I arrived in Santiago, Chile, at 12:30 pm on the 25^th April after a 13hr flight, having left New Zealand at 16:00pm on the same day due to the crossing of the International Date Line. A great way to go back in time!

The first thing you notice when you hit Santiago is the smog that seems to sit over the city. Taking a photo of the city skyline is an impossible task. I spent a day strolling around the city which has a great atmosphere, lots of music on the streets and lots of stalls set up as it was the weekend. There are nice parks near the city. One of them Cerro Santa Lucia had lovely ruins in it and the Parque Metropolitano was near our hostel. From Santiago I headed to the port city of Valparaiso for the day, as it was a Sunday it was very quiet but a much more low key city than Santiago.

From Santiago I got a 30 hour bus journey to Arica which is on the border between Chile and Peru. A thirty hour bus journey sounds woeful but really it wasn’t that bad. I got a Cama or bed bus with really comfortable leather reclinable seats, food was brought to your seat and there was entertainment too.

We drove through the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, for a lot of the journey. About 2 hours before Arica there is a prison in the middle of nowhere and beside it Coca Cola have printed a massive logo on the sand. It was really random. Arica is a lovely city with lots of atmosphere. The town was bustling during the day, there is a lovely beach there but it was eerily deserted when I went down there for a walk.

From Arica the next stop was Cusco in Peru which was a bit of a nightmare journey. I got a bus across the border to Tacna and from there found out that I had to wait 6 hours for the next bus. I took a 12 hour bus from there to Puno overnight and then another 7 hour bus to Cusco. The buses were not as comfy as the bus from Santiago had been so I was wrecked by the time I reached Cusco. As it had taken so long to get to Cusco I had to go straight for my orientation for the Inca Trail which was starting the next morning at 5.45. I was slightly worried that I hadn’t spent more time in Cusco as they say you should acclimatise for a few days but thankfully I was fine!

We took a bus to the beginning of the trail and started our first days hiking at 9am. They say the first day is easy but due to the high altitude you are breathless within minutes. The weather was good and we stopped for a three course meal prepared by the chef that was accompanying our group. We walked again for the afternoon. It was relatively challenging and came to our campsite before dark. Our porters had set up our tents and we had another delicious meal. It was pretty cold that night but I was so wrecked I snoozed. I was not looking forward to the second day of trekking as they say it is the challenging day. We also were climbing 1000m so I was worried about getting sick from climbing so much in one morning.

The morning was really tough, they call the uphill climb Dead Woman’s Pass and literally every couple of steps you had to stop and rest! It was such a relief to get to Warmiwanusa which is 4198m above sea level. We saw two Inca sites on the way down. Our guide was so informative telling us the history of the Incas and how the Spanish took down this great empire.

That night our guides decided to give us Quechan names (Quechan is one of the native languages of the Andes). They give me the name Moo-ni-pee-pin-to which means butterfly in Quechan! We also had Quechan tea which was delicious, full of fruits, black tea and cinnamon.  The next day was less painful thank God. We saw some amazing Inca sites with large terraces. Our guide showed us the irrigation system the Incan farmers used and the stream was still flowing the way they had built it. Our guides explained the possible functions of all the areas of the Inca sites and like Celtic sites the buildings were built with astronomical alignment in mind. The last day we were up at 4 in the morning. We headed to Intipunku (Sungate) to watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu, one of the new 7 Wonders of the World.

Machu Picchu is seriously breathtaking; it takes you a while to take it all in. Our guide explained how the city was considered the scientific centre of the Incan empire, and that only the noble and educated Incas knew of its existence. As a result the Spanish never found it and it remained lost to the world until 1911 when it was rediscovered by an American explorer. We explored the ruins for about 4 hours and learned so much from our guide Abraham. We left in the early afternoon just before the big crowds arrived. I was glad we got there early as it really was overrun by people at that stage. Apparently the whole site is slipping down the mountain at a rate of 1cm per month due to the amount of visitors. One only hopes they can put some sort of restriction on the crowds before the site is lost for future generations.

It was a fantastic trek, one I would highly recommend as it is very rewarding and the landscape in the Andes is one of the most beautiful I have ever experienced. Word of warning, if you are planning on taking the trip, book a porter to carry your rucksack unless you’re super strong and fit!

We took a few days to recover in Cusco. It’s a great town. I took a trip to the Inca museum learn more about the Incan culture. They have a great collection of artefacts and even have some mummies! It is believed that the Incas offered people as sacrifices to the Gods! Glad I wasn’t around then!

I’m off to Puno in southern Peru - I’ll let ye know how the adventure goes!!