DAY 1 OF THE INCA TRAIL (25/06/09)
The beginning of the Inca Trail, perhaps the world´s most famous trek. The trail runs 45km up and down steep mountain slopes before reaching the ruins of Machupicchu in four days time.
The Urubamba River forms a deep valley which runs all the way to Machupicchu. Whilst the trail does not run alongside the river we would often see it from up high over the next few days.
At the start of the trek we were soon overtaken by the incredible porters. These amazing men waited for us to leave our campsite every morning before packing the tents and other equipment (including full kitchen equipment) into bags before racing down the trail to overtake us and make sure that everything was set up for us when we arrived at our next destination. Typically their bags weigh about 25kg (55lb) which is more than your baggage allowance for one bag on most airlines. We later learned about a yearly race held amongst the porters in which they run the trail with no baggage. The record set for running the trail, which took us four days to walk, is 3 hours and 44 minutes. The record was set by a 55 year old.
As we climbed higher into the mountains we began to see some of the beautiful scenery that the trail is famous for.
Inca terraces. Built by the Inca to make possible crop growing on the steep Andean slopes. 
After several hours walking we reached the Inca ruins of Willkarakay. Due to their incredible building prowess these sites are incredibly well preserved.
Many important sites like this are high in the mountains. One of the main reasons for their continued survival is the reason why the Inca built them here in the first place - in an area of the world susceptible to earthquakes the mountain bedrock provides great stability.
What appeared to be deserted ruins turned out to have several semi-permanent residents.
Whilst in the course of our trip we have seen some fantastic archaeological sites and spectacular mountain scenery, this is the first time that the two had been combined.
Enjoying the beautiful scenery and beautiful weather.
When we arrived at our lunch stop the porters had already arrived, set up this dining tent and lunch was five minutes from being ready.
While we briefly waited for our lunch Adam befriended a Donkey.
He was really friendly. When Adam went and sat on the grass he came and stood over him and waited to get his head rubbed.
Liz´s constant requests to the guide to show us some Guinea Pigs finally paid off. A local woman let us into her kitchen where several were running around. You can just see one here under the stove, possibly a little too close to the cooking pot for comfort.
Once again when we arrived at our campsite for the night everything was already set up and one of the porters was preparing bowls of warm water for us to wash ourselves.
Our tents. 
It is amazing how good a bowl of warm water feels after a long day´s hiking in the mountains getting covered in dust.
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