Hi Guys!

I haven´t got time to write anything here..and we can´t access our email..but just wanted five minutes on the puter to say WE ARRIVED IN MACHU PICCHU!!!!

WE MADE IT!!!! IN ONE PIECE!!!!

And we´re safe!!

It´s breathtaking..ethereal...beautiful..and everything you read about...

Will write more later..

Love ya´s

xx

PS It WAS hard yakka! Will write more later...xxxx

CUSCO

Day 266 Friday

Cusco, Peru!













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We can´t access email here as it has a security disclosure and we can´t understand enough Spanish enough to know if we´re saving our passwords on the computer or not..so we´re not accessing it at all! So if you haven´t got an email from me..that´s why!
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We´ve had a relaxing day today, in gorgeous, quaint Cusco..after all the excitement of the last week! Slept in, finished writing up my incomplete journal, read some more about the history of Cusco and Machu Picchu and met our group for lunch at this great local restaurant, called Kinta (restaurant)¨Eulalia¨ which Jose and his wife Aimee took us to...

We met Andreas, the owner of the tour company, who said we had to claim our loss of accomodation from our insurance company...and he did it in such a charismatic way that later we wondered why we didn´t ask him any questions at all! No wonder he is god father to so many children in Cusco!!!

Then we just went back to our hotel to just RELAX!

I can´t believe my legs have already recovered! I don¨t have any aches and pains and now i´m itching to see if we can go on the Milford Sound Track in New Zealand when we´re there! (Greg´s doing a search now!)

Greg has sore legs..but is mostly ok. We´ve just so glad to have been able to succeed in doing this trek. It was such a challenge, but it has motivated us to continue TREKKING!!!! We loved it..and are looking forward to more adventures!

Cusco is such a beautiful city...We´re off to dinner tonight with Barb, Trish, David and Nada to a local haunt in Plaza De Armas that one of group has found..and tomorrow we´re off again....to Lake Titicaca. We´ll be staying in a local home so we´re looking forward to that..and learning a bit more Spanish.

Jim and Carla left to go back to Melbourne today..and Nada and David are heading off to Buenos Aris tomorrow.

It´s been so great to part of a group, to belong to a team, and to have some familiar people to talk with for the last week!

xxx

ARRIVED IN MACHU PICCHU!!!!

Day 265

Wednesday 21st November 2007

Machu Picchu

After 4 days of hard trekking through the beautiful Peruvian Andes we finally ventured through the gates of Intiñunku at 3pm to get our first glimpse of the incredible and breaktaking MACHU PICCHU!!!

It brought tears to my eyes..to be standing here...overlooking the most incredible wonder...something we´d dreamed about reaching, not just for the last four ardous nights..but for a long, long time..ever since i can remember..

In the end, to our surprise, Greg and I arrived at the gate after Jim and Carly - the second couple, after having the feeling on day 2 and half of day 3 that we´d either never make it, or be hours behind everyone else!

It seems we were able to decend much more efficiently than we were able to ascend, as on day 1 and 2.

Today we had the formal tour of Machu Picchu. And on the way up to the site, from our hotel, Hostal Cusco Plaza, we saw another condor! Two in two days..and both on the bus on the way from and to Machu Picchu! We felt there was good luck in store for us along the way for sure!

Going back to Machu Picchu the second time felt sacred. We had the breathtaking experience of seeing it from the heights after we arrived from our trek..and today we experienced it at level ground and it looked even more overpowering and amazing. So much civilisation here..the Inca´s were brilliant stonesmith and engineers and it was all so well planned out.

They had only lived in the civilisation for 94 years so it wasn´t a long rule but in that time they had built such an amazing city, or civilisation. It´s situated in the province of Urubamba against the backdrop of the mountains and is the perfect spot. It is part of the Vilcabamba Batolite, a granite mountain range. Machu Picchu means öld mountain¨.

It looks amazing...its divided into two zones. An agricultural zone and an urban zone and is formed by terraces. Hundreds of terraces! THe agricultural zone is on the south and that has the terraces surrounding it. The urban zone is surrounded by a big wall and is separated from the agricultural zone by a big stairway that runs from the top to bottom by a big moat, which is now dry.

IT has a main entrance gate and has heaps of rooms...of all different designs and architectual styles..Jose says there are about seven styles there..and as well as all the different rooms there are temples, water fountains (channels) and squares, pyramids and lots of stairs. Literally hundreds of them!!! At the very top is a gatekeepers inn.

There are so many stories surrounding this sacred and lost city. There are still questions as to how it was built and what happened to the Inca{s and why and how did they flee when they did.

It was scientifically founded by Hiram Bingham in 1911 when he went there with a local farmer..and was searching for the last inca settlement called the Vilcabamba...but he found the machupicchu (on the signs here it´s all one word!!). In the end it was a farmer´s son, an eleven year old boy who showed him this site. Farmers had been farming the terraces..and when the boy pulled back the branches of all the overgrowth..that{s what Bingham found!!! THe first thing he saw was what he called, the Royal Residence¨¨.

Imagine how he must have felt???

He later got people involved in evacuating a lot of the things he found from here...in about 78 cartons apparently, to be stored in Yale University (which are coming back to Peru for the 100th Anniversary in 2001) but there was no record of gold. THey think it was either looted by the spanish or never recorded...

So many stories..

Who knows whether it was the Spanish conquest that stopped the development of the inca state...or whether it was fire that banished the people..or what it was...myth and legent make this site even more fascinating because no one really knows the answers to the mystery.

But so incredible to be here....in Machu Picchu, the lost city of the inca´s!

When we left...i had a sad feeling..of maybe never coming back.

And leaving the hotel, on the train to Cusco...was sad..but it had amazing views....Peru is so beautiful. The Andes are so special.

The train ride was another story....it was late..supposed to leave at 4.20 but ended up leaving at 5.30 and arriving in Ollanyaytambo at 6.30...and we left an elderly couple behind (?!)

We caught a bus to Cusco...and we eventually arrived in Cusco at 7pm. And still had the energy to go out for dinner at night!!!! I think we are still feeling exhilarated! And refreshed. Even though we felt sore all over after we´d first arrived!

But that couldn´t dampen our spirits...our feeling of conquer and achieving something..and knowing we´d been through a challenging experience...and survived!!!

This has been the highlight of our trip! The trek. And seeing Machu Picchu.

Memories will never cease..of being in this incredible place...and of the 4 day journey to get here!

I will publish the 4 DAY TREK journey here when i finish it..so far, the four days of trekking to Machu Picchu are still in draft!

xx

Day 4 Machu Picchu Trek on the INCA TRAIL

US AT THE TOP OF MACHU PICCHU!!!!







Day 264

Day 4 of Trek on the INCA TRAIL & ARRIVAL at Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru

Machu Picchu Trek Day 4 of Trek 14 km´s today

Awoken by the kitchen staff...we stumbled out of bed..(see below; waking us up in the am!)
















We started off with a scrambled egg and bacon day. Except no one was feeling particularly hungry........................

But the cocoa tea got drunk! Apart from chomping on cocoa leaves it really does help to drink the tea. Not sure what it really does, but it has something to do with causing the body to pee and enables more oxygen in the blood. Or something. Anway it seems to naturally work and seeing i wasn´t taking anything i was downing the tea by the gallons.



Breakast Tent!











I was feeling positive about today. Day 4 and last day of the trek. Not only was it the last day and descending....it was the day we were to get our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Our final goal and destination!

After stopping short yesterday we had to make up for it today so today we had to trek 14km. But the sight just near the campsite was apparently very beautiful, but only when it´s clear and not raining.

Luckily the rain had subsided. We were in for a beautiful day. Thank goodness.

Firstly we had to separate our duffle bags. One duffle bag was to contain the jackets, sleeping bags and whatever belonged to the company to be sent back to thier base in Cusco and the other one was to have all our gear packed so it got sent to our hotel in Machu Picchu.

We just hoped the porters got it right when they came to collect the bags. All porters were going back to Cusco today. We were to head to Machu Picchu without them. The cooks had prepared sandwiches and fruit to take with us in our back packs.

A goodbye ceremony was conducted for the porters and cooks. A suggested US$30 each was suggested as a tip for all of them for their hard work. There was a heirarchcy which Jose knew..so some got more than others..and some in the group felt ´the toilet boy´deserved an extra tip for all the disposals of the sick people! (The makeshift toilet WAS very gross!!!!!)



Our porter and kitchen staff!











Just think..no more porters to compete with the steps with! And no one yelling out, Porters coming¨which meant we had to quickly move out of the way! They were good value. And watching the on the trak with their sandles, gave us hope and inspiration. Today we were to rely on the sounds of only our own other footstep pounding way next to us.

Onwards we had to go, straight away after breakfast..no waiting about.

We walked down to Campsite Phuyupatamarka which was the place we meant to camp in, and had morning tea there. Very beautiful place. Breathtaking in fact. Such gorgeous waterfalls and lakes. Phuyupatamarca mans ¨place above the clouds´. We walked around the Intipata archaelogical compound in Winay Wayna.

The descent down to Winay Wyna at 2630m was a breeze. I´d found my forte! I kept thinking...see, it doesnt matter if you have a crap day, others might have a crap day some other day. And they did. Barb´s knees were giving her heaps..and David and Nada seem to lag back for whatever reason. Trish was feeling queasy today and suffering from what seemed a milder version of what David and Carly had.

Which was what? I wonder why they got sick???
All were on altitude tablets so it wasnt that..´was it all the food, the snack pack..something else they´d eaten. Weird that their partners were not affected, being that we were all in so close quarters with our partners.

By lunch time, 12.30, we had eaten our sandwiches and had looked at the museum where the orchids are being studied by botanists.

We saw lots of ruins today...all a lead up to the BIG EVENT.

And Jose pointed out other steps that were still covered by forest. How many terraces are still uncovered on these treks?

The Urubamba river was running and soumded close...

We were almost ´there´.....

At 2.30pm we made the Pergatory Climb. A steep climb.

The final steep upward climb that would bring us to the gate, Intipunku.

And there it was......through the gate, as the second couple to make it...we saw the awesome view of Machu Picchu in the distance..

IT WAS MAGNIFICANT.

A fit ending to a gruelling wet walk.

No wonder it is a wonder of the world.

After taking our victory photos..and shedding tears at the fact that ´we´d made it´ we topped up our very empty water bottles at the natural spring there...

And then took the last couple of kilometres peering over the Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Inca´s.

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT: From barely able to walk, due to an operation called the talonvicular coalition with bone graft, that was fraught with problems...here i am...and here is Greg, with his high blood pressure....having trekked the 43 kilometre trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu!!!!!

WE MADE IT!

AND WE WERE SORE ALL OVER AND DIDN´T CARE!!!!!!!

Day 3 Machu Picchu Trek on the INCA TRAIL

Day 263

Day 3 of Trek on the INCA TRAIL to Phuyupatamarca, Cusco, Peru

Machu Picchu Trek Day 3 of trek 12km´s today

Woke early. 5am. The first morning tea was cocoa leaves..and the water to wash presented itself before i was ready. I wasn´t feeling at all excited about getting going today. My shoes were still not properly broken in so my little toes were suffering. I had to bandage them up. It was going to be a 12km ´a bit up, and a bit down´day today.

We were still having trouble breathing. We walked 5km before our morning tea stop. Between morning tea and lunch our walk elevated upward for 2km over Warmiwanusca pass which was at an altitude of 4215m. It´s commonly called the Dead Woman´s Pass!

We kept on keeping on...walking up...then came a steep descent then up again to Runcuracay to a little place that looked like a ruin..in the shape of a dome. Runcuraracay actually mean´s ¨resting place´.

An interesting name..because at this point, Greg and i were behind the group (again) but up ahead we saw a group of people ascending. We saw the American group guide resting outside this dome, didn´t think much of it, but decided we´d better not rest and because we were behind, we´d better keep trekking regardless.

SO on we went...until Trish past us....then Barb was behind us and said, ¨Jose was waiting for you in the Dome!¨

Great. We did not realise that or we would have stopped to rest, THAT´S FOR SURE!

We were feeling a bit peeved and short tempered a this point...so any little thing like that was just enough strengthen and illuminate those feelings.

Then..that little saga paled into insignificance when it STARTED RAINING!

Out came our ponchos. And that covered our backpack and it covered a good bit of us. So we thought!

Soon..the rain was pelting down, the rocks became slippery, our shoes got tested and water was pouring into them from the stream that was being formed on the track..the wind picked up, our nerves started fraying...and it started cracking with thunder and lighting. The altitude was over 4000m and we were worried we´d get hit.

We kept trekking.

Soon we were slushing in the huge stream in the track.

Weird, Greg had asked just before where the water he saw in some of the puddles on the trak had come from...and where the water from the gorgeous waterfalls had come from.

Well, he found out! It was from the HEAVY RAIN that just developed and continued once it started!

By this time, i was slowing down. It was an ascent and even the walking poles were not that helpful at this point. Trying to keep the poncho away from the front view so i could see the steps in front is a big hard when the hands are fully occupied by clinging on to the poles for balancing purposes!

I found a cave..and stopped. Jose caught up. My hands had frozen. I didn´t want to put my jacket on because that was all i had for when we stopped if the porters didn´t have our duffle bags ready. But it was bad luck. I was saturated and needed to pull the jacket out of my pack to wear NOW.

My hands were so frozen i couldn´t even undo my pack!!!!!

The cold was my undoing.

Of all the things..going up and feelingl nauseas...going down and feeling the strain....nothing was like feeling the fear of the cold.

I started crying...................

Oh my....

Jose got heat pads out so i could warm my hands...and Greg found some plastic bags to cover my hands over my poles so i could get to the campsite.

Everyone else had passed us.....

And here i was havng a stress attack at being cold.

That was the only point i had realised how illprepared we really were. We had not received the appendium for the trek because we were not in Perth to collect it, priority mail. Our travel agent had not told us...nor had the trekking company told us what we should bring on the trek.

We had to rely on what we read on the net prior to the trek and what we found out the night before at the ´trek preparation meeting´

Having a change of clothes, or clothes for wet weather was not something we´d thought about. Everyone else had a change of clothes in their packs. We didn´t.

Greg was suffering as well. And having the knowledge that we were about to descent 1000 steps did not help him. His calves were giving him hurry curry.

What happened next was not short of a miracle.

I seemed to get a second wind on the 3km steep descent. The oxygen level in my blood must have increased because i started practically dancing down the rocks....heat pad and plastic bag in both hands, covering my walking poles....

Boots charging off before even i could catch them. Pounding down and down and down...

I passed everyone..saying, ¨lemme past, i´ve got to get warm!¨ My catchcry! I couldn´t believe it. I think they wondered what gust of wind shot by beside them!

Greg and i were actually the third ones into the salvation of the warm tent on the third day!

Lunch had never tasted so good. Hot soup wih french fries!

We were still cold....and shivering our heads off as Jose wondered what to do about the pelting rain....but at least´we´d arrived in one piece, at least minutes in front of the other´s...and freezingly in good spirts. Except Greg had chronic sore calves.

We had arrived at The Qonchamarca which was at an altitude of 3600m.

Soon, afternoon tea was served...

We ended up staying put at our campsite. The Dry Lake, or Chaqui Cocha. And it was the first time i just sat there, and thanked god, that we were warm! I´d say, after that experience, i felt i could do anything..and i decided you could never under estimate the tortoise and that IS for sure!!!!! We became the hare on Day 3!

That night we had dinner and then told ghost stories!!! We found out that David senses ghosts..and in fact, doesn´t just sense them..he feels them. Lots of interesting experiences came out of Jim´s one conversation opener..Ï´m going to tell you a ghost story!¨

We all fell into bed again at about 9pm.

And i couldn´t get into my sleeping bag...grrr...

Why is it when you´re tired your voice gets higher....(and hence more audible to neighbours!!) In the end i was trying to rouse greg out of his slumbourous state to help...and he wouldn´t budge. Grrr....trekking makes everyone tired and helpless.

It teaches us to be totally resourceful unto only ourselves in the end.

I chucked the liner out, and found my way into the bag!

And grumbled myself to sleep! With gloves, furry hat and heat pads stuck into my socks!!!!! IT WAS A FREEZING NIGHT!!!!




Our tents.......

Day 2 Machu Picchu Trek on the INCA TRAIL

The things you see on the Inca Trail!!!!!



Day 262

Trek to Llulluchapampa , Cusco, Peru

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MURRAY!!!! With all our love and hugs!
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Machu Picchu Trek on the INCA TRAIL - Day 2 of Trek 9km´s today

We awoke to the most amazing sunrise. Peeking outside our tent and still surrounded by our soft downy sleeping bag we could hear the porters tapping on their sandles as they brought us a cup of tea. Our choice - cocoa tea. The air was thin. The sun had already risen.

It was going to be another hot day. Thank god we had our arabian hats...good for when it´s cold, up at the higher altitudes, and good for keeping the sun off our necks. (Weird how Greg and i had these unique and unusal Australian hats that we´d bought in the seventies...and brought on our holiday without the other knowinng!)



The sound of the Cusichaka River flowed below.

Local school kids could be seen from outside our tents...donkeys and mules had already started carrying gear...fellow campers were up and ready to eat and trek. The previous day we´d bumped into an Amerian Yoga group that were hard yakking along the trek. One couple seemed to be lagging, an overweight boyfriend of a fit yoga follower. But he was keeping his own pace, taking photos and stopping at his leisure.

Something our group wasn´t doing so much of. We seemed to be in a bit of a race really. Race to what? The Machu Picchu i guess! I really did want to smell the roses a bit more, and Greg wanted to take closeups of the beetles, snakes and orchids we were seeing..but it seemed the pace was set. Jose leading, Jim and Carly out front, The Girls close behind, us and then David and Nada.

There were also a couple and a daughter making the trek. The father seemed exhausted on the first day. We felt worried for him. He was suffering. And it was an even but stony path.

Soon, the porters brought the green bowls of warm water to wash ourselves before we stuffed our sleeping bags and all our gear back into our green duffle bags for the porters to carry.

The cooks had our porridge and muslei and toast and cheese ready in the breakfast tent. We drank more cocoa tea and for the caffeine addicts (me) a cup of strong coffee.

Today was going to be a tough day, we were told. Lots of UPs...and a few downs. Jose said pain has no memory. We were to remember that if we felt a struggle.

The first couple of hours, after we commenced at 6.30am included a venture up the Ridge of Joy where we could see fortresses and ruins from pre inca. There were lots of terraces. Jose said this could have been an agricultural area where the Inca´s got their food from. But really, no one really knows..

Then it was pretty much on the up and up..it was hard work. The altidude was over 4000 m and i was feeling nauseaus. My stomach felt heavy with every breathy step. I wondered if i was going to make it.

By morning tea i told Jose i felt nauseaus and wasn´t sure whether it was the struggle of altitude or whether it was the unfamiliarity of walking up so many hundreds and hundreds of steps..or whether i was feeling nervous because this was doom or die. We were told if we did not make it up the steps now, we would have to be carried down. There was no going back.

The morning tea stop was interesting. Carly had developed diarrhoea. David was also continuing to struggle and i was definitely feeling the affect of the trek as well. Greg was walking behind me and i could hear him labouring as well.

We were all feeling it. Not one of us could say it was a breeze. This morning was hard work.

Jose gave me a quell to settle my stomach and this seemed to work. By lunch time i was ok. I was also drinking a LOT of water. We all drank about 2 litres by lunch time..and refilled our bottles to repeat the intake in the afternoon.

After lunch we decented about 500m. Downhill was so much easier than uphill. But that wasn´t to last!

Jose said..there will be a little bit of up, and a little bit of down! I kept thinking that as i walked..i also kept thinking..the tortoise gets there in the end.

Greg and i became the ´tale end charley´s¨! At one stage i thought..well, if it takes me a week, it takes me a week! It was so hard climbing uphill!

When we stopped for afternoon tea, Jim came and took my pack from me so i could make it up. It must have looked obvious. But he did say happily, that we were only five minutes behind!

We continued climbing along the Cusichaca River and looked at the Wayllabamba ruins then trekked up to Llullucha River against the forest and trees.

Donkeys, horses and people on the trail...













At the final destination Greg and i would have been about 10 minutes behind...

Was the rest of the trek going to be us at the end..struggling?

Where was the person at the end...the real tale end charley..it was then i realised because we were a small group, we only had one guide, not the usual two, one for the front and one for the back!

For the last bit of the trek Jose did stay back a bit..i think he was trying to determine how everyone was going..and whether we´d even make it for the next two days!

Soon...we could see our tents standing to attention at us....we´d arrived..and survived the second of really hot days....

Oh, why wasn´t it COOL weather for us?

We camped at the Llulluchapampa campsite for the night. The altitude was 3700m.

Jose gave out altitude tablets to everyone except Barb and I. Sulphur is the component of the altitude tablets..and it is also the alleric substance on my Allergy Bracelet..and so i couldn´t take it. I got worried.

Did Jose think we wouldn´t make it without the tablets?

Carly was getting sicker..we wondered who would be next.

Tomorrow was going to be equally gruelling...and an early 5am start...and the weather was starting to look dicey....

Wasn´t this supposed to be a relatively mild trekking walk..for fit and active people..but also suitable for those with determination and grit?

(Whatever that means!)

We´ll see.



What an exhausting day!!!!!!

Day 1 Machu Pichu Trek on the INCA TRAIL

Fresh and ready to go!!!!










Day 261

Camping at Kilometer 82 Llactopacta, Cusco, Peru

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Machu Picchu Trek - a 43 km hike from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Built in stone by the Wari´s and extended and improved by the Inca´s in the Andean Mountain Range.

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Day 1 of Machu Picchu Trek on the INCA TRAIL - 8km´s

This morning we awoke in our hotel at Ollanyaytambo Lodge in the Sacred Valley, to the sounds of the girls next door busily showering and talking..the room, once again, was not sound proof. And we hadn´t slept very well, due to getting excited about the trek, and becoming accustomed to the altitide. Greg seems to sleep really deeply, and stops breathing, then suddenly seems to gasp for for the thin air! He then gulps, and repeats the deep breath holding exercise.

The girls used all the hot water (both rooms must have the plumbing connected!) so we, once again, got cold showers. Is this a Peruvian thing?

Last minute preparations were conducted...filling water bottles from the water provided by the Trekking company, stuffing all the trekking stuff into our duffle bags.

Mine incluided my sleeping sheet, spare shoes in case mine got wet (Greg only took one pair, the pair he was wearing!), raincoat, beenie, spare clothes, dillybag stuff, headtorch, my warm sleeping bag i decided to use instead of the trekking company´s.

They provided a warm jacket and a sleeping mat which saved us having to carry that as well.

We packed one lot of spare clothes to go into a joint duffle bag so we could have a fresh lot of clothes after not showering on the trek for four days (this was to go on the train to Machu Picchu whilst the porter were to carry the gear we needed for the trek).

We also needed to prepare our two backpacks to send back on the train to Cusco (to be collected when we arrived back there after the trek) and repack our two front packs that we were taking with us on our backs on the trek.

Seemed like a lot of organising actually...and as we´d gone out the night before to a restaurant that had a 3 piece (out of four) band..including a pan flute, guitar, drums and had a reasonably late night, we´d decided to leave all the re-packing for the morning! (By the way, the band was so good we bought their CD!)

My stomach was churning a little with nerves so i had a light breakfast. I wasn´t sure how i´d go on this first day with a full stomach as i´d started realising Greg and i were not quite as prepared as the others who were going on the trek.

As we were preparing over the last day...we´d learned that Jim and Carly had been in training for a 100km walk in Sydney and David and Nada has been ´in trek training´ and we´d learned from Barb and Trish that they were experienced trekkers, having walked the Milford Sound Trek and the Anapurna´s in Nepal.

Were we frightened?

YES.

Amy was at the breakfast table, Jose´s wife, and she brought her delightful daughter Sophia to meet us. She was from New York and was full of life. I could see how Jose would fall in love with this energetic and vibrant woman. She´d done so much for her local community, providing a library service for about 200 kids. I really connected with her and thought her and Jose made such a gorgeous couple.

I felt safe in Josés hands and after meeting her. She seemed to put me a bit more at ease.

Soon breakfast had finished, there a little time to go back to our rooms, do our last minute tooth brushing and deep breathing before we headed to the gate to get our boots walkingª!

We adorned ourselves with our little backpacks full of extra water, (about 2 - 3 litres just until lunchtime when we could do a re-fill!) our walking poles, and our water bottles in straps and did a last check of double secured shoe laces. Nada tied a tornaquet around her wrist. I later found out this was so she didn´t have to keep taking tissues out of her pocket to wipe her nose. Something i found was a great idea and something i wished i had known about as well. (We learnt a lot of tricks like that from these experienced trekkers by the end of the trek!).













Jose had our stash of ´Snacks´ which consisted of chocolates, peanuts and raisins, birdseed bars, dried fruits and brasil nuts wrappped in ziplock bags. Greg put his in his front pack to consume...i put mine in my duffle bag and that was when i met the porter of my bags. He´d claimed Greg´s and my duffle bags and we were hoping both of them didn´t go over 25kg. Each porter is only allowed, by regulation, to carry a maximum of 25kg.

The next thing we were all ushered into our little mini bus, all dressed appropriately in our travel pants with pockets holding tissues, money and lip balm and wearing our bottles in our ´cusco peru´ textile drinking holders and laden with our packs full of water and cocoa leaves for ourselves and the porters to chew on!

We, the ¨unprepared¨ had about 2 - 5 kg worth of stuff in our little packs....Others, ¨the prepared ¨ had about 5 - 8kg worth of stuff, including a water bladder, (David and Nada) a spare set of clothes, extra cocoa leaf lollies, extra altitude pills, this that and everything else......!

Jose had the medical kit and about 20kg worth of stuff in the bag he was carrying...

After weighing our bags i think i had the lightest at about 2.5kg! I wasn´t going to risk falling behind due to extra weight on my back!!!!

The takeoff point for us was Chilco. It was 9am.

The first 3.5km from Chilca station went smoothly, being a pretty even ground. We were all estabishling our `places´on the trek. We seemed to be second last of the 4 couples. And that suited us...we weren´t the leaders, nor the tale end charlie.

Arriving at the entrance to the Inca Trek, Km 78 near the bridge on the Urubamba River was the first realisation that THIS WAS IT. It was the passport check and the start of the trail.

We stopped for lunch at our first checkpoint, Camp Veronica earlier than we thought. 12 oclock. This was in a registered campsite that had a secure hut with kitchen facilities and a small toilet facility. It all looked very civilised. Lunch was fulfilling...soup and bread and chicken and vegetables. We soon realised food was not going to be an issue. There was a cook, and assistant cook and an assistant to the assistant! In all, we had 11 cooks and porters plus the guide. And eight of us doing the trek!

Along the way we passed donkey´s carrying logs and supplies, porters practically running along the path, heavily laden and wearing sandles, local mothers and their children, locals laden with really heavy goods for their families. It looked like the regular peruvian highway!!

At one stage we had a great outlook of one of the mountains and when we asked Jose what it was called he said it was the, ´JAMITA¨mountain. It stood for Just Another Mountain In The Andes!!

We saw old Ruins which were the Father of the Incas (ruins built by the Wari´s who were here long before the Inca´s).

We walked another 4.5km across relatively flat terrain to the Llactapata archaelogical complex.

We could see snow capped peaks and glaciers of Mt Veronica (in Quechua it´s called, ¨Huacayhuilca¨which is 5750m high.

We could see it from the road.

And we could see our camping site. A camping ground called Kilometre 82. The altitude was creeping. At this level it was already 2750 m.

The tents were being set up by the porters as we arrived. Our individual tents peaked out at us and beckoned us to join them...

And we did....after dinner we dropped to bed at 8.30pm..more from the exhaustion of getting prepared for the trek and the relief at knowing day one had passed without a hitch..and from the pure tiring altitude that was stealing our breaths away!

We learned over dinner..that stoic David had been throwing up all day from an upset stomach.........and had commenced a cronic case of the runs. The cooks knocked him up a brew of avocado concoction which consisted of avocado juice..which was made from toasting the seed, cutting it, boiling it..then drinking itª Oh yum.

Nada was suffering cronic headaches due to altidude sickness...

And Trish and Barbara were concerned about their knees which were feeling the pinch...

Dinner that night was chicken, corn, veges and a local caramel dessert.



Us in our tents on the first night!!!!!








We slept fitfully on Cusichaka River, in our tracksuits and warm alpaca hats and gloves.....the night was cold!

So far, Greg and I, had endured day one..without feeling too much strain.

But it was ONLY DAY ONE!ª