Advertisement
Published: January 25th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We arrived in Cuzco on Friday afternoon and after lunch, got caught in a freak hail storm with hail stones the size of grapes. This did not lift our hopes for the inca trail which we were starting on Sunday.
That night we were briefed by our guide about the four day inca trail (aka ´gringo´ (foreigner) trail) we were about to embark on. The thing that frightened us the most was that the guide was very hesitant about the campsite that we were meant to be staying at on the third night as there had been four landslides in the last week and the huge hail storm hadn´t helped. One tourist and 2 porters had been hit by the landslides and injured but no one was killed, he reassured us.
We had a day spare in Cuzco on Saturday so took a tour to the Sacred Valley nearby. This area has many inca ruins as it was the capital city when the inca empire existed 500 years ago. We started at Sacsayhuaman (pronounced ´sexy woman´) which Bryce was very disappointed by because it was actually just an old inca construction and not a hot Peruvian. However it was
pretty spectacular as it looked down on the town of Cuzco which is nestled in a valley between huge green mountains. Next we headed to the nearby market town of Pisac where Bryce hand fed guinea pigs which were like the lobsters in the tanks at the Chinese resturants which you pick before they are cooked. We had a look around the markets which were a bit disappointing for Georgie but she powered through. We had lunch before continuing to the town of Ollantaytambo where there is a huge inca fortress built into the hill overlooking the small town. This was good practice for our legs for the inca trail but it was only a taste of what was to come...
We started the inca trail early on Sunday morning at ´km 82´. The first day was really good as it was mostly flat and we were very exicited and nervous at the same time. We had 13 porters for 10 of us and each of them carried 25kg each. It was amazing to see them literally running past us as we struggled to breath in oxygen at altitude. We stopped for lunch at a campsite where the porters
had erected a tent and had hot water ready for us to wash our faces and hands in. Lunch was three courses and by the end we were feeling too full to keep walking...but we did. We arrived at the first campsite early. Dinner was much the same as lunch and we were asleep by 8pm.
Day 2 we were told by so many people was going to be the most challenging day and it certainly lived up to its expectations however we heard Bryce the whole time telling us that ´Borneo was so much harder than this´ as we climbed what felt like 1000s of steps in the rain. When we reached the first pass ( Dead Women´s Pass 4200m), we couldn´t see anything for all the fog so we continued down and down and down to the lunch spot where it continued to rain. Somehow we made it up and over the second pass and reached the campsite early again.
On advice from our guide, we decided to change the plans for the third day as we had been making good time the whole way. Instead of camping and then getting up early to walk to
the sungate for sunrise, we had lunch at the 3rd campsite and headed straight for Machu Picchu. By the time we got there, the sky was clear at it was a beautiful day. We spent a couple of hours looking around. It really is an amazing place. We then had to head down to our campsite at the bottom of the mountain before dark and before the rain. Bryce, Georgie and 2 others ran the whole way down which was a stupid idea in hindsight after trekking for 15km. We had refreshingly freezing showers at the campsite, dinner at 6.30pm and were asleep by 7.30pm.
On day 4 we got woken up by a porter attempting to pull down our tent at 4.40am. We walked into town and caught the bus again up to Machu Picchu but we didn´t last long at the top as it was pouring with rain so we were very grateful that we changed our plans and made the trek in 2 nights instead of 3.
Others who have done the inca trail will know that in order to finish the trip with dignity, you must attempt the 24 Challenge. This involves staying awake
from when you get up at 4am on the last day to visit Machu Picchu until 4am the following morning. We gave it a red hot go. We had dinner at a funky little resturant where we downed several cocktails. We then moved on to a bar and finished up at a ´disco´which was packed with tourists. We made it to 2am but Bryce pulled the pin (as usual!).
We are now heading into the Amazon for a couple of nights and then on to Arequipa.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0566s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
cherie
non-member comment
hey guys, sounds like you are having a great time, but alas bryce I haven't been around much lately to help with your fish and he isn't looking very healthy but I am in action mode now to rectify!!!! hope you guys stay well!!!! Love Cherie