Macchu Picchu - at last!

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After a long days driving from Puno we finally arrived in Cusco - the gateway to the Inca Trail! Everyone was getting pretty excited and a bit nervous about hitting the trail.

We had a day free in Cusco to start with and most of us just spent the time wandering around the markets and stopping in cafes. I think a couple of people tried some museums but thats not really my scene.

So last Wednesday we headed out from Cusco to Ollyantytambo. En-route we did the Sacred Valley tour and basically checked our 4 great Inca sites throughout the day. Each was pretty different and our guide was really knowledgeable and informative. Walking around them was also good prep for the hike as it involved climbing lots of steps etc.

We got to Ollyantytambo at about 5pm, did a quick tour of the last Inca site there and arrived at our hostal just as dark was falling. We were instructed to eat a simple meal that night (I guess to avoid last minute disasters) and then hit the sack as we had a 5am alarm call the next morning.

Out of the 14 of us, 12 were setting off on the Inca Trail. Unfortunately, one guy had suffered really bad altitude sickness and therefore wasnt allowed to hike, and his wife was staying with him. So at 5am next morning, the 12 of us, plus our guide, cook, assistant cook and 18 porters (how many people does it need to support 12 westerners doing the inca trail???) got on a bus to drive the 1 hour to km 88 where we would start walking.

As soon as we got off the bus at km88 we were surrounded by a dozen peruvian women trying to flog us ponchos (make u look like a teletubby), agua, walking sticks, chocolate.......pretty mad scene. Through the checkpoint....get your passport stamped with the Inca Trail mark and we´re off....

Day 1
This was classed as an ´easy´ day. I wouldn´t exactly say it was easy....right from the off there was lots of ups and downs and some of the ups were really steep. I guess in comparison to the rest of the trail though it could be classed as easy(ier). We started hiking at about 7am and got to camp at about 3pm after having a 90 minute break for lunch. Lunch was fantastic....no camping food for us - it was actually better than most of the restaraunt food we had had. Three course lunch....all fresh salad, veges and meat. Really tasty. In a catering tent assembled by the porters, on chairs carried by the porters! It was so luxurious it was embarrasing! That night we camped on a ridge at the head of the valley....fantastic views - snowcapped mountains surrounding us - beautiful. There was even a lady with a bucket of ice selling soft drinks and beer! But......the toilets......oh my god...they were GROSS. Although as it turned out these ones weren´t actually bad compared to the rest of the trail! Poor old Adrian got really sick just as we reached camp (dehydration making him throw up continually) - managed to lose his shades....possibly down the toilet whilst throwing up.......nobody was going back in there to take a look!

Day 2
This was the day that everyone had been dreading - its classed as the challenging day of the trek. And its certainly that! This is the day that you have to climb to the top of Dead Womans Pass at 4200 metres...and then descend about 800 metres the other side over a 1.5 mile length...thats pretty steep.

I think we set out from camp at about 7am. The group quickly split into two sections, with those of us who were (still) sick taking up the rear. Basically the first 3 - 6 (depending on pace) hours are UP HILL. The day really is hard......the steepness of the mountain itself isn´t so much the problem (with good fitness you can deal with that)...its the altitude. As you get higher, it just gets harder and harder to breath. By the time you´re at 4000 metres you feel like theres just no oxygen. After the first 3 hours or so, one of the girls I was hiking with kind of collapsed. She was given some treatment and we set off again. 15 minutes or so later, she collapsed again and just couldnt get any air in. She had some Oxygen but unfortunately wasnt able to recover and had to go back down. Gutting for her...and for us.

By the time we were half way up dead women´s pass there was a group of four of us hiking together (me, Helen, Paul and Chris). We had made friends with a load of people who we kept passing as we each walked a bit, rested a bit......a family from Germany who are travelling around the world and Alan and Sandra from Scotland amongst others. As we got towards 4000 metres we resorted to a method of walking 30 steps, taking a rest...walking 30 steps taking a rest. It was actually pretty effective and when we reached the peak...we held up and all summited together. It was a great feeling to know we were at the top, and although there was lots more walking and climbing to do...the worst of it was over. Took lots of pictures, group photos etc....then faced the fact that we still had another hour or two to the campsite and lunch. The last 3km from here was all down hill....a descent of about 800metres over 3km, down rough cut steps.......hard work. Especially when 10 minutes from the camp site it started to hail stone....great.........we finally fell into the lunch tent (literally) at 2.30pm)...the others said that we looked like we had just come out of a war zone....we just kind of collapsed through the door and then sat there unable to speak...just staring into space and trying to get soup down our throats. About 5 minutes later there was a torrential down pour that continued for most of the night.......fluke we didn´t get totally soaked.

Not much to say about this campsite. Fantastic view again. GROSS toilets again. Amazing three course meals...can you believe we even had flambe banana in the middle of the Inca Trail????

Day 3
This is classed as the ´unforgetablé day. The hiking is Inca flat....lots of ups and downs still........but the ups are fairly short and the downs are very steep. You go past lots of Inca ruins, which we checked out with our guide (and managed to grab well deserved breaks whilst doing so) and you get fantastic views of the valley floor as you descend. For me, this day was particularly hard as I was really struggling to breath and was couging so much the guide actually asked me if I could have TB! At one point, I had a bit of a breathing attack (a doctor on the trail thinks it was an asthma attack - apparently this can happen at altitude even if youve never had asthma before) and Mario had to smother me with his magic potion of ethanol and ´stuff´ to help me breath again. That was pretty scary......but nothing was going to stop me getting to Machu Picchu now!

After lunch the route was pretty much all down hill....1500 Inca Steps cut into the mountain.....2 hours of walking to camp. Helen and I found the downhill much easier (although lots of people struggle with their legs) and we practically ran the rest of it, arriving in camp at 5pm. This is the last place that you can camp before Machu Picchu, so its a pretty well established camp site, although very busy. They even have a bar! The toilets are still GROSS though......by now our sense of smell was so defined that we could detect a bano at 50 metres plus!

Day 4
3.45am wake up call to be at the camp gate for 5am. Queue until the gate opens at 5.30am and then its like a race to be first to the sun gate and get that first glimpse of Machu Picchu. The hiking on this day is fairly easy....takes about an hour, up and down but nothing too steep.....until shortly before the sun gate....you come to a set of 100 stairs...almost verticle! I can honestly say it´s almost like climbing a wall getting up there.....then when you get to the top, you look down and say "%&*^". From here theres about another 15 minutes of walking....then you come to another staircase (not so steep)....you climb to the top, come around the corner...onto a ledge....and there.....is Machu Picchu. It´s amazing. That feeling of awe and achievement as you see the city across the valley is unforgettable.....and it takes away all the pain of the past three days almost instantly!

Its difficult to describe what getting there means unless you´ve actually done it....for me I´ve dreamt of seeing Machu Picchu for as long as I can remember (probably around 20 years or so)...so to have achieved that is incredible. I´ve done a lot of hiking before, but I think the Inca Trail is probably the hardest thing I have ever done - whether it would have been easier had I been well, I´ll never know.....but I guess the sense of achievement is even greater knowing I was so ill whilst I did it.

And what next......? Well, spent the day looking around the Inca ruins....bus down the hill to Aguas Calientes (cool little town with train tracks running down the middle of the main street), then the backpacker train back to Ollyantytanbo before getting the bus back to Cusco. Arrived in Cusco at 9.00pm and collapsed into bed. Fantastic. Next day in Cusco chilling out, hitting the shops, sleeping......farewell dinner and drinks in a great little restaraunt - three courses, bottle of wine and two cocktails for 11 pounds...beat that! Then yesterday, flight back to Lima.

And here we are....back in Lima...where it all started. In about 4 hours we head off to the airport for our 20 hours of travelling home. It feels like we have been away for months. I am ready to come home now. I have had one hell of an experience out here......seen so many different cultures, environments, ways of living etc. I´ve learned lots and done lots. I´ve seen Machu Picchu and survived the Inca Trail! Yeehaw. Glad I did it. Glad I spent the money. Sad that I am now poor...but no regrets!

Looking forward to seeing everyone when I get home.....hope everyone is well and has enjoyed reading the blogs. Sorry if the quality hasnt been so great - don´t tend to read them before sending them....just bang the words out and click publish.....so you´re getting the real rough draft.

Anyways...thats all for now........take care....and see you in the next few days.

Lorna x

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Comments

[Robert]

Wow!
Amazed at what you have been going through on your so-called holiday!! What's wrong with a week in the south of France?? When you saw the name "Dead Woman's Pass" did that not give you a clue??? Really sounds like a fantastic experience - can't wait to see the photos. Just hope you live to tell the tale.... OK, take care (huh?) and see you when you get back. Robert