Inca Trail

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The Inca Trail should be renamed....to somethign more fitting like the trail of death!!! We started out at Km82 on the wednesday late morning, and strolled gently to the first campsite for lunch, and then slightly uphill to the second campsite, at around 3pm. A very relaxed day to start and very very misleading. That night our guide (Reynaldo) told us that our campsite on the last night was 6 hours from Machu Pichu and so we wouldn´t arrive in time for the sunrise over the sungate, and we´d rock up at around the same time as the train, meaning it would be heaving with fat american tourists.... thus if we wanted we could push ahead and aim to be in Aguas Calientes (2 hours past Machu Pichu, bus is out of our budget) by Friday afternoon instead of Sat, it would be a good idea...and we were fit enough to do it...! Mistake! I then got very ill that night, and all the next day, we pushed over dead woman´s pass in a 5 hour ascent to 4200m (normally a 7 hour climb) and down the 2 hour descent to the next campsite by lunch (where most people stop), continuing on over the next pass (3900m) and then 3 hours on to our last campsite. The next day we got up very early again, and descended to the Sungate overlooking Machu Picchu, which as you can imagine is an incredible view, and is the pic from far away with this blog... short walk down to Machu Pichu was awesome as it was empty, then we walked (nearly dying due to severe calf muscle achage!!) down to Aguas Calientes and slept on the floor of a pizza restaurant. Next morning we went back up to Machu Picchu for a tour, which was interesting, but the sight of Mahcu PIcchu is far more impressive than the history of it, as alot of it is guessed or just life. Having been in South AMerica for 6 months now, the history of the Incas is somethign i could probably get a degree in!! Well worth the trek though, and am so glad that i've seen machu Picchu in all its glory, its really huge and the state of it is phenominal given its age, heading back to ecuador soon, very excited, currently off for a film night in Cusco with the gap girls, we're recoverign after celebratory drinks last night....!!!

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Photos

Inca
If we knew waht we were in for...

Machu Picchu
Its huge!

Comments

[Dad]

I am not worthy
Nat - I thought the cliff walk I did in cornwall were hard yards - you have put me to shame, well done!