Day four

We were all up and ready to leave at 5.30am. After a bit of discussion and moving of bags we all got on the bus and headed to Ollantayambo. We arrived there about 7.30am and had a lovely breakfast of scrambled egg and pancakes and sugarpuffs, however Ann found an ant in her eggs which was slightly off putting. Also, there was a guinea pig hut outside and they were very cute although I am aware that they will also make a fabulous dinner there tonight!

There was a shop there and we all bought loads of sweets and chocolate for fear we would never eat again! Ann also went in search of a blanket and early signs indicate that she loves haggling and shopping!

Then we drove to KM82 which is where we started our trek. Once we arrived there we got our passport stamped! We then had to cross a bridge, the first of many. Some people had to fight phobias of bridges as this was very shaky. Jenny was crying even though she said she wouldn’t until day 2, although we're still very proud of her.

Our guide Jimmy assured us that the trek would be easy today as it was like the ‘training day’. We trekked for 5 hours with a nice lunch in the middle. While it was a nice amount for day one, I’m not sure that I would call it a training day as it was quite intense and no one tends to get altitude sickness when training!

When we got to the campsite the porters had already set up all the tents which was very impressive. This was also when we had our first ‘experience’ of Inca Trek toilets. I’m not sure whether it was the smell or the conditions of the toilets which were more traumatising but we all survived!

It gets dark quickly on the trek about 6.30pm and after dinner we all looked up at the stars. It was magical, I have never seen stars so vividly in my life and not sure if I will again. Jimmy then gave us a brief of the plans for tomorrow which would be our most difficult day. This made everyone quite anxious and knocked some people’s confidence, although all continued to seem determined.

We were all in bed by 9pm, knackered by the day and some suffering altitude sickness and while we were excited, a lot were very anxious about tomorrow.

Catriona