The Yak turns 40

Yep, today is a little bit special because it´s Craigs birthday and he's turned the big 40! Three cheers for the old fella! I probably shouldnt make jokes about his age because I would say that he's probably the fittest person on the tour. I expect that on the first day of the Inca Trail hike, we'll just see a blur of metal as his old man walking frame zooms right past us! Tonight there will be a beer or two to celebrate. Probably no more than that because we've got so much hiking to come in the next few days that a couple of beers at the altitude we are at now should be more than enough. We will celebrate more later.
We are now in Cusco. In the last few days we've been to Lake Titicaca (I think I still have a mental age of about 5 because i still chuckle a little each time I say the name) where we visited the Uros islands which are made of floating reeds and made by locals who live on them and then we visited a rocky island where we stayed the night with local families. The island was at 3800 metres above sea level and we then had to hike up to 4000 metres to where our house for the night would be. This was our first serious bit of exercise since arriving at high altitude and it was a bit of a concern as we all huffed and puffed while walking really slowly. We later hiked to the top of the island which was at 4200 metres and again it was very difficult. Still, it will have helped to acclimatise us to the altitude for the Inca Trail. The Inca Trail starts in two days and is often now the topic of conversation as we all hope we can actually manage to walk about 40 kms over 3 and a bit days. Everyone keeps saying "its not a race, as long as you make it eventually" to help themselves feel better. I like it. :) I'm a bit nervous myself because its a blo0dy long way. Walking through Cusco before, we could see massage places everywhere so i will have to keep that in mind when the going gets tough. Anyway, should be a great experience!