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Published: April 30th 2008
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The team
This is how we looked at the start. My big pack is actually empty. The classic Inca trail is 4 days of trekking: 45km starting at 2720m altitude, crossing over 3 passes at 4200m, 4000m and 3680m before arriving at Machu Picchu at 2730m.
We decided to do the Inca trail towards the end of our trip to avoid the rainy season. Unfortunately the rainy season waited for us - with the exception of day 1, it rained every day. Best laid plans. Pah!
I (Mad) had done the Inca trail before, 10 years ago, with my friend, Debs. We did it without a tour group, carried our own packs and lived off Pringles. We barely made it over Dead Woman's Pass (4200m) and that was after paying porters from another tour group to carry our packs over the pass.
This time was a slightly more luxurious affair. We had 15 porters (OK they weren´t all dedicated to us, but there were only 8 people in our group), carrying sleeping tents, a kitchen tent, a dining tent, tables and chairs. We were woken up with a cup of tea in the morning and bowls of hot water to wash in at key points throughout the day. The food was fantastic and plentiful,
The Red Army
This was our well coordinated army of 15 porters with finishing touches of vegetable art.
We left from Cusco at 5am, being picked up by coach, the back half of which was completely filled by the Red Army of 15 identically uniformed porters who clapped us as we got on board. Slightly intimidating at such an early hour of the morning.
We started the trek in beautiful sunshine and the first morning was quite a cruisy walk along a valley with a couple of Inca sites along the way. Our guide, Alex, gave us the background to the uses of the Inca sites and their ceremonial functions. After a bit of history, we took in the gourmet side of the trip with a 3 course lunch served in our dining tent. After a bit more walking we arrived at the camping ground and sat down to Happy Hour - popcorn and Milo - this then segued into dinner.
We woke up to rain on the 2nd day. This was the big 11 hour day with lots of climbing, steps and Dead Woman's Pass. Unfortunately we couldn't see the views of the valley we climbed up, or very much at all come to that. I was pleased
The Red army in action
Look at the calves on him. The porters are limited to carrying 27kg! to find that 10 years on, Dead Woman's Pass was much easier than I remembered. (It is virtually the only bit of the Inca Trail that I remember apart from Machu Picchu, and not the best memory.) We reached camp late in the afternoon - again greeted by wash basins and snacks - relieved that the hardest part was over.
Day 3 (raining as we set out) was a relatively easy six hours along some quite amazing sections of original Inca pavement (still without views unfortunately), ending with a descent through a yet more amazing steeply terraced agricultural site. We reached our final campsite to find beer and showers and the sun trying to peep through! The bar was a bit like a Uni student bar, complete with smelly, drunk people. We also visited another Inca site (Wiñaywayna, which means “forever young”) which had been used as a crop research station, trying out different locations and orientations for crop planting.
On the last day, we were up at 4am (in the rain once more) to pack as fast as possible. We, like all the other tourists, were aiming to be close to the front of the queue at
Dead Womans Pass
4200m and 4 hours of climbing since breakfast. Paul looks as fresh as a daisy the final control gate in time for opening at 5.30am. (The porters have it even harder - they have just forty minutes to run with full packs a couple of kms down to the town, Agua Calientes, to catch the early morning train back to Cusco - their incentive is if they miss the porters´train they may have to walk a further 20+ km on to the next town.)
After our breakfast cake and tea, we set off on the ´race´ to Machu Picchu, reaching the Sun Gate in double-quick time. There we had to wait a while for some of our group who were walking in flip flops (in their defence they had had their bags stolen the day before we set out on the trek and their replacement footwear wasn´t up to the job). The Sun Gate is where you get the first view of Machu Picchu on the hillside about 3 km away. Unfortunately, today there was little sign of it in the mist and drizzle. Having regrouped, we walked on passing a sacrifical table and various other Incan ruins, complete with a real Incan(?) llama, before finally arriving at Machu Picchu.
Miraculously, the fog
The view!
We would have seen some wonderful views started to clear as we approached, giving us some moody views of the ruins and Wayna Picchu Mountain. And the weather continued to improve during the morning so that it was scorching hot and clear by midday. Magnificent!!
Alex took us on a tour of the site, showing us the Sun Temple which helped the Incans gauge the timing of the summer and winter solstices from sunlight shining through the windows onto a table inside. You can also see lookout posts on opposite mountains, used to warn of enemy attack. Unfortunately we started feeling the effects of the 4am start and yawned our way around part of the site (not for lack of interest). That said, after the tour we had just sufficient energy to rush off to be one of the 400 allowed to climb Wayna Picchu, the pointy mountain overlooking Machu Picchu which is the site of probably the most improbably located terraces - Incan or otherwise - anywhere in the world.
At the end of the day we caught the train back to Cusco tired but very content. (This was also a different experience from 10 years ago, when we had to fight the crowds
of locals on the station platfiorm to get onto the train, the train leaving some unfortunate people behind. This time was very calm with booked seating and less people than seats😊
We finally got back to our hotel at 10.30pm, having to wake the landlady to get in. Then the next day got our washing done in a couple of hours before rushing to the airport to fly to Lima and then Denver...
Macchu Picchu, definitely deserves its status as one of the new Seven Wonders. A full on 10 from Mrs. C and a bonus point from Mr. C. Yes it´s that cool.
(Check out this site if you want to learn a little more
Peru Info )
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