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Published: November 15th 2008
For us the Inca Trail began on 10th of November with a 3:45am wake-up call because our transport was supposed to be picking us up between 4:30 and 5:00am (of course, the later was a case...)
After joining our fellow travelers on the bus we headed direction Sacred Valley and the kilometer 82 from where our walk was supposed to start (We were 8 people,- a couple from South Africa (living in UK), another couple from UK and Australia (about to move to Australia), Canadians (living in Canada) and Asta + I. Additionally to us tourists we've had a guide and 12 porters, our so called "red army")
After driving for 1.5 hours we've reached a small town where we've stopped for a breakfast. After which, 1.5 hours driving more we finally reached the km82, where it was time to repack our back packs and start walking...
At around 10 am we were ready to "hit the road". First part of it was a very short walk to a check point, where our passports were checked against a list of people who were registered to walk on that day.
For our group, first day meant about 11km walk
through what is called "Inca Flats" where the track doesn't have too big up's and down's which makes it quite a nice warm-up before the "killer" second day (there are multiple camp sites and some groups walk less on the first day, but then they have to catch up with everyone on the third day...)
After walking for about 3 hours we've reached our first lunch break point. Where all of us were astonished with the service provided - we were greeted with a glass of a cold drink, a small bucket of hot water to wash our hands and faces, "dining tent" and a 3 course meal (an entree, a soup, a main dish and a tea). After filling our stomachs it was a time to start moving again - 2 more hours of walk were waiting for us.
Second day started with a 5:30 wake-up call (= a tea brought to your tent by porters...). In a lot of cases 2 day is the worst and the longest day of the trail. Our group was "looking forward" to an 11 hours walk, 2 high passes ("dead women" pass at 4215m and the second one at about
4000m altitude. Which meant about 1400m ascent, 1100m descent...) and 16 km walking distance…
The first part up to a "dead women’s" pass went quite well, the ascent was constant but quite gradual; walk didn't take us higher then 3800m. So, everyone was quite optimistic, we were making good time… However after the "snack break" and about 15 minutes more walking the "fun" part started when we've reached a sign with 4000m... every altitude meter after that could be felt in our muscles, breathing became much harder, heart started working "overtime". So, Asta and I started having a lot of short stops on our way up. It is amazing how your body reacts to even such a small change in altitude... But the very worst was still to come - the last 100 meters, with an altitude change of about 20m - those were the "killer". You made a step and it felt like you have just run a 100m sprint...
After the "mandatory" group photo on the top all of us started descending... a break and a lunch were waiting for us about 600m lower...
After lunch and quite a long "siesta" (we've made a good time on the
first part of track) it was time to start ascending again to a second pass of a day which was at about 4000m above sea level. Although all of us feared same "hard work" as at the first pass, but in reality the second one turned out to be quite an easy one (the altitude didn't "kick in"). Second part of the day "surprised" us with couple of Inca ruins. This as well provided us with a nice break from walking.
Our camping site for second day was in a "cloud forest", so all the surrounding hills were covered by a "jungle" full of orchids, bamboos, tropical plants, etc…. The view was "completed" with snow capped mountains to the other side.That night everyone was so tired, that after finishing dinner everyone pretty much "run" to the tents to sleep.
Our 3rd day started a bit later then the other two - with a wake-up call at 6am. Because we had only 10km walk ahead of us and most of it was anyway going down (on this day we had to descend more then 1000m). Asta was the happiest parson out of the whole group (she still hates going up,
but loves walking down...). At the beginning of the trail we went walking around the mountain, a bit up, a bit down until we've reached the descend... 1000m down the Inca stairs, some of them bigger, some of them smaller. Lucky that none of us was afraid of the heights - one Japanese women from the other group was descending some of the stairs on her bottom (she was sooo afraid of the height). After about 3 hours walking downhill (most of us with shaking tights and hurting feet) we finally reached our final camp site where after a lunch most of us crashed and slept for a bit. Before it was time to go and visit Winay Wayna ruins (an old Inca town), luckily only about 10 minutes walk from the camp.
That night it was as well the time to say “good bye” to all the porters and the cook, because those guys were going to catch a train very early in the morning. So, we had to prepare a small "program" to say “Thank You”. Our group decided that it might be pretty good idea to sing a song from "Sounds of the music" and at the
end to say "Thank You" in our own languages. The porters loved it - a specially John's Zulu dance (some of the porters got scared when he jumped into a circle imitating a spear with his walking stick... )
4th and our last day on the trail started very early. Although the wake-up call was supposed to be at 3:30, pretty much everyone woke up at around 2:30 after a huge tropical storm came in... It started raining heavily and a bit after that we have "received visit" from lightning and a thunder which seemed to be just beside us. At 4:00 am, when we were having breakfast it looked like the rain might be stopping slowly, unfortunately by the time the gate was open at 5:30am (there is a check point, and the gate to the trail stays closed during the night) the rain got heavier and heavier. So, after 15 minutes walk we found ourselves walking in a tropical downpour. Few minutes of a “good rain” and our feet were sinking into water up to ankles, small streams running down the stairs which we were walking. Maybe that's why our group reached “Sun Gate” within 45 minutes,
not even "monkey stairs" slowed us down (its 50 stairs which are very steep, at some places we found ourselves using legs and hands to get up - maybe that's why it is called "Monkey stairs")
Once we've reached the Sun Gate, we were greeted by a thick cloud covering whole Machu Picchu. So, we had to say "good bye" to the hope of a traditional photo from the top...
It took us another hour to get to Machu Picchu itself. All the time while walking we hoped that clouds will disappear and we will still have a chance to see the ruins from far. But the weather decided to play against us and up till a very last moment thick cloud covered all the views.
However, just before we've reached the guard house, Gods decided in our favor and as if someone would have brushed the cloud away, we've got to see a beautiful view of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains.
After a quick look around and a photo at the guard house we've marched onwards, direction of the exit, where we needed to leave our back-packs (only back-packs up to 20 liters are allowed
to be carried within the sanctuary). While we were walking down, there were a lot of people walking up and wondering where these 9 dredged through, smelly but happy and laughing people are coming from...). After a quick snack and a quick change into dry cloths we were back into ruins for a tour...
To cut long story short since not much interesting happened for the rest of the day - we had about 4 hours for walk around the ruins (even the gods were on our side - only after we were already at the bus stop it started raining again...), shot a lot of pics, went into Aquas Calientes for lunch, grabbed a tourist train and then a bus back to Cuzco, where after reaching town we had just enough time to unpack and grab a shower before it was time to go out for dinner with the whole group... (In last 4 days out of 8 strangers we became friends and it was kind of hard to say good bye at the end of the evening)
Today Asta and I have spend whole day in Cuzco, trying to arrange photos, writing updates, emails, waiting for our
clothes to dry, arranging our transport to Puno (we're leaving tomorrow morning...).
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Aaron
non-member comment
Tour guide
Casiano was my tour guide on the Inca Trail in April! Loved Llama Path and Casiano really helped me make it through. Great post and pictures.