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Published: November 25th 2007
Our Inca adventure begins! We arrived in Cusco after a night of heavy gambling and free beer in Lima. Luckily we were staying in a really homely guest house which was conducive to sorting out our hungover heads! However, getting there was a different story altogether. It involved climbing up about 40 Inca steps at 3,200m with our 18kg backpacks. Not an easy task I tell you. Though, it was worth it for the fantastic view over Cusco´s Plaza de Armas. Cusco is a wonderful place, full of chilled out cafes, shops, funky bars and some of the best restaurants I have ever dined in! In keeping with the trend of this trip, we ate well.
We spent our first day in Cusco just chilling out at the cafes, and wandering around the handicraft shops. The ladies in Peru are loving Mark! This is in stark contrast to his experience in Ecuador when groups of women used to point and laugh at him. But here it couldn´t be more different! They scream at him from cars, toot horns at him, blow kisses at him.... He must have been offered a massage at every street corner in Cusco. (We later found
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Alpaca steak. out from our Inca trail guide that these offers of "massages" usually involve a little more than just a massage!, Luckily he declined all offers). The night before we headed off on the Inca trail we decided to treat ourselves to a slap up meal at a trendy tapas bar. We had an amazing dinner and dessert for about 8 euros each in one of the best restaurants in Cusco. Unbelievable.
The next morning we were picked up by our guide at our hotel and we drove for 2 hours through the mountains to Km82 where our four day (42km) trek to Machu Picchu began. There we bought supplies such as cereal bars, mars bars, and most importantly, walking sticks. As soon as we alighted from the bus, we were surrounded by local people thrusting bamboo sticks in our faces, "Is good size for you lady, is good for you...". At one stage I came out of a shop to find Mark engaged in some of the finest haggling I have ever witnessed, with two stick sellers vying for his attention. He had them playing off one another for a few minutes until he got the price he wanted.
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Chez Maggy- fab food (4 sols, 1euro). No one else had booked onto our tour so we ended up having a private guide for the four days which was great! We also had 2 porters and a cook. All for just us! The porters are so impressive. They get paid 10 euros per day for carrying 30kg on their backs and not only did they spend their time passing us out as we trundled up and down the Inca steps, they actually ran at times, down uneven and jagged stone Inca steps which were up to a foot each in height. Every time we arrived at our lunch and dinner spots they had the dining tent set up and our food ready for us. Before the new regulations regarding treatment of porters were introduced four years ago, they used to carry up to 70kgs. A few years ago, a race was held between all the Inca trail porters (minus their heavy loads of course), from Km 82 to Machu Picchu. The winner completed the race in 3 hours and 36 mins! (it takes us four days!).
Day one (10km) was pretty level and straightforward. The scenery was stunning with Nevada Veronica (5,750m) dominating
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Plaza de Armas the skyline. Our guide, Guido, was great fun and full of fascinating facts about the Incas. We visited many Inca ruins along the way. Guido told us how the Incas carried sand for hundreds of miles from the coast of Peru to these sites for drainage. We arrived at our first campsite at around 4pm and settled into our tents for a nap. A delicious dinner was served up by our cook and porters at 7pm. The food was fantastic throughout the four days - we still fail to understand how the cook managed to concoct such great food from the most basic ingredients and equipment. We had three course breakfasts, lunches and dinners and indulgent tea breaks in the afternoons. The porters and cook spoke only basic Spanish as their mother tongue is Quechua but we managed to have a good laugh with them through our ever-improving Spanish. We even had a Spanish lesson with Guido one afternoon!
I think the only thing we didnt enjoy were the toilets at the campsites along the way. The foul, vomit-inducing stench made us wretch when we walked past them, never mind going in. Mark had to chaperone me every time
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Peruvian ladies and a cute lamb! I forced myself to make a trip there, and talk to me to distract me from the smell. At night time it was even worse, having to walk for 5 minutes, in the rain, in the dark, while at the same time trying to avoid stepping on something considerably unsavoury...
Each day at 5.30am, we were greeted by a smiling porter and a nice warm cup of coca tea in our tents. Then off to the dining tent for a hearty breakfast. Day two (14km) is widely regarded as the most difficult day of the trek and we had been well warned in advance! Basically you have to climb thousands of Inca steps through a mountain pass, known in English as "Dead Woman´s Pass", from an altitude of 3,200m to 4,200m. Finally, Mark and I felt that all our hard work acclimatising in Ecuador and Huaraz had paid off. We flew up those steps, passing people out the whole way up. Most people didn´t arrive at Camp 2 until after 4pm, some even 7pm, but we arrived at 1pm! I found the next day more difficult as it was all downhill. I much prefer going uphill, while Mark is
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Uphill to Plaza San Blas better at going down. Some of the steps were up to 1 foot high and the porters were leaping and bounding down them while we were taking one step at a time, very slowly!
Day 3 (16km) was characterised by rain and fog. We didn´t see much and we got soaked but still managed to enjoy it. It was all down hill which I found quite difficult. The 5,000 steps were too big for my short legs! Camp 3 is a little more sophisticated than the others, it has hot showers and a BAR! Needless to say, we savoured a cold beer when we eventually arrived there and congratulated ourselves on our great trek. Mark had only brought two tops with him (he didnt take my advice and take four like me!) and both were filthy by the end of the second day. He tried to wash his white t-shirt in a stream, but it didnt make any difference, and even worse, it didnt dry until we got back to Cusco. This left him with 1 top for 3 days! He took immense pleasure in his shower at camp 3! Our last dinner was a veritable FEAST. We had
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Chilling in the late afternoon at the Plaza San Blas a selection of four different main courses, all traditional food. While we were tempted to stay up all night drinking "Cusquena" with our porters we had to turn ourselves in at 9pm as we had an early start to look forward to the next day! The rain was incessant throughout the night and it turned out that our tent was not completely waterproof. As we snuggled into our sleeping bags we noticed that there was a pool of water at our feet. Luckily the porters had a giant sheet of plastic which alleviated the problem slightly. Our stuff was still pretty wet by the morning though. I was so excited about finally reaching Machu Picchu that I hardly slept a wink all night! I remember learning about the Incas when I was in second year in school and seeing a picture of Machu Picchu in my history book and thinking that I really wanted to go there.
Guido woke us up at 4am on our last day to begin our descent to Machu Picchu (5km). It was still raining but by the time we started walking it had reduced to a light drizzle. The two hour walk to Inti
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Enjoying a coffee at the Muse Puku (Sun Gate) was really exciting as the anticipation built up. When we turned a corner and walked through the Sun gate at 6.30am, the air was filled with gasps of amazement and awe. Machu Picchu, in it´s full glory had just appeared before us as the clouds moved past it. It was even more beautiful than I had anticipated. It almost seemed like a magical place and it felt like a dream to be making that final descent from the Sun Gate down to the ruins. Every so often the clouds would rush in and all we could see was white emptiness. And every time the clouds dispersed, and Machu Picchu was revealed to us again, was like seeing it for the first time. They were very special moments. When we arrived at Machu Picchu at 7am, the tourists from Cusco and Aguas Calientes were beginning to arrive. Looking around, we were very jealous of all the fresh faces, and clean clothes and shoes! We were exhausted at this stage and just wanted to go to bed! But we somehow managed to wake ourselves up, realising that this was our only chance to appreciate this incredible place. Around midday
we hopped on a bus to Aguas Calientes where our train to Cusco was departing at 5.30pm.
Aguas Calientes is a strange town! The setting is beautiful, surrounded by sheer cliffs and cascading waterfalls. But the town is just full of weary eyed tourists, mooching about, trying to kill time until their train leaves for Cusco (us included!). They sit on benches in the town square, pray in churches, sleep on footpaths... I suppose you could call it a "laid back", or "chilled out" town, but I think a more fitting description is a "get me out of here" town. We arrived back in Cusco at around 10pm and had the best sleep of our lives! We spent our last day in Cusco shopping! I was dying to buy a pair of Peruvian style linen trousers (Mark thought they were ridiculous looking at first, but I have finally convinced him otherwise!). Guido had told us about a gigantic market where you buy anything you want so off we went in search of the ridiculous trousers. We haggled our hearts out and I eventually settled on a navy pair with white stripes. They set me back a hefty 4 euros,
but have served me well since! I look like a bona fide Gringo now...
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Gregory
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Gotta love the mispelt names! Paddy had Toddy Ballow on one of his tickets.