Squibby Mountains

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Well, I feel like I´ve first got to remind everyone that reads this blog that it documents personal experiance and is not a work of fiction, and so Im not going to proclaim my undying love for the trail in the following.

Leaving Cuzco I felt a bit rough with altitude sickness but Rachel managed to drag me to the coach at 5am at arrive at the foot of the trail. The scenery was undoubtedly amazing; we were surrounded by mountains so steep and jagged that they altered depth perception. The sky was blue and the flora was the brightest green, housing all manner of Andean secrets, including a tarantula about 10 steps in! Sadly, within about 100 yards I was out of breath and my neck was curved in a cartoon-arc that would permit only a view of the rolling mud-treadmill beneath my feet. Here it would remain for three days.

After a difficult, hot and, dare I say it, unrewarding day we were at the first camp, and were alsleep in the minutes following our soup and carb meal. Feeling better on the second (hardest) day I still found myself wondering why people walked the trail. The scenery which was welcome the day before seemed to stubbornly refuse to change, only the grey treadmill became steeper, taking us to a height of 4200m over ´dead womans pass´, an altitude which gave us nosebleeds which are still in effect today. At the camp we had walked 12km for a second day and mostly up. To pass the many dragging hours that day we were discussing the word ´steep´ and realised we didnt know what its antonym was. It didnt matter though, there wasn´t need for it! That night after soup and carbs I couldnt sleep because of the altitude and as a result woke up completely unprepared for the third, longest (16km) and most repetitive day of all. Forcing Rachel and the guide into a pace so steady we beat sunset to the camp by a mere 30 minutes having left at 5:30 in the morning its safe to say we had a long day. ´Long´ as in the slang definition.

Finally we were woken at 3:45 in the morning to walk for a barely noticable 2 hours to Machu Piccu. Now as much as I want to moan about the trail I cant pretend that the sight that greeted me passing the Sun Gate was anything less than inspirational. It was hard to believe that I was standing anywhere so picturesque. Thousands of meters below a white river wound round the two mountains that housed the expansive Incan remains. A sense of complete isolation and segregation was clear on first sight, I truely cannot compare that feeling with anything I´ve ever experianced, and never expect to be able to again. Incredible to the point of being indescribable: look at the pictures!

My words of advice to any travellers who might be reading this would be to think twice before signing up for the trail. Having read through blogs I cultivated the dream of 4 days of wonder walking through Peru´s thick and varied cultural history. Sadly all I found was agitation, restlessness and unfulfilment. Do not make the mistake of thinking that by taking the train up you´re cheating. Honestly, you´re the smart ones. All you miss out on is one interchangable landscape, porters that (despite doing a admirable job) stink to high heaven as they get in your way and toilets that have grown into their own self-sufficient cacotopic habitats due to several decades of not being cleaned.

Machu Piccu is an unmissable, incomparable, eye-opening expriance. It deserves your full attention and your high spirit. Neither of which are easily retained through to the end of the trail. Do the trail if you must, get the train if you´re smart, either way make sure you get to see it with your own eyes!

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Comments

[Lee Andrews]

The antonym for steep
Having just looked up what an antonym is; I would like to hazard a guess that an antonym for steep is shallow. Odd I know but its just a sneaky suspicion. Anyway more importantly, a great read so far. I'm just wondering if you guys had anything you'd forgot to take that you wish you hadn't? Packing for such trips is a bit of a nightmare. Lee