Machu Picchu

The four day trek to Machu Picchu - the f#cking hardest thing I´ve ever done in my life; physically and mentally. I´ve also never felt such a sense of achievement ever in my life - sitting in Cusco after a great sleep, a hot shower, the best breakfast I´ve had in over 8 weeks (two coffees!) and a whole lot of laughs I was so happy, I could die. 45km, three passes (one at 4215m and one at 3900m and one that was irrelevant after doing those two)...... I can´t believe I did it.

It all started at 5am - setting out from Km 82 was exciting - I now have stamps in my passport from the checkpoint that I think are illegal, but anyway.... We followed the Urubamba River (that becomes the Amazon, where I´ll be trekking and camping in a little over a week! Yay) for a few k´s and then it was a slight uphill climb to our lunch spot - where I got the shock of my life. Our porters -who I knew existed - had set up our dining tent and cooked us a three course meal for lunch! Talk about begin as you mean to go on - I expected to be eating off a rock after helping prepare the food, and putting up my own tent.....

After lunch, it got steeper and steeper, and we spread out and I ended up walking the last three or four k´s on my own. Remember, this is deep, deep in the Andes, so there were a couple of villages and signs early on, but then nothing. After walking for about 8 or 9 hours, and when it started getting darker and darker and I started to wonder if I was lost, had gone past the campsite.... dodging donkey shit for that first 11 k´s wasn´t a lot of fun either. Most of the villagers speak Quechan, not Spanish, so I would have been royally shyte if it came to asking for directions.....

The views were awesome ' the landscape changed a lot as we went through, from really sparse mountainous terrain to rainforest....

...and always snowcapped mountains and glaciers not too far away.....

The lads took on the ¨porters challenge¨after lunch and carried 25kg packs uphill for the afternoon. Insane....

Getting into camp on that first night was awesome - a standing ovation from 15 porters is a pretty good end to the day, followed by a cold beer (sold from a tub by the villagers!) and another three course meal! I was tired and in bed pretty early but let´s face it -I hadn´t really laboured in those 11 or so k´s. They knew I´d been ill (I was drinking gastrolyte for the entire day) and made herbal teas and stuff for me after dinner - maybe that´s what got me up the mountain?

The nice surprise was a hot bowl of water as soon as we got into camp to wash, and a hot bowl of water first thing in the morning, with a hot cup of muna (kind of like mint) tea presented to us in our sleeping bags (at 5am it felt like a bribe to get up.....).

Pretty easy you think? I think not. The next morning, it got steeper and steeper, as we made our way to Dead Woman´s pass at 4215m - the first and highest pass of the four day, 45km trek.

Up, up, up.....and up, up, up, up, up......

My legs had plenty of go left, but I could not get enough air. Unlike the previous day walking alone, I stuck in a small group with Jamie (lame with a sprained ankle from an over zealous game of football with the locals on Amanti Island) and Moy (knackered after participating in the ¨porters challenge¨the day before). F·cking steep - mother of god - step after step after step. I honestly thought I was going to die. The boys were saying ¨look! we´re nearly at the top¨- and I could only take 5 steps, then stop and rest my head on my stick, and take 2 massive breaths (that weren´t enough mind!) and then take 5 more steps- rinse and repeat for 3 or 4 or 5 hours.....

When we turned the ¨we´re nearly at the top¨corner, the look on Jamie´s face said it all - sure enough... there was nearly twice as much to cover as we´d just done. I put my head on my stick and said all the bad words I know in English, Spanish, German and French, even the really really bad ones, and when I looked up Moy had blocked his ears.....and Jamie was nearly falling down the stairs laughing.... So again... 5 steps, 2 breaths, 5 steps, 2 breaths. Might I add that I was at the front of the pack, and some people were already 3 hours behind me so I´m not the unfit person you think I might be! It was tough, tough, tough, step after step after step.....

When we finally got to the top - I looked and felt like a dead woman. The pass looks like a supine woman allegedly - but I was so dizzy from lack of oxygen and so knackered that I can´t remember for the life of me what it even looked like.I know that I jumped up and down and the top from sheer joy, much to the amusement of the porters who are too smart to waste that much energy......

At 4215m, my god I was struggling. Happy to reach the top though....

On the other side of that massive peak - it was all downhill. Step after step after step - where I whipped the boy´s arses and pranced down the mountain like a deer -until after 5 minutes it started raining, pouring and it got slippery and I fell over....

Down down down down.....

By the time we got to camp for lunch I was so wet, and so cold that I was numb. Drenched from head to toe and absolutely exhausted. The route was so slippery and steep that it took us absolutely ages and we didn´t get to camp until about 12 or 1pm. Then, we couldn´t find our tent. We wandered around for 45 minutes in pouring, pouring rain at about 3,800m in the freezing cold - Jamie slipped and sprained his ankle again, and I felt bad but I had absolutely nothing left to give him. I made an executive decision to go back to the top of camp (a 15 minute walk UPHILL) and find our site number - and c0uld only bark 2 words at him - ¨stay here¨¨ before I marched off. (I´ve since been told that I´m abrupt under pressure). Moy followed, afraid there´d be a porter-homicide situation and I was shaking so hard from cold I think he thought that I´d fall off the hill. I stopped to open my bag and found that it was full of water - yes, $5000 worth of camera equipment swimming in about 1L of pure, Andean rainwater. I put my head on my stick and said all the bad words I know in English, Spanish, German and French, even the really, really bad ones, and didn´t care which Catholic porters heard. I put my head back and howled at PachuMama for being such a rancid mole and cursed the day I decided to go overseas. Then, impressively (according to Moy), pulled myself together, marched up the hill (with god knows what energy) and met one of our porters on the way...who showed us to our lunch camp. Mat grabbed Jamie,and I started screwing off filters and emptying water out of lenses in our lunch tent.........

High and cold....

After lunch the big announcement was that we couldn´t go any further as one of our group was lagging more than 3 hours behind everyone else, and wouldn´t be able to make it to the next campsite for the night. The second was that our trekking guide´s mother had died, and he had to leave. It was so, so sad. We all had a tear and he was incredibly upset. The system they used to get that message to him in the middle of the whoops with no electricity, mobile phones or land lines was awesome.... word of mouth via villagers and porters....

So, once my tent was ready, I went into extreme hibernation mode and took off all my wet clothes, donned my thermals and a beanie and got into my sleeping bag and shook for the next two hours, eating the best Mars bar I´ve ever tasted in my life. Someone bought me a cup of tea and we all piled in to try and keep warm. I got up for dinner - which was the hardest¨getting out of bed¨ experience of my life..... harder was the next morning putting on wet pants, shoes and jacket, and lugging wet camera and bag up the hill to the second pass. I fell over in the mud before we´d even left the campsite....

At this point, Ruly, our 2IC guide, recently promoted to in-charge guide, mentioned that the trek was a pilgrimage all those thousand years ago.... and then it made a lot more sense. I was feeling fragile before I left for the trek anyway, and then on top of that the whole thing was meant to be hard..... and it was meant to be that way. That made the next two days a lot easier.....

Here I am looking at the top of the second pass and thinking ¨F·%k no, not again¨.... Thanks lads for the timely camera work....

Day three was a bit more exciting - we started to find archeological sites from the Incas along the path, so every couple of hours there was a great distraction from the wet, and the cold...


Thank God we didn´t have to do the second pass the day before in rain, and hail.... More bad words.... and the second pass wasn´t as high and was easier, but the layout of the valleys meant it was freezing cold... More rain, just when you thought you couldn´t get any wetter, and more hills just when I thought I couldn´t walk any further, and because we didn´t do the last four hours the day before, it was four extra hours on this day..... I decided to kick that bad-arse hill though and pushed through. After over 12 hours of walking up and down and up and down over the second and third passes, getting into camp was a relief - esp knowing that the next day would be the grand prize of Machu Picchu and only 4 hours of walking....


There were allegedly ¨hot¨ showers at this last camp, it was tepid at best but after three days with no shower, having walked 35km, it was awesome. Jamie bought us beers and I´m embarrassed to say that I actually drank mine in the shower.... And, finally we were low enough that it was ¨warm¨, and it was dry. Much warmer than the past few days as we were back at (only!) 3300 odd m...

This is what happens if you leave your camera unattended in the tent for a period of time. There are others, but they are so not appropriate for this PG blog (yes, I know the language is bad. If Channel 7 can get away with it, so can I).

The porters sang us a song, and we sang for them to thank them for their help....

And, I was told it was all downhill from there the next day.... It was up at 3 45am to walk down to Macchu Picchu. I was screeching out of my tent door ¨Donde esta el te??¨ but no tea ever came - not nice after two mornings of fresh hot tea delivered to my door by our ever diligent porters (I admit it did feel elitist and wrong, but I enjoyed it).... Pancakes at 3:45am is a bit wierd but they got me to Machu Picchu.

But THEY LIED: it was Peruvian flat, ie up and down and up and down.... it wasn´t just down. There wqan an Inca staircase (read: grooves in the rock) that was a sheer vertical - terrifying....

But it was all worth it - getting to the sungate and seeing the first view of Macchu Pichu was just awesome... we were speechless....

Here I am - 45km, four days, and only three hours sleep - yes, a bit knackered.....

And then we literally pranced the rest of the way down the hill to the site. God knows where that energy came from.... Watching the sun come up over the mountain was great.....

Machu Picchu up close and in detail..... These pics do not do it justice, but nonetheless here they are....

The train ride back to Cusco was hilarious. We were all delirious after about 3 hours sleep and 4 days of extreme pain..... Mick had a bit of a rant on the way home (five hour train ride at 45km/hr) that went like this....

¨I just want my own bed and my own shower. I want to go somewhere where I can eat without worrying about shitting through the eye of a needle for the next three days. In fact, I want to be able to fart without worrying, constantly, that it will be a shart. I want to go somewhere where there is hot water, no, actually, just water, when you turn the tap on because in this place you never really can be sure. I want people to understand me without having to make hand signals and exaggerated gestures. I want to be able to flush toilet paper. When I get home I´m going to flush a whole roll just because I can..... I want to wake up not covered in insect bites and worrying that larvae will come out...... I want to take a shower and not worry about getting some fungal infection or having some manky shower curtain touch me. I want to do my own laundry and not have to give it to some random person who may or may not actually wash them and who swaps my clothes with others just for fun. I want to not have to worry about crossing the road because the drivers don´t have set lanes.¨

It summed up how I was feeling a bit too.... the whole carriage was laughing..... and unfortunately, all of it´s true and has happened to all of us....

The next day after the best shower and sleep of my life, we were all on such a high. We went out for breakfast (the best meal in days) and couldn´t stop eating and laughing. I was thoroughly sick of wearing everything I own (brown brown and more brown and manky unlaundered t-shirts thanks to tight Bolivian laundry services) so I went shopping and bought two pairs of jeans. My first ever skinny jeans. I thought I should make the most of the pain suffered courtesy of that parasite and the subsequent three doses of antibiotics.... T shirts, and jewellery.... I needed an extreme makeover....

Fared better than one lass though - she was diagnosed with pneumonia the day we got back - I wasn´t surprised....

As Will would say, ¨Happy happy happy¨. Here I am in the main square in Cusco the day after with my walking crew - Jamie (lame), Mat and Sarah. Happy but sore.

Then, there was nothing left to do but don my new jeans, and hit the town with the rest of the post-Inca trail people..... There´s a restaurant called ¨Fallen Angel¨in Cusco, where I ate the best and most bizarre steak of my life, sitting on a bed over a glass topped bath filled with fish.... There is art (read: porn) all over the walls, but the cocktails were great. I will post the photos from the bar we then went to in Cusco, but I think they´ll hit Facebook first unfortunately... I am never ever drinking Peruvian Rum again, and I´m never ever going to dance on a bar ever again. Peruvian rum should be banned and Peru needs to put in place the concept of a standard drink...... Safety standards are nil here. I won´t even mention the taxi ride home....

Downtown Cusco....

You do the crime, you do the time, and after a great night and sleeping on the downstairs couch (having to move all my things off my bed to get in it was just too much effort), I did my time all the way on the plane from Cusco to Lima yesterday. Post Machu Picchu is a strange, strange space of mind and I´m pretty sure I won´t be the same again (even when the hangover dissipates).

Off to Machu Picchu

So excited, I could die. Spent the day at nearby Inca ruins, and have all my gear and can´t wait to get trekking tomorrow. I´ll post again on Friday, hopefully conscious, able to walk and still in one piece!

Sarah - Kathryn says ¨YES!¨ to HK! ¡Vamos! It will be so good to see you!

Hello from Peru! (finally!!)

Thanks everyone for your concerned emails (and for those unconcerned at my absence, well, that has been noted too) I'm fine and having a great time - getting into Bolivia was a big hassle, and then it was so busy, and so remote, that there was no real opportunity for communication of any kind..... and then it was hard to get out.... So, a lot to update on!

Well, actually, I´m not fine. Vick and I joked before we went to Africa that a good dose of some diarrhoea inducing bug would be an excellent way to accelerate weight loss. Well I can say that after 3 weeks and losing 7 kilos, I would do anything to make it go away... Anything... I finally diagnosed myself with the help of the ¨travellers diarrhoea flow chart¨and a travelling pharmacist and hopefully the antibiotics I´ve taken will start to work soon - although everything tastes like metal.... (and no alcohol! shock! horror!).

Bolivia was (and even though I´ve left, still is) a mad, crazy place. Getting in was hard - immediately following my last post, the guy who controls the border between Peru and Bolivia pegged me as the only Spanish speaker (ha, ha), and I really would rathered have nothing to do with him. He's a civilian, and his ¨job¨is changing money at the border, but he decides who does and doesn´t enter Bolivia - and rumour has it his name is spelt out in shell casings on his front fence. I had to ride to the airport in his car with him - the only way we could get there, really, and there was a suspicious pile of newspaper covering stuff in the backseat. I made Moy go in the car with me - we detoured past a school where old mate picked up some things and dropped off some things (and I nearly wet my pants) and wished I'd picked a larger lad, rather than one that looked like Tom Sawyer.... Once at the airport though, all went well (no Dengue, no strikes or riots) - just a lot of men with big machine guns - it was a military airline. Landing in Santa Cruz was one of the happiest moments of my life.... Except for the big signs everywhere warning of the Dengue outbreak(80,000 affected already, no less) so forever more the sweet smell of DEET will remind me of my first days in Bolivia......

I think Bolivia is a polarising country - everyone I´ve met has either loved it, or hated it. I fall into the Love category, and I definitely want to go back and fill in some gaps I missed.I loved everything with the exception of the Potosi and La Paz bus stations - but more on those later (I paid for the privelege of having my pant legs covered in other people´s wee - I´m now a dedicated pant-roller before entry into public toilets....). So, here`s my Bolivian journey....

Santa Cruz is the second largest city in Bolivia, and I was just glad to finally get there after all the border hoo-hah, and strikes and riots! We didn´t have long there, so it was a walk around the city and some shopping (Sarah there is a 15kg parcel on it's way to you - don´t open it, though I`m sure customs will.....), and then a dinner at a great Bolivian restaurant - hilariously funny night - sombreros worn all round... only have a hard copy of the pic and hopefully it is on a ship between here and Melbourne, so no evidence (probably not a bad thing).

The next day we had to get up early to go to the airport to fly to Sucre. Of course, our flight was delayed to 11am , then 12, then 4pm, so it was back into the city for more shopping in the interim (I´m not joking about that parcel, Sarah).....

Sucre by dusk

Sucre by night

Finally! in Sucre - an absolutely stunning, stunning city. I loved it! It was so cute and really edgy. But, high - at 2750m. What a shock to be cold after suffering from heat exhaustion about 4 days earlier! I was sure I´d have some symptoms of altitude sickness, but nothing, fortunately. Though we got in late, I was able to book a hike for the next day - thinking that it would be good preparation for the Inca trail, and it was! I was a bit naive though- didn´t ask too many questions, just heard 6 hour hike, Inca and older cave paintings..... Of course, we drove up a mountain for over an hour, and commenced the hike at 3500m, walking UPHILL to 3800m, then over the next 3 or 4 hours down to 3500m, and then down to 2800m. I didn´t ask how far it was until after the hike - 22km - If I´d known that, I´m not sure I would have done it! The uphill section was hard work - such a strange feeling just not being able to get enough air, but having the strength and power in my muscles.... it was so clean and crisp. And cold first thing in the morning,but we warmed up pretty quickly. Derricko gave us coca leaves to chew to help us cope in the altitude and placebo effect or not (remember, coca good, cocaine bad, so we´re all cool), I think they worked. I didn´t need to eat, drink or pee for 6 hours, so they must have done something.....



It was great though - I loved every minute. The scenery was awesome and the trail is rarely used. It was part of the Inca trailover the Andres, absolutely pristine, not often walked by tourists. You could see the terraces and carvings into stone the Incas had made. On a different note, parts of the track that we walked you would not be able to walk in Australia without harnesses and balays (I´m rapidly realising how risk averse Australia is as a nation!). Dericko, our guide, told us that there were steps down to a cave where there were paintings thousands of years old - and the steps were carved by the Incas. The steps were actually grooves cut into the side of the rock, with a couple of hundred metres drop off in either direction. I was crapping myself - but it was a LOT of fun. Up and down steep valleys all day with the most amazing views.... see for yourself...

So high that you could touch the clouds...

Up, up, up at about 3,800m

Sean and Dan, with Derricko our guide in the background (my fave pic of the day)

Jamie looking minature next to the huge valley

Steps made by the local villagers to create the path to join the Inca trail to the caves

The steep (!!) descent to the first cave. I didn´t take photos of the Inca steps (grooves!) a bit further down, as I couldn´t balance with my camera and cope with the drop off. It was damn scary -but I wish I`d captured it.... where was the harness??

The second cave paintings...

Derricko our guide was dutch, but married a Bolivian villager a few years ago. Hearing from him all the customs and differences was great - and better than a local guide in terms of explanations... It was a really interesting day, and we had great weather up until, of course, once the worst of the hike was over (ie we´d done all the uphill needed, and had an easier stroll on a rough road down to 2,800m) there was a massive thunderstorm. I've never seen lightning break 10m in front of me but it did. And, I was a little concerned when Derricko said that we had to get a wriggle on as we had three rivers to cross and they could rise by metres in minutes with the rain.

Within seconds of that comment the paths that we were walking became torrents of water.... and the moutain behind us turned into 300 waterfalls. We were literally walking in rivers. The first two river crossings involved BIG jumps onto little slippery rocks, and there was squealing from me... I got wet feet slipping off one rock, and to be honest that made the rest of the day a lot easier, as I just didn´t care anymore!

The worst was the last river.... We walked down to the edge and couldn´t find a spot to cross that was shallow enough. The contraption the locals use to cross was broken, but of course one entrepreneurial Bolivian found a way to make a quick buck and for 10 Bolivianos each ($2 Australian), he pulled us by hand and cable across the raging river......

As you can see he stood on the back - no harness or anything, and just pulled us over. I was scared, and after grabbing Jamies leg (helicopter pilot style!) I needed a distraction so I took out pub cam and snapped this.....

Oh yes, we had a wow of a time rocking in the wind 20m over the raging river.... Not cool!

The next day I was surprised I was able to walk.... but walk we did to the local produce market. We bought a whole bunch of food to drop off at the the local orphanage. They were a well dressed, well fed bunch - very cute - aged 0 to 6 years. We played with the kids and I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions after what I saw in Africa.... but three lads that were with me had a big tear-up all the way to our lunch spot. Once one started, the others couldn´t stop.... I don´t think it helped that one little boy latched on to Mick and wouldn´t let him go.... no photos for obvious reasons.




Post the orphanage, we wandered around the city - it was gorgeous. Then we got the bus to Potosi.....




....and Potosi was where the ´fun´began. Girls and boys dropping like flies - at 4,100m it is the highest city in the world (unless you speak to the people from a city in Nepal that comes pretty close) - I was lucky and just felt a little bit drunk.... but had no other symptoms (like vomiting and insomnia... nice). For some crazy reason though, I did need to pee every 15 minutes on the knocker regardless of the volume of fluid I drank, so that made for some interesting moments. I`m always the first to call for a pee stop - what a great reputation to have! After a 25 minute walk uphill to get dinner - which was only about 500m away, the next day we did a tour of the Potosi mine. First stop was the miners market to buy gifts for the miners. They drink 96 percent straight alcohol, so we gave that a go. At 9am, it was a bit early, but it warmed me up from the sub zero temperatures. Friday is the night of the miners bender, so there were plenty staggering around the streets. Moy and I agree that after one sip, we can see why.....

Moy and me with our ¨potable 96% alcohol.....

Here we are down in the mines. Those that know me well will know of my intense hatred of being underground, but I decided to bite the bullet and kick that nasty fear..... So here I am five minutes in when I thought I'd calmed down and was actually smiling for a photo - clearly I´m not as self aware as I first thought. I think it is hilarious. And, we were at nearly 4,800m so I have a big mouth full of coca leaves in case you`re wondering.....

Once we were out of the mine, Jamie who works in mines went through all the differences between Bolivian mines and Australian ones. The only safety we had was that miners don`t want to blow each other up, so they look after each other, but underground it's a rabbit warren and they have no idea how thin the rock is between each cavity - also all of the tunnels are unsealed, so there were rocks and things falling down all the time. There's asbestos in the rock and most miners die of silicosis pneumonia within 5-10 years of entering the mine... I was glad to get out and appreciate my Tiffany silver a whole lot more now.....

One of the presents we bought for the miners as well as coca leaves was dynamite. Nanna Kathryn put her foot down and said that we were only giving it to them if they didn`t use it while we were down there.... so, when we got up the top, we got to make some bangs..... Now not only will I probably have unintended cocaine residue on me for customs, but I'll also have explosives. For $5 you can buy a stick of TNT, some Nitrogen Phosphate and a fuse - one miner asked for two - one for his seam and one for his mother in law.... Two of the boys packed our boombas.....

then lit them.... and here´s the mountain before we blew it up....

This bang looks small, but mother of God it was loud. Explosives expert I'm not, but I`m pretty confident that what we did is not allowed in Australia.......

After Potosi, it was an overnight bus to La Paz. Seriously, the worst bus station I've ever been in - including the toilet. Thank god for hand sanitiser. I`m an expert now at bucket flushing. The overnight bus was a local one, so I found a lad to sit next to so I could actually sleep rather than be paranoid about my personal safety all night (Nanna Kathryn again.... )......

A visit to Valley of the Moon was a good way to start the trip to La Paz. Old mate here played us a little song on his flute and did a little dance. Again, Bolivian safety standards meant that we were trekking around paths with 200m drop offs with no rails or the like.....

This place is an ancient lake that had a sand bottom, and now rain has eroded the bottom of the lake into all these interesting shapes and patterns...

And here´s La Paz from the valley....

Having decided that playing with explosives and going down a Bolivian mine wasn`t risky enough, I decided to try mountain biking (being the expert I am) down ¨Death Road¨- a narrow dirt road from 4,875m down to 1,200m in 60km (work that gradient out for yourself). The first 20km were super fast bitumen (ha ha - I went super safely), then the dirt road began.....

Here we started off, at nearly 5000m with snow capped mountains all round, and in sub-freezing temperatures.....

The view down the valley from the super fast bitumen.... (taking pictures was banned - one of the road crew had my camera and took these for me - people roll off their bikes to their deaths taking pictures - you`ll see why in a tic)....

The ¨death road¨ we took - the turns were awesome and the view just absolutely stunning. We were in full suits and full face helmets....

Here is the corner of hell! A couple of hundred meters on the other side of this bend is a 700m fall - sick making on a mountain bike on a rocky road.....

From the above pics, you get the idea!

Sarah did it pretty tough, so I stuck by her and we were pretty pleased to finish (see above).

The prize for our efforts was lunch at Coroico, looking down on the hard work we´d just done riding 60km down the above mountain....

Worse than the mountain bike ride down, as the van trip back to the top - the drop offs looked a lot worse going back up than they did going down - and I preferred being in control of the means of transportation. Here are the clouds at the highest point at sunset.

From La Paz, it was ¨Hello Peru!¨. First stop PUno and then onto Lake Titcaca. The highest lake in the world... at 4000-odd-m..... It was local limousines to the port for our boat.

Sean and Dan paid their driver an extra 5 soles to make them win!

First stop was the floating islands - these islands are made of reeds!

This lady, Alessandra showed me her house made of reeds - and her bed made of reeds.....

These are her sons, Alexander and (couldn´t understand in Spanish) trying to catch the chickens under their house.... tormenting them actually!!

I really took a shine to Alexander. Yes, I´m missing Will and living vicariously through children along the way. The bottom of the reed he´s holding they eat like a fruit, so he tucked in and didn´t offer me any. I´d already tried some, so I wasn´t disappointed...

And, here I should credit Moy for his expert photography!! Handy to have an SLR expert who didn´t bring an SLR.... means more good pics for me!

Our final stop on Lake Titicaca was to a stay with a family overnight on Amanti Island. I stayed with Rebecca and Hermando, and their three children Liz, Judith and Bryan (9, 4 and 1 1/2).

Here are Judith and Liz - gorgeous!

The house was made of mud brick, no electricity, running water or showers or anything really - very very simple. The families are all farmers, farming the nearby islands. It was amazing to realise how little you need to be happy. We played with the kids all afternoon, and then watched a soccer match in the afternoon.

Judith was teaching me the Spanish version of Frere Jacques - which I made a lot of mistakes in which kept her and her mum laughing while she cooked us dinner over the wood stove in the smokey kitchen, while Bryan slept at her feet. I taught her Incy Wincy spider!

After dinner (remember, no refrigeration, no handwashing - but it was delicious!) - which was simple soup, and rice and vegies and local grains, we got dressed up by our Mama Rebecca to go to the local party. Here are Sarah and I in traditional Amanti island dress....

The head piece has no pins and was impossible to keep on while dancing. Hermando taught us all the local dances and we had a lot of fun. When I got home, it was dark, and we had only candles, but I could see the spider in my bed quite well when I pulled the covers back. I killed it and got in, having few other choices available!

The blanket of stars in the middle of a lake, with no electricity from anywhere was the best I´ve ever, ever seen. Even so, I made use of the travel john in the middle of the night as I`m happy to own it - it was too dark and cold to go out, and I`d had maybe a little too much beer to make it through to the morning....

Rebecca knitted the hat I´m wearing - here I am with my family, holding baby Bryan. He`s grown up very quickly though - not a nappy in sight which for 1 1/2 is pretty good! Liz, the oldest daughter, was at the next island buying vegies for the family. They lead a tough life. Rebecca and Hermando are my age.... When they asked what I did for work I was lost for words... I told them I worked at a bank. It was the closest thing I could think of that they´d understand. They live in a tiny one bedroom mud brick house with a separate mud brick building as the kitchen (which I´m standing in front of). We had a room upstairs which was 5 star compared to their quarters....

The mama´s in their ¨good¨clothes!

Just when you think it can´t get any better, I end up singing ¨Down Under¨on a bar - yes, on a bar. But, let´s not go into the messy detail!

In all seriousness, just when I thought it couldn´t get any better, I start the Inca Trail in two days. I have waterproofs and thermals as of this afternoon and get fitted for my poles tonight! Yay! I arrived in Cusco today....

Love to all. Miss you all so much, but am so glad I´m here and I´m not missing work at all. Hoping August doesn´t come around too soon. Great to speak to those of you I spoke to just now. Kathryn x