Wiracocha Inn Aguas Calientes

... was a strong incentive to get to the end! Again when we woke up it was drizzling rain, but after an hour or so it cleared up again. There were a lot of uphills and downhills during the day, but it was spread out by the Inca sites which we visited. Overall we hiked 16kms on day three and we enjoyed this day of hiking the most. It was very scenic and we hiked most of the day on the original Inca trail. This evening we each had a hot (but basic) shower for 5 ...

... tomorrow either moving to another hotel or getting back to Cusco. They were happy to hold onto our bags until we got back from Machu Picchu. I set the alarm for 4am and being so tired immediately fell into a deep sleep whilst Christie continued reading. Christie almost fell out of bed laughing when almost 3 minutes later my Iphone received a text and I jumped out of bed standing upright and alert thinking it was the 4am alarm, so psyched up was I to get to Machu Picchu for the 6am opening.

... hit (none to any extent that I was worried about) then poked my head out to check on Paul, who apologized profusely, though I assured him that he was having a far worse time than I and so not to worry about it. When I was asking Paul if he was ok, I caught a glimpse of the sky, and quickly threw on my boots and walked out of the tent. You know when you see pictures of the night sky and it's absolutely smeared with stars and you think, why the hell doesn't the sky ever actually look like ...

... spider, covered in black and brown fur, not nice, not nice at all. Dee discovered our little (huge) friend sitting on one of the blinds when she asked me to take a look at something she could see behind me, at first we weren't sure what it was and now after the realisation that it was the biggest meanest spider I have ever seen I wish I never had. I quickly put this to the back of my mind as I didn't want to think about how one of them could get in my tent or that I ...

... camp much earlier to set up for lunch and dinner and it was amazing what the two chefs were able to cook so high up in the mountains. We had a dinner tent set up with a big table, table clothes, cutlery and even a flower made out of a napkins. As soon as we arrived at the camp we were greeted by the porters with a glass of juice and a bucket of water and soap to freshen up. The tents were all built and even the air matresses were ready pumpt up..what a ...

... deet) on my left calve which swells, getting red and feels like permantent cramp. Anyway the end of the walk was still lovely, despite my whinging (I´m sure Phil would point out) and we eventually arrive at a town called La Playa for another lush lunch of soup and banquet of chicken, pasta and salad. <br><br>We pile back into the bus, with a fond farewell to the lovely mules who have carried our stuff and the horse man. Then ...

... gate onto the trail and so we all hared after him along steep cliff edges to get to the Sun Gate to see MP as the sun rose. Actually this turned out to be quite cool that we were some of the first people there but we were heaving wrecks after the hour running along cliff paths. One chap in our group sprained his ankle in his eagerness to keep up bu we escaped unscathed. MP is the most complete Inca site ...