Preparing for the Inca Trail

Hi all

Weve been in Cusco since saturday and it is a quality place, one of the highest cities in the world we are told, wemust be staying at about 11500 feet. Our hostel is really nice, clean, with breakfast in the morning and we have a private double room and bathroom, all for about 6 quid a night!

Have just been chilling out here for the past few days, eating and drinking, it is so so cheap! Luckily neither of us have really suffered with the altitude although walking up the hills is a bit of a struggle. You see some brilliant sights in the street, just things you can only imagine but so typically South American, ladies walking around in bright dress with hats with their pet Llamas on a lead! The place is just buzzing with tourists and backpackers and weve really enjoyed our time here.

Today weve been planning and getting ready for tomorrow, the start of our 4 day Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu. Weve hired backpacks as ours werent that suitable and have just packed and they are quite heavy, think we might hire a porter for Emma on the second day which is the toughest. Weve rented really good sleeping bags from the company and they are hanging from the bottom of our packs. We set off at 5.30am in the morning so an early night tonight! First day is about 5-6 hours walking and we should get to camp by about 3pm so you have a lot of time to chill out. Then ecah morning we set off about 5.30am to 6am. Cant wait, really looking forward to this, like something weve never done.

We get back from the trek late on saturday evening so were staying in Cusco for another 2 nights then, before headed down south on a bus to Puno to visit Lake Titicaca for a couple of days, weve booked our hostel there already. Then it  back to Cusco for a night before heading back to Lima for a few days to see off ourtime in Peru.

Well update again once weve completed our trek

Speak soon!