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Published: March 17th 2008
Wiñaywayna View
View from WiñaywaynaWe survived the Inca Trail!
WOW WOW WOW! What an amazing experience it was tough going for Tiare not so for Nick but totally worth it.
Tiare just needed to get that off her chest straight away! But hello again to all of you. What a week it has been!
After leaving Quito we arrived in Lima Peru at about midnight. once again it was lovely to have a pre arranged transfer waiting to take us to the hotel. And the hotel was very fancy.... it even had a lift!!!!
We spent Sunday in Lima in miraflores (where our hotel was). Miraflores is supposed to be a kind of yuppie beachside suburb and we found it to be really quite nice. But not really a lot to report just a lazy day wandering around looking at the place (mind you we don´t think that we´d like to go swimming at the beach - the water was a bit of a funny colour.)
Monday we flew up to cuzco with our GAP tour group. We spent the remainder of the day (after a quick siesta) looking around Cuzco and having dinner. Cuzco is a lovely town. lots of
Nick & Llama
Nick feeding llama old style buildings and the central square (plaza de armas) is very nice at night. Tiare was feeling the altitude a little bit (she nearly fell over in the street) but got over it quickly enough.
Tuesday was the first day of our tour for real. Our group was made up of 4 Englishmen who kept us entertained, 2 Canadian brothers, 2 Norwegian lads, an Irish couple (Joan 65 years old was walking the trail but her partner David was going to take the train), and an Irish scottish girl. A fine group we had.
This first day was a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. We started by stoping at a little llama zoo were taught the difference between llamas and alpacas (alpacas have sexy backs apparently). We then headed on to the Inca Ruins at Pisac. This was our first taste of Inca ruins and our first taste of Inca stairs. The ruins were really great to walk trough the stonework on the sacred buildings is just amazing (so are the other buildings - they are just not as refined). After that we headed on to our accomodation for the night in Ollantaytambo which
Pisac
Ruins at Pisac is a town close to the starting point for the Inca trail. We had a wander around the town that afternoon which is largely built on Inca foundations. And had an enjoyable couple of beers in a quirky cafebar that the lads found.
Wednesday - Inca trail day!!! We awoke on Wednesday morning to the sound of steady (and fairly heavy) rain. Just what you want when yoú are starting a 4 day hike!!! Nick proudly donned his waterproof pants purchase the night before and Tiare was very jealous. We started the morning with a tour of the ruins above Ollantaytambo - how the Incas carted these massive stones up to the mountain tops is amazing!!! by the end of this the rain had died away, our fingers were crossed that it would stay away. Then it was off to Kilometre 82 and the start of the Inca Trail Hike.
Now we must add that we are a bit spoilt with our tour and whilst we tell how hard it was - we only ever had to carry our own day packs. We had 6 kg worth of clothing sleeping bags etc that was going to be carried
Inca Trail
Start of Inca Trail by our porters. For our group of 15 walkers (we had an American couple and a lad from Lebanon join us just for the hike) we had 1 Guide, an assistant guid, a cook, an assistant cook, a head porter and 18 porters (who each carried 25kg) they were absolute champions, every time they passed us on the track Tiare was constantly amazed by them. They would always pack up camp after we had left and have the next camp set up before we got there.
Today we had to walk 11km to our campsite at 3000m. We walked through a number of smaller ruins along the way and were walking amoungst fairly lush vegetation for most of the way. There was not too much hard climbing today though the walking was fairly consistently up hill. We were introduced to chewing coca leaves.... not a habit we think we are going to take up (anyone who wishes a similar experience - we sugest cramming your mout with semi dry grass and twigs and chewing on it for a bit) the few times nick gave it a go he spent most of his time gaging on the bits of leaf
Day 1 Mountains
View from the inca trail day 1 going down his throat and after a couple of goes we decided it was more hinderance than help. And just stuck with drinking coca tea.
Thursday - day 2 - this is supposed to be the day that really sorts out the men from the boys or somethiong like that. The day consisted of 11kms 1200m up to dead womans pass (alt 4200m) and then 600m back down again to the second campsite. We were up a 5am and on the trail before 6 (our breakfast stop was two hours away and a long way up). Stairs, Stairs, Stairs and more stairs. Today was tough this is the beginning of Tiare´s nightmares about stairs. But the scenery is just absolutely spectacular - mountains like we have never seen! The weather was overcast today but not raining, and the clouds which swirled round the mountains gave the whole scene a very mistical quality. The push up to the pass was quite hard the air is starting to get quit thin at these altitudes and we were puffing and blowing like we were not the super fit atheletes that you all know us to be 😊 but after many stops and
very slow walking we reached the pass. After a brief rest and a whiskey offer to the mountain gods we were off down the other side. Tiare isn´t sure which she dislikes more upstairs or down stairs - Nick thinks she dislike the one she is doing at the time the most. Nick got very used to Tiares little puffing and groaning complaint noises that would be part of the soundscape for the next couple of days. He was very patient, lucky for me. Fortuneately we made it into camp just before the rain came in for the rest of the day.
Friday - day 3 - Another early start and we were off to the second pass (300m up) more spectacular veiws - just breathtaking (or maybe that was the walking). After the second pass the weather closed in and it rained pretty steadily for the rest of the day. Out came Tiare´s poncho. We were both very glad for our goretex shoes - money well spent (nothing quite like having dry warm feet). We explored a few more smaller ruins along the way and went down some very steep stair cases and arived into the final campsite
Path to Pass
Inca trail leading up to Dead Womans Pass with a great sence of achievement. After dropping off our gear went to some near by ruins (Winyawina) which were very impressive (we just can´t wait for Machu Picchu tomorrow. We had a couple of celbratory drinks in the bar at the final campsite but not too many as it was a 4am start for tomoorow.
Saturday - day 4 - Machu Picchu - a 4am start to que a t the check point which opens at 5:30am we were the second group in line and then a very fast 1hr walk up to the sun gate which over looks Machu Picchu. Tiare set a cracking pace - Nick could hardly keep up!!! When we arrive we could just see Machu Picchu through the clouds but they closed in again befoe we could get our cameras out. So it was off to the ruins themselves. When we arrive at the top of the ruins the clouds had cleared to give us an excellent view. Just magical. Actually having the clouds swirling around gave it that extra something we think. By this time we were starting to notice a lot of clean and well groomed people wandering around (fresh from
their train trip) Nick felt that he could justifiably look down his nose at these day trippers 😉
Machu Picchu was just amazing, we took heaps of photos and just wandering around was increadable. We elected not to climb Wynapicchu (the little mountain overlooking Machu Picchu) we decided we had seen enough stairs for a while. And then in the afternoon it was off to Aguas Calientes for the train trip back to Cuzco.
It was a truly awesome and amazing four days. Quite physically taxing but just so worth it.
Yesterday was just spent relaxing around Cuzco and enjoying having a nice soft bed and hot shower.
Tonight we are on a night bus taking us to Copacabana Boliva on the shore of lake Titicaca. We have been advised against doing to much overland travel in Boliva at this time of year due to the weather and the conditions of the roads, so after Copa we are planning to head to La Paz where we can hopefully pick up a salt plains tour and then fly to Puerto Suarez to get to Brazil.
Hope you are all having fun.
Lots of Love Nick
Tiare
Heading down stairs from Dead Womans pass & Tiare.
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India
non-member comment
Wow, makes me think, "What have I done with MY day!!" my gosh. I'm so proud of you Tiare, I don't think I could even try! Talk about a bum workout worthy of the next ten years! I don't know how you did it! You look so cute in your poncho coming down the stairs. Great blog- I enjoyed reading all the details (like the good shoes etc.) Very impressed by you both! India (did you see the LA photos yet?)