Advertisement
Published: September 2nd 2012
Edit Blog Post
This was to be the highlight of our trip to South America, but by the end of the first day I was starting to question that.
In truth the first day was probably the easiest. The majority of it was relatively flat, or Andean flat as the guides would say. The 4.30am start wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, with most people (myself included) in pretty good spirits. The bus ride was fairly quiet as we all tried to catch a bit more sleep before the start of the day. By the time we hit kilometer 82 everyone was excited and raring to go. We took the customary photos in front of the Inca Trail sign at the railway station, marched on through the first checkpoint, crossed the river and then we were on our way. The first section along the way before lunch we were cruising along at a nice pace. The sun was beating down but I didn't really mind. We stopped quite a few times along the way, some at shops, some where Santiago our guide would tell us about a variety of plants (some used as natural red colouring for things like lipstick, some that
could be boiled and used as hallucenogenics) and sites. The second Incan site we came across, Llactapata, is where Santiago first truly showed off his knowledge of the Inca trail. He started explaining the ideology of the Incans, how they really worked as a true community where every person had a role to play from the farmers, to the message runners, to the astronomers and builders. Everyone had to contribute and everyone was looked after. The taxes that were paid to the king weren't in money, but in crops, in clothes or in labour such as building roads. While his passion about the Incan nation at this point was maybe a bit overwhelming, the further we went along on the trail the better it made the experience. But at this point he must have talked about it for over an hour, and by this point I was starving and couldn't wait for lunch!
We must have gotten to the lunch spot a few hours later than what Santiago had told us we would. The porters that had run ahead of us with all our camping and cooking gear had been there for probably close to three hours before we
showed up. And while it hadn't been so tough so far, it was great to be able to pull the boots off, wash my face and grab a seat. By the end of lunch the lack of sleep had caught up and by the end I was ready to just sit right there for the rest of the day. Unfortunately we still had about an hour and a half to go before camp and it was all uphill. By about half an hour in and I was exhausted and I'm glad to say I wasn't the only one! It was a fair bit of a struggle to the camp, and it wasn't helped by myself and Amanda's stubborness to not hire porters. For $60US we could have gotten the porters to take up to seven kilos of our things but the way we saw it, all we had to do was take our clothes and sleeping bag, they were already taking all the camping and cooking gear and the food for the four days, so it shouldn't have been too hard. Well, we were wrong. Especially with the way the sleeping bags were designed, they weren't so easily attachable to
the tops of our bags, so they were clipped on at the bottom and were putting quite a bit of stress on the back and shoulders plus we hadn't raelly taken into account the effect of altitude. So we eventually made it to camp where the porters had prepared a nice hot tub of water to wash ourselves with. At this point I was literally falling asleep, but there was still dinner to come yet. Normally sleeping on rock hard ground in a tent that seemed slightly too small (my head and feet were making the tent bulge) would be a difficult task, but after this long day it was pretty easy to say the least.
Day two was to be the toughest day out of the lot with two quite steep climbs. The first was I think a four hour ascent of 800m to the dead womans pass at 4200m, the highest point of the trek, followed by a descent into a valley for lunch. We'd organised with the porters for to take on our sleeping bags that morning and it was lucky we did. It was at points quite a struggle, with tired legs and steep climbs
through the first pass but the worst was the altitude. There's something like 50% less oxygen at the 4200m pass per lung full of air, so pretty much after ten steps or so I was out of breath. We started early on in the morning to get a good start and it was freezing cold. By the time the sun had come up and we crossed paths it must have been less than a minute before we all started stripping to cool off. It took a long while for everyone to make it up to the dead womans pass with pretty much everyone struggling up the steep airless steps but there was a good sense of satisfaction being able to conquer it. And while the next section was all downhill to the lunch site it was still quite difficult, being a sharp descent taking quite atoll on the calves and thighs. After lunch was the second steep climb, though not as high, and then the descent back to the camp site on night two. Just before camp was another Incan site called Sayacmarca. The steps up to the city where steep and narrow and didn't really help with encouraging a
visit to the site but they were definitely worth the effort. The city was wonderfully preserved and quite large, and the setting absolutely stunning with the sun going down. It really was a great treat at the end of a gruelling day.
Day three was definitely the pick out of the hiking days we had. It was pretty much all downhill from here with a few climbs but nothing too serious. It also had some spectacular views back to Sayacmarca and of all the glacier peaks jutting out on the horizon. A lot of the hike was through cloud forest which started to get more humid the more descended. This also meant there were more orchids along the way for Santiago to stop and point out to us. This part of the hike also has the original path built by the Incas and it was hard not to get excited to know we were so much closer to Macchu Picchu. As the distance to walk was also shorter it meant we got a sleep in and everyone seemed to be more refreshed and in better spirits. It really did make for a great day of hiking. The end of
the hike lead us to our lunch and camp site at around 3pm which was a much welcome change. We got to chill out and relax for a little while before food was ready so I'm pretty sure everyone wandered into their tents for a snooze. After lunch we enjoyed something we'd not enjoyed in a long time, a shower. It was most definitely welcome, despite being freezing cold. By the time we got out of the shower there was quite a queue that had developed, unlike the other sites the last campsite is shared by all the tour groups and everyone was just as eager to get clean. As a bonus the last campsite also had one of the best Incan sites that can be seen, Winay Wayna. Set in the side of a mountain, the large site has a large area up top, a huge set of vertical farming grounds and a living quarters at the bottom. There is also access to a waterfall but it was too late to go check it out. I had wandered out around the site until after the sun had gone down so coming back into the camp site was pretty tricky.
The site was quite big and fortunately our site was up the very top, so I just had to just keep trying to find the uphill path till I got there. By the time I got back to the dinner tent there was a cake that the porters made for us, congratulating us for the climb up. It was a really nice touch and must have been pretty difficult considering there was no oven. Even though we finished the day early and had time to relax, we still had to get to bed early for the 3.30am start the next day.
Day four was the hike into Macchu Picchu. The 3.30am start was to make sure we got our breakfast, and rushed down to the checkpoint that opened at 5.30am to try and beat all the other tours down. Once the gate opened it was an hour or so of hiking to get to the Sun Gate, including the monkey steps which was a steep, small stepped incline that you pretty much have to climb up on hands and feet. The Sun Gate itself is not a spectacular site, but rather offers great views of Macchu Picchu especially as
the sun hits it. We made it just in time to get to the site before a massive cloud of fog rose to cover the city which I thought was incredibly lucky for us, but as it turns it the fog tends to come and go quite often. From here we hiked a little further on to watch the sun hit the city and light it up. It was such a great view which the hike made even more special.
Machu Picchu is quite a spectacular city nestled inbetween quite a few taller mountains. It's quite hard for me to truly describe the city but it is definitely a beautiful place in the world and more than worthy of being one of the wonders of the world. Santiago took us through a tour of the city, giving us explanations of the different parts of the city for about an hour. It made such a huge difference having a guide who was not only knowlegdable on the the Incans but also incredibly passionate. Overhearing some of the other tour guides and talking of some useless information about toilets and rocks we realised how lucky we were to be able to
understand the culture of this nation and how they worked rather than where they shat. After the small tour was pretty much the end of the four day hike. Everyone went their seperate ways and wandered around the city to get a better feel of the place. It was fantastic to walk through the temples, main squares and living quarters of the city but also to take in the natural beauty that surrounds the city.
By the end of the morning, the early rise and days of hiking took its toll and Amanda and I were ready to chill out at lunch spot until our train was due. So we took the bus down to Agua Caliente, tried our best to follow the instructions to the place and once we were inside the shoes came off. It was also time for an overdue beer. Once we were on the train back, the parts where I hadn't fallen asleep, it was great to again see all the amazing sites that we saw from high above on the train.
Back at our hostel that night, after a nice hot shower we passed out in bed at around 10pm, our latest night in about a week! Such was the extent of our tiredness there were quite a few guys stumbling around drunk in our dorm at some point in the night (it was a Saturday night), with one girl even throwing up a few times in the rubbish bin and all over her bed but we hadn't woken up once.
Despite the toughness of the actual hike, which the guides had correctly said was about 20% physical 80% mental it will definitely be one of the best things I will ever do in my life. And sure there were times where most people will just be plain exhausted, pretty much hating the hike and camping the whole way, looking back it was definitely more enjoyable than I could realise at the time.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0417s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb