Machu Picchu Day 1

Another early morning today as we had to drive about an hour and a half before we got to the town where we'd be leaving from to start our Machu Picchu trek. The town (who's name I can't remember) allowed us to get any last minute supplies, use a flushable toilet and have breakfast. All of this we did, buying a neckerchief for the supplies. These were very useful to keep sun off our necks as well as to use as a wash cloth whenever we had water...and made us look a little like cowboys.

Another drive took us to the 82km point where the trek would begun. There we got to meet our porters who would be taking our tent's, food and basically everything else. For the six of us plus one guide there was thirteen porters each carrying 20kgs!

The trek started easily and ended with a bit of an incline to finish us off for the day. It felt good to be doing some exercise again, get the heart rate (and a sweat) up, although the higher altitude certainly caused us to lose our breath far quicker.

We arrived at our first camp site at around 4pm and the scenery was beautiful. The tents were quickly put up and before we knew it we were served an amazing 3 course dinner that tasted delicious and had you guessing if you really were on a mountain side somewhere in Peru.

We were also visited by a incredibly happy and friendly little pig who was owned by one of the locals who, amazingly, live nearby. We found him very amusing as he happily made himself at home in our campsite and when Holly approached him quickly rolled over for a belly rub. The porters were a bit confused why we found this piece of livestock so amusing.

Before long it was dark and we were brushing our teeth and climbing into our tents (which I used for todays blip) to get a good nights rest before doing it all again tomorrow.

- Damian