So we headed off for Cusco the following day, and arrived into some pretty cold weather, but the hotel was lovely and the staff were very friendly. So for the 2 days prior to the trek we tried to acclimatise to the altitude by walking slowly around the town and just chilled out basically. The town was a bit of a shock for me, coming from Ayacucho which isn’t a very touristy town, to coming to cusco which is pretty crazy! People bother us to buy stuff from them, or get massages or take photos of their llamas every couple of metres, very similar to Bali like that. But still it is a beautiful town, and considering they thrive on tourism, you cant blame them. So we paid for our trek and got the bad news that we are only allowed 3kg in our bags for the porters to carry!! So we spent the night before the trek trying to shove as many clothes as we could into our bags and then weighing them. First go, Emma had 6kg and I had 4kg, so it was a bit of an effort trying to cut down on warm clothes etc, especially considering it looked like rain was coming and we wanted dry clothes!
We got picked up early morning for the trek with 16 others, and made our way to Ollanytambo where we stopped for a hearty pre-trek breakfast and bought our wooden poles for walking with. We bought 2 each, because we remembered how much easier it was in Nepal with 2, especially on the downhill sections. On our trek we had 16 people, and 8 of them were from Perth. What a small world i know! Not only were they Australian but they were also from Perth. There was obviously Emma, Mum and Myself plus 3 girls who have just finished uni at UWA, Juliette, Naomi and Maddy, and Darren and Amanda from Claremont. The others on the trek, a couple from England, Karen and Rich, a couple from Switzerland Liz and Eyvonne, a couple from Holland/England Emma and Ray, a young girl from London Eva and a young guy from USA, Mike. So this was our group for the next 4 days and they were wonderful, really happy, supportive and fun. It made a big difference having such a great group to trek and camp with.
DAY 1
After breakfast we headed to KM82, the starting point on the Classic Inka Trail Trek. We walked to the checkpoint, showed our passports and entrance tickets and went on our way. Day 1 wasn’t actually too hard but i had a stomach bug, which had hung around since Iquitos, so i found day 1 extremely hard and harder than the other days (which was weird considering it was so much easier and shorter) but because i was sick i wasn’t happy and was very close to tears with bad stomach pains. So with support from Mum we arrived into camp, wet and cold and muddy, because it had started to rain. We had a feeling it was going to be wet, and it sure was. We were saturated and very cold, because it was such high altitude. So we made day 1 but i was reconsidering whether walking was the best option, and barely ate anything for the rest of the day. We had a great nights sleep which was lucky because day 2 was going to be hard hard work....
DAY 2
The food was exceptional, like Nepal, where we all eat in a tent together and we were given at least 3 courses for each meals. So for breakfast we had pancakes and tea and got ready to head off for day 2 in the rain and mud and cold. Day 2 is well known as the toughest day on the trek and before we even started the trek, the guides told us that everyone finds its hard, from the fittest trekkers, to the guides and porters, so that made us really excited about the day to come! B
ut they were right, it was extremely hard. In total it was 8km and roughly about 6hours of ascent up steep hills and steps. And i mean steep, its not like a slow accent to 4200m a.s.l but a really tough, steep walk up there. For the first part of the morning, mum found it really tough and by the time we made it in for snack time at about 11am, we were completely shattered and still had many hours to go. Mum also felt sick from the altitude which didn’t help, and it took a lot of courage and snickers chocolate bars to get up from our snack spot and continue on. 
We had to walk only small sections and then rest, because the altitude made it very hard to breathe combined with the exhaustion of climbing such a steep mountain, it was extremely difficult. Mum and I had one goal every day, which was to ensure that we overtook at least one person per day. We managed to do that which was good, cos it was very difficult to see so many, probably hundreds of people passing us as we were walking up the mountain. We were quite surprised at how fit some people on the trek were, there were extremely overweight people, old people, asian tourists etc. 
We reached Dead Woman’s Pass at 4,200m a.s.l and received a lovely big round of applause from a group of trekkers who were waiting for their last member to make it up the hill. It was such a relief to make it to the top of the mountain. A ‘pass’ is basically just crossing the top of a mountain, and this was the first of 3! After the exhilaration of making it to the top, where it was unbelievably freezing, we were literally surrounded by clouds, we realised we still had about 2 hours to go and it was all downhill, which was a relief for mum but an absolute pain for me. I was in absolute agony
with my knees trying to get down this steep hill of steps. So by the time we rocked into camp, after an 11km day of mostly uphill, both mum and I were absolutely shattered, cold and a bit wet. Mum slept through dinner and so did Emma, trying to recover for day 3 our longest on the trek.DAY 3
Waking up on day 3 was a mixture of happiness and nervousness, because it had stopped raining and the weather looked beautiful but we were also nervous because we had a 16km and 10 hour day ahead of us. So off we went and headed off on the trek
, it was a mixture of uphill to begin with for about 4 hours followed but downhill and slow accents. We stopped at a couple of ruins along the way which were very beautiful, and had a chat with our tour guide about their importance etc. We made it the second pass before lunch and then headed up to the third pass. At the third pass we still had about 4 hours of walking downhill to go which made me very apprehensive, cos the old knees were very shaky from the day before and very painful. So off we headed and soon both Mum and I were not very happy and in a lot of pain. 
Lots of people were passing us, cos I was going so slow down this massively steep mountain and it took us forever to make it down. With about an hour to go, Mum had had enough and was pretty upset, and i had to be a bit mean and force her to keep going cos i knew if we stopped we wouldn’t be able to get up and keep going. Poor mum was in so much pain and was close to tears but we kept going, struggling on and managed to stumble into camp. We weren’t the happiest campers on this night, but it had been a long day and we were so so exhausted! We had dinner and headed to bed ready for an extra early start of 3.30am! 
DAY 4
We were woken up at 3.30am and packed up the clothes and tents, had breakfast and headed to the checkpoint into Machu Picchu. We were lining up at the checkpoint from about 4.45am and it opened and 5.30 so we all had a little wait ahead of us, but we were in good position, about 3rd group from the checkpoint, and there were heaps behind us. This put the pressure on poor mum, cos we tried so hard to keep up with our group and only when we started to ascend that our group moved further ahead and people started to overtake us. But i kept telling mum that this was it, that we only had an hour to go and that was it, it would be all worthwhile...
We go the to “gringo killer” the steepest set of steps going up i had ever seen in my life and it took all our leftover strength and courage to make it up. Once we did it was a small walk to Sun Gate, where our group was waiting for us, and waiting for the sun to rise over Machu Picchu and the clouds to clear. The sun rose and at the same time as the clouds cleared and it was the most amazing sight i had ever seen! It made the hard work of the trek completely worthwhile when you get to see this amazing view of the lost inca city. I think we appreciated Machu Picchu so much more than people who had just trained up to see it. It was just a beautiful site and so much more appreciated after the work we had put in. So we walked down from sun gate and into Machu Picchu and had to go through another checkpoint where we checked our backpacks and bought a well deserved and icy cold coca-cola! We spent the next few hours with our guides exploring the lost city and it was amazing, such a beautiful and sacred site. At about lunchtime we took the bus down to Augus Calientes and had lunch with everyone on the tour and we ordered pizza and more coke which was so delicious and earned! From there we caught the train to KM82, the beginning point of our trek and then a bus back to our hotel in Cusco. We all showered, after not showering for 4 days we were smelly and dirty so it was wonderful to be clean again and jumped into bed for a well deserved nights sleep in comfort!The next day we were sore, tired and sick. We all had colds and sinus infections, sore calves and thighs and feet, but we managed to drag ourselves out of bed for a late brunch of pancakes and scrambles eggs! We were planning on going to the day spa but never made it there, we were too sore and more content to lay in bed :)
I was so so proud of mum, so many people along the trek could congratulate her and wish her well along the way. It was a real spirit of comrardery, especially with the number of Australian’s on the trek. She couldn’t have done a better job in the hard and challenging climate we were in. But i think she is ready to hang the hiking boots up, and what a better way to end it, than with Machu Picchu :)
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