Here's a lengthier post than normal for the blog.

We think it gives a great insight and first-hand account of trekking in the high Andes, and wanted to share it with you.

Philippe Galland one of our Product Managers, and his wife Clare, went to South America for their (belated) honeymoon at the end of last year.

Here's Clare's report covering altitude sickness, Christmas in the Andes and Eco-tourism.

"Philippe and I had introduced ourselves as climbers into our group of 9 fellow trekkers - hailing from Australia, LA, New York and South Africa. We thought we’d be fine with the altitude as we lived in the Alps for a while and went skiing from time to time on glaciers. Boy were we wrong.

We landed at Cuzco (3,326m) at 7am, after a 45 minute flight from Lima (0m). The guide sat us all down at the hotel with some coca tea and briefed us about the 7 days ahead. By 9am our heads were spinning and we decided to spend our (ONE!) acclimatisation day mostly asleep. We went to climb the stairs (the tour operators had put us on the 4th floor) and barely made it to the top. A lot of people say they feel short of breath, but I just felt like someone had punched me in the head and the stomach with a crow bar.

They say drink shed loads of water to avoid altitude sickness. I’m afraid I can’t tell you if it works or not because we felt too sick to make ourselves do that. Anyway after our day in bed and a day of looking around Inca ruins at Ollantaytamb we felt better and it was time to set off.

The first day involved a 7 hour walk from Qeshwarani village, including going through the 4,200 metre pass of Cuncani. I swear I thought I was going to die. My migraine started small but ended up so bad I couldn’t bear any light so I was walking with my eyes closed. Philippe was a little better so was hitting me with sticks like a mule to keep me going to camp before dark.

Now Peruvian mountains are just HUGE. I cannot make this more explicit. They. Are. Massive. They don’t fit inside your camera.

I’m ashamed to say that only two people were slower than Philippe and I - one of them had the runs and the other had never been walking or even camping before. What really narked us was that the others were no younger, they were ill equipped (the South Africans thought they could get away with bin bags as raincoats despite it being the rainy and snowy season) and had no background whatsoever in the mountains. One of them was a sales rep for L'Oreal wearing Nike trainers. She maintained her false nails and immaculate makeup for the entire trek despite us having no running water and only a 10kg baggage allowance, and she was always in front. A machine - or maybe a Stepford wife?

Our first night out fell on Christmas Eve and the local porters and chefs were in for a shock. We had found some mini fireworks at the local market before we left. Our native guide thought it appropriate that they should be in charge of setting them off. We all had to run for cover. The nutters were throwing them at each other and high into the air - absolutely hilarious.

But the reason it was the best Christmas ever was the children we ran into (well, staggered anyway). The Andes are pretty empty but there are hidden villages everywhere, so you are constantly bumping into small groups of random kids. They are generally tiny, covered in mud with red cheeks and only sandals on their feet, yet they can run over the mountains like they are mere hillocks. Our guide taught us a few words in their language (Quechua), and we bought toys from markets to give them instead of money or sweets. They are so poor that just giving them a ball or plastic truck to play with makes them ecstatic. For the adults we met along the way, we had a more morally dubious gift - coca leaves.

What really impressed me about GAP, who ran our tour, was that the guides, porters and cooks were all local native people, and everything was carefully calculated to help in the economic development of the area without ruining its culture. They weren’t perfect. The amount of spending money you need is vastly underestimated because of the tipping system, and no matter how careful you are, you’re likely to get sick at some point from some dodgy water or food. But on the whole it was well worthwhile, even if it’s just to gawp at the enormous mountains. Being in such an international group is also really great. For many of them, the trek was but a small part of a Big Trip, and just discussing what we would normally all be doing for Christmas was a real eye opener.

The second day was slightly better. It was Philippe’s turn to feel rough and my turn to hit him with sticks. We went to 4440m and camped at Huacahuasi Lake a few hundred lower. As we settled in for the night it started pouring with rain, so we huddled down and tried not to touch the sides of our dodgy looking hired tents. It was really toasty. The following morning we were woken by sun and as we went to leave the tent the door was somewhat crusty - it had snowed overnight and the views were amazing. It was Boxing Day.

On the last day, just as we were starting to get properly acclimatised, it was already time to go. But the amazing scenery and culture had made us forget about the pain it had taken to get us there. Unlike the many tourists who go to Peru to hike the Inca trail, we had chosen the less frequented Lares trek. We didn’t see a single non-native person for the entire trek."