Inca Trek - Machu Piccu

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Inca Trek - Machu Picchu

We have just got back from the Camino Inca - the trek to Machu Picchu through the Peruvian Jungle and other Inca sights which took 4 days and a total of 40 Kilometres on foot whilst camping the nights in between.

I can describe the Camino Inca in two ways - 1 is a long, challenging walk in rain, slippery rocks, steep inclines and a lot of Llama poo and 2 is - an amazing trek with breath taking veiws, personal challenges and scenery which will challenge most around the world.

I guess number 1 is how you look at it at times whilst doing it, and 2 is the memorys that you take away and look back on once your mucsles have forgotten the 4 days of torture.

It sounds pretty rough - '4 days camping in the peruvian jungle' but apart from the bathrooms - it was like being at a Hilton Hotel, due to the amazing organisation and hard work of the porters, guides and chefs working with the tour.

There was only 10 of us in the group, mostly Australian (of course), few poms and a kiwi - with the ratio of 18 porters, 2 guides and 2 chefs.

Day 1 - 11Km's.

At 9pm (unplanned but due to a strike) on Wednesday night, we headed out to our initial camp site which was 3 hours drive away. It was the type of drive you could'nt sleep on if you wanted to, through the bumps that made me wish i was already wearing my sports bra, the sheer terror of cliff faces and small deserted town - not many of us could get much sleep.

At midnight, we arrived and the 18 porters had our camp set up in what felt like maximum 15 minutes - and what actually was 15 minutes which is the amazing thing! Then we finally climbed into our tents to get some sleep. The next morning they woke us at 7am and cooked us eggs for breakfast (tough I know) before i could finish breakfast, the porters had all the dishes done, the tents packed up, our 5kg bags on their backs and where running up the path to set up our next night camping.

After 11kms, small villages, many animals and getting to know each other we arrived at night 2 - the boys all bought beer from a lady who had walked up with a sling of Peruvian beer and gatorades to sell to us whilst again our tents and food tent had previously been set up. Then things got ridiculous - the porters then heated water, and bought us personal small tubs to wash our faces and any other parts we could be bothered in while the other porters prepared our afternoon tea.
The veiws where amazing, overlooking a valley with a glacier in the back ground.

Day 2 - 15 km's.

Now in all the brouchures, they do say that day 2 will test you and is the hardest day. But then straight underneath, they have a picture of a group smiling and lures you into a false sense of security that in fact it wont be that bad and everything will be ok. Well after walking 11kms the previous day, and then being told the next morning we were to walk longer but it will be about 10 times harder I did lose faith in these brouchures.

It was straight up the side of a mountain, climbing into a saddle to pass over on steep stairs and ramps - picture the 1000 steps but for about 3 hours continuosly and much steeper and that was only the beggining.

The saying 'what goes up must come down' came into play - after 3 hours of straight up we had around 1.5 hours of literlly just as straight back down into our lunch spot - after lunch it was straight up again for around 1.40hours and straight back down into night 3. After a 6.30pm dinner we were all in bed exhausted.

Day 3

Day 3 was the 'easy day' and this time - i can not say the brouchure was wrong. It was gradual ups and downs, and only around 4 hours of walking with the most challenging parts being going down some steep stairs. We passed through some amazing Inca sights, which we were the only people at they are absouloutly stunning and surreal such amazing buldings for the time they were made, and for the areas they are in.

Having a guide was great, he knew so much about the history and even todays research which like the Pyramids, is still constantly new theories and discoveries being made - and most of all new guesses as to we all still are not sure exactly of the processes the incas used to create such amazing buildings in their time.

Day 4 - Machu Piccu

Our last day walking would lead us to our destination - Machu Picchu. A knock on our tent at 3.30am and we all (slowly and reluctanly) climbed out into the steady rain - which they told us was only drizzle but no - it was rain - had our breakfast at 4am and walked the 10 minutes to wait for the gates to walk to Machu Piccu was open with about 100 other campers.

Finally - 3 hours of walking in the rain later and after visiting the famous Sun Gate on our way we arrived at Machu Piccu - one of the most famous and larger Inca sights - and the most accessable. We explored the sight for around 1.5 hours with our guide then a small group of us sat on the grass and took the sights in - all amazed at what we had acheived and whatched as clean, showered people who had waited for the rain to clear and slept in a bed in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes 30 minutes away by bus flowed in and covered the sight, making the sights we saw in solitude that much more special to all of us.

Food

I cant possibly reveiw this tour, without mentioning the food that we had over our 4 days from our 2 Chefs Benigno and Chucky (pronounced Choo-kie). 3 Meals a day, a snack pack pre-prepared each day for us to take walking and afternoon tea. Not to mention the cup of hot Coca Tea bought to our tent door each morning at wake up.
Breakfast consisted of toast with jam, hot chocolate made with actual melted chocolate bars then a hot dish such as an omlette, pancakes with caramel sauce, and corn cakes with either an intresting juice of a porride that you drink - cant say we started the day hungry!

Lunch was two courses, with the starter always being soup. What amazed me, that even though every Lunch and Dinner we had soup to start, NEVER was the soup the same. That was 8 different soups for the trip - amazing. Lunches where just as impressive, being either chicken, quinoa salads and chips or mixed rice with noodles.

Afternoon teas consisted of popcorn and sweet biscuits and hot drinks of a variety of teas, coffee or hot chocolate - the most impressive was cheese samosa's. Dinner was ridiculous - better than any restaurant foods we have had yet and this was camping and they carried this over the 40km's on their backs we were alway so full and satisfied, but always impressed at what was coming next.

Whether it was an asian stirfy with noodles and baked potatoes, to deep fried coauliflower mash with rice and chicken - all followed by dessert such as cocholate pudding or like on the last night a CAKE which read 'Camino Inca 2013'. How they cooked a cake, in a small camp kicthen of which they carried blew us all away.

The Porters

These are the 18 individuals, who do the trek we did with our 1 - 2 kg back packs on over 4 days and hours a day - they do this with 20 - 25kgs on their backs and they run the entire way to get to the camping destinations to set up our tents, prepare our meals and have our shower buckets ready on arrival. Awkwardly, as we would walk into camp they would clap US. Which was always awkward, since we were all thinking *you just ran what we just walked and complained about our muscles, the distance etc, and you have made my bed and my food by the time i arrived and your clapping me?*

A few years back, there was a race and all the guides and porters where able to do the track and compete for the best time. The entire distance we walked was completed in 3 Hours 40 minutes. A walk that took us 4 days to complete, thats unbelivable!

Overall, the trek was absouloutly amazing and I would reccomend it to anyone we were lucky to have an amazing group and not only my legs hurt from walking but my stomach from laughing - the best thing about these tours in that not everyone will do them only those wanting the challenge and an interest in the nature and the history we all become a small family very quickly and feels as though we have know each other for years, and its has only been 5 days.

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Comments

[RENanDREW]

the food sounds unbelievable!
Enjoyed reading your blog, and was seriously impressed with how much food they cooked you on the trek! :)

[D MJ Binkley]

Can't trust those brochures
Life is a challenge and you were successful.