Cusco and the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu

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Cusco and the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu

An early morning flight from Lima airport had us a little groggy before we even flew into Cusco but the altitude of 3400m just in Cusco itself made us feel drunk.We had booked ahead on this occasion so got picked up from the hostel by the cleaner. The Walk on Inn was a lovely hostel where we spent four nights, one of the cleanest and friendliest places we have stopped.

Cusco itself was a nice place to stay and chill out for a few days, we relaxed with an hours massage for the bargan price of 6 pounds each. We also found and English restuarant their and had a much craved roast dinner and curry, we returned another day for a ploughmans lunch with brantson pickel!

We spent some time browsing the shops and visting a museum and the church in the Plaze de Armes. We toyed with the idea of visiting more sites but due to the fact that we were about to visit Machu Pichu and a host of other sites on the Inca trail we deciced just to take it easy and for one of the first times in 2 months just relax aslo due to the fact that recently we have been taking it in turns with food poisoning.

As we had some time up our sleeves we decided to plan more of the trip. After looking at flights we found out it was very expenise to fly out of BA Argentina so we started looking at other options. It worked out best to return to Lima after Bolivia and fly out from their. Finding a cheap flight that got us to Orlando we decided on that option for the 22nd Nov, with a view to getting back one way or another from there to the UK. Our original plan was to get as far south as possible before Christmas but due to spending a little more time in every country we would be only be scratching the surface of Argentina and Chile so leaving these countries gives us an excuse to visit in the future.

We had booked the Inca trail with Llama Path, a recomended company that treated the porters well.We visited the office to pay the final amount as we had paid the desopit in dollars months ago. The problem we encounterd was that we had to pay in Peruvian soles, sadly at their exchange rate which was not the actual rate. We didnt have much choice but to pay as its not like we could go any where else as places have to be booked up months in advance so it wasnt of to a good start. We had hired sleeping bags and walking sticks from them but after finding a much cheaper and better place we happily cancled our gear hire with them.

So Saturday 31st October we started our four day inca trail hike to Mauchu Pichu. We were part of a group of 15, with 18 porters and 2 guides. Having heard from other people that this was going to be a challaning treck we had a few added complications!

We had decided to carry our own bags, which included speeping bags and mats so Matt had the 12Kg pack on his back for 4 days of hiking and Jo had the day pack which by the time we had filled up the bladder was 6kg. The first day we jumped on the bus in Cusco at 5:20am and were on the Inca trail by 9am. The first day was a relativly easy day of 6 hours trecking, passing through Inca ruins with the guide giving a good explanation at each site. We got to our first camp site with the our tents already pitched and suprisingly a bowl of hot water waiting out side each tent, this was due to the Porters flying ahead of us on the trail each carrying 25kg!

The second day though Jo woke to an upset stomach, feeling quezzy and all on our hardest and longest day. From leaving our camp site the trail went straight up to our highest pass at 4200m, during the accent Jo was getting worse and it seemed more than altitide sickness and most likely something she had eaten.

After reaching the highest pass after 3 hours Jo was exhausted and got tanked up on Oxygen from the concerned guide who was carrying the Oxygen bottle, our next leg had us descending into the valley for our lunch stop. After a rest and some food, well none for Jo who was feeling even worse we headed for another 4 hours of ascending the next pass and descending down again. The views from the top were amazing, ´just amazing´ as the guide kept pointing out during the 4days. Though the altitude was around 3-4000m the cloud forest made for some great diversity in the mountains. The day had taken its toll on Jo and she managed to get through a very hard day and climb into bed where Matt found her dead to the world later on after visiting a near by Inca site.

We woke at 6am to great views of snow capped Mountains and a lovely layed out breakfast in the fresh Mt air. This day was our ´lazy´ day of only five hours hiking through cloud forest with great views into the valleys below. The day finished at an impressive Inca site with agricultural terraces were we snapped a few shots of us jumping over the Mts. We relaxed at our camp site, used the luke warm showers as this was the final site before Machu Pichu so it had a small kitchen and shower, Matt enjoyed a cold beer afetr a few hard days and Jo was getting her apitite back. Before dinner the guide took us to our last Inca trail site and it was the most impressive so far featuring rows of terraces and the remains of the Inca village. We didnt sleep much that night as we were excited for our early rise for Machu Pichu. Our final meal together meant had a whip round for the porters and the guide, and as we were elected the Pachamama and father of the group, Matt gave a speak in broken Spanish expressing our thanks.

A very ealry start at 3:30am meant a blury eyed breakfast and lining up at the check point for the last part of the Inca trail to Machu Pichu at 5:30am. The pace was fast for the next hour as we and other groups were all converging on the Sun gate for views of Pachu Pichu.... Sadly after 3 days of sunny weather we were faced with a cloudy rainy morning with no views from the Sun gate of Machu Pichu. The group was not disheartend and instead did a thriller dance on the steps which we are sure will be floating around on Utube by now!

We hiked down into Machu Pichu in the cloud and rain but after stowing our gear in and having our moring snack the cloud had started to rise and we started to see the full glory of Machu Pichu.It was unbelievable Amigos, we both had seen pictures and Matt had got a picture on his desk in NZ but the site was much more spectacular than we both expected. The guide was great as we had a 2 hour tour of the ruins and restored Inca city. Our cameras were on overload from snapping every ruin and also the large numbers of Llamas that now live in Machu Pichu. The photos dont show the occasion were Jo turned around to find a Llama in her face.

We had a a few hours to tour the site our sleves and could not beleive that it was the same place that we had come through only 4 hours earlier as at miday it was crawling with the lazy tourists that had caught the train and bus up. It was time to head down to Aguas Calientes to meet the rest of the gang for lunch, say our good bye to the guides and get our train tickets. After 4 days of hiking we were in much need of the hot baths in the town so most of us chilled out there for an hour before getting our 6:45 train. Now we thought that this was going to be the end of our adventures and we could have a snoose on the train but to our suprise we had a weird man with a local costume on dancing up and down the carrige and if this mwas not enough, the train attendents burst into a fashion parade. So we were all sitting there in amazement as the male attendant posed in baby Alpaca jumpers, to the sound of dance music in the the carrige with a hestericle Columbian women grabbing his ass on every pass.

A late return to Cusco at 11Pm and dropping of our rented gear we headed back to the Walk On Inn to find the lads behind the desk had done a great job at altering our onward bus ticket to Puno. This meant we now didnt have to get up at 6am the next morning and could fall into a exhasuted sleep like a baby Alpaca.

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