We should have spent less time on the treadmill and more on the stepper!

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The Sacred Valley

Before starting on the Inca Trail we decided to take a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas to get some background history of the region, after all they did not only go between Cusco and Machu Pichu! The tour got off to a very bad start with the bus seeming to aimlessly drive around the centre of town for about half an hour before we picked up our guide, who spent the next 10 minutes speaking in Spanish! Fortunately she then proceeded to switch seemlesly between Spanish and English and was excellent.

Our guide carried with her a minature flag of Cusco, and took it very badly when we told her it reminded us of the international gay flag. She was adament that the town was not the international gay capital of the world as the end colours were swapped around!

We started with going to the market at Pisac and then into the nearby ruins. After lunch we headed in Ollantayambo, which is just before the start of the Inca Trail, which was the most amazing set of ruins. The size of the rocks and temples was astounding with the stones of the temples perfectly interlocking and some of which being about 2m in height. The steps were extremely severe and we looked at each other wondering how we were going to survive 4 days of them! Finally we went to the church at Chinchero, a total contrast of the Catholic religion to the ancient. Once back in Cusco we got our selves ready for the adventure ahead and our 5:30am pick up the next morning.

Day 1 - Is that it!

We joined the rest of our group early the next morning and the whole bus was filled with silent anticipation - either due to excitement or tiredness. We continued on to Ollantaymbo where we had our first breakfast together and we started to get to know each other. We were a group of 16, and in addition to us were 5 Brits, 4 Aussies, 3 Canadians and 2 Yanks. Our main guide was called Puma, who was absolutely amazing, and he kept calling one of the porters Tigre, it was like an episode of Thundercats!

After breakfast we continued onto Km82, where the official track would begin. Unfortunately it was not so plain sailing as our bus broke down and we had to wait for a replacement to collect us. It was at this point we really noticed how much was taken with us and carried by the 22 porters (30k each on their backs and often walking or even running in sandles!). Eventually we made it to Km82, where we bought our walking sticks to help with all of the steps to come.

We eventually started the trek having gone through a checkpoint and having our passports stamped. The next 13km to our campsite in Wayllabamba were as Puma described Inca Flat and we wondered what all the fuss was about. On the way we stopped at the first of our Incan ruins and Puma showed his enthusiasm for the history of the area and the Incans and it really came across when he was explaining it to us. When we got to he campsite we were impressed with the quality of the equipment, and then at dinner time even more impressed by the volume of the food. They managed to cater on their camp stoves for carnivores, vegetarians and even Jans strange dietry requirements! As soon as we finished dinner the heavens opened and we prayed to Pacha Mama (the main Incan deity) for the next day to be dry.

Day 2 - Hard enough to do when you are well, let alone sick!

The next morning and Jans infamous stomach decides that the trek is not going to be hard enough for her, and it decided to play up. She had been up half the night with stomach cramps, and wind from both directions, whilst her ever caring husband slept! The tent was ... fruity, to say the least in the morning and Jan was as pale as the ghosts from the previous nights haloween parties. Nevertheless, she started the 1,200m climb towards Dead Womans Pass, and using every reserve of energy she had with some ´gentle´ words of encouragement from behind she made it to the first break, where Puma gave her the fist of his potions to try and help her. Someone else from the group, or as Puma called us HIS FAMILEEE, took her day pack and we continued treating the walk the same way as one would eat an elephant - bit by bit! Despite being ill she was still overtaking several AKs from other groups. When we got to the top, Puma carried out a ceremony to Pacha Mama hoping for the group to have a good trip , which he finished off with by playing his flute. It was all quite surreal, especially as we were at cloud level. We carried on down to our campsite and were there by 2pm, we had done a full days walk by then as we were woken up at 5am with a cup of coffee or coco tea. After lunch where Jan had a nother of Pumas potions we had some down time and then tea wih popcorn and buscuits. After a final potion Jan went to sleep and the rest of us continued to chat and then had dinner, and were in our beds by 8 witht he promise of another 5 am alarm call.

Day 3 - Gringo Killers!

Fortunately the next morning Jan was feeling better, but had kindly decided to share her bug and Stephen was feeling worse, having not slept much during the night. We had 2 passes to climb as well as several inca ruins for the day. As with the previoús 2 days the scenery was spectacular with us walking through several types of ecosystems. Unfortunately we were often to tired to notice them as Jan had used up most of her reserves, but when we did stop to look around it took our breath away.

Again the inclines were extremely challenging, but rewarding once they had been overcome. After the second pass we then had to make our way down hill via the notorious Inca steps or Gringo Killers which would take us from 3,600m to 2,700m. They lived up to their name with our sticks being invaluable due to the size of some of the steps, but they were not as bad as we had feared. Finally we made it to Winay Wyna, the site of Pumas favourite ruin apart from Machu Pichu, this was the Rainbow Temple where whenever there is a rainbow in the area it goes into the temple, and from walking around we could see why he like it so much, as there were vast terraces and several buildings. That night at dinner we said goodbye to all of our porters and cook, who had been invaluabe, and we literally could not have done it without them. Also we were told that instead of our now usual 5am wake up call, we would be woken at 3:45am to be one of the first groups to the sun gate the next morning, and even worse there would be no coffee with our wake up call!

Day 4 - Machu Picu at last

Oue early wake up call ensured we were the first to the checkpoint where we had to wait for it to be opened, before we headed off to the Sun Gate. We thought this was where the sun would fisrt shine in the valley, and so the group walked at a stupidly quick pace with the two of us trailling at the rear along with one of the americans, and we really struggled when we came to the nearly vertical climb, but we made it. during this speed march several people form other groups just ran past us and we were severely tempted to ´nudge´ them into the ditch as they were barging past. We got to the sun gate only to see ... cloud! It turned out that the sun gat was not where the sun fisrt shone, but when it shone through onto Machu Pichu. After quickly catching our breath we continued down to a better viewpoint, where the clouds slowly parted for us showing the awe inspiring ruins. For the next 4 hours we walked around the site taking numerous pictures with Puma giving us an explanation about the key areas of the site.

After the guided tour we all had free time before meeting in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes (hot water) for lunch. Most of the group decided to climb the surrounding hills, but as were were so tired we decided to go down into the town and experience the thermal waters for ourselves. The hot springs were a 15 minute climb out of the centre, and had we known that we would have taken the easier option of climbing a hill instead! We went to join the others for a final meal together, only to find that 3 of the aussies had decided to stay at Machu Pichu as they did not know if they would ever be back (neither did we, but we still made lunch!). Afterward we said our good byes as our Famileee was split up on the trains back to Cusco.

The whole hike was an unforgettable experience and all of the ruins were spectacular, proving that the Incans and all of the Andean people had techniques that have long been forgotten.

A day off

After the trail we had a well deserved lie in, and decided to do the city tour before heading to Ariquipa. Half way through the city tour we realised that were were ruined out, having lived and breathed them for the previous 5 days.

Once again our bus ride was eventful. Our bus looked state of the art with lots of leg room, large leg rests, a decent reclining angle, waiter service of a hot meal (chicken) and drinks. However after 2 hours we stoped and all of the lights went off, and all we could see were the hazards flashing. No one told us anything. Eventually one of the other passengers told us that there was aproblem with the water pump and they could get us a short distance further and that was it. This is what happened, and we made it to the next town, where we slept on the bus for 3 hours waiting a replacement bus, which when it arrived had less legroom then easyjet! We eventually made into town 4 hours late! When we got off the bus we looked for someone to complain to but mysteriously all of the local Peruvians had lost their English! We were later told by a travel agent that he will never travel with that company as they have the worst safety record in the country. Somehow we don´t think we will travel with them again either!

Bye for now

Jan and Stephen

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