The long, (very, very, very, very, hilly) and winding road to Machu Picchu

We can’t believe we actually survived the 45km Inka Trek…  everyone bought ponchos and we rarely had them off the whole time … it rained so much.

This is Peru what can you do!

Just try and picture Sonia and Gordon … such well known camping aficionados in a two-man tent being bombarded by unbelievable rainy weather for 3 days straight… and still being happily married!

 The porters carry 10 times what we carry… they have a race each year to see who can do the 45kms the fastest. The current record holder did the entire 4 day trek in less than 4 hours!

There were eight in our group and we had 11 porters to carry our gear including tents, kitchen etc etc.

The meals were unreal… amazing what can be produced using a very small gas stove in the middle of nowhere. We certainly did not starve!

Every meal started with some kind of welcome warming soup  followed by rice, potatoes with chicken or fish… we even had french fries and cauliflower tempura one night…all very tasty.

There was also always a cup of coca tea or coffee to finish and boiling water poured into bottle to settle us for a warm bed.. oh I mean tent mat.

Day two was the most challenging. We had to walk about five kms up millions of steps and then down another million. 

Sonia actually needed oxygen at the top of the pass… over 4000 metres up… a bit of a scary moment but we got through it.

The third day was magic although again because of the rain and cloud we didn’t see much of the views.

The Inka Trek is not for everybody and you certainly have to focus on the journey… we are glad we did it but for us that is trekking done and ticked off the ‘bucket list’.

At the end of the trek Gordon and I hired swimmers (mmmm noice, different, unusual and totally unfashionable!) and took in the waters at the Aguas Calientes spa… a rather smelly experience but good to have one’s body totally immersed in hot water after 4 days of no bath or shower!