxing and drinking beers. These beers were a revelation that our British friends, Chris, Nathan and Billy, and the Australian couple, Andres and Elaine, and us were extraordinarily excited about considering how tired and burnt we were.

Day 21: Up and up and up and down

The second day of the trail is notoriously hard. From 3000 masl we climb to 4200 before dropping to 3600. In order to do all this before the sun turned nasty, we were up by 4.30 and walking by 5.30am, in the rain too. The first leg was an easy start, and we were rewarded with brunch from our wonderful porters and cooks. During this small break, we realised that the local families were selling rum in addition to the usual water and gatorade we'd seen along the trail. So our three Brits, Jeremy and I decided that 50 soles for a litre was a very good deal, and agreed to split the litre bottle five ways as a reward for the tough stretch ahead of us.

The second two legs of up can best be described as Jeremy dragging me up a massive hill. If it wasn't my legs burning, it was my lungs, and it was hard. Reach in the top of Dead Woman's Pass was a mighty achievement, but it was freezing up there! So not much time for celebrating past the quick couple of touristy photos.

Part four of the day, down, was difficult, too. Legs shaking, ground slippery, uneven and steep. While Jeremy was extremely comfortable flying down, I was not. The ordeal, including the part where I faceplanted and nearly twisted an ankle, was over within the hour, and we joined the rest of the group and enjoyed a well deserved lunch and rum and 5pm tea and popcorn, and 6.30pm dinner and rum. The chefs prepared a lovely cucumber bird for us - obviously they had plenty of time to wait for us slowpokes to arrive and got bored.

Day 22: The 'unforgettable' white views

Another early morning, this time we prepped for a lot of rain, and a good thing, too, since we got soaked. The third day of the trek, as Billy kindly reminded us, is supposed to be unforgettable. I began the day by spilling hot quinoa porridge all over me, burnt my hand and covered my leggings in quinoa. Then, on the way to the incredible Inca ruins, Jeremy flew down some hills at astronomical speeds (Edwin gave us an hour to complete stretch into the Inca Ruins and he was there in 15 minutes). The final stretch before lunch had amazing sheer cliff drops but all we could see was the white of the Cloud Forest. Still, Chris, Jeremy and I had fun pretending to be Indiana Jones along the path.

After lunch we began our descent into Winay Wayna. I finally found my downhill flying feet and we made it down some more ruins at the point of the final descent. (Here we both really needed to water some plants in a historical site). Jeremy bounded down farming terraces while I took (even more) stairs and practically killed my knees. In a way, this site was probably even more special than Machu Picchu. None of the non-trekking tourists were there, and the view of teh Sacred Valley was beautiful.

The highlight of the day though was definitely at dinner. Since it was our final meal,we had to discuss tips (a mighty difficult endeavour), but luckily Chris the crisis management guru had us sorted; Zacharias the Head Chef presented us with an incredible cake (how on earth he managed to bake a cake in a campsite at 3700 masl we still don't understand); and Billy met a beetle with the girlish squeal we've ever heard. That single moment was the funniest of the entire trip - my goodness how hard we laughed!