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Published: December 22nd 2007
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We were picked up at 6.30am to begin our inca trail. I felt the best I have felt in the last 3 weeks & finally had a good appetite. Hooray. The anti biotics were working!!
We stopped off at Ollantaytambo on the way for breakfast & then a further hour or so up the road we could begin our walk. Chris & Tina hired walking sticks (they both have injured knees) poor old sods, we passed over a bridge & prayed to the gods with coco leaves for a safe journey & got under way. Our guide was Boneth who was very knowledgable. The walk took us along the river to where we stopped for lunch. The sun was shining & we sat overlooking the valley resting & enjoying the views. The first part of the walk was easy. Lunch was provided in a tent & there was 13 of us in our group. A lovely couple from Poland, 2 girls from Belgium, a couple from Hungary, father & son from Holland & a lady from Ireland. There were a couple of archaeological sites along the way which we stopped to take pictures of.
After lunch we continued our
walk following the river for a couple of hours to campsite one. There were toilets & you could buy drinks from the family living there. We had dinner & an early night as we were to be woken at 5am the following morning.
We did not sleep that well. The floor was hard & Miles sleeping bag was so old that he was frozen during the night. It also started raining ealry hours & some of the group got wet in their tents.
We started day 2 with a long hard walk ahead of us. It was 3 lots of 90 minutes up hill with refreshments & toilet stops along the way. My breathing was alot better than I expected because I was taking altitude sickness tablets, however the height did make me feel dizzy when I stopped. The walk took us up through the clouds & finally to the top of ´dead womans pass´. From there we had a fantastic view of the valley & how far we had walked. From there it was a 2 hour walkdown hill to campsite two. We arrived early afternoon & all had a kip before afternoon tea & dinner was
served.
Day 3 it was raining again. We walked up hill for another 90minutes,stopping along the way at another inca site & past a couple of lakes. Then it was down hill again (the bit I like best) to our lunch stop. It was still raining. The food was very poor, always served cold & too little of it. We continued after lunch through the high jungle & down some very steep steps,through several caves & finally reached our final camp site after around 9 hours of walking. At the camp site there was a bar & hot showers & we could eat inside the restaurant building.
During the evening it started raining again & did not stop. When we went to bed, all the tents were soaked. Miles put our water proofs down on the floor of the tent & bagged up our clothes. He also put plastics bags on the end of our sleeping bags but it didnt work. We were getting wetter by the hour & were cold. To top it all, Miles had a bad stomach & Tina was sick during the night. We think it was the food.
We were up at
3,30 am to get to head for the sun gate which was a 2 hour walk from camp. Unfortunately there was low cloud when we first arrived, but it cleared for a while & we had our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Wow. Awesome.
Machu Picchu was a further hour walk down & it just blew me away. Boneth showed us round & explained all about the buildings & what they were used for,the sacrifices & about how Bingham found it in 1912. We spent around 4 hours there. Then got the bus down to Agua Calientes for lunch & then train back to Cusco.
Overall the inca trail was incredible, 42k hard walk, the only disappointment was the poor camping equipment & food. We complained when we got back to Cusco & did get some money back. Its a shame that the final day was spoilt because we were allso tired from the bad nights sleep & Tina & Miles feeling so ill. However,I do highly recommend the trip to anyone. Just dont use Marlons travel or Jesu tours.
Sorry there are yet again no pictures. We are still having problems. Will try again when we
get to Lima.
Finally just wanted to wish you all a wonderful Christmas & best wishes for a great 2008. We are missing you all & our thoughts will be with you over the Christmas period.
Love you all xxx
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Anne Harvey
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Happy Christmas
With a couple of days off work and most of the festivities over I have taken the opportunity to catch up with your travels. It all sounds fascinating, so sorry that you have been feeling unwell but, with true spirit you have obviously been making the most of every opportunity. Mind you, long nights in the cold and wet must begin to test even your sense of humour but I guess as long as the fabulous sights and wonderful sounds keep outweighing the trials the balance remains right. As you can imagine back here we are gearing up for the SALE, it made me think of you as the marketing features jungle scenes and animals, the environment theme is continued from last year. Anyway keep writing, it is a great read and will provide you with a wonderful diary to look back on. Have a great New Year - you will certainly always remember you were when 2008 began.