Trailing the Incas

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The Inca Trail is a once in a lifetime trek and I cant begin to describe how amazing some of the scenery is and pictures certainly cant do it justice.

We woke at 4am to leave to heavy rain which continued until 6am when we had breakfast at km 82 and set off on our trek. Our course had us do 8 hours of trekking on the first day to get most of the first hill out of the way and make our 2nd day a bit easier than most tours.

We awoke on the first morning, with our amazing porters serving us hot drinks. Looked out the tent flap to see cloud lifting out of the valley we sat above, it was amazing.

Speaking of the porters, these are amazing guys! There were 8 trekkers in our group, with 13 porters who took our tents, food, seats, cutlery, cooking gas etc, ahead of us all the way, serving 3 course meals for lunch and dinner and superb breakfasts. To see them move along the trail up and down very steep steps with 30 kgs attached to their backs is amazing.

All through the trek as we past heights of 4200m and descended into the cloud forests which forms the upper reaches of the Amazon jungle, there were amazing scenes of clouds lifting to present breathtaking views before descending again to obscure paths and create an aura of mystery about what lay just beyond view. Thankfully the clouds lifted periodically every day so that no view was missed and we had an amazing experience. Our guide Hernan said he enjoyed this season more, as he never knew what views the Andes would produce next.

Machu Picchu is more breathtaking than any photo could explain. As we descended from the sungate to the guardhouse looking down on Machu Picchu, the cloud refused to give us a glimpse of the marvel until we were standing within it. Throughout our tour of the citadel, the cloud slowly lifted and reveealed the marvel piece by piece, until we stood atop the highest point within the city and saw t all around us, surrounded by deep valleys and lower cloud formations. We returned to the top of the guardhouse to take the standard overlooking photos and eventually bade farewell to an amazing trek.

Words and pictures cant explain, but Ive done my best.

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