A short walk in the Peruvian Andes...

We made it! Now safely esconced in a hostel in Lima for the night (off to Ecuador tomorrow) I am suitably refreshed and able to tell tall tales of our 4 days yomping the Inca Trail -

Thursday 30th June: Although the trek company weren´t due to collect us until 5.30am I managed to wake up at about 3am with an attack of nerves. When we went to pay the remainder of our trek fees they gave us a copy of their advisory notes and my eyes refused to see anything except the section concerning 'steep drops', and so I became convinced that at some point I would have to edge my way across very dubious precipices or cliff edges. At almost exactly 5.30am we were collected, whizzed about Cusco picking up our fellow trekkers, and headed off to the start of the trail at Ollantaytambo (where, as sagely advised by Mrs Funnell, we bought ourselves walking sticks). Once across the river some introductions were made and our group consisted of Jo & I, Mo & Amanda (USA), Gonneke - pronounced like Monica - & Bart (Holland), Jo & Tom (UK), Kirsten & Anka (Germany), Louis & Jessica (Canada) and Steph (Australia), plus Leo & Emilio (our guides) and 22 porters. The first day of trekking was fairly straightforward, a gentle stroll along the river with the occassional uphill bit, the odd Inca ruin and alot of chit chat amongst the group. The first surprise came in the form of lunch. Most of us were expecting a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a swig of pop, but instead we got a full 3 course sit down lunch with tea (including the seeming Peruvian standard of rice, potato & bread). Having stuffed ourselves we staggered onwards until we reached our overnight campsite about 15km along the track, where we discovered that the porters had already set up the tents and were getting an afternoon tea ready of bread, popcorn, biscuits & more tea...and were then told dinner would be served at 7pm! This was another 3 course extravaganza, after which we drifted off to our tents and bed (but not before admiring the stunning night sky & shooting stars).

Friday 1st July: Wake up call at 6am, having slept surprisingly well by developing a technique of entirely disappearing inside my sleeping bag so that no part of me was exposed to chill air and by using very sturdy earplugs (Jo, despite the same brand of earplug was awoken by a donkey grazing right behind the tent), a hot cup of tea and then off to use the 'facilities' as Leo insisted on calling them. Unfortunately, during the night almost all the facilities had been used by people with loose bowels and very poor aim, so the whole group ended up using the same loo. After a big breakfast of pancakes, tea & toast, we headed off to start the infamous day 2 - 9km up hill to a height of 4200m, followed by 3km down steps to our campsite. An indicator of the harshness of day 2 is that the day´s walking is due to finish at 2.30pm! It was horrible. Jo´s legs decided they´d had enough at about 10.30am (we started at 7.30am), and a slow painful slog up the remainder of the hill/mountain ensued. Mo & I decided to keep Jo company - starting a trend of slow & chatty hiking - and thanks to Emilio, our assistant guide, we all made it. Emilio devised a great tactic of catching up with us, checking we were okay, having a doze in the sunshine for 30mins, and then repeating the process all over again, and again...the man was a genius. When we got to the summit, after a mere 5 hours (including a break for elevenses) there was an obligatory group photo and the realisation that Kirsten was having trouble with the altitude and feeling extremely unwell - luckily Emilio came to the rescue again and got her down the 3km of steps to camp. The rest of us just had to slog it out ourselves, but again chit chat helped. As you can imagine the evening consisted of food (accompanied by pisco tea - yum) and sleep, and not much else. But we had the most fabulous view of the mountains in front of us, and a rather unnerving view of the hill behind the campsite we had to climb the next morning.

Saturday 2nd July: Another 6am start, breakfast of omelettes, hot chocolate, bread & jam, and then the walking started at 7.30am. Considering the previous day´s exertions I felt surprisingly okay and the 2 hour trek up the steep hill and steps went by fairly easily. The rest of the day was up hill and down dale, visiting ruins & walking through beautiful cloud forest until we reached our lunch tent and stuffed ourselves once again. I also used one of the world´s most spectacular loos with a terrific view across the Andes, although the loo itself was simply a rectangle cut into a wooden floor. We had been told that the afternoon would consist of approximately 3 hours of stomping down 2000 rough cut stone steps and through cloud forest and the reputation of our chatting and trekking technique was becoming legend. So the afternoon was spent forming the 'Ladies Who Trek' society - Mo, Amanda, Gonneke, Jo, Steph, Jo & I spent a very fun few hours gossiping, sniggering and guffawing our way along the trail, stopping as often as we felt to admire the views, muttering about the boy racers who insisted on jogging past, and holding my hand on the scary steep bits (ie when some dumbass tour group decides to stop on the very dodgy stone stairs with no railings). Leo I think got a little impatient as he ended up backtracking to find us and kept giving us very peculiar looks every time we stopped to chat. But we all decided it was the best day of the trek and vowed friendship thereafter. When we finally reached camp I went on a beer run at the nearby youth hostel, and it was probably one of the best beers I have ever had! By this point my boots had to be double bagged as they smelt sooo bad....

Anyway, I´ve used up all my internet time, so I´ll continue tomorrow.

Adios!