Too much uphill - now I know how that bloke felt in Alien

G'day y'all. Well we have finally gotten off our bums and done this blog, enjoy.

Flying from Lima to Cusco was pretty uneventful, but looking out of the airplane window revealed a mountainous terrain with snow caps. Small villages could be seen, accessed by tracks zig-zagging up the mountain side. As the plane descended the mountains became closer offering a surprisingly clear view of the craggy outcrops that the wing could almost catch. With backpacks in hand, we headed for the exit and a vehicle to convey our bags to town (I am sure Leanny has sewn weights into mine). A guided tour of Cuzco was provided as part of our tour and the guide pointed out some nice restaurants for lunch/dinner. After dinner we set about decanting our backpacks and deciding which items would make up the 6kg of personal luggage our trek porters would carry for us (the rest we had to carry ourselves in our daypacks). Obviously our sleeping bags took priority and we were delighted to discover that we still had just enough room for our pillows as well… what a luxury!

A 7:30am departure saw us on the road for Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. Part of our tour to the Sacred Valley included a visit to a local “community school” and our guide asked if we could get out our gringo cash to buy the school kids some cheese. One of our group asked if it would be better to get some pens and notebooks. “No” replied our guide “they have plenty of that, they would really like some cheese”. So, while the group made various jokes relating to cheese and children, our bus went to the market where our guide purchased 5 large round blocks of cheddar. Half an hour later still driving through Cusco we passed our hotel. I am pretty sure I could have walked to the market and back quicker, but that’s guided tours for you. So now we were leaving town to reach the road to the Sacred Valley. We stopped off at a view point looking down the Sacred Valley, but it really looked like any other local valley with a river running through it.

Our first stop was the “community school” run by a bunch of European hippies. The school had been set up by them to educate some of the local children how to farm (a number of whom lived in farms outside of the town) using teaching methods different to the local public school (which apparently only promoted rote-learning). The community school appeared to be teaching rural children how to farm and allegedly used farming examples to teach the kids maths. They showed us their field, which was about the size of a garden allotment with weeds, dead plants and some veggies and edible flowers. The “guided tour” showed us through the classrooms where there was little evidence of proper teaching and a class of kindies singing quite badly. A “class” was being held for 8 or so children in a grassed area showing them how to attach wax frames into a bee hive. The kids were far more interested in the small fire they had going to heat their tools than the visiting group of cheese-bearing gringos. While I did actually try to talk to them, we had significantly greater interaction with 4 kids running up the driveway from the local public primary school down the road. The only highlight of the “community school” was their method of extracting seed from wheat. The wheat was laid out on a heavy plastic sheet and continually run over by their Toyota Corolla. Now, I am not a farmer, but I would have thought that this was a pretty poor way to extract seed, being expensive, environmentally unacceptable and likely to make the seed dirty, but what would I know?? Our guide kept referring to us as “responsible travellers“, but I get the feeling that what they really mean by that term is “rich gringos who should be giving money away to local causes” (subtle hints throughout the “visit“). After wasting a couple of hours we eventually set off to our first Inca site, Pisac. Pisac is an Incan fortress situated to the top of a mountain. It is flanked by Incan terracing which is quite a spectacle. The buildings have been part restored and give a good indication of their use. Throughout the site are water courses (mini canals) providing ritual washing areas for the Inca people (or so it is thought). A few hours of walking through the site built up our appetite, but it would be another hour and a half before we reached Ollantaytambo for lunch (elevation 2,792m).

A major Inca site lies to the west of Ollantaytambo reaching high above the town, which is also an Incan site but rebuilt by the Spanish. Walking up the site was quite hard work (at the time) as the steps were at 45 degrees and higher than an expected tread. Great views over the town can be seen from the top and the site requires a good hour to absorb. Our guide took us to a local restaurant and after dinner advised us to get to bed as we would be up at 5am to get on with our first day of trekking and this is supposed to be a holiday!

As normal, when you are expecting to get up, you don’t get much sleep until of course you have to get up and your body suddenly finds the ability to relax! A nice warm shower and breakfast and we were all eager bunnies waiting in the hotel foyer. Our bus arrived and our nice little group of 7 met with the 11 other hardy fools in our trekking group. The bus took us down a dirt track to the 82km marker where the Inca Trail officially starts (altitude 2,850m). Passports in hand we got our souvenir stamps and headed off over the river to conquer the mountains. The walk started well and we were frequently overtaken by our porters (and those of other groups). The path followed the river for a while before heading vertical up the side of a mountain. It was tough going, no actually it was bloody hard work, but our guide advised us that this was easy and tomorrow we would need to cross Dead Woman’s Pass. We saw 3 Inca sites on the way, but they were mostly derelict. A good lunch was provided in a tent adjacent to the trail. The lunch was pretty full-on, but was welcome having expended a lot of energy walking uphill. Smiling happily our guide advised us that there were more hills to be climbed before we would reach our camp for the night. We arrived at the camp site pretty buggered and really had no energy to do anything other than meet all 19 of our porters, our chef and his assistant. It was a long tiring wait for dinner, but once consumed, everyone went to bed.

Day 2 and another 5am start. It was deathly quiet and rather cold upon waking, not that we slept much, more passed out from exhaustion really. Our porters did however bring us a nice cup of tea in bed, which made for a pretty tight squeeze having 21 porters in our sleeping bag. Having made the huge effort to get out of our nice warm sleeping bags, a short stroll took us to the breakfast tent, with a few rather tired and quiet fellow trekkers. Our guide was all smiles at breakfast, bless him. The day was a long walk, 11 hours and predominantly it was all uphill. The novelty had worn off by about 11am when crossing Dead Woman’s Pass (4,200m, a vertical climb of 900m). Our guide may have explained why it is called such, but my wheezing obstructed anything he may have said. Approaching the pass we were in beautiful sunshine with shorts and tee-shirts. At the pass we were in the clouds and the temperature dropped quickly, so out came the zip on legs and jumpers. Over the pass was a downhill decent of about 300m and lunch some 2 hours later. The afternoon was again uphill and then downhill. After lunch we stopped at an Incan ruin overlooking the lunch site and the valley. The views were rather spectacular as clouds rushed up the hillside to disappear overhead. The views as we walked (struggled more like) were amazing and are the sort of views that a camera just can’t quite capture. It makes you realise just how amazing the human eyes are when you can pick out so much detail but retain the panoramic view. (I think I had started to lose it from the altitude and exertion.) By 5pm we had reached the campsite and after dinner a few hours later it was lights out (literally from exhaustion!). I had contemplated just dying in my sleeping bag, but I was hungry and the chef made us popcorn, so resistance was useless.

Day 3 we were permitted a lie-in till 7.00am, bloody luxury! After an hour of uphill, it was an easy downhill walk for the rest of the morning (for us, but many on our group thought uphill was easier). From about 4.00pm the previous afternoon, we had joined the original Inca Trail, a paved track of large stone haphazardly placed. The first parts of the path on Day 1 and 2 were not original. This meant the going was easier on Day 3. The trail winds down the mountainside and is surrounded by lush tropical forest full of amazing trees and plants. You may have noticed that the previous day we noticed nothing but our feet and the track in front of us! The journey took a long time due to stopping every 10 minutes to photograph pretty begonias or orchids. Again, looking out over the valleys provides spectacular views and we visited more ruins along the way. It was a reasonably short walking day and we arrived at our campsite early afternoon. A short afternoon walk from the campsite took us to the site of Winay Wayna (“Forever Young”) which is 2,750 metres above sea level. Having made stupid comments to our guide, he called Jonno Weiner Whiner for the rest of the afternoon. I think he was having a laugh (cheeky short arsed little ......)!

Day 4, oh how I hate early morning starts and this one was 4.00am. It had rained very heavily during the night and the ground and tent were sodden. Thankfully the tent did not leak so we were nice and dry inside. The camp was even quieter this morning as most people had hardly slept due to thunder during the night. We heard that two girls from another group woke up screaming as a landslide hit their tents. Apparently their porters came to the rescue and put up two more, but I doubt that they slept after that. The rain had taken its toll on the campsite and large cracks had appeared in the ground. By 5.00am we were once again on the move to reach the park entry for 5.30am opening. There was a queue and by 5.45 we were in the park and marching to the Sun Gate (Intipunku). Although it was light, it was cloudy at our height and the sunrise was about an hour away. Walking through the mist was rather eerie, but great fun (for that time of day). The Sun Gate lies about 2km (straight line) due east from Machu Picchu. It was shrouded in cloud which gave it a sinister feel. Unfortunately the cloud obscured the view of Machu Picchu, so it would be some time before we would see what we had walked 3 days for. At this point our guide advised that those who wanted to climb Huayna Picchu (the mountain opposite Machu Picchu from where those famous photographs are taken) they should leave now as entry is permitted at 7.00am and 10.00am for a limited number of people. We were buggered and didn’t have the inclination to climb more bloody steps, but 4 of our group decided to go and promptly ran off. We met them later and their run was in vain. By the time they reached the entry it was gone 7.00am and they could not get tickets for 10.00am. They were pretty pissed off, for reasons I shall get to. The trail to Machu Picchu becomes a mountain pass beyond the Sun Gate with a steep drop to one side. As it was cloudy, we could not see the bottom (not that height would worry us as we have cycled worse). We met a llama on the track which seemed to be unperturbed by humans, perhaps knowing that he could quite easily push us off the track. After photographs we proceeded. Before 8.00am we reached the holy grail of our trip, Macchu Picchu, but it was covered by cloud! A slight breeze had picked up and glimpses of the site were possible between the clouds. The glimpses also showed that the site was covered in tourists. There was not one part of the site that didn’t have people walking on it. Having got up at 4.00am, we stupidly had the expectation that we would have the site pretty much to ourselves, but no, the site actually opens at 5.30 first light (when we were allowed to start the 5km trek to the site) and most tourists obviously arrive well before 8.00am. Thus you can see why our 4 friends who ran to Machu Picchu were pretty annoyed - they never stood a chance of getting tickets to Huayna Picchu. Whilst the trek was great and worthwhile (although it didn’t feel that way when my heart was punching its way out of my chest - thankfully it wasn’t an alien), our arrival to see so many tourists at the iconic site was a great disappointment.

By 9.30am Machu Picchu was in glorious sunshine and we were walking around the site in awe. It is interesting to note that, as a European, one cannot help but think that in 1440AD when this site was built, European castles were significantly further advanced, as was transportation (dunno why I would think of that!). The Incans didn’t use animal transportation, only llamas which can only carry about 30kg. The road network they created was for people only, not carts. After a few hours of walking around Machu Picchu and taking hundreds of photographs, we headed to Aguas Calientes (read hot water), the local town to meet our group for lunch and the return train trip to Ollantaytambo. From there it was a bus back to Cusco. The train does go to Cusco and I asked our guide why we were changing to get a bus. His answer was the train takes over 2 hours whilst the bus takes 1 hour and is more comfortable. I would also suspect that the bus is a lot cheaper than the train, which is privately operated by Orient Express (by comparison, the train to Puno was 300 soles whilst a tour bus is 110 soles and the local bus 30 soles).

Our return to Cusco meant hot showers (a rarity in themselves here) and a comfy bed and Leanny and I were in bed by 9.00pm sleeping soundly. The following day the 4 of us (Brad and Eva) met up with 2 chaps from our original Inca Trail group of 7 and organised our own afternoon tour of 4 local Incan sites, Saqsayhuaman (sounds like Sexy Woman but looks nothing like), Quenqo, Tambomachay and Pukapukara. Our entry ticket included all 4 sites, so after bargaining with a taxi driver in a beaten up old (small) station wagon after coming out of the first site, the 6 of us set off for the next site with 1 in the front, 3 behind and 2 in the boot space with the spare wheel (lucky Brad). The driver was trying to get his seat belt on, as I believe they are required to be worn in Peru. We passed about 5 police vehicles and one actually followed us for a short while. Obviously over-loading of taxis is permissible. The 3 additional sites were nothing fantastic (having been spoiled with sites along the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu) and we returned to Cusco to meet up for dinner at a local restaurant. The one remaining day we had in Cusco before Brad and Eva had to leave was spent pottering about. The girls spent the afternoon getting a massage, manicure and pedicure and the boys watched Arsenal v Liverpool at the local sports bar. Sadly on Wednesday morning Brad and Eva headed off for the second leg of their holiday. We waved them off and were immediately missing them. Left to our own devices once again, we decided that we should venture off the Andes into the Amazon jungle. A 4 day/3 night trip was sourced (2.5 full days in the jungle) and scheduled for Thursday morning. Time for big snakes, crocs and anacondas. Hopefully we won't get eaten and can blog soon! Adios mi amigos!

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