It's hard to believe, but the walking part of our adventure is coming to an end. Today we have a leisurely descent followed by a train ride to Machu Picchu township.
For a change Effy is telling the truth - the walk down is lovely. We are heading for Ollaytantambo - an Inca town, and as they say in the renovation trade 'bursting with original features'. Some quite surprising.
Dawn over our camp.
I have just experienced the joys of camping for the last time. Maybe forever.
I head up the hill for an early-morning visit to the Inca fortress there and a view over our campsite.
A gorgeous old native tree. The vast majority have been cut down for firewood. They have a campaign to plant and re-forest.
A view of the valley from the fortress.
The rocks of the fortress are mortared together with a biological concrete of mud, pebbles and cactus extract. Impressive to be still standing after 500 years of rainy seasons!
Feeling good with the end in sight.
The incredible terraces built by the the Inca.
Paul getting back to his Catholic roots.
We reached Ollaytantambo around midday and it is a stunning city. As well as wandering the streets we visited a house maintained virtually as life was during the Inca times.
Ok, so not everything in the town is 100% Incan.
The Peruvian flag flying proudly.
A classic view.
The inside of one of the single-room as-in-Inca times house. Please note the drying fish, llama and corn in the rafters. I hadn't realized they already had retail and fluorescent lights back then.
The live-in food supply. Do they look nervous to you?
The ancestral shrine on the wall (actually a practice encouraged by the Spaniards to break the Inca tradition of keeping the mummified corpse intact). The skulls are from the ancestors of the people in the house, keeping a safe watch over them.
A few last-minute purchases ...
Views of some of the massive ruins.
After lunch we set off by train to the village outside Machu Picchu.
The landscape is becoming much more lush as we start descending into the cloud forest (the real Amazonian rain forest is still further east).
A gorgeous double rainbow.
We finally reach Machu Picchu township. Giddy with happiness, we join with a couple of locals for a photo.
Our restaurant that night had a nice Peruvian version of the Last Supper. Who were we to not join in?
Clearly things had gotten a bit out of hand when Paul tried to re-create his University-days hairstyle using Nicole's assistance:
Tomorrow ... tomorrow is Machu Picchu, the culmination of our Peruvian adventure!
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