What happens on the Inca Trail....

We have finally returned to civillization after a rollercoaster week exploring Cusco and all it has to offer, horse riding, hiking 50 km and reaching altitudes of 4,200m atthe peak of Dead Womans Pass, an aptly named stretch judging by how my legs were feeling bythe end of it.

We touched down in Cusco where we stayed at another Point Hostel. These are all over the place in Peru and are definitely a good hostel to try if you want a party - maybe not the most sensible choice for the night before we began our adventures, but after rocking in at 6am I think we could safely say that we did the Brits proud and stayed up till the sun came out.... again.

Feeling a bit hungover and kind of regretting the promise that we would be horse riding my 2 o clock the next day we rocked up ready to be saddled up and embark on our first mini trek. Its amazing how with pretty much no horse riding experience you can just show up, jump on and start going like your in your own western. We started a hack up the really really really steep hills, grippingthe reins tight, but it didnt take too long to get use to it again (I havnt ridden for about 5 years) and set off on a little trot. I had my back to Han and later turned round to find that her and the guy, Mark that we had gone with had disappeared. Organisation is not the Peruvians strong point and somehow they had been taken off opn their own kind of mystery tour with another group! Eventually saddle sore and sufficiently covered in mud we returned from our adventure, typically late for our pre-Inca briefing but still in one piece (you parents I´m sure will be pleased to know).

Inca briefing done, full Peru kit bought and time for the early mornings to begin.

dont have time to orientate ha!

We got off lightly on the first day with a 6:30 wake up call - nothing in comparison to the 4am job that I experienced yesterday. That time should not be seen unless drunk. But early mornings aside it was totally worth it.

When people told me the Inca Trail was goingh to be tough, I believed them, but didn´t think too much of it. I´ve done my fair share of mountain trekking in the past and didn´tthink that it could be too much worse. How wrong I was. The Inca Trail is not for the faint hearted. it is HARD WORK... but totally worth it. The views are stunning and worth every bead of sweat that you ooze (apologies, this computer is rubbish so pictures will have to follow later). Thankfully I had a great group so through the whoozing breaths we had a giggle and luckily no one came down with altituide sickness so we were able to keep a pretty good pace and see some extra things alongthe way.

There were some landslides here recently so we didn´t actually hike Machu Pichu in the end, in any case the other mountains that we did were bigger (ha) so it meant that we got to do a bit of an altyernate route, see some better views AND have a night in a hotel and visit the hot springs before seeing the ruins at Machu Pichu the next day. With a 4am wake up call and legs that felt like lead I certainly wasn´t complaining about a hot shower and a decent bed. Obviously we had an earlyish night afterthe customary few rounds of spoons, shit head and uno that hadto be played every night in an effort to shake the title from our guide who was impossible to beat!

I have to say although GAP are on the pricier side as far as tours go it was worth every penny.Our two guides Dimas (or Demetris) and KiKi made thetrip. They were so much fun and got us there and back in one piece, even if ittook a lot of patcient encouragement to get us up those hills... ´oi lazy what you doin down there?´ being among the best. And I have to commend the porters. There is basically one and a half porters per person on the trip. They carry all of your bags for you so that you actually have a hope of making it up the mountains and cook you the most amazing meals. I have never seen people as fit as them. They would carry about 3 peoples worth of stuff on their backs and a couple of pots and pans, storming up the hills and then running down the ridiculously steep, knee buckling steps on the way down.  It was incredible to watch them even if it did make us feel very guilty. Its worth paying a little bit extra because it means that the porters are getting paid well and that you get the best care when you really need it.

So all in all I am very proud to say that I completed the Inca Trail, and despite not being able to walk up steps now, even after a full body massage, it was definitely worth it.