LAST DAY BEFORE THE TREK!!!

Day 260

Ollantaymbo, Peru

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Milli´s 6th birthday today!!!!!! Awww..........big pussie smooch!
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Our last day before the trek!!!!

We´re still in Ollantaymbo..and we´re all excited. And a bit nervous at what to expect! Today we looked around the Sacred Valley and town of Ollantaymbo and did a climb...we felt the altidude as we were climbing but it is a bit lower in the valley..so it´ll be harder tomorrow! I felt breathless as we were climbing up..but once we were at the top it was ok. My ankles were perfect. Greg said the same thing about being breathless. He was perspiring a lot too.

The weather is weird here. One minute it´s really hot. THen it´s really cold. The nights are freezing, literally.

We´re actually only one hour and twenty minutes by train, away from Macchu Picchu at the moment. The altitude here is about 200 feet lower though because we´re in the valley.

The Valley here follows the course of the famousUrubamba River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River.

At the Ollantaytambo mountain today we saw two places of worship ..there was one part that worshiped the sun and one that worshipped water. There were channels of water upstream that were run through their shrines of worship. There are also granery´s that are up high on the side of the mountain where the grains are cool and dry in the winds.

The ruins, Citadels, fortresses, and temple ruins here are just so fascinating! Such a mixture of inca and colonial architecture.

We also went a local museo that outlined all the history of this fascinating place!

Lunch was at a local house which was gorgeous..but our minds are on what will happen tomorrow.

Wé´ve discovered so much about the inca´s since being here...

We´ve had a meeting with Jose...He´s given us our duffle bags and our sleeping bags and coat. I´m using my sleeping bag as it´s warmer and i really suffer from the cold..but today is a day of just getting organised, getting excited, and wondering how we´ll go on the four day trek.

We meet at Chilica to commence the trek. ALong with all the other group and individual trekkers.´

We have our walking poles, our tin water bottles, and warm inca hats and angora jumper and ponchos packed. As well as our clothes and small backpack. The porters carry our other 7kg pack and the rest of the gear we don´t need (our big pack) will be sent back to Cusco to join the pack we left there..

So..what else.

Our boots are broken in...

And..Wé´ve been told to keep up the cocoa leaves (and give the porters some to keep them happy), to drink heaps of water (2L) every 4 to 5 hours...monitor for altitude sickness (?) and we´ve been told pretty much what each of the four days will be like.

Day one will be on a plateau, day two is mostly up..and day 3 will down to Machu Picchu..then day 4 we go back to Macchu Picchu all day to just look at it.

We´re excited..can´t wait!!!!!!

And i hope we´re fit enough, acclimatised enough, and ready for this...

Will write again AFTER we get back!!!

NB Sorry about the lack of description in this last couple of blogs..it´s nervousness............there will be a more thorough account of it all i´m sure!!!!!