Day thirteen - Winding down

Saturday was a very chilled out day. We made our own chocolate at the Cocoa museum. This including roasting, peeling and grinding the beans! 

After, we had a Incan massage which left us very relaxed.

For dinner, Henry ( our group leader) organised Pisco making. 

Day twelve - The grande finale

We woke up at 03:30 to head to the checkpoint and joined the lineup to wait for the gate to open. We walked for 2 hours to reach the Sun Gate from which we got our first views of the ruins of Machu Picchu. 

Cue lots of photos! 

We hiked down to Machu Picchu itself and had a guided tour. We were so happy to have made it! 

Smelly, we caught the bus outside the Machu Picchu gate down to Aguas Calientes, a purpose built town below the Incan site. We were so glad to use a proper toilet rather than the squat toilets on the trek! We celebrated our trekking achievements with pizza and Pisco sours. 

We took a very posh train back to Ollyntambo and then took the Gadventures bus back to Cusco. A quick shower and change and we were off out again to the pub. We celebrated hard at a local bar which had live music and then at Mama Africas. Having completed the 24 hour challenge, we went to bed!

Our flowers and wine from Henry for our Honeymoon! 

Day sixteen - No bags but bikinis

Still no luggage but intent on starting our holiday, we bought beachwear and hit the beach. Bliss! 

A lovely evening walk took us down the boulevard on Ocean Drive to South Point Pier and up to Beer and Burger. Delicious! 

Midnight - still no bags

Day fifteen - More disruption

After an early, slow check in with American Airlines we made it through security and eventually got ourselves into the VIP Lounge. 10 mins later, having stuffed ourselves we got water and went to board our flight to Miami. Then they confiscated all our drinks - no personal soft drinks allowed. Odd! An 8 hour flight later and we landed in Miami. Still no luggage! A dash around the airport to buy a set of clothes each. We were not about to relax in Miami in over 30 degree heat in walking boots!! We made the most of the Cuban food having checked into our lovely hotel. 

Day fourteen - The beginning of the end

After travelling around Bolivia and Peru for two weeks, today was the day we had to take an internal flight to Lima. However, this did not go smoothly. Cue 2 hour delays'and no baggage in Lima - they did not load a single bag onto the plane! So we dashed around Lima at 9pm looking for essential toiletries.

Not all was bad.  After dropping off our (hand luggage) bags at our final hotel, we had a very nice dinner of cerviche, a Peruvian dish of fish marinated in lime. 

A lovely goodbye dinner. We were going to miss our group a lot!

Day eleven - More sights and sounds but still up and down

We started early again on the third day of the trek. Today consisted of lots of up and down compared to the last two days of climbing. 

We passed more ruins such as Runquraway where we had lunch. 

The weather was clear so we saw the snowcapped Cordillera Vilcabamba and the Urubamba Valley in the distance. 

As we were descending, we passed through the Cloud Forest allowing us to see different fauna. 

It was a long way down

We also met some friends along the way. 

Bed time was slightly earlier as we had to get up at 3:30 the next morning to queue at the next check points which allowed us onto the final path to Machu Piccu. 

Day ten - The infamous Dead Woman's Pass

At 5:30, woke up to a porter knocking on our tent, saying "Buenos Dias. Coca tea?". This is a drink made from coca leaves and hot water, apparently a healer of many things including altitude sickness. Having washed with warm water, we had breakfast: tea, quinoa porridge, bread and jam. 

The trek today was notoriously difficult. There was a lot of 'up'.

A shop around 3700m - much needed top up of Pringles and coke! 

This is the highest point of the trek was 4,198m (13,769ft) which really hit us as we climbed the last 200m before the summit. It was worth it, seeing amazing views from Warmiwañusca (aka Dead Woman's Pass). 

We had climbed 1200m since our camping spot so we knew we had to come down. The path was steep and made up of steps so our hiking poles really came into use. 

When we arrived at our camp, Paqaymayo Camp, we were greeted with a round of applause and squash - just what we needed! Then much after the 8 hour trek. We soaked our feet and took in the views. Earlier on on our holiday, Naz had taught us to play Cambio, a great card game so we spent a few hours playing before Happy hour. Dinner was delicious again.