Hi guys I almost don't know where to start with the Inca trail stuff. An overwhelming experience. The most physically challenging thing that i have done. Views so perfect that we kept thinking we were in an Imax movie. Kirsty, Ash and I kept periodically saying`oh my god we're on the Inca trail in Peru`and `this is so cool'. We hit the trail with three other people - Craig an Aussie from Brisbane and Tia and Taylor a young American couple. We thought at first that it might be the yanks versus the Aussies but by the end of the trip we were all sharing stuff and laughing together. Ash and Craig taught Tia and Taylor some useful and interesting Aussie lingo. I also taught them the C**t game so are expecting it to move swiftly across America. Our guide Miguel was very cool and put up with our anticts even if he didn't always understand everything that was going on. Needless to say with two Aussie boys there was a lot of discussions around interesting topics. Day two, which is the hardest physically, was actually the day I loved the best. We climbed up the side of a bloody tall moutain - 4200 m above sea level - that's about 14000 feet and is the height that people jump out of planes at. Bloody high. Altitude does weird things to your body. You can't breathe and you feel dizzy even though you have only taken half a dozen steps. Craig and I walked together on day two and we set up a system (borrowed from Taylor) where by we took 100 steps then stopped, took another 100 then stopped, took another 100 then sat down for a while. It was the only way we could see us getting to the top. There were times on the trail when I walked alone and it was just surreal to be alone in the mountains with just the birds (and the constant rain). Although the thought did cross my mind that if I slipped and fell over the edge (which was very possible) no one would find me, ever. One thing that the guide books forgot to mention was that when it rains the Inca trail becomes a waterfall - you walk down rocks which have constant water flowing down them - just like a waterfall. The rain treated us well with only day three really being bad - the rest of the time it just showered now and again, which we had already gotton used to in Cusco. Day three was bad though (check out the photos) and we spent the day cold and wet and miserable. It made you question why the f*** we were walking up (and down and up and down) a bloody mountain in Peru. Day three had hot showers at the end (no showers up until then) so wet and cold and dirty and scanky I was totally focused on getting to camp. I hoofed it down the mountain doing a 2.5 hr streatch in 1.5 hours. The porters clapped me when I got in early. Craig had run with the porters (madness) so had bet me by half an hour (not that climbing down a mountain in Peru is a competitive sport........well maybe). The porters were amazing - as we huffed and puffed our way to the top they RAN with 25-30 kgs on their backs, never slipping even in the constant rain on day three. MP was magical. We watched the fog lift from the sungate and the watchtower to reveal the ruins (see pics). Again, I had to keep reminding myself that i was in Peru, on the Inca trail - it just felt so surreal. By the time we got to MP it was hot and we were b*****ed (new word for the Yanks) and my knees and ankles where shot and I was dehydrated and tired and cranky. Poor Miguel was trying to explain all the historical stuff while we were desperatly trying to find a spot of shade. At one stage Miguel motioned for us to move on to the next spot and all six of us sat completly still in the spot of shade we had found. We then all burst out laughing and poor Miguel had to coax us along to the next spot (up more bloody stairs). There were heaps of tourists that had caught the train up. They were easy to pick from the crowd as they didn't have mud encrusted pants and grimey faces and didn't groan with pain when they walked up the thousands of steps. As Inca trail survivors we were of course surperior to the train flunkies. We had the pleasure of the train on the way back to Cusco. Dog tired it continued the surreal experience of the trail. First the train came to sudden (and apparently unplanned) stop just when I had been thinking that Peruvian train technology was probably a lot like the roads and water and that it was highly likely we could have a train accident. Taylor had already sorted out that the windows were just ordinary glass and not the impact proof stuff of western trains. So, the train lurching to a stop scared the s*** out of all of us. It then got weirder. First a man dressed up in traditional Inca costume did a bit of a dance down the train isle. Not so weird? Well he had this ski mask type thing over his head and he looked like something from a horror movie. I expected him to pull out a knife and kill us all. Kirsty said that he gave her a very weird look - really unnerving. I kept my head in a book. Then it got even weirder. Following the weird man was a fashion show - to Kylie Minogue and Madonna songs. The train staff paraded up and down the train in sweaters (baby alpacha) and hats and scarfs. A group of Asian tourists took what seemed like hundreds of photos of the models as we sat stunned. We had just spent four days in the mountains and here we were on a train in Peru getting a fashion show to Madonna. We're having drinks tonight with Miguel, Tia, Taylor and Craig to celebrate surviving the trail. We are swapping photos so expect to see more added to the albums over the next couple of days. We head back to Lima on the 29th. The way the flights worked out we now have a full day in Lima so have decided to do a city tour and give it another chance. Ash is sceptial. If anyone wants duty free then speak up now........ Mandy