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Published: January 23rd 2011
Well, the Inca trail and Machu Piichu has been accomplished!
After many sad goodbyes to Adventurist the kitten, we changed hostel to meet up with the rest of the people we were doing the Inca trail with in Cuzco. We used Wayki as they are under indigenous management, which sounded pretty good to us.
Day 1: With a 5 am start on Thursday we jumped in a van and got driven to the starting point of the Inca trail. It was here that I realised how much stuff we were carrying vs how much the porters were carrying. There packs were massive compared to ours.
We trekked for about 12kms, with a max altitude of around 3200m above sea level to our first camp. The track was Peruvian flat, which we soon learned meant some flat but mostly up and down, averaging out at about a 700m climb over time. The day was nice but the hills I soon found were a bit deceptive at the higher altitude. (Mahara thought it was fine). We passed heaps of little local farmers etc who still lived in the sacred Valley and lived, for the most part, a very traditional life, bar the stream of tourists passing by. Our guide Edgar was pretty informative and filled us in on a lot of detail.
The porters flew past us on this day to set up our first meal as as a team. Now we knoew we were having a support crew etc, but these guys were amazing. They met us half way and we arrived to peach juice made with freshly boiled water (us Gringos cant take the water like the locals) and our very own dining tent. Our personal chef, Rolly, had made the most beautiful meal, with three courses. A trend which continued for the rest of the trip. He even got changed into his chef whites before cooking. The porters made us feel like royalty with our own personal bowls each to wash our hands in. We were so spoilt we were all a little embarassed.
After lunch we carried on and the porters then bet us to the final point for the day where our pup tents were all set up for us. We all slept like logs in preperation for the notorious day 2.
Day 2. Our camp at the end of day one was 2700m above sea level. On day two we had to get over a pass which was at 4215m pretty much straight up the entire way, then straight back down the otherside to 3200ms. I pretty much died, LOL. After a certain point I found the altitude a bit hard core and was panting away even when I had barely gone very far at all.
However, we were all really pleased when we made it to the top ahead of schedule and back down the otherside (straight down slippery rock stairs) an hour and a half ahead of our scheduled arrival. Not after being smoked by the porters who pretty much leapt past us with stacks of stuff on their bags and only sandals underneath. Time for a siesta!
Day 3: In the evening of day two the rangers came to tell us that there had been so much rain further along the trek that landslides had closed the rest of the path. Our 16km trek on day three suddenly became a 28km trek to make it to the Aguas Caliente by the end of day three, instead of straight into Machu Pichu (Machu Poncho) on day 4. I´m really glad that Edgar didn´t tell us exactly how far it was until we were three kms from Aguas Calientes or I think the day may have been a lot harder. So we had another 5am start to make it in time. After another large pass, we near ran down a freaking mountain to make sure we got to Aguas Calientes before dark. It was a pretty grotty day but made better by the mid day stop for soup on the top of beautiful pass, made by the wonderful Rolly.
A 6ish (maybe 8)kms into AC by the railway lines was somewhat entertaining as we didn´t have a large amount of room between us and the trains, but all went well. After 11 and a half hours on our feet, we arrived in AC as absolute drowned rats as the last two hours sheer bucketed down with rain. We were so soaked that stall owners looked at us in disgust as we brushed past there many wares leaving a trail behind us.
We turned up on the main street to find our porters trying to hide under a tiny bit of shelter, and Edgar started the negotiation process on finding us somewhere dry to sleep.
In the end, after a long negotiation process, we were given a haven in the top level of a pizzeria. (Photos to come). Our porters cooked us dinner at the local police station and the pizzeria allowed us to eat our meal in the restaurant with the normal customers, but we still got to use all our camp cuttlery and plates.
Dry and fed, the day was finally over.
Day 4: Today we woke up at 4am to wait in the line to get into Machuu Piichu, or Machu Poncho. 90% of the people were walking around in ridiculous plastic poncho´s trying to keep dry. That place was amazing, photos to come.
At about lunchtime, oh hang on 10am, we headed back into AC. We have managed to get stuck with train tickets out of here at 10pm and we have no guides, no porters, and NO WATER in the entire city. Little kids are getting buckets of water from fountains to flush the toilets around the place. Funnily enough, there is stil internet. So in the mean time, we are hanging out in cafes voicing over twighlight movies adn playing head bands. We´ve already been politely shoved from one place. But hey only 7 hours to go. I´m sure we will be fine.
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Leah Broughton
non-member comment
Soooo newsy!!
Thanks guys for such a comprehensive report on your adventure ... oh, and what an adventure!! Shame about the weather but I know you'd have still had an awesome experience. MP is such an amazing place - there's a real wairua about it, very special. Enjoying tracking your travels. What a great idea to have a blog for us all. xx