Aguas Callientes, Peru - Weds 18th May

Well, I did it - I hiked the Inca Trail! Even more impressive, I did so without 1) Showing myself up by passing out, 2) getting sick and 3) plunging down a 12,000 foot crevice. But, I get ahead of myself...

The day before the trail started, we decided to get in some practice and hike around some ruins around Cusco. Not wanting to overdo it we thought we´d get a cab to the first ruin and hike back (about 8km). So, we hires a cab (well I say that, was like the smaller younger brother of the SMART car I hired the week before leaving...) who agrees to take us up there for 10 soles (about one pound eighty). Gets about three miles out of the city and the bloody thing breaks down! So we ended up hiking all the way there and all the way back! Was v cool if not a bit hard on the old ankles... Anyways, up at 4.30am next day to take a bus to the start of the hike. We were in a group of six with one guide; a Canadian couple (Tiffany and Steve) and an American couple (Sarah and Jeff). These people had obviously done this before and come prepared; me and old Bob had a teeny rucksack crammed to the limit with just a few bits of clothes and a micro sleeping bag. Everyone else had plenty of warm clothes, really decent sleeping bags, emergency rations of food, tents with hot-tubs... Oops. Well, day one was fab - a relatively easy hike for four hours to the first campsite. We stopped for lunch and it was unbeliveable, there was this tent with full place settings and a three course meal, set up on a little outlook over the mountains! Was bizarre, felt like Meryl Streep in ´A Passage to India´ This feeling was helped somewhat by the wide-brimmed khaki sunhat I bought at the start of the trail... Finally gets to campsite, which was stunning. Our tent was pitched 3,000 metres up overlooking a valley backed with snow-capped peaks. Was so tired fell asleep rightaway (9pm, the earliest I have been to bed since I was six years old...) despite having a paper-thin matress and the ground being all pebbly. Woke up feeling refreshed and then checked my watch... 11.55pm. Was gutted. Spent next six hours shivering with cold, sliding down the tent every few minutes (was pitched at, like, 45 degrees) and freaking out at all the mountain sounds. I am NOT a born camper...

Day two was the hardest day of my life. I know I have a tendency to exaggerate but... trust me, this was tough. We climbed for seven hours, three miles of continuous uphill mountain pathways, to the summit called ´Dead Woman´s Pass´; friggin hell they are NOT exaggerating with that name. The summit is at well over 4,000 metres - that´s 13,000 feet. The air was so thin I could barely breathe and climbing the last hundred steps to the summit I couldn´t take more than two steps without having to stop. This is not just me but everyone, I hasten to add... Sarah almost blacked out at the top. Then we walked all that way back DOWN - steps so steep you had no choice but to look at your feet the whole way. Second campsite was even more awesome than the first. After dinner I popped a few sleep aids (having learned my lesson well from the first night) and slept like a drunkard. Was fab. I will take two seconds out here to mention that the toilet facilities were less than desirable... Those of you who know me well will know about my aversion to all things toilet related - this was like my worst nightmare. I won´t go into detail but it was GRIM...

Day three - unbelievable. A bit of climbing but mostly pathways that wound around the sides of the mountains. The views were simply jaw-dropping. Another good nights sleep (God bless Tylenol PM, a wonder drug indeed) followed by a 4am start for the final furlong. This was just indescribable. We started off hiking in the dark (well scary) but then watched the dawn break over the Andes - enormous peaks slowly appearing, covered in clouds that were actually BELOW us. Just amazing. We reached the sungate at Machu Picchu in just over an hour. This is what we had been waiting for. We rounded the summit ready to take in the view of the lost inca city across the valley and.... couldn´t see a Godamn thing. The whole place was shrouded on fog. I was absolutely GUTTED. We waited for a while for the fog to lift but it just wasn´t happening. Completely deflated we headed down the path to the city. Let´s just say that the place was renamed Machu-Fuckin-Picchu VERY quickly... We got the the ruins and had our tour. It was an incredible place but we just couldn´t help feeling cheated. It was so foggy we could only see the place we were standing; no views across the city, no mountains, nothing. Vidal, our guide, tried his best to convince us that the fog added an air of mystery but we were all pretty devastated. Four days of agonsising hiking for THIS? We then had the rest of the day to wander round in the fog and imagine what this place really looked like. So we climbed to the highest point in the city, the watchtower, and sat glummly. Then the most incredible thing started to happen. Slowly, the sun started to burn through the fog and it all started to appear beneath us. We sat at the peak of Machu Picchu and watched as it came into view - the enire city, the mountains - eveything. It was the single most awesome thing I have EVER seen, and in a way was even better than getting a first glimpse from the sungate a mile away. What an incredible place. Spent the rest of the day wandering in awe and taking about 17,000 pictures. There were even wild Llamas wandering the terraces. Just amazing, and even better than I had imagined it would be.

Spent last night at the foot of the mountain in a town called Aguas Callientes, soaking in the natural hot springs. What a week. Unfortunately today both of us are REALLY sick. We had to check out of the hostal at 9am and our train isn´t until 4pm. Was going to climb a mountain today (what is happening to me?!) but just too ill. Anyway, dosed up on Immodium so hopefully be OK. Hope so as we have a four hour train journy to Cusco followed by an overnight bus to Puno. The bus company is called ´Pony Express´and we are travelling this enormous pink bus! Will be like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Only with no sequins, no Abba and five day old clothes...

Anyway I have prattled on for long enough. I am sending two disks of piccies to St Louis with my new American chums Sarah and Jeff, so they will upload for me and as soon as it´s done I´ll let you know. Stay safe peeps!

Juan xx

PS) Whoever ´anonymous´is who put a comment on the last post - you are so right, I should stop getting info out of guide books. The next time I want to know the elevation of a city I shall take a tape measure. Oh, and shoes are NOT a traveller´s best friend. That particular honour goes to ´Wet Ones´... !!! ;-)