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Published: August 31st 2007
Machu Picchu
The clouds teased us in the morning but they cleared to reveal this amazing sightThis part of the trip not only has been booked for the longest, but has received most build up (in our heads anyway). The 50 km Inca Trail was upon us and it was judgement day for our fitness levels. In preparation we had done lots of walking in Africa, but not only was that at sea level, but it was a very long time ago. I´ve drunk a lot of beer since then.
Before we left London, Matt, Anna, Jules and George had all expressed an interest in joining us for this leg of the trip. We left the arrangments in their capable hands and here we all were at last. Thankfully, it wasn´t straight into the walking; we had 5 days in Cusco together to allow the others to acclimatise to the altitude. Having been here a week already, Marissa and I were supposed to be all sorted, but the steep street to our hostel was still killing us. Oh well 5 more days to go! It was a great 5 days though, great to catch up with some familiar faces and hear all the news from back home. The large majority of the time was spent hanging
The Inkas really knew how to make walls
Although I don´t think they sat in them out in our hostel, which not only served great (all day) breakfasts but had hammocks in the courtyard. It would have been rude not to soak up some winter sun. We did break this up a little with day trip to Pisac in the Saced Valley of the Incas. The old Inca Fortress gave us all a taster of what was to come, and Jules his first chance to be in awe of the Inca stone work. Matt also used this free time to persuade Anna and me to do our first bungee, which he then conveniently pulled out of as the days approached. Something about a towel rail ... 😉
Relaxed and acclimatised it was time to tackle the trek. It all kicked off with the first of many mugs of Milo and a short briefing in which the basic plan for the next four days was outlined. In summary, day two was going to be hard work with us tackling not just "Dead Woman's Pass" but also a 600m decent and then a 2nd pass at over 4000m. Day three made up for it with a gentle downhill walk through the jungle and the promise of seeing
Just so Peru
Camelids and small boys in bright colours Toucans. That alone was enough to get me excited, as since I was a little chap I have always been fond of the Toucan. Mum and Dad used to own one of those old Guinness adverts and growing up I seemed to get obsessed with the Toucan and his colourful beak. (Some years later I also became partial to Guinness itself, so perhaps the advert got me at an impressionable age). Ever since then I have been trying to see a Toucan in the wild, without much luck. Even in Tikal, Guatamala, where people tell you the chances of seeing Toucans is extremely high, Marissa and I failed. So on hearing this news from our guides, I was extremely happy.
The walk itself was amazing, and unlike anything either of us have done before. At times it was a real challenge, and over the 4 days possibly one of the most physically demanding things we have done. Part of that was down to walking long distances over consecutive days and part of it was down to the altitude. I know I seem to mention this a lot, but crossing a pass at 4200m really does take your breath away!
"Just some more Inka terraces"
I think our guide, Orlando, was losing motivation as he described the next sight, which was for me one of the highlights of the trip Having said that, doing this walk was far from a hardship. Each day we would get up with very few aches and pains and be eager for more. The scenery was absolutely stunning and our two guides, Orlando and Cesar, were not just extremely entertaining, but extremely interesting. The whole set up of the tour was brilliant. Each day we would be woken early with a cup of coca tea in the tent and a view over the Andies. After a hearty breakfast we would hit the road and walk for a few hours. In the meantime our amazing team of porters would pack up our tents, clear up breakfast and put everything (including our personal belongings) on their backs. They would then proceed to RUN to the lunch spot, overtaking us as they did so. They would then set up a kitchen and have a delicious three course meal prepared and cooked for us on arrival. After lunch, the same would happen except by the time we got to our evening camp they would also have pitched our tents for us. These guys were compete legends.
Surprisingly day 3, rather than Machu Picchu itself, was the highlight. The
We have friends again!
Apart from the towel rail incident we were all smiles for our first day together in Cusco walk down though the jungle was just spectacular. A soft green canopy overhanging the Inca path with brightly coloured butterflies and hummingbirds beckoning you down the slope. There would be occasional stops for small Inca ruins and just before lunch we were given the option of a detour to an extra Inca site called Conchamarca. Orlando, who I can only presume was getting hungry, tried to dismiss them as "just another set of Inca terraces". We went anyway, and boy was this the understatement of the decade. Perched on, no almost cut out of the side of a cliff face were a series of 20 steep stone terraces, overlooking the rolling hills and jagged rocks of the valley, leading down to a crisp blue river. We were able to take a terrace each and sit in peace in the sun and soak it all in. You could have sat there for a lifetime it was so beautiful. It was so good in fact that it more than made up for the lack of my colourful billed friend. Yes, despite his best efforts, Orlando could not furfil his promise of a Toucan sighting.
The quest continues ...
This Weeks Likes
- The Ultimate Powernap. As mentioned day 2 really was the big day. We arrived at our lunch spot exhausted having conquered Dead Woman´s Pass and the decent that followed. We then ate a huge meal (which I´m not sure is the best of plans) and found ourselves completely knackered! How were we going to get up and take on another pass? We were invited to have a quick 20mins kip and when we awoke and were ready for anything ... not that we had much choice.
- As part of our excursion out of Cusco we got the chance to go to a small petting zoo full of Llamas, Alpacas and a few Vicunas. It doesn´t matter how many of these fellas I see, I can´t get enough of them. Highlights here were feeding them and the little 90 mins old Llama!
- Sticks! Not just the walking sticks, which gave one an air of nomadic traveller, but the many games of pick up sticks played in Cusco bars!
This Weeks Dislikes * As spectacular as it was to see Machu Picchu, the problem with historic sites of this stature is
the enormous crowds - even early in the morning. This was made more apparent after spending the preceding days amongst so few people. We got to the Sun Gate at 6.30am and were looking down iconic site, watching the sun break through the clouds and gradually lighting up the ruins, only to have to listen to several North London girls continually go on and on to each other about how "minging" their hair was after 3 days of trekking. As BA would say "Shut up fool!!"
* A nice long walk around late night Cusco, after our guidebook had our hostel on the wrong place on the map.
* Getting back from the trek to find an attack on the travelblog site had corrupted all of our blogs dating back to Africa! Some serious time, and help from the site administrator, got them all back again, but we are somewhat behind with our diary because of it.
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Joools
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"... brightly coloured butterflies and hummingbirds beckoning you down the slope" - James pull it together man! This travel writing is changing you - or is this what we can expect from a married man! Anyway, I'm seriously thinking about setting up a FB group called "Alpacas are my favourite animals" - never actually seen one myself but the photos from you guys and Matt make them look so cool!!!!