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Published: April 22nd 2012
So, after a quick flight from Lima to Cusco (landing in between mountains, surrounded by houses around the runway might I add!) we prepared ourselves for the onset of altitude... Roll on tingly fingers, toes and noses and radpido breathing!
We were met by GAP adventures rep at airport, where they sold oxygen by the can... Then we headed to our hotel with members of our Inca Trail group who seemed quite nice! We met the rest of the group in the evening at the hotel - an American family (eek!), an English couple (boring), 3 norweigan girls (fantastic fun) and 4 x 19 year old posh boys on their gap year (turned out to be lovely lads and really great fun - Crosland felt like she was back at school again).
The next day we set off for the Sacred Valley tour where we visted a local village where they spin Llama and Alpaca wool, dye it from local plants and make AMAZING clothes and accessories. Tash bought a groovy hat from them but is yet to wear it - skiing anyone?
We then went to the Inca Sacred Valley and saw some other amazing Inca sites,
burial grounds and buildings... All of them are hundreds of metres up'in the mountains and it is just mindblowing how they lived there and managed to build these immense structures. impressive.
The next day we then headed to Ollyamtambo (something like that!) and got settled into our hotel the night before Inca day after seeing yet more amazing Inca sites high in the Andes all of which were destroyed mainly during the Spanish invasion.
Day one Inca trail.
up early with our 3kg of stuff that we are allowed to take. Sounds alot but you have no idea how many times we had to pack and re-pack as we were overweight... In the end it came down to taking the literal bear necessities so out went the change of clothes for every day and few bits of underwear and socks! YUM!
We arrived at ´base camp' and we saw the arrival of our 22 porters (there were 15 of us) all scrambling out of an enclosed lorry wearing threadbear leather sandals and minimal clothes. Their rucksacks were about 25kg in weight compared to our 4kg and they were HUGE. The porters were tiny and it was
Miraflores
The view of the beach from shopping complex - looks nice from this distance, not so great when we got closer!just mindblowing how these guys managed to carry everything that we needed for the next 4 days - this included a big cooking tent, a dining room tent, chairs for 15, table, cutlery, cooking equipment, gas, lights, 8 tents, our stuff and all of the food including 40 eggs which were always propped precariously on the top. huge respect for these guys.
The first day trek was ok as we were trying to acclimatise still and get our legs used to walking. The weather was nice and cool which helped, but it was a nice start to the trail as it was reasonably easy but it was long.. Along the way we kept getting passed by our porters who were literally running ahead with their backpacks to set up camp for us prior to our arrival for lunch and then again for dinner. And boy what an awesome lunch... Savoy Grill has nothing on these guys. they prepared amazing food every day. We finally arrived at our camp which was all set up and ready for us with bowls of water to wash with, then we had dinner served before bed!!
Day two
This was the killer
day. We ascended 1100m on this day and 500m down, cliimbing some very steep mountainsides. We all had to go slowly as it was just exhausting but the views were stunning - very hard to put into words. When we finally reached the highest point of the trek - 4300m above sea level, we all placed a rock as an offering to the Inca people which is a nice way of showing gratitude, however, Tracy decided to knock a whole pile down which wasnt to plan. She promptly swore, put a few rocks back then ran away...! The descent of 500m was hard after all that uphill work and the legs were jellyfied. It reminded Tash so much of the three peaks she did in 2005 - as there were loads of wet steps on very steep mountainsides. One slip - adios amigos! We got to camp and Trace and I decided to show the group our best games - Black Magic (thanks Paula!), Whats the name of the game and a few rugby drinking games, despite the drinks only being coca tea! We saw the Milky way that night as it was so clear and Tracy reckons she saw
a shooting star! Woo! With clear skys come cold and boy was it freezing that night. I might want to add at this point - we are sweaty all day and there are no showers and limited toilets. The toilets that were there were literal holes in the ground and so us girls had to squat. Do you know how hard it is to hold a squat after walking for 8 hours????
Day three
The longest of the walks but easiest in terms of terrain thankfully although this part is called the Gringo (traveller) Killer as its mainly down hill. It was raining too ALL day so that made it harder but we introduced to the group our Alphabet game where you name things from a certain topic going through the alphabet... Sounds quite dull but boy did it pass the time and everyone got involved which was nice. this was also day 3 of Tash and Trace not having a poo... That hurts! Tracy also made some new friends.. Her mossi bites had turned overnight into two MASSIVE disgusting blisters (see picture) one of which popped just before lunch. Tash wasnt feeling that great after not eating
much breakfast (never a good morning eater) and had to swallow hard to not be sick whilst cleaning and dressing the blisters boris and bruce. Monkey liked them though. It finally stopped raining as we were approaching final camp and we went to another inca site just around the corner (well, not literally) from Macchu Picchu and thats were we did the crazy jump pictures. We both managed an inch off the floor... Quads were not working but we got some great pics. That night, we had to be up at 3.50am to get ready for the final trek to MP... Still no poo.
Day four
Got up, packed like crazy people to get into the queue for gate opening at 5am. Us and hundreds of other trekkers. The walk in was madness as pèople were trying to pass all of the time even on narrow paths of just 1m with sheer drops.. We got to the sun gate after an hour and a half of walking which was like a resting spot where you can see, on a clear day, MP in all of its glory.. It was quite a spiritual place despite the gate being made
traditional Inca clothes making
We went to a Gap Adventure sponsored community where they showed us how they make clothes by hand and the natural dyes they use. for tourists and not the Incas. We got a glimpse of MP through the clouds and it was impressive to say the least. We then headed off to reach MP. This is where people were coming up the other way from MP to the sungate which was irritating and Tash was annoyed that the lazy shitbags who got the train or stayed in the MP hotel got first access to MP and not the trekkers who deserve it! Grr... We might write a strongly worded letter. We then had a tour around MP which was just stunning and literally perched on a ledge between two huge mountains. The sun came out, we celebrated with a beer naturally despite it being 8am in the morning. Still no poo..
After the tour we all got the bus down to the town and had lunch together to celebrate and have a few well deserved beers. It was brilliant and we could not have asked for a better group (all except the boring english couple). We got the train back to Ollyamtambo then a bus back to cusco were we all died in our beds. the poo did finally come by the way..
the less said about that the better but important that we share!
We have spent the last couple of days checking out cusco and hanging around with the group. Last night we had our farewell dinner and drinks which resulted in Tracy dancing on the bar before red carding herself! Christine would have been proud! Fun times...
Tonight we get on an overnight bus to Puerto Maldonado where we start a jungle trek! Mosquito city!!! Tracy will come back as one huge blister! The mossi net will come in handy JP!
Thats all for now... Next time we will try and write less but more frequently... for those of you who are reading at work - GET BACK TO WORK whilst we just swan around South America.... ahhh.
Love to all.
Tash and Trace xxx
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taniav
taniav
Absolutely brilliant update!
Thank you ladies for a frank and entertaining blog from Peru. I am just about to head there myself in 4 days time.....and I am finding it hard to contain my excitement to the dismay of my co-workers!!! Happy travelling...