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Published: April 8th 2008
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One of the most famous historical sites in the world, set 2400m above sea level and surrounded by cloudforest and mountains, Machu Picchu and the Inca trail are stunning, and definitely deserve their reputation.
Construction on the 'lost city of the Incas' began in around 1450. It took approximately 10,000 people and 100 years to build and would probably have continued expanding were it not for the arrival of the Spanish - the current theory is that the inhabitants were wiped out by smallpox imported from Europe. It was a very important religious and ceremonial centre and the Incas apparently took great pains to hide its existence from the Conquistadores - it was only brought back to the attention of the rest of the world when local children led explorer Hiram Bingham to the site in 1911.
Our personal Inca trail experience was a treat. A fantastic guide (Juan), a cook who deserves a plethora of Michelin stars for the grub he was able to rustle up halfway up a mountain in a tent, an amazing team of porters who carry the majority of your equipment for you, meaning that the altitude doesn't
quite kill you, and of course
Start of the Inca Trail
Where are the tickets, Juan? the incomparable company of the McCollinses! Double respect to Ben who did the whole thing with a dodgy gut!
I won't do a day by day breakdown of how far we walked and what we saw on each day for fear of falling into school trip report territory, but my highlights were as follows:
- our campsite on the first night - nestled in among mountains on green springy grass, we arrived at the site to find our tents already set up (luxury!) and giant bowls of buttery popcorn being served for afternoon tea. Watching the sun go down with a beer and a snack was a great way to end the first day.
- Dead Woman's Pass. The second day is a killer, climbing 1,500ish metres to a high point of around 4,300m. At this altitude the air is so thin that if you're not acclimatised properly (and even if you are!), getting enough oxygen to your brain is a struggle. My tactic for getting to the top was walk ten paces, stop and pant, walk ten paces, stop and pant...etc etc. It just about did the trick and the sense of achievement at reaching the
top is worth all the effort. The flavour of the revolting coca sweets that you can buy to help with altitude sickness had just about grown on me by the end of the day!
- Cloudforest on the third day. In one particular area you are walking along a ridge with steep drops on both sides of you, trees everywhere and a view straight down to the Urubamba river.
- The opportunity to see lots of indigenous people in traditional dress walking the trail with their llamas and donkeys. Also the amazingly impressive sight of the professional porters carrying 30kg packs at twice the speed we were carrying our 6kg packs...those guys are
strong.
- Last but not least, the first glimpse of the ruins from the Sun Gate at dawn on the final day. You scramble through the gate totally out of breath, and it takes a couple of minutes before you actually take a proper look at what is in front of you...the whole city laid out about 500 metres down. We were incredibly lucky with weather as the sky was completely clear as this view can sometimes be obscured by clouds. Totally amazing.
After arrival we had a very interesting two hour tour of the main sites and then decided to sack off the option to climb another peak in favour of sitting around chatting with Nicky, one of our tour group. Unfortunately our sun worshipping (surely this is what you are SUPPOSED to do at Machu Picchu?!) was disturbed by an over zealous official with a whistle and terrible short man complex, who kept coming and bugging people for such crimes as taking their shoes off, and then made us move from our comfortable spot on the grounds that 'another group might want to come and rest here'...Ben's Spanish came in handy for pointing out that there was plenty of room for about another 100 people and that he should **** off and leave us alone, but in the end we found a new spot just to stop having our idyll ruined by the stinking whistle!
Aguas Calientes, otherwise known as Machu Picchu Town, is just down the hill from the ruins, and where we went to stuff ourselves with celebratory pizza. We also paid a short visit to the bonkers hot springs in the town - odd piped music and
Sunset on Snowcapped Mountains
View from the camp on the fist night a sulphurous smell meant we didn't stay long, but it was an amusing side trip and who knows, maybe it helped a bit with getting rid of the leg ache the next day!
We had sensibly scheduled a rest day in Cusco before moving on. The daytime was spent mainly in the pursuit of Doing Bugger All, although Kim, Nicky and I did go for a Peruvian pedicure, which was totally haphazard but quite pleasant after four days walking. The evening was devoted to (you guessed it) booze...starting with some lovely cocktails in the Muse bar, via a drunken dinner, and ending with dancing to cheesy cheesy music accompanied by very strong rum and cokes. There was some podium action and (I'm ashamed to say) some semi pole dancing round stone pillars. Brits abroad...classy eh?!
The Inca trail was definitely a highlight of our trip so far. A lot of new trails are springing up to approach the ruins, but we enjoyed the scenery and the chance to check out other ruins along the trail that this classic route offers. Although there are obviously a fair few other people on the trail, unless you're a true wilderness junkie
On the Sauce Again
Note look of envy on the face of Natalia I don't think this really detracts from the experience, its kind of nice having the companionship, specially in the really hard bits. Rumours are that from next year they will be halving the amount of people allowed on the trail in an attempt to limit damage, so it will probably seem quite quiet then (although prices will probably go up too).
Anyway, i feel like I´ve rambled a lot, so will leave it there!
Love to you all
Nat xxx
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