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Published: October 15th 2005
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When Ella announced she was staying in Cusco to learn Spanish, Salsa and Peruvian cookery instead of doing the Inca Trail I spent the next 2 days dithering (not like me I know!) about whether I really wanted to camp for 3 nights probably in the rain, with very limited facilities.
But everyone said I couldn´t come to Peru and not do it, so suddenly I found myself equipped with walking pole, poncho and coco leaves (for the altitude sickness), waving goodbye to our tour guide. No going back now!!
We spent the night before the trek at Ollataytambo, eating, drinking (to steady my nerves of course), dancing and learning to play the panpipes. Then at 8am the next morning we set off with Fredy, our guide and his two side kicks Alex and Jose.
The weather was lovely and the scenery beautiful. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there were toilet facilities every 3 hours on the Inca Trail as Finland had apparently invested 7m USD in them. However by the first stop it was clear that $7m does not buy much in the way of toilets in Peru as these were toilets in the very
loosest sense of the word. Hmmm, wonder where that money really went?
We had all hired porters to carry our sleeping bags, mats, clothes etc so all we needed to carry was our water and clothing that we needed during the day. The porters were amazing - mostly around 4ft 7in with calves like milk bottles they would run past us with twice their height and probably weight in luggage on their backs. Owen commented that they were like the Umpah Lumpahs from Charlie and the chocolate factory!
At the lunch stop I was expecting to grab a quick sarnie, but the porters and the cook who had run past us only an hour before had set up a dining tent, laid the table and proceeded to serve up the most amazing three course meal. Oh dear, my plan to lose weight from all the exercise ended here!
At around 3pm and after walking 10km we reached our camp for the first night. Miraculously, the porters had packed up from lunch, run ahead of us and set up all our tents and prepared afternoon tea! After another 3 course dinner it was time to hit the sack
at 8.30pm. After all it was pitch black, raining and we had an early start the next day.
I woke up the next morning with white knuckles from where I had been clinging to my sleep mat in an attempt not to roll into Maria, my tent buddy, as our tent was pitched on a hill. Not the best nights sleep I´ve ever had.
Day 2 of the trek was supposed to be the hardest - 12km, mostly uphill until we reach Dead Woman´s Pass at 4,200m, the highest point on the Inca Trail.
We set off at around 8am and again the weather was lovely. The combination of the uneven ground, the alttitude and the steady climb uphill meant the trek was quite hard, but it was exhilerating.
One of the great things about doing the Inca Trail is that you get plenty of time to chat and get to know the other people in the group. Around mid morning I found myself walking with Fredy who was telling me about his life in Cuzco and how he came to be a tour guide.
Now Lisa, our tour leader had warned us that Fredy
And they´re off!
Start of the Inca Trail was a bit of a ladies man but I was a bit taken aback when after only 20 minutes into our conversation, he took my hand and moved in for a snog!! I quickly turned away and commented that he shouldn't really be kissing his passengers however I spent the next 24 hours fending off his advances and trying to avoid being caught alone with him!
Day three was the last full day of walking - 16 km and probably the nicest scenery so far, including a few Inca ruins along the way. The weather was fine until the last hour and despite a rain jacket and poncho I arrived at the camp completely drenched, not knowing whether to get in the tent which would of course make it wet or stand outside just getting more wet. I opted to go for a shower as this was the only campsite on the trek with a proper building and shower block. I was in for a long wait as there was only 1 out of 3 showers working and a huge queue as there were at least three other groups camping at the same site.
We had our last
dinner in the main building, said farewell to our porters and presented them with their tips. Then it was time to salsa the night away in an attempt to put off the inevitable trudge accross the campsite to our soggy tent.
Day 4 - we were awoken in the dark at 4am so we could get to the Sun Gate and see Machu Picchu before all the tourists arrived from the train. The rain was still pounding down and everything felt damp. This was my worst nightmare scenario and one of the reasons I had doubted doing the Inca Trail in the first place. Luckily the rain stopped after breakfast just as it was getting light and we set off for the 2 hour walk to the Sun Gate.
At 7am, after nearly being proded off some very steep steps by a fellow trekker's walking pole, I saw my first glimpse of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate. It was spectacular but it didn't last long as after a couple of minutes it was lost in a cloud. We decided to save our group photo pose for nearer to the site.
Finally arriving at the main site
Day 2 - The group reaches Dead Womans Pass - 4,200m
Chris, Simon, James, Owen, Jon, Alex W, Alex E, Matt, Shona and Helen we were rewarded with clear views of Machu Picchu, cheese and ham sandwiches and some very clean public toilets - the first I would actually dare sit on in Peru!
After mooching around the site for a few hours and hearing a few interesting facts about Machu Picchu including:
- The resident Llamas have only been put there for the tourists?!
- A beer company filmed a commercial there and accidently broke one of the sacred stones?!
we had a farewell lunch with our guides and caught the train back to Cusco for the 24 hour challenge...basically partying at Mama Africa's until 4am.
I was exhausted, glad I had done it, but even more glad to get back to Cusco to the hotel and my hair straightners!
We had the next day to recover in Cusco and we headed to our favourite cafe The Muse. Something must have happened to me on the Inca Trail as I befriended a local 6 year old called Melanie and spent the afternoon teaching her to play snap and buying her sweets! I hope my maternal instinct hasn't suddenly kicked in!
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Cynthia
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Inca Trail
Hi Alex. Well done for climbing up the Inca Trail. It will be an experience forever. I'd love to have done it. Not much news here. Missing you guys. Cy xx