It wasn't supposed to be like this. When I booked myself on the Inca Trail, way back in February, I planned it as the grand finale of my trip. I envisioned four days of trekking under beautiful blue skies, finished off with a picture postcard first view of Machu Picchu. What I didn't expect - given that May is actually supposed to be in the dry season - was that I would spend two of the four days getting rained on, and that Machu Picchu would be completely obscured by cloud when we first got there. But it was still an amazing experience even despite the rain...and when the clouds finally did lift, Machu Picchu looked incredible and was more than worth the effort.
I actually came very close to not doing the Inca Trail. The day before starting the trek, I woke up feeling absolutely fine. Within half an hour of eating breakfast I suddenly felt very ill - nausea, stomach pains, the lot. By the afternoon I was feeling like sh*t, having spent the day alternating between the bathroom and my bed. We had a briefing that evening at Llama Path, the agency with whom we were going
on the trek, and I told them how I was feeling. The only thing they could say was that I give it a go, and they would do what they could to make things easier for me. With the rules for the Inca Trail being what they are, there was no chance of me either being able to reschedule for another day, nor getting my money back. Which was what I thought - so I'd already decided that I would do it, even if I had to crawl around.
Fortunately, I was actually feeling a lot better the next day, although extremely tired. For this reason, I don't really remember very much about the first day! Everyone in the group was introduced - there were five of us (me, a couple from the US called Gene and Deborah, and Spanish/Polish couple called Gonzalo and Agniescka) plus Marco, our guide. Not to mention the porters. We had eight porters in our team, including the cook, and they all did an incredible job, carrying all the gear that we needed for the trek - tents, food, cooking gear, everything. These days, the porters are only allowed to carry 25 kilos, but
they used to carry up to 50 kilos. When you're puffing and panting your way up the steep slopes, carrying only a small backpack, it's quite humbling to see these little guys (and some of them are very little) laden down by these massive burdens barely breaking a sweat. And they move so fast!
As I was saying, I don't really remember very much about the first day. I remember stopping to look at some ruins, and I remember getting to our camp for the night. Like every other meal on the trek, the cook made us a huge spread of food, more than we could possibly eat - particularly me, at that moment. After that I crashed out in my tent, and managed to sleep through what the others told me was a huge thunderstorm. I vaguely remember hearing some rain, but nothing else. Thankfully this meant that I woke up the night morning feeling refreshed and almost 100% better. Which was good, as I needed it. The second day was definitely the hardest day of the trek. We had to climb two passes - the first, known as Dead Woman's Pass, was at 4200m. I was assured
that it got its name from the shape of the mountain, and no women had actually died trying to climb it. Still, it was bloody hard work. The path went very steadily and steeply uphill, mostly by steps...I don't know who decided to build the steps, but whoever it was should have been shot. Thanks to the altitude, we were having to stop every few minutes to catch our breath. But even so, we reached the top very quickly...so quickly that we were left waiting for Marco, who had left the campsite after us, to catch up with us. Our aim was to get to the top of the pass by 10.30am...and we made it at 8.45am. We were even ahead of the porters. Not bad going, huh? After that, the path went back downhill as quickly and steeply as it had gone uphill, which was slightly depressing. After a short break for a snack and a coca tea, we were off back uphill again for the second pass, this time at a mere 4000m. This time it didn't seem so bad! It was around this time that the scenery around us started to change, from the quite barren mountainsides
before the first pass, to the lovely lush, green jungle and jagged mountain peaks that are so familiar from all the photos. Some ruins on the way down from the second pass gave us a taster of what Machu Picchu would look like.
It was also around this time that the weather started to close in. After reaching the second night's campsite, the clouds came down completely and we could hardly see a few metres in front of us. This carried on into the third day. Gene, who had done the Inca Trail for the first time 22 years ago, told us about the spectacular scenery we should have been seeing that day...but we could see nothing. Because of this, I was focused on getting down to the third and final campsite. We'd been promised that there would be hot showers at this campsite, but because all of the groups would be camping there we needed to get there early so there wouldn't be a long queue. I'm pleased to say I was actually the first person into the shower.
It carried on raining all night, on and off, and was still raining when we got up -
bright and early - at 4am the next morning. The main reason for this early start, as far as we could tell, was so that the porters could get everything packed up and head down to catch their train back to Cuzco, which left at 5.30am. In the meantime, we had nothing to do except wait for the gate to the pass to Machu Picchu to open, also at 5.30am. Because of the large number of groups at the campsite, this meant getting in the queue as early as possible so we didn't have to wait for a long time after the gate opened. Also, there was limited shelter, so the majority of the groups would have to queue in the rain. There was clearly a hugely competitive streak in our group, because we were the second group in line and managed to get a spot in the shelter while we waited. This meant we got through the gate almost as soon as it opened, after which we practically ran to the Sun Gate for our first view of Machu Picchu....except that there was no view, as it was completely covered in cloud. We waited for a while to see
if it would clear, which it did a bit but not much, before carrying on down to Machu Picchu itself.
Our first stop at Machu Picchu was for the 'picture postcard' view, which was almost completely obscured by the cloud. I was feeling ever so slightly disappointed at this point, as I couldn't believe I'd come all this way to see almost nothing. Over the next hour or so, Marco gave us a guided tour around the site, pointing out some of the places of interest and explaining the history behind it. And then a miraculous thing happened...the clouds lifted. Not completely, as we didn't get any sunshine, but enough to be able to see the site and to see the mountains behind it. It was amazing. I found a good vantage point to take photos, and could do nothing but sit and gape in awe...for a grand finale, it was pretty incredible. I wanted to spend the rest of the day there, wandering around the ruins, but my legs had reached the point where they would walk no further. We'd arranged to meet Marco for a final lunch down in the town of Aguas Calientes, at the base
of the mountain, so it was with great reluctance and sadness I made my way down.
Aguas Calientes is a horrible, horrible town that seems to exist solely to serve the thousands and thousands of tourists who visit Machu Picchu every day. You don't want to spend any more time there than is strictly necessary...which is unfortunate, when you have a ticket for the train that leaves at 6pm. There's really nothing to do at all. There are loads of over-priced restaurants, and souvenir shops selling equally over-priced tourist tat. I walked around for a while, then joined Gonzalo and Agniescka over a coffee, then waiting at the station. We were so happy when the train finally arrived, thinking that we'd be back in our beds in Cuzco in no time. Not so. The train only went as far as Ollantaytambo, an hour and a half away, from where we were being picked up by someone from Llama Path who would take us back to Cuzco. We waited in Ollantaytambo for half an hour, then got stuck on the way out of town for a further half an hour as the road was closed due to a procession. It
was 11pm when we finally got back to Cuzco, a full five hours after we left Aguas Calientes. And when I got back to my hostel, there had been a mix up with my booking and I almost didn't have a bed. They put me up in the staff quarters, where I got woken up at 2am by the hostel dog bounding onto my bed and scaring the life out of me. If you've ever been woken up from a deep sleep by a dog you don't know exists jumping on to you, you'll know how that feels :-)
As well as doing the Inca Trail, I had just under four days in Cuzco itself. I have to admit, I didn't make the most of these days. My original idea had been to spend at least one night in one of the towns along the Sacred Valley, to see some of the ruins, possibly in Ollantaytambo. But thanks to getting sick, I hadn't managed to sort anything out before going on the Inca Trail, and I didn't have time after the trail. So I spent the whole of those four days in Cuzco (admittedly, one of them in bed).
Cuzco is a beautiful, old colonial town...or at least it would be, if it weren't so touristy. I don't think I have ever been anywhere so touristy in my life. I think I read somewhere that it's one of the top ten tourist destinations in the world, and I can easily believe it. You literally cannot walk along the street without someone trying to sell you something - massage, postcards, souvenirs, you name it, someone will try to sell it to you. It gets very trying after a while, and you get tired of constantly saying, 'No gracias' to everyone. But that said, it does have some wonderful attractions. If you can ignore the street sellers, the city is lovely to walk around. The remains of the old Inca walls were incorporated into many of the colonial buildings the Spanish built, and the walls themselves are a feat of engineering. How exactly did they fit the stones together with no mortar? And how have they managed to stay put during earthquakes that have destroyed many other buildings around them? The Temple of the Sun - or Qorikancha, in Quechua - is one of the best places to see the Inca
walls. In typical Spanish fashion, the conquistadores simply built their own church around the original Inca temple, so what remains today is an odd combination of the two traditions.
There are many, many attractions that I didn't visit in Cuzco and the surrounding area. I was going to visit the fort of Sacsayhuaman, just outside the city. But when I got there, I was annoyed to discover that I had to buy a combined ticket for all the ruins, and not just an individual ticket for that one site. Despite trying to convince the ticket seller that there was no point in buying the full ticket when I was leaving that day, he wouldn't budge...and I wasn't going to pay 70 soles for just one site. So I didn't see it, and I was left with the feeling that I'd definitely like to go back sometime, to see everything properly.
The teamMarco and the porters are on the back row
LlamaOne of this group of llamas spat at Deborah...fortunately she found it as funny as the rest of us :-)
Peru's Flag
Map of Peru