Completing the Inca Trial

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We left South America almost a week ago now, and it's taken me all that time to think up the best way to describe the Inca Trail experience and our last few days in Peru.

I'll have a go, but bear in mind that it's one of those things that you really should do for yourself - it's hard to put into words the mixture of feelings and emotions that four days of walking and three nights of camping can create.

On Friday 21st we were picked up early by bus for the start of the biggest test of our 3 months in South America. The night before we'd met our Inca Trail companions - 2 brits (John & Fay), 2 Swedes (Richard and Corinne) and a Norwegian (Anders). Our team of intrepid explorers were quiet and reflective for the 4 hour drive to start of the trail, and words were left to our guide, Harry, who assured us that we'd all be arriving at Macchu Pichu in 3 days time.

The first thing that strikes you when you reach Kilometer 82, where the traditional Inca Trail begins, is how many other people are doing it! The start point was a mass of people of all ages, some looking like trekking experts (eg. kind of lame) and others, such as ourselves, looking as if they weren't sure what they'd let themselves in for. Apparently 500 people are on the trail at some point every day.

After going through the initial checkpoint, where they check that you're okay to proceed (had they checked my shrunken lungs, they'd have stopped me there and then), we walked for about 2 hours along a path lined with little houses and locals selling various bits and bobs that would be useful to us for the next few days, as well as other stuff that would not be useful in the slightest. As no-one was selling a sturdy looking donkey we ignored them and pushed on to our first lunch stop.

Throughout the trek, in addition to our main guide Harry, we had another guide, a cook, and eight porters who were looking after our every need.

Once we arrived at the lunch stop, the cook had prepared a 3 course meal to help (or hinder) us along our way. We then carried on for another few hours until our camping site. In truth, Day 1 was fairly straightforward - not too many hills or uneven terrain. Day 1 is designed to lull the unsuspecting Inca Trailler into a false sense of security!

It was at the first campsite that another observation about the Inca Trail came to light. Despite the idea that it's something that will push you to the physical limits, you actually eat better than you would do anywhere else. On arriving at the campsite, only a few hours after the 3 course lunch, we received "tea" which consisted of popcorn, crackers and various hot drinks. Just an hour later was dinner, another delicious (and copious) 3 course meal. We were relieved to hear that the huge amount of food that was wasted was going to the porters, as it was a physical impossibility to polish off all the food that had been prepared.

The sun set at about 6pm, and after dinner the 9 of us spent a while getting to know one another and relaxing before Day 2. Harry had given us a brief summary of the plan for Day 2, and the words which seemed to crop up a lot were hill, altitude and difficult. Ironically, these were Andy's 3 favourite words in the whole world!! We all hit the tents early to dream of gentle strolls through the English contryside - well I imagine the Scandinavians didn't, but you get the drift.

Day 2 started early, very early. We were woken up at 5:30am by the porters, who were bearing cups of Cocoa Tea. This is a curious mixture of hot water and cocoa leaves which apparently helps to prevent altitude sickness and tastes like leaves in hot water. We then had a big breakfast and were ready to go at about 6:30am.

During Day 2 we climbed just under 1,000 metres, to the highest point on the Inca Trail at 4,200 metres which is called Dead Woman's Pass. We were prepared for a test and, without sounding cocky, it wasn't as bad as we feared. The whole day was over by about 2pm, when we arrived at our lunch stop which was also to be our campsite. Over the course of the day our group pretty much all stuck together, apart from the other Brits who were struggling from pretty early on. When we got to the second stop of the stage we heard that John had been feeling pretty unwell (it's hard to make that much effort at over 3,000 metres!!) and had decided to give up. Faye had decided to carry on, and I dread to think of the amount of mockery he's going to get when he gets home bearing in mind his girlfriend completed the trail!

Again we had enormous amounts of food for lunch and dinner, not to mention a spot of 'light' tea. We were in bed pretty early, in preparation for another long day and pretty exhausted from a hard day's walking.

Throughout then first 2 days we'd seen a few Inca ruins, but Day 3, as we got closer to Macchu Pichu, the Inca Ruins were coming thick and fast. All of the ruins were just that, but you could really imagine the size and scope of these massive settlements in the middle of the mountains.

The weather on Day 3 was horrendous, a shame as it's renowned to be the day when there is loads of beautiful scenery. It almost made the day quite tough, as we spent most of the day going downhill, down wet and slippery stone steps and pathways. Corrinne and Richard struggled a bit on this day, as Corrinne fell down and hurt her knee, but the rest of us made it to the campsite on time and ready to enjoy our final evening before a very early start and the end of our pilgrimage to the centre of the Inca empire.

The campsite on Day 3 was pretty nice, it had proper toilets, hot showers and somewhere to buy beer!!! Everyone was in high spirits and you could tell there were a lot of relieved and excited people about that evening. The excitement all got a bit much for our tour guide Harry who drank a bit too much and amused us all with some strange and drunken antics.

After dinner on the third night our porters sang us a song, before we all clubbed together to give them a tip for their monumnental efforts over the past few days. Then it was into our tents and preparing for a 4am alarm call the next morning.

The plan on the fourth and final day was to get to the Sun Gate, the first viewpoint of Macchu Pichu, before sunrise. We made it (just - we were the last group up and out of the campsite!!) but the continuing dodgy weather meant that the sunrise was not especially visible.

The first thing that struck me (at this point, for one of the first times since starting this weblog, I can't speak for the others) when we first glimped Macchu Pichu was "Is that it?". Don't get me wrong, it was really beautiful, but we'd seen so many lovely Inca ruins over the trail that in my opinion were just as beautiful. After obligatory stops for photos we walked the final 30 minutes to the entrance to Macchu Pichu, and arrived at about 7am.

After a tour and lots more photos, all the trains arrived from the nearest town, carrying all those tourists who'd opted not to spend 4 days walking up mountains, camping and washing in cold water. These crazy people flooded in in their hundreds, and the place lost some of its magic. Sitting in Inca ruins that are thousands of years old surrounded by people who've been through the same trials and tribulations to get there is a truly unforgettable experience. Sharing that with people who've arrived there on the train just isn't the same - plus I'm not sure they'd have wanted to socialize with us as we smelt pretty bad by then!

We met up with a sheepish John and we all travelled back to Cuzco together - on the train this time. We spent one more, pretty quiet, day in Cuzco before we caught a flight to Lima.

Lima was pretty dirty, apparently dangerous, and almost one location too many for us, so we spent the few days before leaving South America chilling out and doing very little apart from eating fast food and going to the cinema.

We left Lima a little less than a week ago and are now in New Orleans following an overnight stay in Miami. I'm short of time, and nowhere near inspired enough to go into what we've been up to here. I'll try to do so after we leave in a few days.

Until then, rest assured that the US is providing a totally different travel experience and New Orelans is one hell of a party town!

AC

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Comments

[Karen]

So should I do it
Mmmmm..................so it sounded like you had a good time. Though would you recommend others to do it? I am travelling to the states soon re LA etc and then would head of to Mexico. Then I thougt maybe it would be better to do the inca trail. What do you think?