We head through the crowds, a mixture of locals going about their day, stray dogs, and tourists taking photos of every single thing they lay their eyes on – including the stray dogs and the locals going about their business – and up another narrow street. Within minutes we’re sitting in Chez Maggy. I might not’ve chosen local cuisine for tonight, but everything about this place shouts local – aside from the Coca-Cola fridge that’s sticking out in the corner. Wooden tables are crammed into the space and the wooden benches lined around them have been upholstered with traditional Peruvian fabrics. Next to where we’re seated a chef hangs freshly prepared pasta over wooden rods, where it waits to be ordered and cooked. It’s rough around the edges and because of that it’s homely and welcoming. Although I’m not too sure the others feel the same when I look up from the menu to see them sharing some of Vic’s antibac hand gel.

‘Want some? You can never be too careful,’ she says, proffering the bottle.

‘I’ll feel dirty if I don’t now,’ I laugh as she squirts some on my palm.

We place our order and the drinks arrive in a speedy fashion – much like they’re drunk. The food, however, takes more than a while to come out, meaning we’re on our way to being quite drunk by the time it arrives. Once it does, though, the table is covered in different dishes for us all to share: a margherita pizza, vegetable calzone – both cooked in the wood-fired oven – and a carbonara, because seeing the pasta hanging there was just too tempting. We all tuck in hungrily, sitting in silence as we chuck it into our gobs.

‘Do you think the others think we’re in a three-way relationship?’ Vicky ponders.

‘Who?’ I laugh, almost choking on my drink. ‘And where did that thought come from?’

‘The others on the trek! The ones we’re with for a couple of days. I was thinking about them and what they’re all like – there’s the mum with her teenage sons, those two girls who look like they’re actually travelling properly, not just dipping in and out like we are, then there’s the older couple who are so cute but I’m not sure how they’re going to take on the trek, and the American family too, the two women who must be in their seventies and the man on his own, who looks to be in his sixties – I think I heard one of the guides call him Derek. I did smile at him but he didn’t take the bait. Anyway, I was just thinking about what must’ve brought them here.’

‘Speculating and judging?’ says Zaza.