The Inca Trail

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I really don´t know where to start with this blog, i have had such an amazing 5 days. But lets start at the beginning.

On saturday we all met up at the tour company´s office for a briefing of our trek. upon arrival we had to hand our passports over so they could make a copy. here comes the problem, my inca trail permit was booked under my old passport number and they told me i may not be let on the trail. thankfully, after asking me to go and lie to the police so i could obtain a police document to let me on the trail (which i told them theres no way i´m doing) they managed to pull some strings and string together a document which luckily got me through the gates. going back to the briefing, i found out i would be trekking with 15 other people, ranging from 23 to 50+. we were given a full debrief of what to expect and what we will be doing each day, which was really helpful. then we were provided with a duffel bag which could weigh no more than 10kg to put our things in that the porters would carry for us.

a brief aside for the porters. for us 16 trekkers we had 3 guides, 2 cooks and 22 porters. all the porters came from local villages and were mainly farmers. they carried up to 28kg on their backs, this used to be over 50kg but new trail rules has put restrictions in place to look after the porters. these guys are amazing, they are so small, yet they run the trail carrying a bag almost the size of them. they are the true heros of the inca trail.

our group consisted of Joel form Chicago, who was my tent buddy for the trail. we were tent 18 and always eneded up with the best views. Courtney and Amie were from Boston, and together with janel from Canada formed the so called kids group. Janels mother Brenda. Steve abd Paula from Norfolk in the UK, steve was a wannabe kid for the trek and was always up late playing cards and cracking dirty jokes. Gary and barbara from Perth in Australia. Louis and Lori and Jim and Backy from the USA. Sushma and Sanjeev from India. Karlos our main guide and Wilson and Admil the assistant guides.

on sunday we had a very early start to take a bus through the sacred valley to the start of the inca trail at km.82. this was one of the most stunning bus trips i´ve been on, weaving down through the mountains with spectacular views of mountains, glaciers and towns far below. the last bit of the road to the inca trail is actually a mud track. it is very narrow and we had some hairy moments with on coming vehicles, the drivers are so talented as we were less than a few inches away from them half the time. at the start of the inca trail everyone has to go through their version of customs. the porters have their bags weighed to make sure they are not carrying more than 28kg and we all had our passports checked to obtain our trail permit. the cool thing was we had an inca trail stamp put in our passport, and even cooler, another one at the end of the trail. the first day was quite easy hiking with no major hills. along the trail there are locals selling drinks and providing toilet services for a small fee. we passed our first inca ruins today too which were on the other side of the river so we couldn´t go look round them. our camp site was stunning with an amzing view back down the valley which is dominated by a glacier at the top. such a magical place to camp.

i´m going to mention the food now. considering this was trekking and camping, we had 3 course meals which were of restaurant standards. our head chef was training to be a real chef so he presented the food so beautifully. lunch would consist of soup and sandwiches, dinner would be soup, main dish then a desert. the meals were all taken in a tent with a put up table. it was a very tight squeeze to fit us all in but made for a really social place. the amazing thing is that this tent would be put up for meals and then when we had finished and started hiking again the porters would take it down and run past us to put it up ready for the next meal.

the first night most people went to sleep but i stayed up with Courtney, Joel and Steve playing cards. i think we actually kept some of the porters up as the wanted to sleep in the tent we were playing in, but they seemed quite happy to watch us. we probably went to bed around 10.30, hardly late but being up at 5 and walking makes you tired.

now comes the bad part. during the night i came down with travellers D&V. actually several of us did. so we were basically up most of the night throwing up and using the loo. i had never had such bad stomach cramps in my life, they bent you over double. i did manage to get some sleep finally, but when i woke up at 6.30 (the guides woke us up by bringing tea to our tents) i opened my eyes and to my horror i watched these massive legs appear from behind the tent pocket which was no more than 6 inches from my face. i literally shit my pants and almost jumped on joel´s lap. I then watched a massive tarantula appear from behind this tent pocket. Joel on the other hand didn´t have his contacts in and when i was shouting that those legs were massive he thought i was talking about a horse outside, we camped with horses eating the grass right outside of our tent you see. so he laid there all casually while i got my clothes on and jumped out the tent. karlos said that it wasn´t poisonous but he called 5 porters to fish it out and kill and they all looked pretty scared to me. not a good start to the day after the night i had.

day 2 was the hardest day of our trek, we had to climb almost 1 mile up to dead womans pass, the highest path on the trail at 4,200 metres. this proved to be the biggest challenge of my life. i felt so weak from the travellers bug and had such bad stomach cramps all day i have no idea how i reached the campsite at the end of the day. it took around 7 hours to reach the pass, the worst 7 hours of my life dragging myself up steps cut into the mountainside. but when i finally reached the pass, boy was it worth it. i seriuosly dont think i would have made it without steve, paula, gary and barbara helping me during the day. they were like my adopted trail parents for the day and i cant thank them enough for this. Poor Brenda had to return on day 2 as she had the bug so badly she couldn´t keep herself awake. so one of the guides and a porter took her back down to where we camped and took her out on horse back. this was the 2nd year in a row she had come to do the inca trail, and both years she had to pull out due to illness. when i got to camp in the evening i just got in my tent and went to sleep. i woke up for dinner but felt so drained and could abrely eat it and couldn´t really keep my body upright. luckily a few ibuprofen sorted out the aches and pains and i slept like a baby.

Day 3 was much better, we started off the day going up hill where we looked around some inca ruins and then continued uphill to th second pass, at around 3,900 metres. from the pass we had a nice walk down to the next set of ruins. however, the steps to get up to the ruins were so steep and small it was so dangerous. there was just a sheer drop on the side of the steps, not hand rail or wall to keep you on, you just go if you fall. after lunch we headed up to the 3rd and final pass, walking though nice forest and going through our first inca tunnel. when we reached the 3rd pass we were literally in the clouds. it was so surreal. our camp site for the night was on a natural lookout point for the valleys all around us. it was so amazing to camp there, especially as we were now actually above the clouds.

the view we had when we woke up on day 4 was breath taking. we got up at 5.30 to go to the lookout point and see the massive glacier which stands at 6,200 metres. Much higher than Kilamanjaro. as the weather was good we ate breakfast outside with this glacier in the background and the clouds below us. it was just perfect. day 4 involved hiking down 2500 steps which at times you had to treat more like a ladder as they were so steep. the first few hours were spent in the clouds and fog but luckily the sun burnt through and left us a perfect day to hike to the sun gate and Machu Pichu. In the afternoon the path scared the crap out of me. it was only 3 foot wide at the most and the sheer drop on the sides was around 500m. i tried so hard not to look down and just focus on the trail but when you know its there waiting to kill you if you slip its terrifying. along the path we came accross some massive wasps which hunt tarantulas and sting them. their stings injects eggs into the tarantula which hatch and then the new wasps eat the spiders alive. next to one of the wasps was a taratulas nest. it was a perfect tunnel web going into the rocks. Karlos got a straw of grass and went fishing for one of the spiders. He managed to drawer out a baby one, but this was still biggger than any spider at home. Just before you reach the sun gate we had to climb the oh my god steps. now these really had to be treated like a ladder as they were so so steep. but reaching the sun gate made it worth while. our first view of Machu Pichu and the inca ruins where just breath taking. after 4 days of hiking we had finally made it. from the sun gate we walked a few km to take the postcard picture of ourselves at machu pichu. it looks so much better in real life than any pst card. we didnt explore the ruins today, instead we got a bus into town and went to the hot springs where we had a few pisco sours (a local drink which includes egg whites). It was so nice to be in a hot spring after 4 days in the mountains. it was finally a chance to clean off. some of us were crazy enough to jump into the ice cold water pool and then back into the hot spring. boy was the water cold. but good fun. dinner was taken in a local restaurant where we had a buffet and quite a lot of wine. the oldies were singing along to the local band, very amusing to watch. we then had to walk back along the dark road to our camp site, at the bottom of machu pichu. once again some of us played cards. it was strange being at such a low altitude here as it was much warmer and quite humid.

on day 5 we got up early and had a tour of the ruins. Karlos was a really good guide and knew the place inside out and could provide us with all the history and information. in the afternoon we had the chance to either climb Machu Pichu itself of just chill out. only Courtney and janel decided to climb it, everyone has was far too tired. a group of us went to see the inca bridge and then went into town to chill out, look around the markets and have a well deserved beer. in the evening we had a 3.5 hour train journey back to cusco. the seats were really cramped and we had some annoying fat woman from Chicago directly opposite us who just listened to everyones conversations and then dropped her own thoughts in even though not asked for. we got back to cusco around 9 and the kids got showered and went for a night out. the girls got a recommendation from their hostel and we went for cocktails at this bar that served thai food. Joel and Amie left at around 1.30 but Courtney and I stayed and played monopoly while getting totally smashed on mohitos. i am totally suffering today from the hang over.

i am meeting up with some of the group for dinner tonight before we all leave and go our separate ways. i must admit its quite emotional sitting here writing this as i miss being in the mountians with the group. we had the best group ever. we were like a family for 5 days. everyone looked out for each other. the conversation was dirty and jokey, everyone had done really interesting things before and we came from so many different countries it was fascinating to find out about them. i wish i could have spent more time with them.

i hope you enjoy the photos. i have had the best 5 days of my life doing the inca trail and i will never forget the people, the trail, the ruins and good times we shared together. if anyone is thinking about doing the inca trail, i fully recommend you do it, its a life changing experience. Just one warning, do the 4 night trek and not the 3 night one, otherwise you dont get to camp above the clouds.

hope evryone is well back home. next stop Argentina for steak and malbec.

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