Day 60 - Following the Inca Trail

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After a 6am start, we caught a bus to kilometre 81 where we met our assistant guide Rody and dropped our stuff with our team of 21 (!) porters for the next few days. Each person is allowed 6kg weight as well as their day pack, pushed right to the limit but some of the group. While we thinking our 5kg day bags might be heavy, the porters were each loaded up to their limit of 24kg, packed into the least ergonomically designed backpacks I have ever seen. An army in purple, these guys would become our heroes over the next few days. While milling around before the start of the 45km trek to Machu Picchu, we spotted Chloe and Ishii from our Kumuka tour getting ready to start as well.

Due to the flood damage we started our trek from kilometre 81, walking to the start point of kilometre 82 beside the railway line where we had a group photo bright eyed and bushy tailed. What was in fact a fairly steady ascent through the day apparently felt like a mountain to some in the group, yet nothing but a walk in the park to the younger lads. The first ruins we stopped at were K'anabamba, used as both a store house and smoke communication hut. In no time at all, messages could be passed from Cusco, via here, to Machu Picchu.

Pausing for lunch we were delighted to be greeted to the camp (already set up) by clapping from the porters before given bowls of hot water to wash, juice to drink and a two course hot meal for lunch! Not sure the Incas would have had the same luxury. The second ruins for the day were Llaqtapata, administrative and religious terraces which included a sun temple forming the head of a snake built into its structure - another abstract animal. With an army section built above this area, the Incas would have been protected in their place of worship. It is also from here that porters start their annual run of the Inca Trail. Our guide Wilbert had completed the course in 5hours 15 minutes in his prime, but the record is just 3 hours 45 minutes - putting our 4 days of hiking to shame!

Base camp for the night was set at Wayllabamba, at 3000m, where we explored the ruins and watched the porters play football at altitude, before tea and popcorn at 5pm followed by a 3 course dinner at 7pm. Luckily for me, Dan and Ben, not everyone had quite as big appetites and we were able to more than fill ourselves grazing on leftovers. The amazing food not to everyone's taste meant sometimes we were offered full second, or third or fourth, meals.

Bed was found straight after dinner in our tents set up by the porters (a nice change from Kumuka), as all the porters slept in the dinner tent - so the sooner we were out the sooner they were in.

How Sophie Sees It

Those of the group that found the first day challenging were the 4 Canadians (mother and daughter, cousin and friend), who had clearly not even looked at a map of the Inca Trail, or indeed read anything about it, before booking. Margaret and Georgette struggled in silence, but that could not be said for mother and daughter Christine and Jen. That said, Jen was silent in other respects - you would think she would care to integrate with the younger half of the group rather than her mother and aunt, but she looked down her nose at us somewhat and kept herself to herself, other than to ask whether she should use purification tablets in the already boiled water that we were all drinking with lunch. Speaking of lunch, who would have thought we would eat trout on the Inca Trail!? Beautiful! Other than the serial complainers, the group was fantastic and we had such a laugh. It was nice to have a bigger group than on Kumuka, and with more people that made an effort to integrate and have fun!

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Photos

5 Minutes In...
...and Sophie had already fallen over!

Comments

[jim buckley]

great pic!
great photo!