30th July - 2nd Aug, Inca Trail

Ralph was always flying the flag. Here we got a view of one of the many inca ruins.

One of the local girls watching us curiously

Pancakes for breakfast !

The porters were so fit. The dad of one of our guides (Kennedy), has the record for running the 4 day Inca Trail - 3 hours 25 mins !!!

Everywhere you look there appeared Inca ruins within the Cloud Jungle

Caterpillars I'd never seen before - the name of this one anybody?

Last year I did the Salkantay Inca trek, here was our best view of the giant Salkantay

The name of this Orchid?

The scouts did well on the trek. harder for some than others, but we were looked after well by our porters and guides.

26th July, Arrival In Peru

Maz and Rich. They live in Bermuda at the moment, but are probably on the move again! Here we met up in a cafe in Cusco. They were on holiday for a massive family reunion. The next day they would start the Inca trail...

In the centre on Cusco. Here I'm very busy acclimatising. Here it's over 3300m altitude, so the best thing to do is walk around in flip flops and take acclimatisation very seriously...

The rest of the team doing the same. This is Becky taking hydration seriously..

Night falls fast. This is the courtyard in the middle of our hotel.

Wow, on the 24th, I was ice climbing with Lena in Chamonix, now something different...

I had to travel on my birthday - 26th! So travelling to Peru turning the clocks back 6 hours, meant that I had a 30 hour birthday! I met the Scout team from Andover at Heathrow, and we eventually made our way to Lima, and Cusco in Southern Peru, at 3300m. The trip was mainly to trek the Classic 4 day Inca trail to Machu Picchu. I was working for Adventure Peaks.

I managed to immediately meet up with friends Rich and Maz who were having a great holiday form Bermuda. They were about to start their Inca Trail the next day...

After A Long Trek - Surely A Hot Spring

After our trek we all decided that we had earnt a hot soak in the Santa Teresa hot springs. Awesome. The scenery was spectacular, and we knew that Machu Picchu was just round the corner (sort of)..

Avoiding The Storm

Rain in the morning, but thankfully it didn't come to much. After a few hours the limestone dried out and the budding climbers were able to climb. Will we escape tomorrow...
I realised today that I've only got 8 days before I meet my group, for final preparations, to go to Peru..
Better get some last minute shopping done (any excuse to buy kit)..