Cusco and the Inca Trail.

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We Taxied into town to find a hotel, then crashed after the 34 hours of not sleeping on a bus.
The following morning we went out into Cusco in search of a fat mans breakfast, this we found and devoured in a record time much to the liking or the proprietor. Next job Money, not really being sure of the exchange rate we wondered round and looked at various places, eventually finding one slightly higher than the rest. Thirdly that morning we went to SAS travel and confirmed our departure for the Inca trail on the first of September.
Our hotel the last night was shocking so we checked out, (It had bare concrete floors and walls, the door didn’t lock, and the bathrooms were disgusting with no hot water). So we found a better one just down the road called the Royal Cusco Hotel, sounds posh but it wasn’t really.
Heading out to explore the town was great, Cusco is a very pretty place with wonderful old Spanish architecture, including a lot of grand Cathedrals and beautiful cloisters around the main plaza, there is also an interesting array of Inca walls and building that remain scattered around the place. The main downside to the city is the amount of people trying to sell you stuff that you really don’t want to buy, like finger puppets, and really tacky statues which are "Original Inca artifacts". These people hassle you the whole time you in the plaza, then head up on of the lanes at any time and you are continuously bombarded by offerings of Cannabis, Cocaine, and countless restaurants. The only good thing that you get offered is free drinks.
After one of the blog/internet storms that we did in Cusco, we headed to a movie bar, there a alot of these in Cusco, basicaly mini cinemas where you can go in and chose a film to watch with you meal. That night we chose Jarhead.
Now to search for those free drinks we were offered earlier. Its amazing just walk up and down the main plaza and look interested in going into bars and you will be offered a copious amount of drinks. After working through all the bars about two hours worth just start at the beginning again as they will not remember you, and if they do, well most of the places have two bars so problem solved. The drinks did not however agree with me, maybe something to do with the malarial tablets I was taken, but I went home early feeling rough.

Still feeling the effects the next day I lay in till twelve whilst David wandered around the city. At around twelve we made for another internet session. Then after I gave into David´s whining we went to the movie place to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. When it ended we discovered a classic car rally had parked up in the main plaza, there were a wide selection of cars, many British including a Jaguar e-type, a couple of old mgb´s and two classic triumphs. After this we headed up to go to the ruins above Cusco Sacsayhuaman, which are ment to be really good but on the way up we met a man who said it was closed at night and instead setteled for a bench on outside on of the churches on the hill with a great view over the city. The city is beautiful from up here, and suprisingly quiet, compared to the hustle of La Paz at least.

Our last full day in Cusco followed much the same routine breakfast, wander about, internet and movie. Only difference was that we went up to the ruins again to have a look. when we got there however they wanted to charge us 70 soles, which is ridiculously expensive (around 16 pounds), we then tried to sneak around the back but to know avail as we were caught and asked to pay to get in. As were coming to the end of our trip we elected not to go in and we would see many more Inca ruins along the Inca trail so didn’t really mind. That night we had a meeting with our group that we were going to do the trail with, they were all very friendly, and we also met the guides who seemed pretty switched on. When they told us we had to meet at 5:45 (am) though - we weren’t happy.

5:45 am came and amazingly we were both there waiting in the plaza with the majority of our tour group. Neither of us was feeling too well though, as we both had sore throats and the beginnings of a cold. Luckly for us at this time there we still loads of people out trying to sell us random rubish, amongst these we picked up some tunes - these people do sometimes sell usful things. When the rest of our group arrived we hoped onto our bus, that looked more like a converted lorry, and trundled of away from the city. After about an hour we stopped for breakfast above Urubamba, which now has the river named after it and is in the Sacred valley. Half an hour more on the bus and we came to Ollanta where we stopped and were set upon by people wanting to sell us walking poles, hats, water and most other stuff they thought we needed on the trail, which was basically everything you can imagine. Finally after another 45 minutes in the bus we arrived at the starting point, none of us were now in the mood to walk but our guides insisted that we had to.

We got to the ticket desk and David and I went through first being the only two students in our group, made us feel special. The trail started very easy along a mainly flat wide path that ran alongside the river. Along the way we passed many small stalls with people trying to sell us drinks and food, at really absurd prices. In time we came to the first large ruin which was at the junction of four different vallys, the sacred valley and the happy valley and another smaller one. After stopping and explaining the site we made on for lunch and then our campsite. The views along the way were pretty cool; we could see high snowcapped mountains rising to around 6000 meters with shear sides that dropped away down into the river, which was flowing rapidly over boulders creating roaring gurgling sounds that were carried to us by the gentile warm breeze.

We found our campsite by 4pm so we had been going for around six hours, and were greeted with our tents already erected and hot water with a selection of teas, coffee and hot chocolate. Minutes after sitting down for tea several large plates of popcorn arrived for us which we greeted readily. This really was easy street camping! We had barely finished tea when the dinner call was sounded and we were treated to a relative feast, there was so much that we couldn’t even finish it, and it was all really tasty. Afterwards we had what our guide referred to as a beautiful moment where we were one by one introduced to our porters and chefs. It turns out that there were fifteen of them in total plus two guides, and then a few extra porters to carry other members of the group personal equipment. It got I think to around two people working for the company for every one of us on the trip.

After a relatively good nights sleep in the tent we had explained to us the "beautiful" scenery that we would be walking through that day, the beautiful forests surrounded by the beautiful mountains, and beautiful Inca steps. Our guide was very good and had a large knowledge about the area and the trail, but he seemed less well informed of positve English adjectives. So everything became beautiful.
This day was meant to be the hardest day of the four so we started walking at 7am, and a lot of the other group members got porters to help carry there stuff. Dave and I neither had the money to do this or found the pack heavy. We started off going uphill and quickly entered the small patch of cloud forest that hugged the valley floor, here the steps went steeply up between the bows of the old gnarled trees that were covered in moss and lichen. As the steps went up we passed out of the forest and into the wide valley dominated by grassland scrub, from here we could see the dead woman’s pass which is the highest point on the trail at 4200meters, which is pretty high but no longer seemed it to us.
As we approached the top we could see the cloud spilling over the pass and when there the view to the way we were going was completely obscured, and the view behind us was rapidly disappearing. After the reasonably hard walk up where we had all sweated, so when we stopped and demounted our bag we felt the chill wind very quickly and strove to change our tops and add extra layers.
After a break and a talk about the beautiful surroundings from our guide we headed down the other side of the pass and into the clouds.
The steps here were steep and slightly damp so walking down was with taken with care. Although David and I agreed the easiest way to go down was quickly as it gives less stress on the knees, so we ignored the damp slippary steps and went forward with haste. Meaning we got to the lunch camp in 45 minutes instead of 2 hours. Here the cloud had lifted and we waited for the others to come down before we had another great meal.
This was to be where we camped that night but as we were there so early and the campsite was already full of tents we decided to push on to another less used campsite 3 hours walk away and over the second pass of the trail. So after the obligatory seaster we set of on the road again. We made up the path and soon got to a small Inca place, whilst waiting for the guide we each had a guess at what it would be. A storeroom, checkpoint, temple, or stopover. Turned out they thought it was all of these and were not really sure which one it was as they didn´t really know to much about there history. OK.
The cloud came in as we reached the top of the second pass and even worse it started to rain. So we all donned our wet weather gear and marched on with only a little stop. Walking behind David, Daisy, Lindsy was amusing as they each had a different colour rain cover, resembling traffic lights. After passing another two Inca sites we made it to the campsite, or what we could see of it as now the cloud was really all around us, it appeared we were camping next to a marsh, and the insects told true to that story as we were bitten and irritated by them all night.

Awaking again to cloud was not nice, but we got on and left camp within the hour to make for the final camp which was only about 8 to ten kilometers away so not very far at all. I imagine that the scenery was beautiful along the way but if it was we couldn't see it. We were now in a large cloud forest area which lived up to its name. Here we sore many orchids along the path as well as hearing a lot of birds. After walking through a few small tunnels and along the trail for an hour or so we came to a small Inca checkpoint and there the cloud started to lift and we could see the forested valley all around us.
We came after some time to some immpressive Inca terracing called Intipata (I think). From here we could see our campsite and look down into the sacred valley - after a nice long stop we pushed on and got to the camp site at around 12:30 so had ages to sit around and chill out. After showers we set up the outside gambling den that looked out over the sacred valley and Machu Picchu mountain. After an hour or so we took a small trip to Winay-Wayna which is a very beautiful concave set of terraces with a big palace and a set of ritual baths, that run one after the other using the same water. David and I then walked of down another Inca trail to find a small waterfall that we heard was down there. This was really beautiful as the water spluttered over the rocks creating a series of small falls. Then back at camp the cards continued for several hours and so did the beers that were readily bought in the bar. Unfortunately the light faded and we had to stop, and go for diner. Hitting bed early that night felt odd but we had to get up at 4 am the next morning to walk to Machu Picchu.

At four in the morning it was raining and cloudy. Great just the weather to go and see some amazing ruins. The group a little disheartened got up and made it to breakfast and the talk that our guide gave, then we headed of into the rain to find the lost city of the Incas. This time the trail was packed and we were walking backpack to backpack, after a while we managed to overtake some slower people and I went with the guide getting to the Sungate in just 25 minutes which is pretty damn quick. One problem is that this is meant to be the place where you re awestruck by the view. We however couldn’t see more than ten meters in front of our faces. When David came up the two of us went ahead down the ruins main, and stopped by a hut where we were meant to be able to see the sun rise.
By this point the rain was really coming down and the full wet weather gear was on. We found a sheltered wall and stayed there until the group came down. We then went and put our bags in storage whilst getting the tourist stamp. We waited here until the cloud lifted a little and it stopped raining or a least eased up. Then we went and did the tour of the site which lasted around two hours. As there was cloud not many people were there, but by 10am the cloud had gone up past the top of Wayna Picchu mountain so we had a great view of the site. It looked really dramatic with the dark cloud on the horizon and white clouds drifting past the steep sides of the surrounding mountains.
After the tour David and I plus the American couple from our tour decided to hike up Wayna Picchu to see the view from the top. This Hike was very steep and not for the faint hearted or those with vertigo. The path clung impossibly to the side of the shear cliff and wound up through several tunnels until it emerged at the base of these Inca houses at the top of the mountain. They really were a crazy people obsessed with high places. The path up had a hand rail most of the way, I don’t know how they could do it safely without it. The view from the top was stunning and defiantly the highlight of the trail for me. From there you could see Machu Picchu below like a gray set of step spreading out along the cliff top, then the rear of the view was occupied by the sacred valley as it wound around the base of the mountain 1000meters below.
Going down was the hard part as the steps were wet and very steep but after 30 minutes we were back as the base. After making a quick run to the Inca bridge which is a small wooden bridge that accesses another disused Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The bridge is across a shear cliff wall and its amazing to think how they built it there.
We got on the bus down to Aguas Calientes and were waved of by a boy dressed in what I can only imagine was meant to be a typical Inca dress. The road down zig zags all the way and as we cut back across the mountain the boy was there again waving. This happened all the way down, as he raced the bus. Then as to be expected he came on the bus at the bottom and asked for money.
The Last lunch in the town was meant to be the best but it was a bit of a let down and there wasn’t enough of it. The last thing to do was to board the train back to Cusco. The Train was ridiculously slow as it trundled along the valley and then made several cut backs to get up the steeper section of the route. - Ian

Half an hour after starting these cut backs we had advanced about 200m, finished and got off the train. Our group had consited of a charming American couple, who being slightly older (And therefore richer) went back to their nice hotel while the rest of us retired to our hostels. After a quick shower the two Irish chaps (Paddy and Paddy), two other English girls (Diasy and Lindsy) and a Spaniard (Gordie) with Ian and I repaired to an English Pub and gorged ourselves on a Steak pie and Gravy. The next day was spent doing plesantly little, (Another film, sitting around the plaza reading etc) before we again met up with the group, this time including our two Antipodean members, Jack and Ali for a final meal, before leaving early to catch the over night (15 hours) bus to La Paz.

A few more days of business in La Paz left us done for our trip and we again booked a bus down to Corrico, where we planned to spend a week doing precisely nothing

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Photos

The Train
For the people taking the easy route.

Llactapampa
First major ruins.

El Groupo Coolio
From back Patric, Patric, Rob, Jordie, Ali, Jack, Daisy, Jen, Lindsy, Ian, Dave.
All made it up Dead Womans Pass, a overly dramatic name.

Dave through a cave
The Devon flag temporarily winning out.

Gambeling Den
Seemed to follow our trip

Temple
Original name, Temple of the Three Windoes. Now how did they think of that.

Stairs
Inca´s - crazy little people.

The one random set of ruins
We stumbled across this little known place.

Comments

[Katie & Paul Liverpool]

Well we have been home now for a month and I was just thinking about how others adventures are going, as it seems like I have never even been away. Glad to see you boys are still having a ball, keep up the good work. Enjoy the rest of your travels. Katie x

[Caroline]

Hey guys, hope you're enjoying your last week of backpacking (not tourism, obviously). Missing you loads here in Exeter, freshers' week will be amazing! Will be good to see you and catch up. Those photos are really cool and the Inca trail sounds pretty good. I still can't believe how much you've done out there! See you soon Xxxx