INCA TRAIL

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Dec. 29-Jan. 5

Following Bingham

We returned home from the beach on the 29th. Since we were leaving by bus to Cuzco the next day, we had to get a move on and buy Melissa some new eyeglasses. Melissa was happy to find out that in Arequipa some stores can cut and insert the proper lenses into your selected eyeglasses within one or two hours. So she bought eyeglasses and a hat and was set for the trip to Cuzco. The next day we left for Cuzco at 7:00am. The bus was a modest one but boasted great entertainment. At one point we watched Mel Gibson's Apocalypto in English which was quite entertaining for the three English-speaking passengers on board. As well, we had a man hop on the bus who played charango (look it up on Wikipedia!) and followed it by selling the passengers some handmade keychains. Once he got off we had another man come on who fooled all the passengers into putting their seatbelts on as a lesson in safety. He followed it by giving a 1 hour talk on healthy eating and good habits using some visual material some of us wished we had not been shown (I might post a picture for the curious). After 10 hours of such entertainment, meat chopping and vending on board, a stop in Juliaca (one of the world's most ugly cities), and some plein-air bathroom action we arrived in Cuzco. It was nearly a perfect trip except that someone took off with Melissa's favorite sweater. We looked suspiciously at all other passengers who had gotten off but the sweater was nowhere to be found.

The next morning we set off at 6:30am to Km 82, the starting point of the 48 km Inca Trail. The Inca Trail is traditionally a 4 day hike from Km 82 to Machu Picchu following the trail that Hiram Bingham followed when he found Machu Picchu in 1911 and the other ruins along the trail. The first day was our training day. There were only gradual inclines were not too hard - the real training was getting used to the altitude. The lowest point on the Inca trail is located at about 3200m above sea level while the highest point reaches 4200m above sea level. Nate, Melissa and I carried our own packs which had everything we needed except for tents and food. The tents and the food were carried by local farmers who work as porters whenever they are not farming to make a little extra money. The porters are in stunning physical shape: while we carried 12 kg in our packs (most other tourists hired porters to take their packs) the porters bore a load which ranged between 20 and 25 kg and sometimes more, and yet they still managed to leave tourists in their dust. When we would arrive at base camp in the afternoon we would find that the porters had already set up camp which consisted of sleeping tents and the main tent for eating in plus the meals were already cooked. We were spoiled with delicious meals and even tea in bed when we woke up. In such luxury we trekked.

Our guide Freddy provided us very good service and I would recommend him to anyone who would consider doing this hike. His info will be at the bottom of this blog entry. The weather for the most part was very cloudy-so much that we spent at least half the trail walking in clouds. While some trekkers found this a dissapointment, it lent some of the landscape and ruins somewhat of a breathtaking, mysterious aura. Granted, I couldn't tell you what lay beyond the mist but it was still beautiful. The entire way, the tourists on the trail (only a limited amount of tourists are alowed on the trail per day) played a game of leap frog: passing and being passed again and again. There were tourists of many nationalities to be found on the trail which made for very interesting conversations.

The second day we spent at least 4 hrs. walking uphill on stone steps. It was a very difficult climb for many tourists because of the slope and because of the thinning air. The pain only made the summit that much sweeter.

The third and fourth days were not as difficult as the second although the third day was notably long. Instead of paying, we were treated to scenery which at time was beyond my imagination. Any attempt of mine to describe it would fall short to the pictures I am attaching to this entry. But even the pictures do not do the trail justice. Let's just say that the trail almost fooled me to thinking that I am Indiana Jones. I especially enjoyed the many orchids we saw along the trail.

On the fourth day we started off quite early because the porters had to catch their train early in the morning after 2 hr. hike. So, we were on our way to Machu Picchu. Fairly heavy rains which lead off only around 6 a.m. had cleared the mist away. Sometime around 7 we arrived at the sun gate, which overlooks Machu Picchu from a distance. We were there in time to see the sun shine through this gate and reveal to us the beautiful Inca city of Machu Picchu. The only remaining clouds only added to the beauty. A few hours of snooping around this archeological delight made the riggers of the trail worthwhile and gave us a sense that we had earned the priveledge of seeing Machu Picchu. Once we finished satiating our curiosity, we took a bus down to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes which was built the touristic needs of Machu Picchu and has the characteristic that no vehicles drive in the town, except for the Machu Picchu shuttle buses.

When we arrived, we saw a crippled Aguas Calientes. Tourists everywhere were counting the coins in their hands which they had left over after tipping the porters and their guides, hoping that they could scrape together enough money to eat a meal in a restaurant. The problem was that there was no power in the city and as a consequence all the ATM machines were out of service. We barely had enough for a small pizza, water, and a trip to the local thermal baths which reeked of urine. I would not recommend these baths, and neither would anyone else except for locals, I'm sure. We were pretty much ready to leave for Cusco but 25 min. before the train was scheduled to leave we realized that I had left my boots at the thermal baths which are about a 5 min. run barefoot from the city. So I left Melissa with her pack on her back, mine in front, and my large sandals on her feet to get my boots. I retrieved my boots and caught the train back to Cusco where a warm shower awaited us to wash off the urine from the thermal baths.

Since had very little money in Aguas Calientes, we were not able to tip Freddie, our guide. So we met him the next day at the restaurant La Chomba, where a drunken waiter served us, a lady was cutting meat with a large axe in the back (look at the video) and a roasted guinea pig waited for us to eat it (see the pictures). Nate says that the bathroom was also a spectacle.

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[Derek Con Carne]

Pics...
I mistakenly posted some of the pictures onto my beach blog entry. I will put the rest on there as well since I can't move the first ones to this blog