We’re back in Cusco after our four-day trek to Machu Picchu via the Inka trail. Our original plan was to take one of the two alternative trails to Machu: Lares or Salkantay. After hearing the description of the Lares it didn’t interest us and we were told by a few people the the Salkantay was too muddy and dangerous during the rainy season (which is now), but that they would take us anyway. It’s tough to tell in Peru when people are telling the truth or giving you a sales pitch. It was pretty obvious that most guides and tour operators wanted us to do the Inka Trail. I imagine that since this is the slow season they’d rather just put everyone on the Inka trail to make life easy. Since we weren’t sure, we decided to do the Inka Trail just in case the Salkantay was too muddy. It didn’t seem worth the risk. Also, the Inka Trail just re-opened after being closed for cleaning and maintenance for all of February and since it’s the slow season so we figured it would be cleaner and less crowded then other times during the year. It was indeed, very commercial, and a little crowded. There were twelve hikers, along with ten porters and 2 guides, making us a small army. Everyone in our group was really nice. It was a fantastic dynamic. We had people from all over the world: Canadian, German, Australian, Belgian, Argentinian, and us gringos.In some ways, this trek was even more taxing physically than the one in Santa Cruz. The second day was a gruelling five hour ascent to a pass 4200 meters up in the mountains, and then another hour and a half down to our campsite over a stone path that made my knees ache. The third day was a nine-hour rainy trek-a-thon, with visits to several different ruins. Our last day we woke up at 4 in the morning to try and catch the sunrise over Machu. We made it to Machu by 7:30 after sunrise, but before most of the tourists arrived. We spent several hours, in relative peace and quiet, exploring the ruins and enjoying the beautiful mountains surrounding the city.Around lunch time we went down to Aguas Calientes for lunch and to tend to our aching muscles in the thermal baths (hence the name of the town).Today we’re taking it easy back in Cusco and leaving to night for Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca.I must confess that ever since I was a kid and first heard the name Lake Titicaca that I’ve wanted to visit. I mean, come on, Titicaca! In a few days we should be in Bolivia. I’ll keep you posted.