Things I was glad I took

1) good, worn-in hiking boots - day-hikers would be sufficient - but especially needed where we went downhill to support ankles

2) woolly long underwear, fleece and wool hat - it starts to cool around 4pm

3) pants that converted to shorts - by 10am I was unzippping

4) mosquito repellant - you can't see or feel them but I omitted to spray my legs the first day and was covered in red bumps by camp

5) toilet paper always

6) money exchange sheet from Oanda.com - helped me on the fly to work out my maximum price

7) some idea of an itinerary for the 4 days in Cusco of places I wanted to see - gave me a starting point as tour operators are on every corner

8) large ziploc bags for sorting clothes and supplies to find easily later - ie I put my night gear in one: woolly underwear and head lamp in one, and my toiletries and medications in another.

9) head lamp - it gets dark at 6pm and it is useful to have both hands free

10) bucket hat and sunscreen - everyone looks dorky in their hats but the sun is much stronger in the Andes than in Canada