We´ve had a fantastic time here in Cusco, it's an excellent place to hang out and recover from crazy bus journeys. We went on a tour of the sacred Valley, with lots of old Inca Ruins (great taster for the Inca trail) and we also went white water rafting.

We started our 4 day Inca Trail with 10 in our group altogether, our 2 English mates Chris and Liz, 2 really sound Sydney-siders Max and Rebecca, a Swiss trio and a local girl, who arrived everywhere about 2 hours before the rest of us!

Getting up at 3:30am the first morning to be collected by the bus was not a pleasurable experience as we rattled along all the way to the start. After we had purchased water bottle holders, walking sticks, silly hats and countless other items of junk that we were promised would be invaluable, we set out on our way with our backpacks strapped on and ready (?!) for a six hour uphill hike.

We did cheat a little though, by hiring a porter between 4 of us just to carry our sleeping bags and mats. Our first break was after about half an hour and at that stage we had probably already downed 4 litres of water and the muscles were starting to ache - too late to turn back now! Although after seeing all of our porters run past us carrying about 25 - 30kgs each including our tents, extra gallons of water, cooking equipment and food etc, wearing nothing but ancient sandals on their feet and homemade straps attached to blankets as their backpacks we started to feel a bit guilty.

So we got off our asses and up that mountain to finish the day at 3200m above sea level. It was so nice to arrive at our camp with everything set up for us and have popcorn and little snacks before dinner to get our energy back. Have to say the food was really good, lots of carbohydrates to keep the energy up and a nice little snifter of alcohol to help us sleep too!! Unfortunately everyone on the tour was quite ill except myself and Max, so we had to help out most with finishing the booze!!

The second day started early and everyone was prepared for a torturous 8 hours of hiking. We climbed from 3200m asl to 4200m asl, then descended to 3500m, climbed back to 3850 and then headed down to our camp site at about 6pm. You wouldn´t believe how hard it is to breathe at 4200m, not to mention having to climb with a backpack.....well two backpacks for the first part of it, before the guide insisted on taking one off of me. Oh and did I mention it was raining and freezing too!!!

We got such an amazing sense of accomplishment though, getting to that first peak and knowing the worst was over. Have to say I absolutely loved that day - it was the toughest thing I´ve ever done, but it felt fantastic - I also started getting called Mountain Goat by the others!. Once we saw our camp site we practically ran the last half an hour and you can just imagine our delight after trekking for 8 hours to see our site totally waterlogged and our tents pitched in a foot of muck! Never mind, at least it´s not raining........an hour later the heavens open up again.

The following morning was not a pretty sight. It still hadn´t stopped raining, the tent was soaked, our mats and sleeping bags were sopping, we were tired, muscles were aching and the last thing we wanted to do was climb for another bloody 5 hours! Unfortunately there was no more room on our porters backs to carry us and HeliCusco was not doing pick ups that morning, so it was a case of grimace and bear it.

The day didn´t turn out to be too bad, and we really appreciated having done so much of the groundwork in the first 2 days as we got to enjoy the fantastic scenery and see some amazing Inca settlements. That night we said goodbye to all our porters and as each one of them came up to thank us I gave them a shot of this Anis alcohol thing I had bought for the trip (tastes just like sambucca). Our guide also took a liking to it and polished off quite a bit of wine too! It was a good night. It was all building up to the final day when we would arrive at the sungate overlooking the spectacular Machu Picchu settlement and watch the sun beam directly on to the old site with all the mountains surrounding it.

Up at 4am and supposed to leave at 5am in order to make sunrise. Surprise, surprise our group was the last to leave again and we were way late. I really didn´t want to miss sunrise so I legged it all the way to the sungate, raced up the 50 or so steps towards the end and dashed up to the top to witness the most amazing spectacle of my life, which we had trekked 4 days for, whew, what a sight........I could bearly see more than three feet in front of me!

It was the thickest fog ever and standing there at 6:30am trying to get my breath back, beside a group of young English defence soldiers drinking beer and singing football chants, I wondered why the hell we had come here! Dejectedly, I waited for the rest of our group and was about to head down to Machu Piccu when suddenly the fog started to lift and out of nowhere mountains and rivers started to appear and then part of the ancient ruins and it became apparent that Machu Piccu is more than a sunrise.

On our way down to the ancient ruins more and more of the surrounding scenery became visible, and we all realised that we were really lucky with the weather as it just whetted our appetites even more by seeing everything being gradually uncovered by clouds. Our guide brought us around the site for about 2 and a half hours and you could tell he was really passionate about it. We even managed to see a couple of condors flying overhead, which is quite rare.

At the end of the tour I really wanted to climb Huayna Picchu which is practically 300m directly upwards to get another amazing view of the whole area. It was really scorching down at this stage but we finally made it to the top. The view was breathtaking. You could see the whole of Machu Picchu below, and from there it became clear that the whole site was actually designed in the shape of the shadow of a condor flying above.

We then climbed down, got a bus to the hot springs, had some lunch and got the train home. Off to Lake Titicaca tomorrow and into Bolivia for 4 weeks. Just met up with one of our mates from our trio in Western Australia today too, so lots to catch up on.