NOT FEELING THE LOVE - DAY 4 SALKANTAY

Day four started rather early for me at around 4.30 with a rather dodgy stomach. Not what I needed but to be dealt with all the same the only way how plenty of imodium and no breakfast. That was not going to help with the energy supplies but we stocked up with a couple of bottles of gatorade. My now common trip to the nurse was not as easy as normal as I had no plasters left I had used approximately 40 in the last 3 days so we had to revert to the bandage and tape I had in case we sprained anything. The nurse does not carry plasters mmmmmm. No matter after much head shaking and yet another dose of the needle the nurse finished bandaging me up and I put a fresh pair of socks on. Neither Tim or I are particulalrly feeling the love this morning. It is drizzling slowly and the nurse just keeps shaking her head at me which is getting on my nerves. The rain is a problem for me if it persists but fortunately by the time breakfast is finished it has stopped. This morning we have a 45 minute bus journey to the start of the trek which pretty much takes us back to where we left after lunch the day before. The day is to begin with a 2.5 hour climb through the jungle. I get out of the mini bus (of which we got sat in the front and enjoyed full view of all the cliff drops) and my feet feel sore as hell. Not a good start but at least the imodium is working.

When they say climb they are not kidding and the day began long and steep although much easier under foot than the rocky terrain we have had previously. The going is hard and the first 30 minutes hurt like hell with every muscle protesting to further use. We are all looking out for each other and I find going up easier on my feet than the recent descents. For once in the last few days Tim and I are up near the front and we are having a pretty tough but okay time of it compared to others. Poor Maria is still no better with her stomach and looks white as a ghost. Others on the trek are collecting blisters but through it all we are supporting each other as a team. My sandal sock wearing situation is becoming the joke of the day especially when we get half way up in the heat and I whip the bottom of my combats off for comfort. Now we really are talking the most ridiculous get up I have ever subjected myself too. Mentally I think of Jimmi Choos, it helps!!!

We climb and climb and I begin to hold Tim back so we agree for him to continue at a pace that is comfortable and soon he disappears into the jungle. Jade and I are still together and after the singing from the night before encourage each others morale with song singing from Dirty Dancing and each and every musical we can think of. That lasts about 20 minutes until the hill gets steeper and we havent got the puff to climb and sing. We later find out that people behind us thought we were singing because we had hit the top which they obviously found disappointing when the rounded the corner to another hill ooops! Eventually we hit the peak and are all gathered in a shaded woody area as we wait for others behind. It is quite amazing how cold it got once we stopped and soon our fleeces were back on. At this point Tim and I realise that the jungle sand flies have eaten our legs alive and we are covered in red dots on our calves and our forearms. The itching is insane. Just another thing to add to the list and we drink thirstily on our water. Once everyone had gathered and group photos had been done we started the 10 minutes descent down the mountianside to get our first view of Machu Picchu. Everyone is excited.

Tim and I start walking down and I immediately feel the familiar pain from the days previous as I weigh down on my heels and balls of my feet. After around 5 minutes I can feel a sharp pain in my knee and we figure that the last fews days pressure is starting to take its toll. I am worried as we have 4 hours climb down the mountainside and then a further 3 hours walk this afternoon. It is only 10.30am arghhhhh We rounded the corner feeling like we had been going for ages and then we hit a clearing in the jungle. Ever so carefully we stop on the path and over the valley there it is perched on the mountainside, Machu Picchu. WOW! Even from so far away it looks both magical and mystical like a secret hideaway. Just so hard to put into words. With pain forgotten we hot foot it down to the clearing where everyone else is and the view is breath taking. This is what it has all been about and I could fall on my knees in tears if I was not afraid of further ailments.

Pitched right between two other mountains and across the valley sits Machu Picchu. Commanding and secretive you cannot take you eyes off it. I stand silently next to Tim and lean on his shoulder we have never been as strong as we are at this point both spiritually and mentally. We have gone through the pain barrier to get here (correction he´s fine actually) and I am so pleased and proud of myself. Javier the guide that has spent many hours over the last few days watching me hobble at the back comes over and is full of excitement. He congratulates me on making the climb and tells me I made the right decision to walk. He and I look at the nurse together at this point and she shakes her head again. We laugh and he slaps my shoulder, why on earth would I have missed this to take the bus??? It is spell binding and worth every effort to get there and see it. There is a definate buzz around the group everyone is discussing how we will feel the next day when we get there for real. Collapsed in a heap on the grass Michael shows us the pictures from his mega zoom camera and we are both well impressed with both the camera and Machu Picchu. It is all over too soon though as we still have a lot of walking to do and we head off for the 4 hours climb down to lunch. I personally would have sat there all day.

Within the first 20 minutes I knew I was going to struggle with every step down it was like someone putting a knife in my left knee. Tim was loyal and supportive as ever and stayed with me throughout. I got slower and slower and really found it hard going. In normal circumstances you would just stop but we had to keep pushing to catch up with the others. I revert two hours in to pain killers to get me through the rest of the descent. When my knee didnt hurt my feet felt like they were being put through a shredder it was the most pain I had felt in my life and it was no fun whatsoever to think we had another 3 hours walking to do that afternoon. I was shattered and on the brink of giving up when Javier told us there was only another 40 minutes to go. We pushed on and got to the hanging bridge over the river at the bottom. It was such a relief but by now I could hardly put pressure on my knee. We had been quite some way behind the head of the group our two oz friends but as it turned out only about 15 minutes behind the spanish girls so I felt better that everyone had not been waiting too long. Maria was also with us struggling with her sickness and having eaten hardly anything for days I was surprised she kept going. But she made it down with us which was great.

We had a 10 minute break by the river where the area was wild with sand flies so more bites were collected but I didnt care. Tim had a cooling wash and then the whole group headed off for dinner. We passed a waterfall we saw earlier in the morning from the mountianside and it showed just how far we had come down when we stood at the base of its mass of pouring water. We had also discussed with Javier getting the bus to Machu picchu the following day rather than the 1.5 hour walk in the morning. Everyone was undecided as to whether they would walk or not but i knew there was no way I could do the walk and enjoy my time there so we agreed with Javier to take the bus. Tim did not mind he did not feel it important to walk up at 4.30am when we could get the bus later and feel refreshed. We both felt it too important not to be tired and spoil it. Although Tim was fit and well he was by now very tired. So we headed on to lunch walking by the river bed. It was flat and a great reflief to my knee my feet were sore as hell but I was proud to have made it down the mountian without cracking up so that kept me going. We had to sign into the hydro electric powerstation where we were having lunch so crossed over a bridge and back again to do that. It was this diversion that meant we were able to see our first condor. Javier started shouting and gesturing and we looked up to find one swooping and then gliding through the air. Tim was pleased as punch as he had really wanted to see one and we had not so far. I was pleased for him as he had been so good hovering around waiting for me when he could have so easily been off with the rest and at the bottom well before he was. It was good to see him so chuffed.

We hit the railway station platform and watched all the locals loading and unloading there produce. We then were lead through a train and out the other door, up a set of stairs and into an outside cafe. Lunch was ready and in all honesty I was so shattered i had no appetite. Jade took one look at yet another serving of soup and by the expression on her face you would have thought our chef had served her gruel. It may as well have been we were all getting tired of soup and rice. Low and behold the main course came and it was an ensemble of tuna, rice and pea like stuff. Not what we had hoped for and we were deflated but ate it anyway. It was then that Ruben told us we would not be doing the afternoon walk. Instead we had 1.5 hours of rest and then we would get the train to Agues Calientes. It turned out the group had been too slow to fit the afternoon walk in. I was pleased as I was just way too tired to do anymore and the sun was beating down. Nothing left to do but induldge in a cold beer and most of the group had seconds too!!! We used our rest time thoughtfully and the spanish girls got us all playing wink murder. We had a good laugh and I happily perched my feet on the stool but did not dare remove my sandals yet.

The train journey was peaceful and uneventful full of people that had just finished Salkantay. We arrived into Agues Calientes around 5pm and were shown where we would have our evening dinner. A proper restaurant god we were excited. Pizza, chips maybe???? mmmmmmm. The town looked great like arriving back into civilisation. We all excited about a good meal and a few more beers, we deserved them!!!! Our guides checked us into the hostel and we bagged a room straight away. We had not got a lot of money so Tim left me to a shower and headed off out into town to use the ATM and get some plasters. As I finished my shower I could hear voices and then Tim and then other voices. All did not sound well and after drying myself and dressing I went out to see what was happening. As it turned out the hostel did not have enough rooms and for some that had booked through different agents they were being told to stay somewhere else. On top of all that confusion almost everyone in the group needed to top up their funds and the only ATM in town was not working. This meant no plasters and no chance of a drink with everyone later. Tims shower was cold and some of the others people in our group did not even have water. Although my shower was not great as least it was warm.

This was the start of a hell of a night. Tim and I went out to see if their were any other cashpoints or if using our visa would get us some money. No to both ideas. We only had one card with us that had not been accepted in some restaurants in south america before. All our travellers cheques, american dollars and other visa were back in Cusco. We both felt stranded. We went back to the restaurant we had been shown to meet at and asked them to try the visa. Declined?? It is something with our nationwide account as our proper bank visa works everywhere fine. No good to us in Cuscu though. We bought a drink with the pittance we had left and slowly in dribs and drabs our group started to arrive. It was as this point somebody mentioned our train back to Cusco from Machu Picchu left at 12.00 noon. THis could not be possible that meant less than 5 hours at the site. There was a whole heap of confuaion going on and Javier and Ruben were waiting for a call from their bosses. Inthe emantime we were told that the restaurant did nor have room for us and we would have to wait for a table. This was all very well and good but we had watched all the other groups enter the place only minutes before so we knew we were not going to get in there for at least an hour. The restaurant we charging 15 soles for a beer whcih is double what it should be and then tried to charge someone service too. It was getting out of hand and the tentsion was beginning to build. All any of us wanted to do was have a beer and a good meal. Nobody wanted to party just relax and get and early night. In the end Louise and Luke leant us soem american dollars so at least we could have a beer. Two english girls in our group had been to the shop up the road and been charged 8 soles for their beer. We went and brought one too and sat on the edge of the train tracks as there was nowhere else to sit.

An hour later and we were still waiting to find out what was going on the following day. The later it got the more concerned we were getting. When eventually we got into the restaurant most of us were completely devestated to find that our chef from the camp was in the kitchen cooking for us. We honestly thought it was a joke until the silver camp bowls came out full of soup. It was semolina and I thought i was going to be sick. I left mine and Michael ordered speghetti off the restaurant menu. We would have joined him if we had enough cash but we needed to keep what we had for Machu Picchu the next day. The main course was trout which was actually quite nice but it was served with rice which just about finished me off. Tim started to hassle our guides over what was happening with our train and eventually quite reluctantly they admitted we had been put on the noon train. We were supposed to be on the 4pm. We asked to speak to their boss who was conveniently in a meeting. It took another 30 minutes to get hold of them. He was completely unhelpful and left us with no option but to take the lunch train. In all honesty I thought Tim was going to internally combust. It was completely unaccepatable and there was nothing we could do about it.

Things settled down slightly even though we were both seething. Others in the group were unhappy to but a lot less vocal about it than Tim. He was quite rightly unhappy and our guides were not in the slightest bit interested. Looking back they are probably used to it as I have no doubt that last minute booking is a regular occurance. While all this was going on our guide had gone to buy the tickets. It is all about cost and veryobviously the noon train is cheaper. We were tired, hungry and completely deflated. When we tride to organise getting the bus Javier back tracked on everythign we had said and told us we had to do it on our own proceeding to give Tim the wrong directions to the bus station. Fortunately he had the sense to check them out and came back to the restaurant with bus tickets from the station which is the opposite was to what we were told. I by this time am getting rather emotional through the disappointment of how it is all ending. machu picchu is the pinical and we were being told we had less than 5 hours to do it all in. It was a joke.

We departed the restaurant at around 11pm shortly after we managed to secure an agreement that we would have a guide the next day. Everyone else in the group was walking but that was just not an option for us. So we walked back to the hostel feeling more than a little cheated and disappointed that the whole episode would but a darner on the defining moment of the track. We sat in the plaza and discussed what had happened. We then decided we had one option to get there the next day, enjoy it as much as possible and not let the bad service grind at us. After all it is Machu Picchu a wonder of the world and however little time we woul dhave we would still get to see it............

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