Advertisement
Published: March 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Inca Trail is a 45km path from 'KM 82', the starting point, to Machu Picchu, the Lost Inca City, and the highlight of all the Inca ruins in Peru.
Agua Calientes is a small town at the very bottom of the world-famous historical site, and it is possible to take a train to here and catch a half-hour bus up to Machu Picchu. However the trail, which includes 1000m climbs and descents and takes 4 days and 3 nights, is much, much easier. It is the latter that we were to attempt on the latest leg of our Quest.
Day 1
With fantastic foresight, Eleni and I bought bamboo walking sticks at the entrance, to spare our knees the clattering that thousands of downhill steps would bring. You need a passport to do the trail, and fortunately you get a nice stamp to show all the folks back home.
Within 2 metres of the passport control, there is a bridge crossing the Urubamba river, at the beginning of which lies a wreath mourning the accidental death of an Inca Trail traveller. Not the most helpful sight to encourage us to actually start the hike.....
But start
we did. It was a hot, sunny day, each of us simply carrying a small backpack with a few essentials for the walk (sunscreen, water, etc), as the
13 porters who accompanied the 10 of us were charged with carrying all the tents, food, cooking equipment, and the duffel bags we had each been allowed to fill with up to 6kg of clothes and other belongings. In addition we were led by our guide, Freddie, and his assistant who brought up the rear with emergency oxygen in his backpack, Jorge.
The start of the trail runs through a number of tiny villages, whose populations only speaks Quechua (like on the islands), but who all incredibly helpfully have little stalls selling Coke, Fanta, water, and my favourite, Inca Cola! I promise you though, Coca-Cola reaches
every corner of the globe.
The indigenous people of Peru worship Pacha Mamma (Mother Earth), and so our guide insisted that we carry out a number of ceremonies during the trek to appease her. The first was after a couple of hours walking, when we reached the lowest point of our trek. Tradition dictated that we pick up a stone and carry it up
to the highest point of the trail - Dead Woman's Pass! - and pay our respects to Pacha Mamma. More about that later.
The first day was definitely the hardest, as we camped for the night at an altitude of 3800m, more than 1km higher than we'd started the day! The porters are amazing though; despite a 25kg bag on their backs (and this is after recent regulations were introduced - some used to carry up to 80kg!), they still race past you as you hike, with tents all set up and dinner ready by the time you reach the camp! Truly phenomenal.
We camped that night on the side of a mountain overlooking the valley. It was freezing cold, and Eleni was woken in the middle of the night by some llamas jumping and prancing around our tent, and we found some hot steaming piles of evidence pretty much on our doorstep the next morning! Which leads us to...
Day 2
We were woken at 5am by a nice porter bringing a selection of hot drinks on a tray to our tent. What service!
After breakfast, we continued our climb, up to the highest point
of our hike, Warmiwañusca, or Dead Woman's Pass, so called because from the other side the silhouette resembles a woman lying on her back. It's pretty dangerous, and in fact 5 years ago a drunk porter died. It's 4200m above sea level, and we forced ourselves up to the top in a couple of hours. Here we paid tribute to Pacha Mamma, placing our stones in a pile on top of some coca leaves, then pouring some rum onto it before taking a swig ourselves (at 8am!).
We then tried some coca leaves ourselves to help cope with the altitude. Taking a small piece of catalyst, you roll it up inside 10 coca leaves and chew. It is absolutely disgusting, but after a while your tongue goes numb and it's supposed to work. So many people in Bolivia and Peru rely on coca leaves, but unfortunately George W sees them as a problem in his fight agains drugs, and is pushing to make them illegal. This will devastate millions. Coca leaves are not a drug!
Anyway, after the pass, we enjoyed a 600m descent down steep Inca steps, lunch (already set up for us as the porters had
Our first night´s camp
The view from our tents- we complained but they couldn't change it :) long overtaken us!), followed by a 400m climb to a second pass at 4000m. On the way we visited 2 Inca ruins, and the views we witnessed varied between those of breathtaking forested valleys and white, white cloud. The fact that the mountains are so often shrouded in mist were a major reason that the Spaniards failed to find these places.
The second night's camping was marked by heavy rain and the frog chorus that followed it. Due to the early sunset 8pm bedtime was the norm, so 5am wake-up's began to get easier...
Day 3
We were woken at 5am by a nice porter bringing a selection of hot drinks on a tray to our tent. What service! 😉
The 3rd day was the most relaxing, but also the best for views. It felt like we were searching for King Kong as we trekked through jungle on a stone Inca path set into the cliff edge. Nobody really knows how they constructed these immense roads and steps, but they are perfect for the Incas' llamas, but impossible for the Spaniards' horses to traverse. A few hours trekking, including 2000 steps downhill, and we had arrived at
our final night's camp, only a couple of hours' walk from the Sun Gate. We spent the afternoon at our guide's favourite ruins just round the corner, Wiñaywayna, a beautiful settlement set into the hill, so frequently beneath a rainbow that they erected a rainbow temple inside it.
That evening we said our farewell to the porters, and prepared for the big day, the day we'd finally arrive at our destination....
Day 4
We were woken at 4am by a porter. No hot drinks. We had to break our fasts as quickly as we could so that we could get into the queue for the entrance to the final leg of the trail. It doesn't open till 5.30am, but at 5am when we arrived there were about 30 people in front of us.
The opening of the entrance was like a starter pistol, as everyone went through people were pushing their way (politely, no real pushing!) to the front, to get to the Sun Gate - the first view, high above, of Machu Picchu - which takes about 90 minutes. Everyone wanted to be there for sunrise, so we set a steady pace, hoping to see the
fantastic views promised to us. As we overtook tired tourists, and climbed the last few remaining steps, we could see the gate looming up above us.....
Oops, run out of time! Tune in soon for the next instalment!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0221s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
mum
non-member comment
inca trek
How fantastic. Well done on making it on foot. The train sounds tempting!! Eleni, Harry is going to be VERY envious when he sees this entry!! Eagerly awaitibg the next installment. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx