The Inca Trail


Advertisement
Peru's flag
South America » Peru » Cusco » Inca Trail
February 11th 2011
Published: February 28th 2011
Edit Blog Post

First of all, thank you to everyone reading the blog and we hope you are all enjoying it! It´s great to hear from you and have your comments once in a while! We have been a bit behind recently due to technical issues and a bit of laziness on our part! Secondly, the pics for the Inca trail are not really in order so sorry we will try and fix this when we have a better PC! Happy reading folks!


The Inca Trail



Soon enough, the 31st January came around and it was time for us to begin our Inca Trail. Although excited about it, we were also slightly dreading it as we had heard that it was going to be tough.

Inca Trek Eve



We discover that half of a 16 person group joining Peru Treks for the Inca Trail is staying at Loki hostel. The day prior to our trek we visit the tour operator to pay the remainder of the fee, and meet two lads, one of whom is also on our trek, and from Bethnal (Green, London).

Day 1



Early rise at 5.00am, Peru Treks collect a group of 7/8 from Loki hostel, where we’re both staying and working. We take a ride into Ollayatambo where we would have breakfast (including pancakes) and have the opportunity to meet the rest of our group. In total there were 14 trekkers, 20 porters and 2 guides - a team of 36. From a local shop we pick up walking poles and bin bag ponchos that would soon make us look like druids on some sort of holy grail quest. After eating, we board the vehicles for a 45 mins ride to kilometre 82 - the entrance to the Inca Trail.

As we arrive there are a few buses pulling up and Peruvians selling Alpaca, we make our way down to the entrance where passports are stamped and there is a wooden foot bridge crossing the river and rapids below. The beginning of the trail parallels the river and the train tracks run along the opposite side. Shortly, we settle into our stride and can view across the valley the first Incan site, our guide provides a brief overview of it’s function ending with the soon to be well used phrase and running gag, “in my opinion”, which brings into doubt the historical accuracy of our guides claims. E.g. “My friends, this was a sacred stone used to worship the sun god, in my opinion.” We then make our way to the first stop for lunch inside a tent set up by the porters who have run ahead with 18 kilos on their backs. These guys were amazing, ranging between 19-55, they put us to shame as they sped past us each day! Lunch was a delicious 3 course meal, however soon after I felt pretty ill. This leads to my first encounter with the infamous Inca Trail toilet system, a muddied hole in the floor with two grated foot prints marking standing position either side, and a flush that reacts likes a fire mans hose being shot under the door. Another 15 minutes later and I have disposed of what was left of lunch by throwing up all over the trail. The 3 hours involved Jane waiting for me, while I manage about 10 paces before being forced to stop by painful stomach cramps. Finally, we reach the campsite to applause (possibly sarcastically), get familiar with the tents, where I stay from 5 in the afternoon till the next morning, while Jane has dinner (another 3 course feast!) with the rest of the group who are introduced to the porters and each other. In total we walked for 12 kilometres on day one on Ínca flats´, which despite the name are not very flat however the inclines were managable and apart from the illness, the Inca Trail did not seem too bad!

Day 2



The day we were dreading, mostly uphill at over 4,000 feet above sea level! Awoken by cocks crowing and a porter with tea at our tent at 5.30, it’s another early rise, my stomach is in better shape, though I avoid breakfast, until I hear Jane shouting something about pancakes and manage half of one. We wash up, clear our tents, and begin the ascent.

We are told that due to a landslide, we will have to take a slightly different route to Machu Pichu at the end of our trek. This meant that on day two we had to go over 2 passes, rather than the traditional one! The first pass is called ´Dead Woman´s Pass´and the name says it all really, we have to make our way from 3000m to a whopping 4200m.

The walk involves a steep incline along the mountainside, with views down through the dense green valley that moves in and out of sight through the rising fog. The only relief is the infrequent level terrain that we spend the next 3 days looking forward to, never has a group of people been so happy to see flat ground. We walk alongside another English pair from ‘up north’ and an Australian coupled with a Norwegian. The valley is stunning, and it’s size overwhelming, we walk along the path, a mixture of gravel, mud and stone through the overhang and bush of the valley. The steep incline then gives way to Inca steps, so many steps! Everytime we got to the top of one flight we would turn the corner and find another, longer, flight of giant stone steps! We continued onwards and upwards making frequent stops along the way to our resting point 2 hours ahead, a clearing roughly a third of the way up, with a few stalls selling corner shop chocolate and drinks, a small stream running through, huts a few hundred feet off and sights of the challenging path ahead. Batteries charged with Gatorade we continue a slow and tiring ascent. After a few more hours of walking (well, crawling) and we can see the summit, and figures silhouetted against the horizon of those who have made it, we push on and arrive, once again, to applause (and we were not the last in our group to finish!!), I’m not sure whether this is healthy for my ego.

Pictures taken, check, we begin the downhill march in the horizontal rain, which while easier on the lungs, it is hell on the legs, and the walking sticks really begin to pay for themselves helping to give balance and take some of the weight off our feet. On our way down Jane´s bum comes in useful when she slips on a loose stone and cuts her hand, which is luckily the worst of her injuries. Shortly, thereafter, we arrive at the camp site for lunch, where we would have stayed were it not for the closed section of the Inca trail, meaning we have to hike further to make adequate progress. 10 minutes, or so, after we arrive ... (the northerner) makes a hobbled appearance, she has also had a fall, though is not so fortunate, having previously injured her leg, which is made much worse and is forced to slowly limp the rest of the walk. After lunch, we don our ponchos (these were off and on countless times over the four days the weather was so unpredicatble), and press on. There is a second pass to which we must climb, though nowhere near as trying as the first, and are rewarded with views of pools located atop the mountains. Our walk passes another Incan site, and towards the end there is an optional climb to see another. After Jane races the 10 minutes to the camp site to be first back and we make just in time as the rain begins to bucket down. We dump our gear and plot in the tent for tea, hot chocolate and popcorn, then move into our camps, have dinner and hit the hay.... Day 2 is behind us, woohoo / snore! It was definitely the hardest day of the trek, in total we walked 18km, our first pass was 1200m up, the second was another 900m. Everyone was so pleased that the worst was over!!

Day 3



The descent... We make our way to an amazing Incan site that sits like a fortress on top of a mountain, descending stairs we come to a fountain still running today and are given an interesting synopsis by our guide, here the Incans worship the God of Water, "In... (his)... opinion." We explore the large site, after which we leave on the opposite side making our way down the longest staircase I have ever encoutered... Ever. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to reach the bottom where we will have our lunch. Halfway down, as the fog has lifted and sun is shining gloriously, we can see through a clearing in the bush another site mounted on a neighbouring slope, which we fnd out is Machu Pichu mountain!! Almost there!! After many, many, stops on the way down, including lunch where we make the group decision to stay in a hostel rather than camping near the railway (Jane´s reluctant vote caused a stalemate in favour of hostelling) and having finally made it we stop by the river´s bridge crossing, take some group photos, and cross to walk along the train tracks (feel like I am in the film ´Stand By Me´) to Machu Pichu town, food, hot showers, and actual beds (and a cheeky beer).

Usually we would camp on day three and then get to Machu Pichu by hiking through to the Sun Gate (only classic Inca Trail trekkers are permitted to take this route), unfortunately due to the land slide we could not go that way.

On day three we trekked for 15km, mostly downhill, although easy on the breathing our legs were pretty tired by then and constant walking downstairs can be quite hard on the knees! By the time we had reached the town though we had done it!! Completed the Inca Trail a day quicker and with some extra km´s threw in!

Day 4



Machu Pichu... Finally! 4.30am rise, half the group climb to the top, the other half, including us, bus it, as there is nothing of note to see on the walk up, and decide that it is more important to have publishable pictures of us not looking like crazed homeless people. The bus ride up feels like at any moment it could turn into a reinactment of The Italian Job. At the top, we que for the entrance along with all the ´lazies´who look fresh as they have not trekked for 3 days, I jump ahead to our friends who have walked, to make sure we get stamps for Wayna Pichu, the peak behind Machu Pichu, as only 400 people are permitted each day.

Hands hover over cameras, quicker on the draw than John Wayne, we enter and the sites are amazing, a local woman explains that she has been here every day for 2 weeks and this was the first with good weather, not a cloud in the sky, holding out until we leave. We make our way to ´Watchman´s Point´for ´the´shot of Machu Pichu and our guide gives us an entertaining tour of the entire site. At a sacraficial stone, he explains that a South American beer company shooting a commercial broke part of the stone with a camera boon, so it is now sectioned off, however, previously people would wed and bring new borns here to touch the stone, no historical reason as to why. We continue exploring on our own, then those of us heading for Wayna Pichu make our way. Alternatively, Jane decided that she would like to hike the 45 min walk back up to the Sun Gate as she wanted to see what our original first glimpse of the Lost City of the Incas would have been like. IPod in and off she went.

Wayna Pichu... 2 hours of adrenaline and pure fear. The climb consists of precarious stairs zig zagging up the mountainside, wet rock on one side, infrequently, lined with ropes to hold on to (I clung to them like glue), while the other side lacks any kind of protective bush and is simply a massive drop to the valley below, bearing in mind that Machu Pichu itself is already extremely high, this is a further 45 degree 1 hour hike and the once powerful river below now looks like a timid stream in the distance, barely audible. The higher I climb, the worse it becomes, the stairs at the top were literally no bigger than the keyboard, on which I am typing this post, wet and uneven, still escorted by the drop. At the summit, you were never more than 10 feet from the edge, from which I stood as far as possible. The feeling was similar to being on the tube, when the thought creeps into your head that if you were to close to the tracks some one could easily push you, except a thousand times worse, and the slight winds were a constant reminder that I was potentially an untethered human kite. I attempted to pose, unsuccessfully, for pictures near-ish the edge and not look as though I had seen a ghost, I just have a strangely stiff, constipated appearance. Then going higher, there is a climb though a small cave, feeling cold droplets of water fall on my back, which leads to the top of a group of large boulders perched on the summit where we sit before the dreaded walk down. If going up was to be bad, this seemed like it would be much worse. On the way down, I passed a toddler casually walking up with her dad and a smile on her face, while I climbed down, first re-learning to use my rear as a apendage bum-shuffling down and refusing to stand, then later like spiderman clinging to the rock face for balance. Anyway, I managed to survive, and had an amazing day!

Back down to Aguas Calientes (Machu Pichu town) for a quick well earned pizza lunch and we headed off with the rest of our group to the hot springs, where they serve you beer in the springs and spent the rest of the afternoon having a good old soak! An amazing and challenging experience that we will both remember forever!


Additional photos below
Photos: 218, Displayed: 31


Advertisement



28th February 2011

james have you ever thought abut being a travel writer!? :) seriously though!
28th February 2011

OMG...just reading this is making me feel exhausted!!!..Well done you 2 on not taking the easy option. I bet it was fantastic when you finally arrived!!!..XXX
4th March 2011
Photo 60

Awwwww
Looking gorgeous guys. Beautiful Picci. xxxx

Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 20; dbt: 0.0311s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb