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Published: October 7th 2005
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Off We Go.
May as well start at the beginning! After a day in Cuzco, it was time to check in and have the pre trail briefing............Don´t think so! We went to the travel agent at the pre-arranged time only to find the office shut!! The only shut office on the street had to be ours, it wasn´t feeling too good! We had no idea where to get the bus the next morning, the tour agents didn´t have a clue whether we were still going etc. etc.
We arrived at the office.......Open at last!....... at 7 the next morning, off we went at half past.
We arrived at KM82, the designated starting point of the inca trail by late morning, after a good feed we were off, almost immediately, the beauty of the trail is apparent, the scenery and varied landscapes become more and more spectacular the further you go. We had a really great guide and a brilliant group, the food was great......more importantly there was plenty of it!!
The first day´s hike was "Just training" in the words of our guide, we hiked about four hours, 11 km´s before getting to camp, tea, popcorn, biscuits & snacks waiting for us on arrival thanks to the superhuman speed of
the weighed down porters who always arrived and set up camp, tents, food and all before we came puffing in with huge smiles on our faces thanks to the scenery!
Next morning we were woken up at 5:30 with a cup of Coca tea in bed, a good breakfast then we were off again, the second day is renowned as a killer, though we only hiked 12km´s until about 14:30, it´s the day that you have to tackle "Dead Woman´s Pass", the highest part of the trail at 4200 metres, until that point, it´s constant, steep, stepped uphill, you certainly feel it! The porters chew Coca Leaves to keep them going, these leaves make cocaine when refined, so we did the same, they taste kak but they seem to do the trick and help a bit.
Again, the scenery was unbelievably beautiful, cloud covered mountains (and sometimes even valleys ), a beautiful, man made trail of rocks and flagstones, which we got to see a lot off considering the steepness and treacherousness of the actual trail. Health & Safety in the UK would spit their dummy out if they saw the sheer drops without handrails etc. on the trail, at
stages you literally walk along narrow mountain track with vertical drops inches away from your feet, it´s amazing!
Second night was freezing, it got to about -2 degrees due to the height, we slept with all the clothes we had on, socks, hats and gloves, Jo had a towel wrapped around her legs in the bag, a raincoat wrapped around the sleeping bag at her feet, then a plastic poncho on top of that, we looked well sexy I´m sure!!!
Day three was the longest day, covering 16 km´s, up and down two more mountain passes, (I wish the inca´s would have learned to build huge bridges!) We visited two more very impressive Inca "sites of archeological importance (they hate them called "ruins") before descending about 1000 metres of steep steps to get to camp, hot showers at this one to soothe away the aching knees!!!! As it was their last night with us, the porters and cook made a buffet banquet fit for a king.....(Oh, it´s also tip night for them!).....The food was brilliant and we all tipped well for the amazing job done, the poor guys don´t get a big wage and the effort they put in is,
as I´ve said before, in our eyes, super human, judge for yourselves by the porter pics!
04:30 next morning we were awake and back on the trail for 5:00, the idea is to get to the Sun Gate to see the sun rise over Machu Picchu, we got there but unfortunately, as is normal for this time of year, cloud and mist obscured it, we did get to see the cloud disappear, which was really impressive, to show us our first view of this amazingly beautiful city. Another hour´s hike and we were there, Machu Picchu is even more breathtaking in person, it was a humbling experience standing there thinking about the history and the work that went into building it, we couldn´t believe we were finally here! We had a guided tour before having free time to explore, first thing we did was to climb the mountain overlooking Machu Picchu, Huayna Picchu ('Young Peak'),the climb was brilliant and we got more amazing views from the summit, with a little imagination you can see the "condor" shape of Machu Picchu, the condor is a sacred bird to the Quechuan race.
Anyway.....on with the piccies!!
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Scott
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great shots!
You took many shots that we missed and i've never seen on the net. good job! I especially like the eagle on huayna piccu and the llama fart.