My stay in Cusco included a four-day treck on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (which means "Old Mountain" but you have to pronounce the extra 'c' in Picchu, otherwise it means "Old Dick"). I was in a group with 9 others, from Sweden, Holland, America, India, Canada and Germany (pic at beginning of Inca Trail - I´m the short-arse on the left). Our guide Freddy was cool, and we had about 10 porters that carried all the camping gear, cooking equipment, food etc for us. They were so fit - they would leave the campsite 1 hour
after we left, clearing everything up, then they would carry all the stuff and arrive at the next site 1 hour
before us, set up all the tents, and cook our meal for us! Some people got their backpacks carried for them too, but I carried my own backpack.
The second day of the treck we walked up "Dead Woman´s Pass" where they used to sacrifice virgins, it was so difficult I had to stop every ten steps near the top, then we had a long downhill descent where it started raining and all my clothes got damp includng inside my shoes - that night we camped at about 4000 metres and I nearly froze to death! I even got out my emergency foil blanket, but was still freezing! The views all along the trail were beautiful, and there were loads of smaller Inca sites before we got to MP. In fact, when we finally got to MP, we couldn´t see anything except for clouds at first, but after a couple of hours it cleared up and I got my photos! Apparently, MP is sinking at a rate of 1-2cm a year, so they may soon have to close it to the public. The stone work is so perfect its like they´ve been carved by machine, its amazing how
the stones fit together so perfectly. After looking round MP, we decided to climb up WaynaPicchu (Think it means "Young mountain"?), which was really scary - it was raining and slippery, and really steep, and at the top, there was a ladder up to a rock about 2 metres square, which sloped steeply away to the very edge of the tp of the mountain! I was frozen in fear of falling off the top, and nearly went back down the way I´d come, but fortunately this nice French woman grabbed me and helped me up so I did get to the top! We had to sign our names before going up there, just in case we didn´t return and they had to send out a search party! Dangerous but fun!
My stay in Cusco included a four-day treck on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (which means "Old Mountain" but you have to pronounce the extra 'c' in Picchu, otherwise it means "Old Dick"). I was in a group with 9 others, from Sweden, Holland, America, India, Canada and Germany (pic at beginning of Inca Trail - I´m the short-arse on the left). Our guide Freddy was cool, and we had about 10 porters that carried all the camping gear, cooking equipment, food etc for us. They were so fit - they would leave the campsite 1 hour after we left, clearing everything up, then they would carry all the stuff and arrive at the next site 1 hour before us, set up all the tents, and cook our meal for us! Some people got their backpacks carried for them too, but I carried my own backpack. 
The second day of the treck we walked up "Dead Woman´s Pass" where they used to sacrifice virgins, it was so difficult I had to stop every ten steps near the top, then we had a long downhill descent where it started raining and all my clothes got damp includng inside my shoes - that night we camped at about 4000 metres and I nearly froze to death! I even got out my emergency foil blanket, but was still freezing! The views all along the trail were beautiful, and there were loads of smaller Inca sites before we got to MP. In fact, when we finally got to MP, we couldn´t see anything except for clouds at first, but after a couple of hours it cleared up and I got my photos! Apparently, MP is sinking at a rate of 1-2cm a year, so they may soon have to close it to the public. The stone work is so perfect its like they´ve been carved by machine, its amazing how 
the stones fit together so perfectly. After looking round MP, we decided to climb up WaynaPicchu (Think it means "Young mountain"?), which was really scary - it was raining and slippery, and really steep, and at the top, there was a ladder up to a rock about 2 metres square, which sloped steeply away to the very edge of the tp of the mountain! I was frozen in fear of falling off the top, and nearly went back down the way I´d come, but fortunately this nice French woman grabbed me and helped me up so I did get to the top! We had to sign our names before going up there, just in case we didn´t return and they had to send out a search party! Dangerous but fun!
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