Well, I stand by my decision. It was the right way to reach the ancient inka city of Machu Pichu. While there were more than 100 people camping near us every night, the magic and romance of the almost original inka trail was amazing. Look at the pictures!

I dont have the exact campsites with me now, or the altitutdes, or gps coords. SO i will add that later. For now, here are some great stories.

The pic above is from day 3. Thats Anders with me and he and I have just prooved our manhood.

Lol.

The pass on day 3 (and our lunch site) was at 3900m. It had been raining all day and we were both totally soaked. Then our porters and guides decided to have lunch at the coldest point on the journey, just ahead of the steep decline into our camp for that day.

Soaked, freezing, hungry, and waiting for food, I began to get annoyed. New goal, get to camp as fast as possible (we have heard stories of hot showers). Starting out, Anders and I began a nice jog down the steep stone steps. Jogs turned to calculate (and safe) running. We passed EVERYONE, even the porters legendary for their speed.

At about 1/2 way down, one of them pointed to a small path and said "shortcut". Perfect! I am all about shortcuts.

The switchback shortcut followed the path of powerlines down to the hostal that was our target. Faster, faster!! What an adrenaline rush!! Then we began to take shortcuts on the shortcut! Basicly sliding down the hill.

On one particurarly speed enhancing route, we slid down a muddy slope for more than 30m. Thats why we are so dirty.

We reached the bottom in 53 min. It should have taken 130min. More than 1100m/hour decent rate.

What a blast. In retrospect, it WAS dangerous, and i dont recommend it; but dont worry mom, likely worst case scenario, broken leg. ;)

All the best from the south,

Simon