L.A - Sleepy Day

The over night flight from Lima to L.A was 8 hours long, but due to time differences it had apparently only been a couple of hours. We didn't sleep a wink, and were very tired! We arrived at LAX airport, and were scrutinised by security before we came in. Steph thought he was just being friendly, so when asked 'how long are you intending to stay' she replied with 'just a few days, were actually travelling'. He didn't look happy at the idea of chit chat, and repeated his question in a way that made Steph realise he meant business. 

We got on a shuttle bus that took us to our new LA home, the Jolly Roger hotel. We got into our room, and fell asleep almost instantly.

We woke up from our 'short nap' 4 hours later, and realised we hadn't actually seen any of L.A yet. We groggily got up, and thought we should at least take a walk down to Venice beach, which was only a 20 minute walk away. We had a look around, ate some food, and saw some of the strange locals who resided there. It was the moment when a man roller bladed towards us strumming an electric guitar whilst selling T Shirts, that we decided we still wern't in the right frame of mind to be dealing with such characters.



We carried walking down the strip and walked up a pier to get a proper look of the Venice Beach coast line.

We got back to the hotel and decided to book onto a tour the next day that would take us to L.A's must see spots in one day, as we felt we should at least do the classic sights! We went back to the hotel and had a weird evening of watching UFC wrestling, and fell asleep again.

Lima

After our flight from Cusco we arrived into Lima about midday. We boarded a mini bus and got our first glimpse of the city itself. It seemed pretty urban, built up and very foggy. We weren't too sure if this was city smog or misty cloud from the sea but either way visibility out to the coast was pretty poor. We checked into our hotel which was pretty nice and seemed quite quaint for the large city it was in. 

Bossana and Andreas were actually catching their plane home that evening so we decided to turn our leaving dinner into more of a leaving lunch instead! This was a lovely place which had great sea food. Everyone had a few cusquena's (the local beer) and some of the girls shared some jugs of sangria. Tom decided to throw caution to the wind (pardon the pun) after his episode in Bolivia, and had a paella full of lovely fresh fish and prawns. It was lovely as was Steph's chicken dish. With great food, lovely company, a sense of achievement and a hint of sadness, our last meal all together was a really lovely way to end the tour of Peru. 

The Last Supper

Henry stood up and did his leaving speech. This started and finished with.. "Just remember guys.. No body is perfect" in his usual cheeky manner, after explaining how g adventures will be asking us to review the tour. With a giggle and round of applause from the group we gave Henry an envelope with his tip from the group.

After dinner Bossana and Andreas had to leave home bound for the airport. This was sad for the whole group, but an extra shame for us as we hadn't had a chance to really talk to Andres and Bossana, but over our last meal, Tom had a really good chat with them and found they were very inserting people. They had travelled to a lot of places we were due to visit, so offered some wise words to us before they fled. We wished them a safe journey home and they left. The whole group went silent and some were holding back tears as it hit everyone that it was all coming to an end. Sensing the sadness, Henry chirped up and said "Where shall we go for the pisco sours!?"

We took a stroll through Kennedy park which for some reason is just full of CATS! It was a specific cat park which was slightly weird in the middle of a big city but they were everywhere. They all looked healthy and well looked after and they appeared to love it there. As did the many people that flocked there to play with them, including Steph who was absolutely beside herself trying to chase them for a cuddle. 

Game: Count the cats. Answer: 4...keep looking

After carrying Steph out of the park and away from the cats, we saw a big flashing sign down the street which read 'KARAOKE' Steph's second love in life. Aussie Elanna was basically already through the door with a love for performing, and when asking Ryan if he liked karaoke, he simply replied "of course I do, I'm Asian, it's in my blood". With that said and Tom in hysterics, karaoke was ON!! 

It was quite a weird set up with microphones being passed from table to table for the performances and there were definitely some South American idol rejects drowning their sorrows in there and holding on to that small hope that one day they might make it big. Despite that, with the bar tab racking up, the majority of the group showed Lima what karaoke was like where we came from - distinctly average drunk singing that was a lot of fun! The night peaked when after singing about 5 songs already Elanna and Steph teamed up to sing 'Under the Sea' from 'The Little Mermaid'. Elanna really came into her own, and she danced and pranced around the whole room from table to table giving everyone a dance, and somewhat shocking but highly amusing all the locals left in there. And it goes without saying we obviously all found it hilarious!

A few of the group decided it was time for them to leave (probably wise) as they had early morning flights to get to the next day. We said goodbye to Maryanne and Ryan but promised them we would see them in Aus when we got there. Kate also decided she would go back to pack for her 4am flight, but Elanna was determined to stay out and sing more as they still hadn't played her Karaoke request 'New York' by Frank Sinatra. We wished farewell to Kate, and promised that 1. we would see her in Aus also, and 2. we would get Elanna home so she could catch her 4am flight.

We went back inside, and the girls did a few more numbers. After a while, Elanna seemed uncharacteristically quiet. We looked over to see she had actually fallen asleep! This signaled our time to leave, and we decided to get some good healthy fried chicken to wash down the karaoke! To get there, we had to cross back through the cat park!! Great news for Steph but Elanna gained an irrational fear of the furry creatures and would scream if they came near! So Tom gave her a piggy back through the park to make sure none of them touched her legs! Crisis averted, we headed to the nearest KFC for some of the colonels finest. We went to make our order only to be told that they didn't have any fried chicken. At first we thought she was joking but apparently not!?... Only in South America! With that, we found a budget version instead who were currently stocking chicken. We had our fill and headed back for a good night sleep. We got back to the hotel and Elanna said an emotional goodbye to us, we had kept our promise to get Elanna home, but maybe not in a state to get up for her flight! 

DEPARTURE DAY

Today was a sad bit triumphant day as it was indeed the very last day of our tour across South America. With that, came the inevitable goodbye to the wonderful people and friends we had met along the way. Hoping the aussies had all got their 4am flight, we said goodbye to Elaina and Irena, as they were the next pair to go. We all checked our schedules and it turned out that Susan and Melisa both had similar evening flight times to us so we decided to share a taxi together to the airport. This also worked out nicely as it meant we could all spend the day together and end the 6 week tour together just as we started!! 

We took the opportunity to do some last minute souvenir shopping in the many markets and generally soaked in the last remaining snippets of culture we could from Peru. We all decided our fuzzy heads needed feeding, and with a quick flick of Melisa's Lima guide, we wound up at the lonely planet top pick for a Lima lunch in the form of 'la lucha'. This was an incredible sandwich shop that sold an array of freshly made sandwiches, burgers, juices and fruit smoothies. 

We all ordered, and absolutely stuffed our faces. Susan had a steak and onion sandwich which she loved, and Melisa had a massive bacon and sausage baguette.. Just kidding (she doesn't eat pork) Steph had a burger which she said was lovely, and surprise surprise Tom ordered the largest sandwich on the menu, the club sandwich. It was absolutely divine, and Tom still insists it is the best sandwich he has ever eaten. It was a monster, full of chicken, cheese, bacon, ham and egg. It also contained four huge slices of fried bread. He said that it could easily feed 2 hungry people and probably three normal people. Tom proceeded to stuff his face with all four gigantic sections and then complain for the next three hours at how sick and full up he felt. 

100% chuffed

After this we all had some time to kill so headed back and all laid around using some wifi and reflecting on what a fantastic trip it had been.

We had arranged to head to the Hard Rock Cafe that evening for some dinner, as Swiss Tom was also still with us staying a few extra days in Lima. He'd been a bit down for the last week as he couldn't shake off the illness he acquired about 3 weeks prior, so we were excited to do something we knew he'd love! We arrived at 7 with our luggage in tow, as we would head straight to the airport from there, and enjoyed a bit of western food. Andrew, Melisa and Henry also came along, to experience the tradition that Swiss Tom was so determined to do.

This Hard Rock cafe had live music which was nice, but also a little loud as we wanted to be able to talk to eachother! We all enjoyed some food, Steph having fajitas along with a few others, however Tom was still full from his gigantic sandwich he opted for a huge ice cream instead (!?) which he said he would share with Steph. Tom's ice cream arrived and was bigger than our heads, and Steph couldn't share it due to the walnuts on top. It was going to be another Man VS Food moment for Tom.

Even though he was full, he still polished it off with no worries. As we finished our food, we realised our taxi to take us to the airport would be arriving any minute. This was it! We were the ones leaving now! We said goodbye to Andrew, Melissa and Swiss Thomas, our good friend from the very beginning, and headed outside. Henry walked us to the taxi bit, and it was time to say goodbye to the funny guy who'd made Peru so fun for us.

We were so sad our journey was coming to an end, but we knew the worst was still to come. Susan and Melisa had been our best buddies from the very start, and we couldn't imagine doing South America without either of them. Travelling around in such close proximity of people makes you closer than close, as they're almost like your travelling family. We all got to the airport and checked in our bags, and went to get a drink, all of us putting of the inevitable goodbyes. Our flight to LA was first, shortly followed by Susan's. Melisa was a few hours later but she had wanted to come to the airport with us.

Our flight gate was suddenly called, and we had to head through security to get here where we would have to leave the girls. We all started to tear up as we knew we had to say goodbye. Melisa fully broke down, and handed us a letter that she wanted us to open when we got on the plane. It was one of the loveliest notes we ever got and we have kept it safe ever since.

We took one last selfie of us altogether before we went our separate ways. 

We were all happy to have met each other though, and now we were all moving on to new exciting things. Melisa was going to Cuba for 2 weeks, to finish off her trip around the world, and Susan was going home to Ireland after living in Canada for a few years.

We waved one last goodbye to them through the gate and boarded our flight to the USA.

Cusco Part II

We got back to Cusco and got showered ready for a few celebratory drinks. In retrospect, this was all a bit hazy as you have to remember that very morning we'd been stumbling down the Inca trail at 2am! 

Henry promised he would take us to a place in the square where you could learn to salsa dance so we were all determined to power through the night. Running on pure adrenaline, accompanied with Maryanne and Ryan, the Aussie cousins, Swiss Thomas, Melissa and Susan, we went to a small burger joint as we all just wanted food! We had huge burgers and got a few strong drinks flowing as it was happy hour! Henry showed us pictures of his little boys at the top of Macchu Picchu, and said one day they would trek it as he had done many times!

With tummies full and a few drinks down, we headed across the square to the salsa bar. We entered into a large room filled with men chucking women around. It was like a scene from 'step up' or 'dirty dancing', as these people were seriously skilled at dancing. Before we knew it, a few men started to offer to show us how to dance the salsa. With a small word of warning from Henry to watch our back pockets for salsa dancing pick pocketing, Elanna, who was a confident salsa dancer was on the dance floor in a heart beat showing us how it was done.

Before you watch this maybe turn down the volume a bit, Steph screams with excitement. A lot.

With her skills filling everyone with confidence, the girls one by one took to the floor with a dance partner. Steph looking particularly awkward, looked at the floor the whole time and hysterically laughed as she was swirled and hurled under, over and around her partners arms. Even Henry got down and partnered up with some of the more nervous girls in the group.

At exactly 12am, the salsa music stopped, and some normal club like music came on which we were more familiar with. It was like Cinderella going back to her normality, and the group could finally feel comfortable on the dance floor. A few of the group started to tail off, but Henry was still on loyal guide/ dad duty, and would abandon his night temporarily to escort any of the girls to the taxi rank. He would give a word of warning to the taxi driver to make sure they were delivered home safely, and would continue to take pictures of the driver and his license plates. Even maybe a little pissed, Henry was very sensible and precious of us which was really lovely to see.

At about 2am, we realised we had been awake for a full 24 hours, and thought it would probably be an idea to go home! With Henry, we got taxis back to the hotel with Susan and Melissa, and fell asleep into a mild coma.

The next morning we were all feeling a little sensitive. We think it was actually more of a sleep hangover as none of us had actually needed to drink to much the night before due to lack of energy and being fuelled on pride. Nevertheless, we didn't want to waste our last day in Cusco, and decided we would do a little more site seeing and perhaps some shopping, as Henry has assured us the quality of souvenirs here would be the best.

Along with Melisa and Susan, we groggily stepped onto the streets of Cusco, and made a bee line for the highly cultural fast food chain 'Mc Donald's'. Back in the square, there was a large festival going on with lots of street dancing and live music. We would have appreciated this more if it hadn't been for our heavy heads.





We went round all of the markets that looked like small shops from the outside, but opened up into huge underground markets. Everyone found stuff they liked, and Tom and Steph bought present for family, and Stepg a handbag and craxy bolivian style shoes. They also both bought some traditional jazzy knit wear.

hmmmmmmmm... Tom questioning if he could get away with
 this jumper in England....He bought it anyway.

Steph like a little girl, chuffed with her llama zip up

We carried on exploring through the city, looking at the beautiful architecture and decided we needed to go back to the hotel for a nap before we headed out to dinner!

Tom in Cusco square chuffed with his new t-shirt he got for
his birthday. Thanks to Aunty Stephanie, Uncle Stephen
and Tasty Palace. The first clean top he had worn in 6 weeks.

Steph under one of the many fountains.

As we went back to the hotel we bumped into Elanna and Kate, who had had to buy separate suitcases JUST for the stuff they'd bought in Cusco! We suddenly felt like we hadn't bought enough, but with more travelling to do we knew we had to limit ourselves. We went back to the room and slept.

That night we went to a restaurant which the rest of the group had been to before whilst we were away. They assured us it was the best food they'd had the whole trip, plus Henry said it would be a good place to try guinea pig.

Cusco after dark

As we sat down, and Henry came round and gave us all medals to say we had achieved the inca trail. They weren't official medals, and we think Henry might have bought them himself which was sweet. Unfortunately, he was called up by his boss to be told he had to attend an important meeting there and then. He apologetically left the restaurant and left us in the hands of the waiter. Tom and Steph along with Kate and Elanna, decided to give the the guinea pig a try, so we ordered one as a side to accompany our mains.

It arrived and we were all quite horrified at the blatant little guinea pig in front of us.

Weeeep weeep weeep weeeep! Sorry.

Steph tried a tiny bit and decided it wasn't for her, especially as the 2 Guinea pigs she had as pets at home were in the very forefront of her mind! Tom, along with the other girls decided it wasn't great, and a lot of the dish was skin and lacked in meat. Unfortunately poor Ryan down the bottom of the table who had ordered the guinea pig as a main course agreed it wasn't the best! Steph's main was a steak in a 3 cheese sauce and tom -who was feeling adventurous that evening- went for alpaca. The meat was tasty, but both our dishes were slightly cold and accompanied with a cool mash that tasted like vanilla?! 

The cheesy alpaca

We didn't know if this was an experimental mash or whether someone had picked up the wrong bottle of seasoning in the kitchen, but we were slightly disappointed as the group had raved about how good their meals had been before.

On the walk home, we snuck into a off licence and picked up a couple of snickers bars to eat back in the hotel room! We got back and packed and got ready to fly to Lima the following day.

Thanks for reading the post maaaaaan!

Macchu Picchu

We hurriedly got to the sun gate, with that famous postcard picture in mind, and saw...absolutely nothing apart from a fog of white clouds.

The Sun Gate

Despite the cloud cover, it still felt pretty amazing to be standing at the sun gate and looking over the sacred site. The sun gate was built by the incas and is one of many parts of the Macchu Picchu site. Its actually only quite small, but similarly to many of the Incan sites we had visited on the trail, this sun gate was built as it is at the very first spot on the mountainous horizon that the sun rises up and beams over Macchu Picchu itself. Essentially, it is a stone archway that sits on the crest of a mountain to frame the sun. To the Incas, this was a hugely spiritual place and a key component of the whole site. It did clear up in waves and each time we got a tantalizing glimpse of what we had hiked the 43km and climbed the 70'000+ steps for. 

From here we were told by Carlos that another 40 minutes hiking and we'd soon be at the sacred site itself. With this in mind, and after a few group pictures we decided to press on and we were all pretty excited. We started zooming down the rest of the track and with morale so high Steph, Melisa and Tom began singing a Destiny's Child medley (obviously Tom was Beyonce). The Sun Gate is open to the public who do the day trip to Macchu Picchu, so a few people passed us to go and see the Sun Gate and looked at us like we were fully mental. As we emerged around the bend and through some thick bushes, we heard some faint Irish tones finishing off our single ladies rendition. At first Tom thought it was someone trying to out sass him, but then there was a sudden realisation it was SUSAN!!!

 As soon as we saw her we sprinted towards her. She was with the rest of our group, Andrew, Irina, Elana and obviously Henry! They were all waiting for us on a section of grass just up from Macchu Picchu, and it was so lovely to see them after the 4 days. Melisa and Susan were finally reunited! (they had been room buddies for the last 4 weeks) They had a loving embrace and they all clapped us in. We all caught up on the last few days activities. Susan and Andrew on the Lares trek, and Irina and Elana on their boozy couple of days with Henry in Cusco. The lovely ladies even snuck in some champagne and gave us all a celebratory cup or two.

Macchu Picchu

Despite not being able to see anything of Macchu Picchu yet, we were still eager to get down and ready to start exploring. We left the site to drop off our bags and get freshened up, and we also bought somthing for breakfast for the day trip. We re-entered to take a group picture. The time we took getting sorted allowed for some of the early morning fog to vanish.

Carlos took us to one of the tiers, and we sat down whilst he gave us some history on Macchu Picchu. Carlos was a fantastic guide, but the sun had started to shine through, and having had some breakfast and feeling a little warm, we all one by one started to nod off. The early morning start meant we had little energy after the initial adrenaline rush of arriving at the site, plus having a few bubbles of champagne meant it was a recipe for a sleepy disaster. Steph even got in a blind panic as her phone had vanished from her pocket, so she ran around trying to find it. Thankfully her pre tired and fuzzy head had put it in a safe pocket so we were safe!

A picture Ryan took of us on the tiers

We walked around a large part of the site, whilst Carlos told us more information (being up and walking around helped the trail fatigue). He was showing us some ancient windows when a woman jumped over the security rope to take an up close selfie with an ancient rock, and suddenly Carlos and a few other security men who popped out from nowhere were telling her to get back. The Peruvians are very precious about their sacred incan site, and clearly don't want it put in jeopardy.

With that said, Carlos said we were free to explore for another hour, as long as we didn't touch anything we weren't supposed to. We all wanted to explore the site more, as realistically we'd only seen about 50% of it, but we were all so conscious that we didn't have the classic postcard picture perfect photo yet, due to the cloudy weather.

The weather started to clear, and between ourselves, Susan and Melisa, we decided to climb as high as we could to get a picture. (or a PPP and Henry would call it)

We realised we had to move quick as the site was filling up as the day went on, so we weaved in and out of the crowds that were forming. The tiredness even got to some of us (Steph), and we were becoming quite snappy with the slow walkers.

We got to the postcard spot, and the rock we had had our team photo with earlier had a queue to get on to it! We were in full blown panic mode as we only had an hour. Melisa noticed further up the site there was a similar rock poking out, with the same view and absolutely no queue. No one had seen it yet so we ran up, and finally got our postcard perfect pictures.

.

We were overjoyed, and took pictures of each other for at least 20 minutes. By the time we had finished, there was a queue starting to form by our rock, so we left the people to it and climbed even higher. The higher you climbed the more spectacular the views, and you got a really good idea of the sheer size of the site.

We decided to do some classic jumping shots, but we were told off by a security person. We wern't sure why, but maybe as its an old site the ground is unstable. That said, we felt our 4 day trek entitled us to get the pictures we wanted, so we sneaked around a corner and took some cheeky ones!

The Girls

Our hour was up, and having got about a thousand pictures, we were satisfied with our collections. We were slightly sad that we didn't have longer to explore the site fully. The famous pointed rock pictured at the back is actually open to climb which we would have liked to have done. In all honesty, we felt like we couldn't say we had properly been to Macchu Picchu due to not being able to explore it at its fullest. We may go back one day to have a proper look around and to take in every bit of it without feeling so dazed and tired, any excuse to go back!

Nevertheless, having done the Inca trail, we were so elated at having got to our destination. It is currently one of the biggest achievements of our lives, and if your thinking of doing the trek, you should 100% do it. It will make you appreciate Macchu Picchu so much more if you know just how difficult it was for the Incas to get there.

The trek will make you feel like you've conqured the world, if not, at least make you feel like you've gone a bit crazy.

We rejoined the group at the entrance to the site, after stamping our passports with the Macchu Picchu stamp. 

We got onto a bus that would take us down the windy hill to the town 'Aguas Calientes'. Tom fell asleep almost instantly on the bus

After about 20 minutes, we were in the pretty little town. We went into a restaurant to have some lunch, with a backdrop of the sacred river rapids behind. This would also be the spot that we would say goodbye to Leo and Carlos.

They sat down and wrote us all our certificates to say we had completed the trail, and we all shared photos and funny stories from the last few days. We all gathered up our money and gave our tip to Carlos and Leo for their outstanding service on the trail. Both of them showed such a passion for the Incas, and they had been so helpful and supportive throughout the whole trek.

We messaged our families on the free wifi to tell them we were still alive, and then walked to the train station. From the restaurant it was only about a 10 minute walk through the picturesque town, and we walked through a huge market that sold lots of trinkets and more textiles. From there, we boarded the train to go back to Ollantaytambo. The train had windows in the ceiling so you could look out to the towering mountains above, with the satisfaction of knowing that a few hours prior you had been walking along them. The train journey was a beautiful one, the river rushing along side most of the train track for the journey. We were so tired yet none of us were able to sleep due to the excitement and views.

We arrived back in Ollantaytambo with the Inca trail successfully completed and got on another bus to take us back to Cusco.

The Inca Trail - Team 'Show Me Your Titicacas'

Disclaimer: This post could be potentially very long, so we we will try to cut out all of the inevitable hiking, and let the pictures tell the story. Just imagine that it was very hard, and very tiring. The main point of this post, is to tell how incredibly amazing the porters who joined us were, and what a fantastic experience the Inca trail is.

Day 1

We woke up at 8am and gathered our duffel bags and had a final weigh in. They had to be under 5kg so the porters could carry them, so space was limited. We said goodbye to the people who wouldn't be joining us, and got into the bus with Carlos to get to the entrance to the Inca Trail, KM 82. In the bus, Carlos introduced us to Leo who would be the secondary guide. Carlos also asked us to think up a team name, and after a few sensible but boring suggestions, Tom came up with 'Show me your Titicacas'. Carlos and Leo didn't understand, but after a few chest wiggles they caught on quickly!

We got to KM 82 and met the group of porters who were busy packing up all of our equipment.

This is just our bedding and personal duffel bags!

 After a quick roundup, we were at the base of the trail, right by the railway watching all the sane people get the train up to Macchu Picchu for a day trip. It was also here we had to go through the first check point control, where we had to show our inca trail permits and passports and get them stamped which we thought was unusual! The porters got started straight away and zoomed of, running over a large bridge and then up a steep hill dressed in G adventures purple.We followed suit, and before we knew it, we were on the inca trail!

crossing the bridge to the Inca Trail

Looking over the river to the first check point

The first few hours were basically flat, and Carlos would stop to give us information about the trail and let us try fruits such as prickly pears, and also stop to sample the locals home made 'chicha' a maize based drink that was fermented and tasted interesting.





We carried on the flat bit for about 3 hours of the 7 hour day, and suddenly we were faced with an enormous hill. It was only a short burst, but it was tough and took us about 20 minutes. After a quick motivational pep talk from the team, we carried on to our lunch spot.

The flat trail we had been walking on before the track escalated

Elanna and Melisa feeling powerful

We got to a river and saw our porters had set up a tent, tables with table cloths and cutlery, and individual hot bowls of water for us to wash our face and hands in. As we entered the camp, they all applauded us and welcomed us with cups of squash. We were absolutely shocked at how fast and how efficiently they had set everything up, especially as it started raining. We had a starter of soup, a fillet of fish for main, and rice pudding for dessert... and this was just lunch!! We realised that we weren't going to be the downtrodden trekkers we thought we were going to be. As soon as we finished our food, we took a seat by the river. After 10 minutes we turned around and saw the porters had already packed up, and started running along the next part of the track to set up our dinner and camp for the night.

Elanna enjoying some Cocoa tea by the river

After a lot of up and down walking, we got to a very steep section again. We struggled up lots of stairs to eventually reach our first campsite for the night. Carlos said the last section we had done, was just a hint at how tough the following day would be. We arrived at camp to be applauded by the porters again, and we chose our tents for the evening. We had 'happy hour' which is a chocolate-y, popcorn and hot chocolate feast! It was heaven after our first day, and after happy hour, Carlos invited us to sit down with the porters for a welcome meeting. 

Carlos asked each porter to come forward and introduce themselves and tell us what their job was. He also got them to say whether they were married or single, or if they had any kids. The first few guys were very young, ranging between 18 and 20. They came forward quite shyly, and explained their jobs. They all said how they were single and we all laughed at how meddlesome Carlos had seemed to be. The next few men came forward though, who were slightly older and explained how they were married and had children. We realised Carlos hadn't asked them to tell us for a joke, he wanted us to understand that a lot of the men leave their kids for days at a time in order to get money for the family. There was even a couple of men who were in there 60s and had grand children. The porters stopped being the men in purple running past, and they became kind hearted, brave and humble supermen. Although there was a language barrier, we introduced ourselves back, and had a group picture. 

After the meeting, we felt slightly guilty about the porters waiting on us, but Carlos explained that they would be doing the same hard manual labour at home on a farm but without the pay benefits. G adventures provide the porters with the best equipment and shoes. Some other porters we saw were running on the trail in sandals! The G adventure porters are paid well and looked after, and G pride themselves on making it worth the porters while.

We had another 3 course dinner and headed to bed for an early night as the next morning was a 5:30am start. As Tom was cleaning his teeth, he felt something crawl across his face. After a quick few face swipes, Tom looked in his hands to see a huge stick insect.



 We got into our tents and were thankful to have roll mats to protect us from the hard ground. It got very cold very quickly, and our hearts went out to the 20 porters who would all squeeze into the dining tent every night.

Day 2

The next morning, we were woken up by a soft bang on the tent door. We woke up slightly dazed and heard Leo saying "good moooooooooooorning, do you want some cocoa tea?". With that, he handed up a tea to enjoy in bed and a bowl of warm water to have a quick wash in. We had our breakfast of pancakes -beautifully and thoughtfully decorated by our chefs- while our tents were packed up. We set off at about 6:30 just as the sun was rising. Today was going to be the toughest day: The dead woman's pass. We had read beforehand that this was a very testing day, and we were incredibly nervous.

motivational pancakes

We trekked through rain forests and high humidity areas. There were countless stairs and the group dynamic started to show. Carlos along with keen walker Bossana, Elanna and Maryanne would take the lead shortly followed by walking buddies Thomas and Kate. We would then follow with Melisa and would occasionally stop for breaks and be caught up by Ryan, who was happy to go at his own pace. Finally, Andres and Australian Melissa followed up the rear with cheeky Leo, as Melissa was really struggling with her asthma.

The stairs were very difficult, and it really pushed everyone in the team. Day 2 was very emotional, with a few tears being shed all round. Melisa who was with us, who was very competitive with herself, pushed herself so much and was upset when the altitude beat her. Thankfully we were a close friends having being together from the start, so with a pep talk and a short burst of Tom carrying her bag we got going again. We took it slow, with the stairs really burning our calves. This still wasn't the hardest part of the day.

looking down the trail

Steph's face for most of the day

 After a quick rejoin and some snacks, Tom spied a woman selling alcohol, and he felt that a bottle of rum would cheer the group up at the end of the day. And so Tom set off on the hardest part of the walk, with a liter bottle of rum also in his bag! We broke up into our groups to tackle the dead woman's pass, but Melisa caught her second wind, and zoomed off ahead of us by herself to get to the top. We were left to walk alone, and although the path wasn't as hard as the stairs in the morning had been, the altitude made the air unbearably thin, so regular breaks were needed. Tom didn't actually struggle much with the trek, but Steph needed to stop more often, although when Carlos showed up and started skipping in front of us, she felt slightly embarrassed and pushed on.

Steph's summary of the dead womans pass

another corner that tricks you into thinking your nearly there

When we got to the top, the speedy girls and Carlos were there waiting to give us a huge round of applause, and we took as many pictures as we could at the 4250m check point we had climbed too.

The trail coming up through the valley

you can see the steepness of the mountain here!

The next challenge was to walk down again, which was actually harder than we anticipated, as it had rained whilst we were walking up, which meant it would be very slippery. With Melisa rejoining us to go down, we put on some music to motivate us, and we sang the whole 3 hour walk down.

Melisa struggling with her poncho

Tom and Steph with a stray goat they found

Once again, when we got to camp we were applauded for our efforts and served food immediatly. The second day was very disjointed in terms of peoples arrival as it was a testing day for everyone. Australian Melisa and Leo emerged last after about an hour, and having had a real battle with her asthma, Melissa burst into tears when we all cheered her back into camp. It had been an emotional day for everyone, so card games and rums were enjoyed all afternoon, and Swiss Thomas even showed off more magic tricks to some of the porters, who were very impressed despite not understanding what he was doing. We went to bed feeling elated about our achievement of the day, and slept very well.

A tasty quiche dinner saying 'well done'

Day 3

We were woken up by the usual Leo wake up at 5:30, however today it was Tom's birthday so it was an extra special day! It was going to be another tough morning, with the first 2 hours being uphill.

The group managed to stay more together, and as it poured down with rain, we popped on our ponchos and scaled the mountain looking like pac man ghosts.

wacca wacca wacca wacca wacca

We passed lakes and ascended into fog and cloud where the air was really thin. Australian Melissa got in a really bad way with the air, and had an asthma attack which shook her up. Thankfully Steph had bought multiple inhalers for her asthma, and with a team effort, we managed to get her feeling better after some chocolate and some hugs. 

We passed through the fog, and as we went downhill again the day significantly brightened up. We stopped at a pretty incan site and explored for a while, taking in the amazing views.









There were multiple incan sites along the trail, and we stopped in each and everyone of them. Carlos was so well informed about the sites and would relay all the information to us. There were often a couple each day, and by he time we finished the trail it was hard not to take them for granted!

By the time we got to our lunch spot, we were peeling off layers as we were so hot. We were welcomed with claps into the camp, and welcomed into the lunch tent. To our absolute surprise, there was a full party spread laid out for the group due to it being Tom's birthday. There were pizzas, chicken, pasta, rice dishes, garlic bread and our eyes lit up. We stuffed ourselves silly which was a bad idea due to having to hike in the afternoon but it was so lovely we couldn't help ourselves.



Suddenly the whole tent became very shifty, and Carlos ran outside and zipped us in. We were all confused as to what was going on. At that moment, Carlos popped back in his head and started singing Happy Birthday. We all joined in, and at that moment we heard the porters outside singing and the two chefs came in, armed with the most enourmous and beautiful cake you have ever seen.

HUGE cake

We had to hold back tears, Tom included, as the amount of effort the porters had put in was unbelievable. Not only did they have to run the trek in time to beat us and set up, they had to cook and had gone to the extra effort of  making all the food. Tom shared his cake with everyone including all the porters, and was then presented with a large alcoholic concoction, which apparently Henry had given to the porters before as a sneaky gift to Tom. He poured the left overs in his bottle which would make for a very wobbly trek in the afternoon!

That afternoon of trekking was the most stunning and picturesque. The sun really came out and shone for us, and we towered on top of mountains. The track was very thin with steep drops down the edge, but the views kept our eyes from looking down. It was mostly flat, with a few fun caves to scramble through.

That afternoon we arrived at the most amazing campsite, right on the top of the mountains with 360 degree views. Everywhere you looked there was a different mountain peak, even more incan sites and there was also a glacier in the far distance. It felt as if we were on top of the world, as we saw the sun set over the mountains, which even Carlos and Leo who had done the trek hundreds of times, said was pretty impressive. We went and sat on a large rock and finished off the rum concotion, waited for dinner and couldn't believe we were actually camping here.

Us with Leo (left) and Carlos (right). Tom's mountain chic

 This dinner would be our last one made by the porters, as they would be leaving the following day. Australian Melissa thought it would be nice for us to say some thank yous for the porters, so we all said a sentence which Carlos would translate for them later on at our goodbye meeting. We were called for dinner and rushed down to eat. Steph was so excited she dropped and smashed her iphone!

Our final dinner

After we finished eating, Carlos called in the porters and they squeezed into the tent. The mood suddenly got very emotional, as Carlos reiterated to us just how amazing these men were. He said as long as we smiled when the porters saw us, they knew they were doing their job. Carlos started to reel off in Spanish the abundance of praises we had for the men, and Steph caught sight of the eldest porter having a little smile to himself when he heard that "superman was lazy compared to you guys". At that point Steph started hysterically crying which set of the other girls. Even the boys had trouble holding back tears, and we all went round and thanked each and every porter. We went outside the tent to go to bed, to be greeted with the most astonishing night sky, with galaxies visible for miles. This prompted the girls to start crying again, as we realised what an emotional experience the whole thing had been, and how lucky we were to have had the opportunity to do it. For the last day we had to be up at 2am, but we couldn't resist popping our heads out of our tents and staring at the stars for half an hour or so.

It is fair to say that, turning 25 will be a birthday Tom remembers for the rest of his life.

Day 4

(not that many pictures were taken for this part of the hike as it was pitch black!)

We were woken up in the pitch black at 2am to start our downhill descent to Macchu Picchu. We were woken this early with the aim of getting to the sun gate of Macchu Picchu at sunrise. In the rainy season  (which we were currently in) it would be up to the weather to decide if it would be clear enough for us to see it. We fumbled around to get our head torches on, and said a final goodbye to the porters, who would be rushing past us on the trail, as the earlier they finished, the quicker they got to see their families.

It was a tough morning, with lots of careful stepping and trying to avoid falling. And after the whole morning of Tom telling Steph to be careful. Tom got a bit cocky and tried to eat a cereal bar whilst on a downhill section with his walking poles and torch hanging off his wrists. Unsurprisingly, he fell arse over tit. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, and it provided some much needed laughter for our tired group. We found singing to songs really helped pass the time in the dark, so did so for a few hours. We were about an hour to Macchu Picchu when the sun rose, so we unfortunately missed the sun rise at the sun gate, but we didn't mind. We powered through eagerly awaiting to see the sacred temple. We neared the summit, where Carlos and Leo told us before we got to the top, we had to conquer the 'Gringo Killer', a completely ridiculous flight of stairs that would never pass health and safety standards. 

We literally crawled on our hands and knees to get to the top, and we finally saw the sun gate in sight! Like zombies to fresh blood we ran as fast as our legs would take us to get our first glimpse of Macchu Picchu itself...