Anyway, spiritual moments finished, we gave Pachamama far too much rum and wine, and she must have been pissing like a drunk nun after it because it lashed rain for the climb down. Lunch was again, class, even if it was soup for the third time (Hobbits make good soup, it is known), and we continued down towards the high jungle. The high jungle is where things got heated and became incredibly green. From places along the hike, you could see Salkantay, in all its majesty, through a haze of verdantity. We arrived at Chaullay, at a pleasant 2900 metres high, to our next campsite, with hot showers (10 soles). Our tents were up in the building ‘camping’, and the place was greeeeen. Here, we met a Danish lad who put us all to shame, because he was hiking the trek alone, and having a great time doing it. Dinner, which involved soup again, was class. Finished the day by playing trou de cul (French Asshole, a card game), and slept like babies, with a new appreciation for warmth.

DAY 3. High Jungle.

Day 3 began with a lovely wake up, in the sunshine, and was through tough thorough troughs and barrelling battered barrows (This is for all you non native speakers), along with a mixture of roads and paths. We’d normally do the entire thing by path, but this valley is a bit landslidy, and that makes some trails impassable. But, because of this, we get a 1 sole zipline box across the river, that's operated by hand, by us. Afternoon delights. The trail was pretty junglesque, and Juri, the assistant guide gathered some local fruits for us to try on a break. I’ve no idea what they were called, but they were all tasty. Little mini tomato things, passion fruits with a sweet twist, and some sort of herb that ‘cures’ the flu. I say ‘cures’ because it clears your nose by burning it so thoroughly nothing could survive it. This was followed by lunch was at La Playa! La Playa as a name is a complete lie, that’s only similarity with a playa is a volleyball net. Lunch, again, incredible. Thank you hobbits. And as for the volleyball,it was dominated by the 6 foot 6 Dutch guy. It was a bit like if Gandalf played volleyball against the hobbits.

Here, the 4-day trekkers parted from our group, to continue walking to Aguas Calientes from Hidroelectrica. Our trekking for the day ended with the passing of those Francophonies plus German,because, unfortunately, landslides closed down the trail further on. However, we got to experience an adrenaline pumping, near-death experience of the Santa Theresa bus. Think- death road, but narrower! Think- disproportionately high speeds! Think- Crossing waterfalls that could sweep us to our deaths below! Think- getting out of the bus, and walking, in case it falls off the edge, as it is the first vehicle to drive over a landslide, that was cleared just in front of us! Fun fun fun, all without seatbelts. I’d give it 7/10 on the fun danger scale, especially as the two Quebec guys spent the journey hanging out the windows trying to grab bananas from the trees while we drove past.