Inca Trail

---

The long awaited start of the Inca Trail had finally arrived. We were met on the dot of 05.30 and a short walk later we joined the bus to take us to km82, the starting point of our trek. We stopped en route in Ollantaytambo for breakfast and had to fend off numerous people selling all manner of must have items for the trails (e.g. water, walking sticks, ponchos, coca leaves, coca sweets, etc).

No sooner had we started walking than our guide, Victor, stopped for the first of what turned out to be numerous stops that morning. At each he provided some useful information followed by numerous repititions of said information. We soon learned that "in conclusion" was merely an indication that the half way point in the talk may have been reached. It was quickly apparent that some of the group were happier than others with this rate of progress (or lack of). I´ll leave you to guess which group Toni and I fell into. At one of the longer stops at our first Inca ruins, the combination of speech length, warm sun and being in the pub until 3 that morning was too much for Marcella and she duly fell asleep. It was all we could do to avoid doing the same.

Anyway we eventually reached lunch having covered a pretty level 6km in somewhere over 3 hours! At this point our states of mind improved dramatically as the food provided was both delicious and almost limitless. The cook even managed to produce plenty of superb vegetarian food despite having been told (by the tour organiser) that there was only 1 vegetarian in the group. In fact there were 5, each with their own particular variation on the degree to which they were vegetarian (i.e. fish/no fish, no meat/ only non red meat, no egg, no mushrooms, allergic to beans etc, etc)! I don´t think any of us ever figured out quite what Kenny (one of the above ´vegetarians´) did and didn´t eat as it seemed to vary with every meal (but he was very partial to beef jerky!).

The rest of the afternoon was an easy 6km stroll up the valley to our first campsite at Huayllabamba. By the time we arrived at camp, all the tents were fully set up and tea and biscuits promptly followed. After a late afternoon siesta we were served another delicious 3 course meal. This was typical of the way we were to become accustomed to be treated over the next few days.

The following day was reputed to be the toughest on the trek as it involved a 1100m climb to the highest pass on the route at 4200m. With a total distance of 12km for the day, we were totally puzzled by the estimated time for the day of 7-8 hours. After a couple of hours climbing (and a similar time spent waiting) the whole group had reached the ´elevenses´ stop. Here we were served tea, biscuits, sandwiches (´veggie Kenny´ opted for ham and cheese!) and an enormous tub of popcorn. We were all glad to be in a tent and sheltered from a particularly heavy shower at this time whilst some of the other trek groups plodded on up.

Given the changeable weather, the planned group photo on the summit of ´Dead Woman´s pass´ was abandoned so we were allowed to head on at our own pace to the summit and down to camp at Rio Pacamayo. By now, the ´walking order´ in the group was well established and we passed the time with ´veggie Kenny´. Needless to say our camp was all set up when we arrived and we were provided more tea, biscuits, etc followed by a late lunch when everyone had arrived. The 700m descent from the pass was a sign of things to come with hundreds of steep steps to negotiate and proved painful for several in the group.

The following day was the start of the Inca trail proper (i.e. on the original stone path of the Inca trail) and the day was to take us past a series of increasingly spectacular Inca ruins. The first was Runturacay, a small fort 300m above camp reached after a steep stepped climb. Once again Victor proceeded to talk for far longer than was necessary but at least we were able to sit down. From here it was a short climb to the second pass (3950m) and the much larger (and impressive) hill top ruins of Sayacmarca. After a while exploring these, we headed for our lunch stop on top of the 3rd pass. En route we passed a variety of small orchids but more impressive (for us) was immense effort that must have gone into the construction of trail as it wound its way across the steep mountainous terrain. Shortly before reaching the lunch camp the heavens opened and we began to see why this is called the rainy season!

After lunch it was the small matter of an 1000+metre descent to the campsite via at least 2100 steps. The changeable weather pattern continued with more heavy rain being followed by sunshine by the time we reached the final large ruin (Ital??) of the day not far above the Willay Winay (?) campsite. By the time everyone was safely at camp it was late and raining again so we headed for the bar and the promised cold beer. Dinner that night was perhaps the best of the trek with a variety of stuffed meats - amazing food given the rudimentary conditions the chef had to prepare it in. After this it was time to say goodbye to the porters) as there wouldn´t be time the following morning) and to give them the ´voluntary tip´ (our company had even given us a suggested formula for working out the ´voluntary´ tip). This whole thing made many of us feel very uncomfortable as we would have much preferred for the porters to be paid more (and for us to pay a bit more for the trek). However that is not the ´tradition´and hence given the fantastic service they had given us throughout and the tough nature of their job (many were walking in sandals carrying around 23kg without rucksacks) we were happy that the group agreed on a tip towards the top end of the suggested range.

The following morning we were up at 4am and on our way by 5am. The early start was to allow us to get to the sun gate in time for sunrise (not that we were hopeful of seeing one) and for the porters to catch a 6am train at a station several hundred meters below us in the valley floor. We´d been promised ´a surprise´ shortly before we got to the sun gate - this turned out to be an incredibly steep pitch of around 100 steps that interrupted an otherwise largely level stroll. The view down to Macchu Picchu on arriving at the sun gate was awesome. Since that first view, I have repeatedly wondered to myself why on earth someone would ever think to build a city in such an inaccessible place. Our camera memory card, relatively empty at this point, rapidly began to fill as we took more and more photos on the walk down towards the ´lost city´.

For our guided tour of Macchu Picchu we were joined by a girl who had been booked on the 4 day trek with us but had missed the departure by a couple of hours. This was due to her being stuck in Chile for 2 days (the border was closed unexpectedly due to the forthcoming election) and then being further delayed due to her bus breaking down. You couldn´t help feeling sorry for her! On the tour itself, Victor was in his element and it was no surprise that it lasted somewhat longer than the promised 2 hours!

After the tour we had about 3 hours left to explore ourselves. We headed off up Huanay Picchu, the adjacent peak (that is in all the ´postcard´photos of Macchu Picchu and towers over the valley far below. It was a steep tiring 30min climb but the reward was a fantastic 360 degree view. We spent some time here enjoying the moment before descending from the summit. Unfortunately we managed to take the long way back via the temple of the moon - this involved an additional 45min hard walking and several hundred metres of unwanted additional ascent. By the time we got back to Macchu Picchu we were more tired than at any point on the trek, despite this being the ´easy day´ and having had to leave our packs in the left luggage store. We only had time for a quick look at the remaining ruins before taking the bus down to the town of Aguas Calientes from where we said goodbye to our guides (and tipped in line with the aforementioned formula) and boarded the slow train (100km in 4.5hours) back to Cusco. By 9pm we were back at our hostel and safely tucked up in bed (but not before another much needed shower).

---

Photos

Tiring history lessons
Andy stiffles a yawn during one of our longest lessons

Andy and Kenny on the Inca Flats
Shortly afterwards the rain started and we made a run for the lunch tent!

Us at Machu Pichu
Recovering from the trip up Huaynu Pichu

Comments

[Darren]

Ahh The Memories
Hiya Nish - Happy New Year by the way. This brings back memories of when I did the trail. I hope you found it as fabulous as I did! Overall, your trip looks like it has been truly special. Hope you continue to have a great time. Darren