This morning Juliet and I woke up early as it was our first proper day volunteering and we knew we’d have to master the bus on our own today. At 7.45am we were at the bus stop opposite our house, waiting for our bus. It arrived quite quickly however when we asked if it was going to Ccorao, the village where our kindergarten is, the answer was a firm no and the door was slammed shut. The bus system in Peru is absolutely crazy. The busses are more like mini busses and when they pull up at the bus station, 6 or 7 all pull up at the same time. Each mini bus has a name not a number like in England, and each bus also has a conductor, someone who opens the door as the bus is pulling up, shouting all the names of the different places that the bus is heading to. To even get the bus to stop you have to wave it down like a maniac and then when it pulls up, it only stops if someone is right there waiting to get on. So the minute the 6, 7 or even 8 busses are getting close to a bus stop, the people waiting start waving like mad then running as fast as they can to where they think their bus is going to go, while all the bus conductors are screaming their stops and the bus drivers are beeping madly… and the other cars on the street start beeping as well, as they’ve just been cut off by about 7 busses. It’s all very hectic and confusing and half an hour later, Juliet and I were still standing at the bus stop as we’d missed a few of our busses and when we had managed to get any to stop, we’d been told no when asking about Ccorao (not all of or busses go all the way there).
We gave up then and decided to try a different bus stop, after walking for about 5 minutes in the opposite direction to our previous bus stop, a huge bus (that wasn’t our one) pulled up and we tried our luck asking about Ccorao and it was heading there! So after all that stress we jumped on the bus and got to out volunteering early!

When the niños (children) started arriving at the Kindergarten, we were greeting with huge hugs and shouts of “amigas” “amigas”. Even though they do actually know their names, this is a sign that they all like us and have accepted us as their friends and into their culture! We played with all the children on their small playground (consisting of a slide and monkey bars) and were actually shocked at how monkey like they all are! They climb all the way up the slide without using the stairs and then slide down backwards or upside down or whichever way is not normal! And the same with the monkey bars, they can all do them so easily and climb on top and jump down from the huge height! The school day started with all the children standing in a huge circle and singing some songs, with actions, to begin the day. They sang a welcome song and then a song about getting ready in the morning, before all becoming very patriotic and so loud and screaming the Peruvian national anthem with their hands on their hearts.
After this they all split into their classes to begin their lessons. In my class they all started by singing (again) a welcome song to me and the teacher before she painted a few of the children’s faces with red smears and blew her whistle to indicate an earth quake. I’m guessing it’s similar to schools in England where we’d have a fire drill, but here it’s an earthquake drill. All of the children ran outside with their hands on their heads and got into circles in their classes. Then the children with red smears pretended to be those who had been injured in the earthquake and all the other children started to help them and take them to the hospital (the trees). The children got so into it, acting like doctors, fanning each other with their hats and some of them even pretended to die!

After the earthquake practice it was lesson time again for the children. I spent this time writing out exercising and drawing shape and colour tables in all of their exercise books for tomorrow’s lessons. Then it was break time where the children enjoyed maize and milk soup with biscuits, they literally are hundreds! Juliet and I spent most of the time playing with the children, letting them climb all over us and talking with the teachers. I also had to spend a lot of time with one child, Rayli. He’s a very difficult one and all the teachers are quite weary of him, he doesn’t have a dad and lives alone with his mum and is very very violet. He thumps and hits and kicks the other children and has taken a huge liking to me so unfortunately when I show any of the other children attention he thumps them! It’s so bad and then when I tell him no! he starts to sulk and cry! It’s all very exhausting but the children are so cute and Juliet and I are loving every minute with them.

The next lesson for the children in my class was music and while they all shook maracas, hit drums, blew trumpets and whacked triangles, I carried on with their exercise books. The music lesson, although it was basically a racket, was hilarious as they all tried to play their instruments in tune to the songs they were singing and took it in turns standing up and being the lead musician.

After Kinder, we headed back into the main square, the plaza de armas, in Cusco for some lunch before walking to Spanish school for our lessons and to watch the football semi – final, Argentina v Holland!

Originally Juliet and I wanted Holland to win but after seeing their horrible aggressive players and learning about how important it is for Argentina to win, not only for the country but for it’s economy, we quickly switched to be blue and white supporters. It was a very tense game, going all the way to penalties but Peru and Argentina are “hermanos” (brothers) so thank god Argentina won or we would have been at a Spanish school with a lot of angry South Americans…

Yesterday after our volunteer orientation with Horti, we headed back to our house to chill as it had been a very exhausting day. We had dinner in a local small cafe / restaurant before having probably our earliest night so far! (We were in bed reading by about 8pm…)

This morning when we woke up we were both so excited for our volunteer work to begin! We chose to volunteer in a kindergarten just outside of Cusco instead of a in two different schools close by as we felt that we’ll have more of an impact on the lives of those from the village and also for us, we can learn more about their culture in that kindergarten. It is in a place called Ccorao, which is about a 40minute journey by public bus. The village is situated in the mountains and it is very rural and poor. All of the children are under the age of 5 and I think the youngest is 3 years old and their kindergarten is from 9am until 1pm. This morning as we were sitting on the bus, driving the winding roads up the mountain watching the absolutely beautiful views and scenery of the whole of Cusco city, neither Juliet or I knew what to expect.
We arrived at the school with Horti, who had taken us there to introduce us and make sure we didn’t get lost! Horti was an immediate hit with the children who have met her lots of times before and they all ran over to hug her. After introducing Juliet and I, the children then began to sing us all different songs that they’d learnt while they’d been there – with all the actions! Their last song was a welcome song where they included our names and welcomed us into their town, culture and school.
After the introductions, Juliet and I went into different class rooms and the minute the teacher left to take Juliet to her classroom all of the kids ran over and hugged me! They’re so tiny so they were basically hugging my legs and then all of them were pulling me in different directions to make me sit at their tables!
Juliet and I are not teachers at this kindergarten, we’re helpers. We’re basically there as extra help because there is so many children and so we assist the teachers with whatever help they need, play with the children (especially at break times!) and then we also help to serve out the food, cut up the childrens’ fruit and help open their drinks.
The children are all so sweet, every single one making a huge effort with Juliet and I, holding our hands and telling us their names. They all have so many layers on and very old looking clothes but every single one of them are so cute! Lots of the girls have amazing hairstyles, braids, plates and long curly hair and all of the little boys have sun hats that they all collect from a big bucket at break time. In Peru, especially in the small villages, the children don’t brush their teeth but spend a lot of time eating very acidic fruits (they all had backpacks full of them) and lots of fizzy drinks, such as inca cola which has about 50grams of sugar per bottle! And so most of the children have rotting or black teeth and a lot of them, even though they are only 4 or 5 years old, have missing teeth as they have fallen out due to the sugar. It’s really sad but it’s so normal for them, you can tell because a lot of the Peruvian adults have gold teeth.
Break time was so exhausting! If forgotten how much energy little kids have! After running around with them and literally having them all jump on me and throw hay at me and chase me around the garden, it was time for them to eat. Luckily they all knew the score and say down with their bowls of rice and fish to eat. There was one little girl who came out of the classroom crying and refusing to eat and after talking to the teachers, I found out she doesn’t talk, ever. She’s three years old and apparently her two brothers, also in the kindergarten, don’t speak either. She was upset because she wanted her mama but after sitting her on my lap and talking to her in absolutely rubbish Spanish basically saying don’t worry and only one more hour and eat, eat, she finally stopped crying, started smiling and ate every single last scrap of her food. After more running around, screaming, falling over, having every single (50 of them) children basically grabbing my legs until I fell over and then more laughing, tickling and spinning them around, break time was finally over! We both went back into our classrooms with our children and teacher. My class was spending the lat part of kindergarten learning shapes and colours. The teacher made a huge grid on the board where the children took it in turns drawing shapes in different colours and saying the names – I even had a go and forgot the word for pink when it was my turn!! (Ohdear) but all the children clapped for me anyways. Then with another teacher, I drew out the grid in small 21 times for all the children to use tomorrow! At 1pm the day was over and as all the kids hugged us to say bye, Juliet and I headed to the bus stop… Where we found more children with their parents also waiting for the bus and they all ran over and hugged us too! It’s only been one day and we’re already attached, it’s going to be so hard saying goodbye after these three weeks are up!

The bus dropped us off in town where Juliet and I searched for a fish and chips restaurant we’d found in the lonely planet, only to discover that it doesn’t exist anymore! So we found another restaurant had a late lunch and caught up on some wifi!

This afternoon Juliet and I have our private Spanish lessons again, they really are private as in we have our own teachers, a one on one, whereas everyone else in the school has big group lessons! We really have got the best of everything and we’re definitely volunteering in the best kindergarten so we’re very happy.

At about 2 o’clock yesterday, Juliet and I rang a taxi to take us and our massive amount of belongings to what would be our new house for the next three weeks. Unfortunately it’s not in the middle of Cusco and as we drive further out the surroundings became less attractive and more scary looking. Our taxi driver had no idea where our house was and after a ten minute drive to the area and then another ten minutes driving round in circles, we started to ask people directions. A lot were non-responsive but eventually we found our house – number 16B and we’re greeted by the ‘house mum’ Horti.
Our house, despite the not so nice location, is actually really lovely. Juliet and I have a huge room with two big beds and lots of closet space so we can FINALLY unpack out of our backpacks!!! It’s a twenty five minute walk to the main square but it’s dangerous to walk it after 8pm – however there’s taxis literally everywhere and it’s a five minute journey by car. After Horti showed us around the house, to the sun room, the kitchen, her house, how to lock and unlock all the 5 doors and gates to actually get into the house, we dumped our stuff, made ourself at home and then headed back into Cusco city.
Our new house doesn’t have wifi so we have to rely on the restaurants and coffee shops. Lucky for us, basically every single one has internet connection. Juliet and I actually found a Starbucks in the centre of the plaza so made ourselves at home with a frappachino (SO yummy) and some wifi.

That evening we met our inca trail friends for our last meal as the PacaPumas (so emotional), we went to an absolutely delicious steak restaurant called Uchu – as we’d decided we needed to have a lovely meal to celebrate. All of our steaks came out on hot stones so we could chose how cooked we wanted them, with the most delicious sauces, salad and Peruvian style potatoes.

Our friend Mario also had a mousse made out of the local drink of Peru Pisco, which was absolutely delicious. It was a great meal with some friends for life and when we went to pay we discovered that Craig had been ridiculously generous and treated us all. It was so sad to say goodbye to our new friends but we will definitely stay in touch! (And thankfully it was an easier trip back to our new house as this time the taxi driver actually knew his way…)
This morning when we woke up, we headed to the Spanish school linked with our volunteering for our introduction day. It began with a Spanish test which wasn’t too bad and then a quick private conversation in Spanish with the lady who examined us – this is just to check our level for our Spanish lessons. We then had a briefing about Cusco and the Peruvian customs, which was actually quite tedious for me and Juliet as we’ve been here for a long time where as most people have just arrived. This afternoon our Spanish lessons begin and because Juliet and I are going straight into volunteering, while a lot of people are only here for Spanish lessons, we are lucky enough to have private Spanish lessons just for the two of us! (These are just for the first week to brush up our Spanish)
After our Spanish lesson today we then have a volunteering orientation with Horti where we’ll find out all about the school where we’ll be working and the children we’ll be teaching. So many orientations… We just want it all to begin now!!!

After our very much needed pampering yesterday, we all headed into the main plaza of Cusco to explore the markets. On the way, I saw someone I recognised and it was my best friend from home’s older brother!!! After trying to catch up with him for a whole and basically looking like a massive stalker, I ended up running after him and he led us to Starbucks where the rest of his family, including Katie (!!!) were! I knew they were in Cusco but I didn’t think we’d actually just bump into them in the middle if the city…
After saying all our hellos with hugs and kisses, Katie then came with Juliet and me to San Pedro market where we spent the afternoon browsing the stalls, haggling for the best prices and buying Peruvian tat. That evening we went out for dinner with Katie and her family to the Inca Grill. It was so lovely be treated to a delicious meal with starters, mains, drinks and even desert!

An early night was definitely on the cards for all of us and this morning Juliet and I woke up feeling a lot less drained and exhausted. (Although I did have a nightmare about the decapitated guinea pig that was served at dinner the other night and the fact that our tour guide ate the whole of it’s head so that all was left was it’s scull where he shoved the jaw up it’s nose!!! AND the fact that Juliet actually ate the guinea pigs kidney…

DAY ONE

After a hearty, but very rushed since we still had important packing to do, breakfast our tour group and fellow hikers boarded the g adventures bus. We left at 7.30am with day bags full of snacks, hiking gear, water, layers, everything as we all had no idea what to expect. Lucky for us the first day didn’t actually involve as much hiking as we may have thought…
We first stopped at Saqsaywoman, literally pronounced sexy woman which Juliet and I found hilarious, for photos. There was a huge Virgin Mary statue overlooking the whole of Cusco allowing us to see the real scale of the city and also the Puma shape that it’s roads make within the city. (This is why the local quetuan name for cusco city means puma).
Our next stop was a weaving village that only the people travelling with g adventures go to. It is a remote village close to the sacred valley and the G adventures company provide the village with weaving equipment so that they can make beautiful clothes for the tourists and themselves. A local lady from the village talked us through what the different weaving symbols mean (with our guide translating the quetua) before taking us to their local market. Here we saw how the use a local tree root as soap to clean all the wool and then different natural stones and rocks mixed with lime juice or salt to make different brightly coloured dyes for the wool – it was amazing. The village was absolutely full of llamas and alpacas – hence the fact it’s a weaving village of their wool – and I held a baby llama! I also got taken in by one of the locals and told that I was to marry her son and then the whole village started calling me daughter and my supposed “mother in law” kept running over and hugging me and it all got quite weird and bizarre so we left soon after that!!! We then drove to look a out point right over sacred valley where we saw amazing corn fields and huge inca remains – here we had our first big group photo! (There were obviously many more to come)
Our next stop was Pisac, a huge inca cemetery with over 5000 tombs. It’s the largest in the world however all that is left are tombs, or huge holes in the mountain, as all the bodies have been stolen.
Then it was time for lunch in an amazing out door restaurant. We were given different types of bread, then mini potato and chicken starters, followed by maize and cheese soup. Then stuffed chiles with alpaca meat and veg, with veg and chicken quinoa and potatoes. Caramel flan for desert… Basically a HUGE meal.
After a forty five minute drive / sleep to inca bar full of guinea pigs, where they make an alcoholic drink using maize, we went to our town and rest point for the day. We checked into our hotel then hiked (it was so difficult) to the top of the archeological site which is shaped like a llama, we hiked all the way to the llama head where they used to keep golden statues to worship. Then we explored the town, did a bit of shopping and all went out for dinner! Now early night ready for the hiking to begin…

DAY TWO

This morning breakfast in the hotel was at 7.30am, then we said goodbye to civilisation for the next five days and left at 8am. On this bus journey we also met our second tour guide for our journey. Our head your guide was Evert (or Spider) and our second guide was Jesus, Everts brother from the same town and they were both so excited to start the adventure with us. We drove for forty five mins before we ditched the bus for the rest of the inca trail. (!!!) When we got out we were at our first check point, here we needed to show our passports and got our first out of four inca trail stamps. We crossed the bridge across the Machu Picchu river and began the first day of our inca trail hiking – we started walking at 10am. At the beginning we were walking along side the train track and it was crazy to think those people would be at Machu Picchu in an hour and a half when we were going to be hiking for four days. We were also walking along side the river towards the mountains. The first place we stopped was to do a ceremony with cocoa leaves, we talked about their use and then sacrificed them to the mountains and Mother Earth, made a wish then put our three under a rock. Then we walked for about two hours before a banana break stop (after the most horrible and strenuous last twenty minutes up hill, the rest had been easy up easy down). Then walked for about another hour to lunch. We passed a patallacta which is an administrative center and ended up at Wilkallacay inca lookout point over some ruins. Here we also learnt about the fact that the inca trail we’re doing is actually the inca pilgrimage, across the mountains as a way of blessing the mountains and showing love to them. There actually is a different route from the sacred valley to Machu Picchu past the lookout we saw which goes along the river and only takes 7 hours, but ofcourse it is not the real inca trail. Then we climbed along the edge of the mountain, uphill, seeing the most beautiful views of snow capped mountains and ending up at a beautiful view overlooking them. When we got to our lunch spot our porters were already there and had set up a teepee type hut for lunch with a table and chairs, a table cloth and napkins in the shape of little houses. We were even greeted by a porter with our group number on a flag and then there was another porter in a shirt (!!) who would be our waiter. He gave us orange juice as soon as we arrived and hot water to wash. Lunch was soup with garlic bread and grilled fish with cheesy potatoes and veg, then the famous hot cinnamon and berry liquid desert. They even had a mat out for our belongings to go on so that they wouldn’t get dirty on the ground.
After lunch we had another two hours hiking, it was broken up with another break in the middle and lots of dusty shaded roads which opened out into beautiful scenery right over looking the mountains.
We arrived to camp at 4pm, 6 hours after we set off although it felt like much longer. Our tents were already set up and we were greeted by high fives from all the porters and hot water to wash ourselves. Our duffle bags that the porters have carried all the way up here as well as cooking equipment, tents, food and everything, were waiting for us and we put them into our tents and relaxed after a hard (it will for sure be the easiest) day of walking.
We then all sat round in a circle and met the porters as they introduced themselves and then we introduced ourselves, then afternoon tea, with games card games and magic tricks. Then dinner of noodle soup and chicken with rice and veg. Then more tea then briefing of tomorrow then bed – an exhausting but great first day.

We walked 11miles today.

DAY THREE

Today we were woken up at 5am by the porters with coca tea. I felt anxious, nauseous and very sick, a combination of altitude and nervousness for today which is renowned for being the hardest day of all. We set off at 7 and from the moment we left the camp it was uphill on dirt tracks, and not just gentle up hill, actually quite steep up hill. By 7.30 I felt sick, the same sick as you feel when you’ve done a huuuuge work out but it was constant. Spider our tour guide got out some flower water which had alcohol in it that you smell and it helped a lot. By 8.10 we were at our first official break point, twenty minutes earlier than schedule so we were all happy. Although I was so nervous for the next section as I knew it was going to be uphill stone stairs which are much steeper. And we still had about five hours to go…

10.10am and we finally arrived at our second break stop after two hours of climbing stone steps on a trail hidden under the canope. My space in the group is between the keen fast hikers and the much slower steadier ones, there’s a big gap between the two where my place is and it’s so peaceful (when you forget about how strenuous it is) getting into a hiking rhythm along side the glowing river under the shade of the trees. Surprisingly my legs weren’t aching too much here however because the stomach strap on my bag is broken, my shoulders ached quite a bit – however I can’t even begin to complain a tiny bit while on the inca trail because every five minutes or so a porter will over take us wearing Sandles, sweating it out in the heat, carrying up to 26kg on his back of food, cooking equipment, customers belongings, tents, tables, chairs, you name it. We’re lucky because our porters have actual bags however some that pass us just have all their equipment bundled in a rug and tied around their neck.. All 26kg of it. I feel so bad for them everytime I see them but we keep being reminded that they don’t do this for the money, they do this because they love the inca trail and their heritage. Our chef Santiago walked passed us as we were having a break and we all cheered like we normally do for our porters, id just got out a snickers so I gave it to him as he walked passed and he was so so happy… We know whose going to get the best meal tonight!
When we were approaching our second break the canopy opened up and we got a clear view of the beautiful snow capped mountains with the stone steps beneath disappearing into the trees. And finally I made it! Two more hours to go until we’re at the top of the mountain…
And those two hours were probably the most difficult, strenuous and most challenge thing I have ever done and accomplished. Ever second I felt as if I was going to pass out or be sick. The path way was extremely steep narrow gravel leading all the way to the top of the mountain and although the view was great on the way up it couldn’t even be appreciate due to the sheer lack of energy. Every single inward breath I took didn’t feel like I was even getting any oxygen. I could take the biggest breath and it would feel as if id only inhaled a tiny bit. After two hours of sweat and actually nearly tears on multiple occasions (made much better by a lady from New York on our tour who left me coca sweets on rocks on the way up) I finally made it to the top. (!!!) Although the speedy hikers had been waiting for about 45minutes when Katelyn (from New York) and I arrived, we then waited for about half an hour for the rest of the group and had anther half an hour to actually appreciate the view and to take photos. Although the I’ve-over-exercised-myself-and-now-feel-sick feeling actually never went away, we were at our highest point of the inca trail at 4100m high and the view of the mountains was spectacular.
The last bit of our journey was down hill and although this was a MASSIVE relief, it was actually more difficult than we thought. Making our poles much longer for down hill trekking we set off and I just felt so ill and was so keen to get to camp I actually made it down first, an hour and a half later. Amelio was waiting for us with our group flag and led us, for actually quite a while, down a tiny pebble path that we’d have never found alone, through rivers, across a field, next to a waterfall and finally at our camp! I quickly washed and changed and got my horrible dusty hiking boots off and soon (THANK THE LORD) lunch was served (3pm). It was quinoa soup, followed by beef with cheesy veg, rice and mash, followed by Apple tart. I don’t even eat apple tart and it was absolutely delicious, the whole thing was. I practically inhaled it – a very much deserved lunch if I can say so myself. Now for an afternoon snooze before afternoon tea. At 5.30 we were woken up for afternoon tea of hot chocolate and popcorn! And it was the best popcorn ever, it was even hot!
I then had another snooze while everyone played games and then dinner of chicken soup and vegetable spaghetti. Then a much deserved sleep.

Even though today was physically and mentally draining it was made so much better by the fact that we have the most amazing tour group who are friendly, supportive and cheered each other on the whole way. Craig from New Zealand always led the pack followed by the two Chicago boys Tom and Peter, and Juliet and Fausto, and were always waiting at the top for us, cheering us on. Mario was also ahead and we could always hear his wooping and cheering and screaming of PACAPUMAS so we knew we were getting close, even if we couldn’t cheer back because we were so out of breath. Eric, Laura and John (the rest of the Chicago fam) were always close to me offering encouraging words and I’m so sorry they had to hike behind me and basically stare at my bum for five days straight!!! Then if I wanted a slow steady set pace with girlie chit chat and lots of photo breaks (to catch our breathe) I knew I could hike with Katelyn, Andrea or Rina Maria (who I could also always rely on to need a wee stop at the same time as me!!) such a great group and I couldn’t have done it without all of them. Especially Spider and Jesus who never failed to start at the back and run past ready to cheer us on until the end. We originally named ourselves the Alpacas but the porters didn’t really see the joke that this is the most hilarious animal, and wanted us to have a strong team name like the Pumas, so Mario (from Vegas) the most hilarious guy I’ve ever met made it his challenge to combine the two and then the PACA PUMA family was born.

Today we hiked 8km uphill and 4 downhill so 12km in total.

DAY FOUR

This morning we were woken up at 5.30am. Breakfast was toast, and the most bizarre quinoa soup / drink which was really not tasty and then scrambled eggs with vegetables and hash brown however my plate flipped into my lap (!!!) all over me so I had to have seconds…
We set off at 7am to our check point to get our passports stamped and then hiked for an hour uphill, it was deathly due to the fact we were tired, stiff and having to hike up more steep stone steps but soon we came to some inca ruins which used to be a lodge for the inca people on their pilgrimage, so we learnt about their culture and history and how they, in a type of relay race, ran the inca trail we’re doing in five days, in five hours. (!!!) We then hiked for another forty five minutes, again up hill and deathly, however much better than before, and our last steep uphill of the inca trail – horray!!! At 9.15am we reached our second break point, right at the top of of Runkurracay mountain.
After our break I thought we were hiking for another hour and a half, so it was such a pleasant surprise when after 40 minutes I found some of my group at a break point over looking another much bigger incredible inca site called Sayac Marka which means available village. The view point stuck out and over looked the whole valley and crossing mountains. We saw a camp site on the mountain across which looked miles away but was a steady flat hike and took us about half an hour to get there. The rest point there was filled with llamas and after a much easier hike than expected everyone was in good moods. I spent the majority of this hike with Mario’s sister, Rinamarie and Andrea and we were chatting and laughing the whole way making the journey much easier and actually quite funny – especially when we went to have a pee stop in the trees because there was literally no one around and then, ofcourse, our tour guide comes running round the corner shouting HOLA CHICAS!! It was also a different type of hike than expected due to the fact that we are now on a jungle mountain and so the vegetation is much more vast and green than before.
I definitely spoke to soon with the ‘easy hike’ though, as the next half an hour was steep uphill… but then it levelled out to easy up easy down with some surprises on the way! The first was the huge mist like cloud that filled the valley making it hard to see the probably beautiful view beyond. It was also quite a good thing seeing as there was a sheer drop along side our walkway and we were hiking along the actual edge of the mountain. Then we came across a huge inca made cave with the steepest tiniest down hill steps that we had to climb down. Eventually at 1pm we arrived at a beautiful sunlit camp, ready for lunch. Today it absolutely exceeded itself, we had chicken noodle soup followed by the biggest buffet of pizza, empanadas, two types of mixed salad, stir fried rice with chicken and broccoli and then stir fried beef with vegetables. As if that wasn’t enough, after our huge buffet which I was overly happy with, they had a surprise for us and we all shut our eyes as the chef porter and the sous porter brought into our little tent the most incredible, absolutely huge orange flavoured cake – THAT THEY’D MADE FOR TWO HOURS ON THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN – and it was piped with pink and white icing and written across the front was “well done Paca Pumas”.
We were all so full and so happy and after cheering ridiculously loudly for our chefs and then our waiter (yes we have a waiter, in a shirt remember) and then all the porters, we had a huge group photo and a short rest before setting off again.
We then hiked for about ten minutes before arriving at an inca ruin site, here we learnt about how the incas sacrificed girls between the ages of 14 and 16 to “Mama patcha” or Mother Earth. The girls are brought up knowing that they have been chosen to be sacrificed and it’s an honour for their family. By the time they are of sacrificial age, they believe it is their duty, right and honour. In 1995 an explorer found a 14 year old girls body preserved in the ice with a 5cm gash in her head, after doing experiments on her in the Usa they realised she had hallucinogenics in her body still preserved. She had been a chosen inca girl to be sacrificed and just like the others as part of her ceremony she had been taken to the snow cap mountains as an offering for mama patcha however this particular girl had frozen and preserved. We also learnt that it is now animals that they sacrifice and heard personal stories and memories from our tour guides. One tour guide said that his whole family lived in one house with another family in the town and his father wanted to build a house for his family a bit further away. His grandfather threw coca leaves on the table and read them and discovered that Mother Earth was hungry and wanted an offering. Their family dog had just had seven puppies and so they dug a huge hole and burrows the seven puppies in the hole, as they tried to scramble out. Our tour guide said he was crying as he watched them die but Mother Earth was happy and so they built their house on top of the sacrificial site. It was very sad hearing the stories and also learning how much they all love the mountains and their heritage. They live to do the inca trail and although the porters have done it numerous times, most of them never actually make it to Machu Picchu. All the porters stop at Aguas calientes and head back to cusco so while working they will never see Machu Picchu. Our guides said they’ll make sure they bring their children here and they’re so sad their fathers and grandfathers never got to see the lost city. On a funnier note, while we’re hiking when porters are approaching, because they’re so much faster than us, we shout “porters!!”, so that everyone moves out the way so that they can pass. Today we learnt that in Qetchua, the local language, “porter” in an English accent doesn’t mean porter, it means prostitute so every time they’ve been approaching we’ve all been shouting “PROSTITUTE!” We were meant to be rolling our Rs.
We then hiked for an hour and a half before we arrived at the most beautiful inca farm, with tiers and layers of grass over looking snow capped mountains crossing with normal mountains, divided by a river.
We then hiked to camp which took about twenty minutes, but only after being tricked by our two tour guides into going the wrong way so that they could run down a short cut and beat us. Dinner was, as usual delicious, corn soup and then stuffed chicken with cheese, potatoes and veg for dinner, then for desert… Jelly!!! We then all put money in a hat for the porters as a way of showing our appreciation before they all came in and we thanked them for all they’ve done for us – they actually do do everything from carrying literally all of our belongings, tents, sleeping equipment, food, getting to camp hours before us to set it all up – even with their big bags they hike faster – greeting us into camp with a round of applause and congratulations for completing the day, bringing us hot soapy water to wash with in the evenings, waking us up with hot tea, waiting on us hand and foot, zipping up our tents so the mozzys don’t come in, you name it, they do it. Juliet and Andrea from our group then did a speech in Spanish and thanked them for everything and presented them with the tips and then Santiago the chef stood up to talk to us. The minute he started talking I felt myself tearing up, and when he said that they all wish us well tomorrow I was literally sobbing. These people devote their whole lives to the inca trail and their ancestors the incas, they love them and worship them. The porters work on the inca trail because they love their heritage and they love the fact they’re following the path of their ancestors, not for the money. Their life ambitions, dreams and everything they could ever hope for is to see the lost city of Machu Picchu and today we’re camping right around the corner from it, yet tomorrow morning when the porters have woken us up with hot tea and breakfast and we hike off to see something that they could only dream of seeing, they have to hike down to Aguas calientes with all our belongings, tents, food and then go home. That’s the end of their trip, tonight was good bye and they’ve hiked all this way and don’t even get to see it. Some of them work as porters their while lives doing the inca trail day after day and die never seeing Machu Picchu. I was literally crying my eyes out as the chef had to stand there, as he probably does week after week, and wish us safe travels to see the lost city of their ancestors, something which clearly means worlds more to them than it does to us, it’s just not fair and if there was a way that we could get all 18 porters into Machu Picchu obviously we would do it. On a more positive note, both our tour guides have worked as porters for many years before tour guides, our main one for 10 years and so for them every time they get to today they’re literally so happy when they remember that they’re not going home with the porters but coming to Machu Picchu with the tourists and it’s so great that we get to share that excitement with them. Juliet and I have made good use out of our poles but we no longer need them as the hike tomorrow is only one and a half hours and so as a gift I gave mine to Santiago the chef, and Juliet to the sous-chef Wilber as they have to hike with all their heavy cooking equipment with no support, plus the food was absolutely delicious. They were so so happy and said that they would treasure the gifts forever. So although it’s been an extremely tiring, long day, and even more extremely emotional evening, I’m going to bed happier – ready for our 3.30am wake up in the morning.

Today we hiked 16km.

DAY FIVE ARRIVING AT MACHU PICCHU!!!!

At 3.30am we were woken up in our usual way by the porters outside our tents with hot water and some coca tea. It was our earliest start to date and after putting on as many layers as we could, quickly eating some breakfast, we headed down to our check point. It took about a minute to get there and we arrived around 4.15am. The way that the Machu Picchu check point works is that it’s basically a race to get there, as the hike to Machu Picchu is quite thin so you can’t really over take. We decided we were going to hike together as a Pacapuma family and when we arrived at the check point we were the fifth group in line… Right behind the French… We then made it our mission to beat them to Machu Picchu! At 5.30am the marshals arrived and the check point was opened and we began our hike to the Sun Gate. As we were hiking all together it was the quickest I’ve actually gone while on the inca trail but we all managed to stay together – even after some argy bargy with the French tour group who wouldn’t let half our group pass after we stormed past them, breaking the no over taking rule. But soon after some serious paca puma chanting our group was reunited and after an hour of quite flat hiking, except a ridiculously steep climb up about 50 steps using our hands and feet, we finally arrived at the sun gate!!! On the 22nd November every year the sun rises exactly between two points in the mountain and the sun streams through the sun gate right onto Machu Picchu. From the sun gate we could see the lost city and it was unreal to think that we were actually there!!!
We then had another 45 minute hike before finally arriving in the most sacred place in Peru, the lost city of the Incas, MACHU PICCHU!
A photo speaks a thousand words and it’s impossible to describe how spectacular Machu Picchu is but hopefully the photos will do it justice. We took a million photos, had our last history lesson with Spider and Jesus all about Machu Picchu and the Incas then set out t explore ourselves. We visited the sun temple, the condor temple, the boys university, the girls university and even the llama fields. The whole of Machu Picchu is surrounded by a vast array of huge towering green mountains and it’s set right on a huge rock face so there’s a sheer drop to the river below.. Absolutely spectacular.

At 12pm we got the bus down to Aguas Calientes, an exciting town filled with tourists and buzzy street venders. Here we had our last lunch as the PacaPumas, said our thank yous with a few speeches to our tour guides and then got on the Machu Picchu rail back to the sacred valley. Our group were so happy and excited about the fact that we’d actually completed what we set out to do that even though we thought we’d sleep on the train we chatted and nattered the whole hour and a half long journey back. After getting off the train we then had a two hour bus back to cusco and again everyone was singing, shouting and we all even had a few celebratory drinks as we were finally back to civilisation after the best hike of our lives. After VERY needed showers, we headed out for our final meal, the dinner where we would be trying Guinea Pig. (!!!) I didn’t actually try it as it looked, well, like a guinea pig but our tour guides were absolutely loving it.

That evening I had an absolutely amazing sleep in an actual bed after being awake since 3am. My legs were actually hurting by the time I got into bed and I slept through right until the sun light came through the window as Peru has the most rubbish curtains in the whole world.
This morning our tour group have all been for extremely necessary massages (absolutely amazing), trying to help soothe our aching muscles… and after some much needed pampering and a buffet lunch we feel clean, full and ready to spend the day exploring Cusco!

After checking out of our hostel yesterday, we headed into town to rent our hiking gear for the inca trail!! (Very exciting)

It was actually cheaper for us to buy the sticks and bottle so to our delight (and probably our parents dismay), we have more souvenirs to come home with us!
We then checked into our new hotel (first three stay establishment we’ve been in, again it’s all very exciting) which is also home to g adventures, the company we will be doing our inca trail with and at 5pm we had our briefing.
We met our group of 12 here and our tour guide / leader, spider. We looked on the form to check our passport numbers and realised that Juliet and I have paid a little but more than some other people but have SIX porters between us! There’s 18 porters for our group so we have the majority hehe (very happy about that). Spider talked us through each aspect of the hike, letting us know this is his 234th time climbing the inca trail and for him it’s home. Today we’re having training and exploring a town and different archeological sites but then it gets progressively harder from there. One of the days (day three I think) it’s only up hill for 7 hours with no breaks, sometimes basically vertical and all stone steps… So that’ll be super easy for two girls who have been lying on beaches for 5 months…
Each day has a new adventure and although I know what’s going to happen I don’t want to spoil too much for my blog after it! Spider got us all pumped and excited explaining we should stop and smell the roses (although he’s Peruvian and got confused and said smell and stop for roses) and that going slow is better (we liked this but of information). He told us he’s always be at the back supporting and cheering us on and we have become a family on a holiday and in our rest time we’ll be playing cards with the porters, joking with the chefs and learning about each other. We’re camping every night except the first and on our last day we wake up at 3.30 (!!!)am so that we can hike into Machu Picchu and be the first ones there to watch the sunrise. I’m so keen for this day to arrive but also excited for the adventure to come before!
Next stop Machu Picchu!!!

It’s now morning and we’ve packed everything into our small 6kg max duffle bag and then also our small day bags, which are SO comfy (great rent). Although it was a struggle, we’re ready and packed and all set to go. Eating a nice carb filled breakfast now and soon we’ll be off!!!

I will miss talking to everyone and blogging but be SO excited for my blog in five days when I’m back – I know I’ll have amazing pictures.

Ps when we come back we’ll be experts and chewing coca leaves because spider said his grandfather taught him to chew them while on the trek and so he’s going to teach us! (Don’t want to be getting altitude sickness do we…)

Yesterday at 7am we boarded the inca express bus (Juliet and I managed to bag ourselves front seats again woo) to experience the drive from Puno to Cuzco in a different way. Instead of just taking the normal 7 hour route, the inca express scales the edges of Lake Titicaca and then ascends to the highest point in the area before dropping back down between the mountains along side the inca river that leads all the way to Machu Picchu. This bus took ten hours but we stopped off at different points along to way, inca ruins museums, pre inca churches, the highest point and a beautiful mountain restaurant for a buffet lunch before carrying on our journey. The tour guide was English and Spanish speaking and so described every detail of our journey and it’s significance to all of us.

When arriving in our hostel in Cuzco, the first person we saw was our friend from San Pedro! (And she’s in our room!) so we had a catch up before deciding to go out for dinner with her and our other San Pedro friends who are also here. Walking through Cuzco at night, I was immediately struck by how buzzy and beautiful it is. It’s full of bright lights and water fountains lit up in an array of purples and pinks, fun streets filled with restaurants and shops – it’s hard to describe but it’s amazing. As you look around you can see the suburban communities up on the mountain, filling it with blue and yellow lights they can probably say the same about us.

For dinner we went to a buzzy, fun and absolutely delicious tapas bar before heading back to the hostel and literally collapsing into our beds.

Yesterday we were picked up at 7.50am and taken to the dock where we boarded our ferry and began our two day tour of Lake Titicaca! (Lago Titikaka in español). Our first stop was Isla de los Uros, the reed islands and we visited the San Miguel community. The reed islands are absolutely amazing as they are all hand made and are also known as the floating islands, as there is no under water foundation, their whole community, life and world float on the lake on a thick bed of reeds which they, themselves make. We learnt all about how they make them and how they have to keep adding to the reeds and obviously the under layer is soggy, this also means that their houses are raised to avoid dampness. We actually got taken by one of the locals to her reed house where she showed us around (it was just a simple, tiny room with a bed) and let us try on her traditional, brightly coloured clothing! This included a huge, puffy, bright pink skirt, a green jacket, hair pom poms and a bonnet! After this she showed us her beautiful tapestries of life on the reed islands and then we went on a short boat ride around the islands on a row boat, also made out of reeds.

Our next stop, which the reed sailing boat actually took us to, was Utama, the main island in the Uros community. Here we got our passports stamped to say we’d visited the world of Lake Titicaca! Here I met the cutest little girl called Isabel who, even though her first language isn’t Spanish but the language of the incas, Imari, she was chatting away to me in Spanish telling me her name, asking my name and telling me she is five.

We then had a three hour boat ride to Amantani Island where we met Estafa, our Peruvian mum for the night. Estefa then took us to her little house in the island, showed us around and made us some lunch of quinoa soup, then rice potatoes and grilled cheese. We then met her daughter Daisy, before heading across the island to meet up with the rest of our tour group and hike for an hour right up to the very top, to watch the sunset.

After the sunset, we went back to our little house to help prepare dinner. We peeled potatoes for the onion and potato soup and then showed Estefa and Daisy photos of our families. They both said that they loved my blonde hair, as everyone here has black hair, however when I showed them my family with much blonder hair they were so fascinated and also very shocked! Dinner was onion and potato soup and then vegetable curry with rice, all cooked over a little fire.

Then we helped Estefa with some English phrases that she can use with tourists, as normally they don’t speak any Spanish. Suddenly we realised it was party time, which meant that we got to dress up (again hehe) in Estefas traditional clothing, and head to the town party which involved a lot of dancing to local music played by some of the community’s students. The dancing basically involved dancing and jumping round in a circle holding hands and all cheering.

We then went back to the house and had a surprisingly good sleep.

Day two.
We had pancakes with jam (it’s amazing what she can make on her little fire stove) for breakfast and mountain thyme tea, before saying goodbye to Estefa and heading down to the port to sail to Taquille Island.

It took us an hour and when we arrived we walked all the way around the huge island to the main square. It was an absolutely beautiful walk, filled with stunning views of the island and lots of sheep!

Then we went to an outdoor restaurant for lunch where we learnt about the traditional outfits and what different aspects of them symbolise, ie whether they’re single or married etc… We had a delicious lunch of grilled trout before heading back to the boat, and all the way back to Puno.

This evening we went out for dinner with some of our friends from the tour. We went to a restaurant called Balcones del Puno where we ate Alpaca steak and watched an amazing, and sometimes quite intense and scary, show of traditional Peruvian dancers.

Today is the day of our two day lake titicaca tour! We’re off to explore the amante islands and the reed islands and then spend the night with the locals tonight in their huts on the island. We’re up early as we’re both very excited to experience real native island life and to see the beautiful lake. (And so that we have enough time to have breakfast in the glass room over looking the city, at the top of our hotel)

Can’t wait to blog about it all after!

After a lovely nights sleep (in our double beds in our own room!!!) Juliet and I spent the entire morning watching tv episodes on YouTube and snoozing, something we’ve been wanting to do for ages… Absolutely nothing (it’s also something we’re getting very good at).
At lunch time we headed into the town to explore and sort out everything for our next few days of adventure. We first decided to check up on our reservations for our inca express bus to Cusco on the 28th. It was quite a stressful meeting as we soon discovered that we were not actually booked in (even though we paid and booked previously) and that the agency that we booked with might be fake… And they had our passport details as well as our money. The tour lady from the inca express office was nice and friendly and eager to help us. She started ringing up and told us to come back later, as well as assuring us we’d have a place on the bus. Newly stressed and worried about the prospect that we could have paid and given out personal information to a fake company, we headed to the offices of Edgar Adventures (our tour company for tomorrow) hoping that we’d have a better experience checking up on our reservations there. Thankfully they had our reservation and were ready for us to tour the lake tomorrow. With our names saved, they gave us all the information we needed about the tour tomorrow (thank god) and so we left that agency a lot less stressed! After lunch we headed back to the inca express offices with a confirmation email from our maybe-fake-hopefully-not agency and discovered that they had got hold of them and everything was fine, our payment and reservation transferred to the real inca express company!
With all sorted, we’re both so excited about the tour of Lake Titicaca tomorrow. It’s also so weird to think that everything, for the rest of our time as backpackers, is now organised and waiting for us to experience it!
Time flies…