Beunos Dias from Brisbane Australia.  We had a wonderful trip to South America, but like all good holidays, they come to an end, and likewise as is usually the case, it is great to be home.

So the Inca Trail - we made it!    The following are my random, not in order thoughts and recollections of our 4 day, 43km, at times steep uphill, at times steep downhill trek along the famed Inca Trail.

- It was hard.  I have to be honest here. If you're not fit or don't exercise or play sport at least semi-regularly, you may not necessarily enjoy the trail.  You may not even make it through the 4 days.    There were times on day 2 where I was stopping every moment i could to stop the laqtic acid build up in my legs and more importantly to stop my arteries and lungs from bursting.    Kate and friends can confirm that my walking pants had a large brown stain on the back of them (Looked suss) from where i was literally stopping at every large rock on the side of the track that I could find, sometimes only 20m apart!    On day 2, I rarely took in too many sites as I was often just concentrating on making to the top of Dead Woman's Pass.      To put it into perspective, I think we walked a pproximately 5km up to Dead Woman's Pass on Day 2, taking us up in the vicinity of 1.2km in altitude!   After reacjing the pass we then descended about 500m over 2km or so.

- The Porters...  This one is hard to describe, you have to see it to believe it.    I carried only personal belongings like camera, mini first aid, water, snacks etc on me, total of just under 8kg.     The Porters on our trip carried our clothes, the tents, the cooking gear and everything else we had on our relatively mod cons camping trek.   I think they carried about 20kg, on their backs, but I can tell (and show a picture soon) you that they looked like they may have been even carrying more.    They would leave after us once they packed up our camp sites for us, then come walking briskly past us during the day.  By the time we made next camp, they were there, relaxing after having set up the kitchen, tents and anything else.   Their aes ranged from 18 to 54.    Porters are optional but are really not an option. Any clown who chooses to carry their own tent, clothes etc are a mad clown at that.

- Food    The food was pretty much amazing considering where we were and what they worked with.    The meals were of ideal portions given we were at high altitude but in need of a good balanced diet.    To give you an idea a day's typical meals went something like this.

Breakfast: omelette, bread, banana, jams, tea, coffee, coca tea

Lunch: Soup (plenty of veges), cocktail entree with avocado, and small balanced meal with rice veges and meat

Supper at 5pm:   Fresh pop corn, Sth American Wontons, tea coffee, hot chocolate and coca tea.

Dinner: Soup, Main meals, beef / fish / chicken with rice, pasta veges, dessert.

Main meals were well-balanced tasty, not too much but just right.   11/10 for meals considering where we were.

- The scenery.  As I mentioned earlier, we were trekking up valleys and mountain sides ranging between 2500m and I think about 4000m above sea level.  So as you can imagine, we took in many great views ranging from natural grasslands, cloud forests, rainforests, snow capped mountains. We managed to see many Incan ruins on our way, as well a small tatste of the wildlife including cool little hummingbirds, wild deer, Llama, and more.    I will hpefully get to upload a few more pics of the trail very soon.    Check out my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/spinninghill?ref=tn_tnmn and www.sportspartners.com.au for pics.

- Soccer / Football with the porters :  At the end of day 1 and once the Porters had set up amp, we played an im promptu game of football with them.       The pitch was dirt and rock and i was buggered, so I took the so-called easier option and kept goal.  For the record, we won 2-0 in a first to 2 goals game.  We had to cap the game so the porters could go and cook dinner in time.    THe game although just a bit of fun did show me why the South American countries are always so rich in football talent!

- KOala Kid Although you had to be 18 years of age to be a porter, on day 2 we came across a young kid of no more than 9 or 10 helping his dad and most likely learning the ropes.  Kate, Abraham and I gave the little fella a packet of biscuits and one of our small furry Koalas and I think we made his day.      You had to see the kid and his HUGE backpack to get a feel for what this little fella was doing.

- Maccu Picchu   Hard to put into words but this place is pretty amazing to state the obvious and especially important as it was one of the only Inca buildings not found, robbed and destroyed by the Spanish conquerers.   Even if you can't make the Inca trail, I would recommend a visit to the sacred site via train. If you do take this option, make the 2hr walk up to the SUN GATE early in the morning so you can get a small taste of the Inca trail and see Maccu Picchu from a great vantage point.

This was only a small, random summation of the inca trail.   It was tough, yet fun, dirty yet not that unclean, and definitely well worth the trip.    Our tour leader and porters made the trip all the more better. A small plug to Pacha Mama.

My next blog will be a short commentary on our trips to Puno and Lake Titicaca, La Paz, Bolivia and Santiago in Chile.

Chat soon.

Michael