We have friends! Cusco, and the Inca Trail

Nats doing a very real enactment of ´Dead Women´s Pass´at 4200m...

We´ve had an eventful week! Nathalie and Daryll arrived in Cusco last Monday morning in freezing cold overcast weather, and we met them at the airport with a homemade welcome sign...using an old joke from our Israel trip together...and they obviously had the same thing in mind as the first thing they did when we saw them (before we even got a hello) was offer us a wet wipe... It was fantastic to see them and we went through the usual travel regulars, like checking into a hostel, finding a place to eat, exploring the town...this time with friends which made it a whole lot more exciting again...

Wednesday was the big day, Steven´s birthday and the start of the Inca trail we´d booked 3 months ago. We had a very early present opening ceremony for him and a sing along to the singing card from mom (delivered, among many other things, by nats and daryll) before we were picked up and driven to the start of the Inca trail, aclimatised or not. A friendly family of 6 Aussies made up our group. The trail was fantastic, beautiful scenery, and very rewarding with Machu Picchu at sunrise on the 4th day, hidden in amongst the most amazing limestone formed, green covered mountains. What made it even more rewarding however was the effort to get there!: 45km´s, 1200m breathless tortoise-paced climbing up (I really did feel rather tortoise-like with backpack on back, bent over, staring at the ground) on day 2 (as well as climbing on other days too) to an altitude of 4200m, and waking up at 5, 6 and 4 each respective morning, minus 8 degrees at night, plus a bit of hail...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

We carried our clothes (lots of them for maximum warmth!), sleeping bags and mattreses. Our group had porters which carried the tents and all the food for 3 deliscious meals a day (which an accompanying chef prepared), plus tea/coffee and snacks!! What luxury, and it was WELL appreciated when we arrived (jelly-legged) at a pre-set up camp every day !!!

We got back yesterday evening after a scenic train ride (with a bit of a mess up from the tour company regarding our train tickets...long story) took us from Machu Picchu back to the start of the trail , and have spent today recovering in Cusco, walking around like 4 geriatrics, hobbling down steps and not being able to get up once we´ve sat down...(suddenly the booming ´massaje?´industry in this town makes a whole lot of sense). Had a fantastic day today celebrating Steven´s birthday properly with 2 birthday parties in one day...one over breakfast in a sunny restuarant balcony overlooking the festive town square, and then a second over a huuuuuuuge lunch...what a treat :)

Tomorrow we´re off to Puno and then Lake Titicaca...yay!