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Published: August 23rd 2008
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Sexy women at Sacsayhuaman
Marco showed us how the Incas perfectly fit the rocks together without any use of mortar. Quick disclaimer: we didn´t hike the actual Inca Trail, but an alternate trail through Huchuy Qusco (or "Little Cusco") that took two days, followed by a night in Aquas Calientes town, and the third day at Machu Picchu itself.
We woke up early in the morning and met our guide, Marco, and an assistant, Manuel, who helped us load up our bags into a taxi and took us to the main office, where a hearty breakfast of quinoa pancakes (heaven!), broccoli sandwiches (???), and coca tea were awaiting us. We chatted with some fellow trekkers, who were all heading out that morning on different trails. Two British travellers, God bless them, were taking the 9-day trek. My feet hurt just *thinking* about that.
For the first part of the morning, Marco, Jamie, and I, our driver Ramon, and cook Ebarristo, travelled by van on the road from Cusco visiting the archaeological sites of Sacsayhuaman ( you say it "Sexy Woman" 😉 ), Q´enqo, Puka Pukara, and Tambomachay, all along the hillside that we had driven past the day before on the road to Pisac. The morning was crisp, clear, and sunny, and we explored the ruins under Marco´s guidance.
The hike begins
Let's play, "How Far Behind Can Becky Get?" He was super-informative about Inca history, architecture, and traditions. (Although it took me a little while to get used to his accent, that he was saying "they use" and NOT "the Jews"). Since we kept returning to the van every half hour or so to go to the next site, we left our heavy Nalgene water bottles in the van and would just take sips while we were in transit. So at Tambomachay, we again left the Nalgenes on the van and set off to explore, watching female tourists performing purification rituals in the water channels. We followed Marco up the hill behind the ruins for about 20 minutes.
It was then that Jamie and I realized that our trek had begun and that we had no water.
This would not have been so bad of a thing if the day had not been so sunny and warm or if we were faster hikers, which sadly, we are not. After about half an hour, Marco made us stop to put on sunscreen and our bandanas. He also showed us how to roll up coca leaves, activate them with a piece of ash, and stuff them in our jowls:
Farther...
Can you see Marco? He's the blue dot. they would give us more energy and help with the altitude adjustment. Jamie responded, "Oh! It tastes just like the tea!" This kinda freaked me out, since I could taste nothing - there was no saliva to dissolve anything! It felt like a wad of straw. After a while, something must have gone right, since I did feel more energized. But I was still struggling.
We would walk up and up and up and up to what seemed to be the crest of a hill, then reach it only to see five more hills behind it. At every high peak I saw, I would think, "Oh, that´s wicked high; theres no way that we´re hiking up there." And then we did. Jamie may beg to differ about this (she tends to be much more positive than I am), but I think the best way to describe the hike was "interminable." Commenting on our speed, Marco asked how many months we had prepared for this trek. When we answered 2 to 3, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. OK, cut us some slack, dude, we live at sea level!
After about three hours of hiking, we were
Farthest.
Marco is the tiny black vertical line. met by our "relief team" and their horses with a snack. Wow: an orange never tasted so good! We rested briefly, then continued for at least another hour and a half until we crested a peak and saw our horses grazing near a tent set up by a lake at the bottom of the hill. LUNCH!!! We were already WAY behind schedule.
The afternoon and evening were a blur of golden hills and sweeping vistas. They were completely breathtaking, but I was beginning to become too tired to fully appreciate them. Marco was often so far ahead that I couldn't see him. The sky began to dim after many hours; we could see a valley in the distance. We approached it through another valley (mostly downhill, thank God). In the light of the setting sun, the earth looked a murky purple. We descended down purple paths through grayish green grass, past purple brick huts with straw roofs. I began to feel as if I were either in a Tolkien novel or on a massive acid trip. I was tempted to pull out my iPod and listen to "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "Misty Mountain Hop." I was
At 4460 m.
Supposedly the high point of the trek was 4200m, but Marco's altimeter showed that we were higher. Whew! excited to tell my brother that I had visited the Shire. I was tired 😊.
It was dusk, and Marco gave us the option of continuing for another 1.5 hours (Marco-time, which converts to 2-3 hours Jamie/Becky-time) to Huchuy Qosco or camping in a local village. For some crackpot reason, we decided to continue. We donned our headlamps. It was eerie: we could tell that we were walking on the side of a ravine and could hear a river (stream? brook?) bubbling next to us, but we couldn't see much beyond the halo of our headlamp beams. Jamie's blisters were killing her, but she persisted. What a trooper! The climate started to feel more humid and moist. At times, all I could see of Marco was the small strip of reflective material on the back of his jacket. Then Jamie's headlamp batteries started to lose power; the hike became a balancing act between keeping up with Marco and turning back to illuminate Jamie's path with my own lamp. Crazy. We both cracked up- what the HELL were we thinking?
FINALLY we saw a sprinkling of distant lights and could make out the outline of terraces in the hillside:
View after lunch
(Photo taken by a very happy photographer). we had arrived at Huchuy Qusco. Our caravan met up with us from another path, and we entered the ancient gate of the ruins and set up camp. I have never been so happy to climb into a tent.
Next: Day 2 of our death march, er, trek.
~Becky
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