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After a nice cappucino & sandwich in the morning sun @ a terrace in Cusco, I now feel tired but satisfied after having hiked the famous Inca-trail for the last couple of days (from Saturday to Tuesday).
The Inca-trail is a 42-km, 4-day hike, with 3 high mountain passes to be crossed, leading up to the Lost City of the Inca´s, Machu Picchu, discovered in 1911. Too tired to elaborate here on the history, culture & development of the Inca empire... :-) so if you wanna know more, Google it !
The trail is often steep, challenging at times (you need 2 be reasonably fit) but stunning, impressive mountain views, the group atmosphere and just the unforgettable experience largely make up for that. All in all it´s doable.
So we started on Saturday morning at the so-called km 82 point. We were 16 in total in the group, a guide named Javier, an assistant-guide, Luis and 20 local porters that literally run up the mountain (!), chewing on Coca leafs, carrying all our stuff (bags, tents, chairs, food etc.. ).
The first day was very ok. A lot of breaks, ¨Peruvian flat¨slopes (not same though as Dutch flat) and not such a long walk as the other days. So we arrived around 3 PM @ the campsite (love camping.. as long as it doesn´t exceed 3 days... the sanitary facilities were not worthwhile mentionning here...).
We all bought hiking sticks, really handy downhill. I baptised mine ´Matterhorn´, after the famous Swiss mountain in Zermatt and after my lovely boyfriend (Matt) who did an attempt to convince me beforehand that the trail is peanuts (´after all it is only walking´). He did it 17 years ago or so, his memory must be slightly blurred (sorry honey...).
After this relatively easy first day, I still had quite a lot of enery. Inspired by my 2006 GE Female Soccer experience (in May 06 I participated with other girls in the annual GE soccer tournament), I decided to join the porters afternoon football match. I think they liked having a woman playing, although some seemed to find it weird. They weren´t very much impressed with my performance though (NB: running at such an altitude - 3000 m - is awfully tiring, so I just waited for the ball to come in my direction...).
The 2nd day was quite another story. In 4 hrs you climb 1200 m in altitude, in order to reach ´Dead Womans Pass´. Steep and often slippery trail. Very hard work for the heart and the legs. Once you reach the top you then walk downhill for another 3 hrs, so you wonder what all that horrendous effort was good for...
3rd day... longest day. First 2 hrs uphill, you notice that it becomes more and more easy. Then 4 or 5 hrs downhill. Once you reach the campsite your knees tell you it´s been enough. A rewarding hot shower (no showers at the other campsites) and beer (or two) !
We had been told we needed to hold some kind of ceremony during that 3rd day afternoon tea to hand over the tips to the porters, cooks (unbelievable what they managed to prepare on top of the mountain) etc.. I was elected by the group to hold the ´speeches, of course in their local language eg Spanish... (Brits don´t ¨do¨languages... :-)). Very glad with that, not ! Not used to doing speeches in Spanish, so was very happy when I managed to stumble some phrases and got it over with.
The 4th day you get up really early in the morning (4 AM) in order to be at the Sun Gate and see the sun rising over Machu Picchu. Very impressive. A couple of hours wandering in these most famous Inca ruins and then heading back to Aguas Calientes (Machu Piccho village) by bus, where we relaxed our tired muscles in the thermal springs.
So now back in Cusco, off to Puno/Lake Titicaca tomorrow morning. Cusco is really touristy, since it´s the nearest town to the Inca trail. Think I still need to update you on the days prior to the Inca trail. Sorry for the reverse chronological order, it´s easier to write about more recent events...
Before arriving to Cusco, we were in Arequipa. On the flight from Arequipa to Cusco, I had the honour to be on the same plane as Katja Schuurman ! (for the non-Dutch: she is a Dutch actress or @ least pretends 2 be :-) and also known 4 changing boyfriends at the same speed as the cycle of the moon !).
From Arequipa (colonial atmosphere town famous for the white stone ´sillar´buildings) we did an excursion to the Colca Canyon (in the Andes), allegedly worlds deepest canyon. The lodge we were staying in, had great views over the surrounding valley and a domesticated lama was part of the furniture ! Not so domesticated though, it spontaneously ´attacked´us a couple of times (e.g running into us followed by a wet shower...).
The local guide, Leo, was really good and made us laugh all the time, since he sweetly addressed us every 3 minutes by either ´hey guys´, ´hey fellows´or ´hey pals´... Near the canyon we did some early morning Andean condor spotting, followed by a brilliant downhill mountain-bike ride, not completely danger-free, but we all made it without breaking any bone. I am definitely getting more and more into this mountainbiking, it´s really good ! Maybe should consider buying a bike back home !
(Not to be read by my mother)
At some point I was being followed by a dangerous looking, barking dog. Although I had 3 (very expensive) rabies jabs prior to the trip, I was quite glad the dog didn´t decide to bite me and thus test their effectiveness (cycling and then being bitten by is a dog is the most common way of contracting rabies... and surviving rabies is very rare...).
However, I was a bit too fanatic and my heart started beating like crazy and that was the start of an annoying, all-day-long headache. The high altitude (varying between 3200 and 4000 m) all hit us more than we thought. So lots of paracetamol, water etc... But was good to acclimatize to the higher altitude before the Inca trek. In the afternoon we visited (again) thermal springs where we were kindly requested to go in the tourist pool rather than the one for the locals.
After the bubbles, a touristy meal in a touristy restaurant was our next adventure (Ana, I felt in China again, remember the separate dining room & the overdose of broccoli of course...). It was quite boring, until a local band came out to play and an English girl from our group, Kate, was asked to take part in a dance. Nothing wildly exciting, until her male Peruvian dance partner started to touch some of her most intimate upper body parts ! She ran off back to her seat, leaving behind a astonished guy who wondered what he had done wrong. Quite hilarious !
Still a couple of days in Peru & Bolivia before I meet up with Martina in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 8th. Then we can finally start OUR trip, the way we imagined it (Imagination @ work !) during that ski-weekend in Verbier, Switzerland at the end of January, followed by our resignations 2 days later :-). Really looking forward to seeing her! Hope she will take up co-authorship of this blog (I am sure she will!). And looking forward to the Argentinian steak & tango...
From Buenos Aires we will travel up to Uruguay, Iguazu Falls and then to Rio de Janeiro. From there (as of June 4th) we will go on an organized tour all the way up to Venezuela.
Hasta pronto !
Marieke
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Sebastiaan
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RE: Inca Trail
Hoi Marieke, Met veel plezier je verhaal gelezen! (zo ook alle andere..) Ben zeer benieuwd naar je foto's van al je avonturen. Nog bedankt voor je kaartje! Met ons gaat alles goed hier. Heb van SG een aanbod op zak voor een contract voor onbepaalde tijd, dus dat is goed nieuws. De nieuwe baan van Saskia laat nog even op zich wachten. De bouw van het hotel bij het hof van saksen heeft wat vertraging opgelopen en zal pas na het hoogseizoen zijn deuren openen. We hebben samen met Anneke koninginnedag gevierd in Groningen en 's avonds ge-bbq-ed. Was gezellig. Verder weinig spannends te melden. Nog veel plezier de laatste dagen in Peru en Bolivia. Tot de volgende blog! Liefs Bas.