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Published: June 29th 2006
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I survived the Inca Trail! Over three and a half days we trekked through around 45 km of mountainous wilderness, which may not sound that far but this was a tough walk. Most of it is up or down steep inclines (and downhill can sometimes be worse than uphill). The weather varied from hot in the daytime to freezing at night, and sometimes it rained both day and night. At times we wondered why we were doing it, and we encountered quite a few people who had turned back and were headed home on the first day. But when we saw the views, the wildlife and the incredible feats of Inca engineering we knew we were doing the right thing!
These days you can't walk the trail on your own. Quite rightly, the Peruvian authorities have restricted the number of people who can enter the trail to 500 per day to preserve the area and you can only do it with an official guide and a team of porters. Our porters were amazing - they carried our belongings (sleeping bags, spare clothes etc), all the tents, cooking equipment, food and even a portable toilet. There were 14 of them, plus
a head porter and a chef. They ran on ahead of us (yes, literally ran) with all this equipment on their backs so that they could set up the tents and have dinner ready for us when we arrived at camp. They even set up a mess tent for our lunch stop each day. They woke us up in the morning with a cup of tea and a bowl of hot water to wash ourselves with at our tents. Our chef cooked fantastic food, delicious cooked breakfasts and three course meals for lunch and dinner. One day he even cooked us brunch - we were better fed than at any other time on the tour! Clearly this was not proper camping but this was no ordinary camping trip!
We started out at a place called Km 82 (due to its position on the railway line). For a while we followed the course of the railway line but soon we had drifted far away from it and from any roads. Right from the start we were surrounded by high mountains and breathtaking scenery. The weather was good, not too warm, just right for walking. We passed remote houses where people
kept chickens and pigs outside (which came out to greet us). The first night we camped near to an Inca ruin, Llaqtapata.
On the second day the skies were cloudy and we set off towards our next camp at Llulluchapampa via the village of Wayllabamba, the last settlement on the trail where we had been promised there was a 'supermarket', which turned out to be a hole in the wall of a house where you could buy soft drinks, beer and chocolate! Soon it started to rain and it continued to do so throughout the day and into the night. By the time we arrived at our camp we were very wet and cold, and feeling sorry for ourselves. It soon got dark and colder, and we were really at the low point of the trek! We tried to get warm in the mess tent and played cards to keep ourselves entertained. We didn't have the portable toilet that night and the only public toilets were some distance away over a rocky path and they were rather unpleasant to say the least. We tried not to drink too many fluids and went to bed!
The rain had stopped
when we woke on the next morning. We had the hardest part of the trek ahead of us, with two mountain passes to cross. The first of these was Warmiwañusqa or Dead Woman's Pass, at 4200 metres the highest point of the trail. After a tough uphill climb we reached the pass and stopped for a while to catch our breath and admire the views. We then descended into a valley after which we began to climb another steep incline to the second pass at Runkuraqay. It started raining again but we battled on until we reached the Runkuraqay ruins (an Inca guard house) and finally the pass itself. Almost as soon as we got there the rain stopped and we looked out at blue skies over the valley ahead. Spurred on by the change of weather we continued walking, passing more Inca ruins at Sayaqmarka and Conchamarka. Eventually we reached the third camp, Phuyupatamarka, a beautiful setting overlooking more ruins, a green valley and high snow-capped mountains. This was our last night of camping.
In the morning we said goodbye to the porters and continued with the last stage of the journey that would take us at last
to Machu Picchu. The sun was shining and visibility was excellent. We were in good spirits as we descended into the valley below the campsite and we noticed that the vegetation was becoming more lush and there were more birds, butterflies and orchids. We were entering an area of cloud forest. We passed through a tunnel carved right through the rock in the mountain, an amazing feat of Inca engineering, considering they had no explosives or iron tools. There was even an Incan spiral staircase. There were more spectacular ruins at Intipata and Wiñaywayna and we were soon following an undulating path through more lush vegetation until we reached the steps to Intipunku, the Sun Gate that overlooks Machu Picchu. After climbing the steps we had our first view of Machu Picchu, still a little distance away but unmistakeable nevertheless. After another 20-30 minutes of walking we were finally there! We stopped and stared at the amazing sight of this old Inca city in front of us and took far too many photos along with all the other tourists, some of whom had come for the day on the train from Cusco (the only other way to get there) and
were in their best clean clothes, while we were dirty, smelly and tired after our long trek! But we knew the daytrippers had missed out on something special and I think we all appreciated Machu Picchu more after walking the Inca Trail.
That night we stopped in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes and got up early in the morning to see the sun rising over Machu Picchu. We had a guided tour of the site, which was fascinating. After yet more photos we said goodbye to Machu Picchu and headed back to Cusco on the train.
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SimonV
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Great Pictures!
Hi Paul, these latest pictures of Machu Picchu are fantatic, you've really captured the place for posterity! We got back from our travels on Friday having only travelled a mere 2500 miles in our Ford Focus to Austria and back. We had a lovely time and Hedy really enjoyed it which bodes well for the future! Another month to go today, look forward to your next posting. Regards, Simon.