The Inca Trail

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For lots of people, hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is the number one reason for going to South America. I guess it was an amazing journey, and the Inca site is absolutely fascinating, but somehow, for me, it wasn't the spiritual experience that I had heard about. It was fun, but it wasn't life changing. Maybe it was because we just kept walking and didn't pause to think about why we were there. I didn't regret finishing earlier than planned though---a shower and a hotel room was most welcome after two nights in tents.

The first day was the easy day. It was mostly flat, with just one difficult hill. We started at 9am and walked along slowly with our guide, who pointed things out to us, such as cochineal growing on cactus plants, which is used to make red dye. I was very surprised to see stalls selling drinks along the trail, but it turns out that you can only buy drinks along the first part of the trail (first one and a half days), because some local people actually have to lug the stuff up the hill, and they will only go so far.

At lunch, we were given water to wash with. We discovered that whenever we arrived at a lunch or camp site, one of the porters would be waiting with water, soap and paper towels. It didn't matter whether you wanted to wash your hands or not, because they would be waiting there until you did. In the mornings, we got warm water to wash with, and were offered hot drinks as well.

The porters are the most amazing people. Apparently, about 6 or 7 years ago, they carried 70kg each. New regulations mean that each one can now only carry 25kg, so we had 9 porters and a cook looking after us 4 tourists and a guide. While we minced our way along some steep steps, porters carrying far more than us would run past in their simple leather sandals. It didn't matter how fast we tried to go---somehow, they would pack up after us and still arrive before us. They hold a competition for porters every year, and apparently, the record time for a porter to run the entire Inca Trail is 3 hours and 45 minutes!

We got to our first campsite at Wayllabamba (around 3000m above sea level) at 3pm, after passing some ruins along the way (there were quite a few Inca ruins along the trail, but of course Machu Picchu is the most impressive of all). I found new itchy bites on my arms almost as soon as we sat down, and promptly put on long-sleeved clothing. We had afternoon tea at 5pm (popcorn, can you imagine?), and dinner at 7pm (crumbed egglant for me, along with soup and garlic bread, I believe, followed by pineapple for dessert). Because we had carried no books or playing cards with us, there was nothing to do except to sleep afterwards. We had to get up early anyway.

The second day, we got to meet our porters after a fantastic breakfast (porridge, bread and jam, then an omelette wrap thing with vegetables inside!). We were also given a bag of snacks to last us until lunch time (we got this every day). We needed it because the walk up to Dead Woman's Pass at an altitude of 4200m was tough. The steps through the cloud forest were full of trekkers who had stopped, either for a rest, or to take pictures of the beautiful scenery, or both. I was most surprised by my roommate, who is 38 years old and has a crook leg, who powered on ahead of us. And if Karen, the English newlywed, had not suffered from mild altitiude sickness (she kept having to stop because she got dizzy spells), I would have been left way behind.

We rested for a long time at the first pass, so we could catch our breath, take group pictures, and watch the people still struggling up the mountain. There were piles of rock at the top, as there were on other mountains as well, which were put there by the porters as offerings to the god of that mountain.

We arrived at what would have been the campsite for the day (3530m) at around 1pm, and had lunch. Our porters had arrived there at 11am, when we had barely made it to the first pass! We chose not to sit around doing nothing for the rest of the day, but to carry on to the second pass, Runkurakay, at a height of 3950m.

There were some steep steps, but it was not so bad because our guide had deliberately over-estimated the time we would need, and we took a half hour break at another ruin half-way up. There were also lagoons to look at along the way. We got to the second pass at 4pm and chose not to walk up to the ruins at Sayaqmarca, instead heading straight for our campsite on the other side of the valley, which looked deceptively far away, but took us only 25 minutes. Afternoon tea was a treat of cheese and apple pastries, and we struggled to stay awake for our dinner at 7:15pm.

We got up at 5:30am again for day three, and had pancakes and porridge for breakfast before heading off at 7am. Apparently, the trail would be 90% original Inca from now on (a lot of the previous track was rebuilt by the government in the 70s). The third pass at 3580m was a baby compared to the others, but there were still some painful steps to climb. We got there at around 8am, and it was all downhill till we got to Wiñaywayna, a more recently discovered ruin. My roommate with her dodgy leg went straight there, while the rest of us checked out another ruin first.

We had lunch at Wiñaywayna at 11:30am after looking at the ancient city. The cook had really overdone himself this time, with me getting a stuffed squash along with a salad buffet shared with the others. The soup, as usual, was divine. After that, our guide instructed us to tip the porters and cook, as some of them would be heading home a day early. They must be glad when groups decide to do the trail quicker than planned.

We were told that there would be some steep steps leading up to the Sun Gate (Intipunku), which was the entrance to the city of Machu Picchu and had a good view of the place. I was lagging way behind the others, as I kept trying to take pictures of the wildlife, so the guide (who had stayed back to sort out our documents at a checkpoint) had already caught up with me when we found the others waiting for us at the top of some steps.
'What are you doing here?' asked the guide.
'Waiting for you at the Sun Gate, like you told us to!' they replied.
'But these ruins aren't the Sun Gate! Where is Machu Picchu?!' he exclaimed.
And so we had to carry on along the trail and up more steps.

The Sun Gate, when we finally got there after 10 minutes, was not that amazing. No doubt the effect would have been completely different if the air was not full of smoke (from forest fires... we had been really lucky with the weather otherwise) and we had been able to see Machu Picchu clearly. Our guide called ahead to make sure we would have a hostel to sleep in, then we carried on walking.

At 2.30pm we got to Machu Picchu and went up the terraces to take the classical postcard pictures. We were not allowed into the town itself, as would be returning for a tour in the morning. We took the bus down the windy path to Aguas Calientes and bumped into all the others in our tour group. I was all for having an early dinner, but it was at the usual time of 7pm. I went to bed straight after.

Day four began with a 4:30am start, with breakfast at 5am, as we wanted to catch the first bus back up to Machu Picchu at 5:30am. I thought there was only one first bus, and was very worried when we saw the number of tourists queueing up. Fortunately, there were at least 6 buses, and we were safely inside for the sunset at Machu Picchu.

After a tour of the site, we were free do what we liked. I climbed Wayna Picchu to see the city's condor shape, then went to see the Temple of the Moon and the Gran Caverna on the far side of the mountain while some of the others went to soak in hot pools back at Aguas Calientes. A Brazilian followed me back along the mountain and onto the next (smaller) hill. Apparently, he managed to see a bear! He also told me his camera had been stolen in Puno (his hotel room had been broken into) and showed me a picture on his new camera, which made it look like he was kissing the Inca face formed by the mountains. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work out how he took that shot, but had to give up at 3pm to take the bus back to Aguas Calientes, and from there the train to Ollantaytambo (my tour guide didn't count people before going through and I was nearly stranded at the gate), followed by a bus ride back to Cusco.

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Comments

[Ben]

Is there more description of your meals than the trail?
Hey Sarah, Hope you're having fun! One thing I miss in Sydney is the hills and mountains... Sydney is so flat! The only hill I get these days is the treadmill... Ben

[tangotoes]

I eat a lot
Haha, I figured I had pictures of the trail, so I don't need to write about it! And I loved the food, as anyone on my tour can tell you. When we were on Amantani Island, we were told that the host families would be understanding if we didn't eat much (people usually eat less at altitude). Most people left food on their plates, and I went and asked for more!