Advertisement
The first thing that I saw was the mountains. Despite my bleary and jet lagged eyes I couldn’t help but be awestruck by the majesty of the Andes piercing through the thick cloud that covered Peru. Out of one side of the plane the peaks were snow capped, from the other brown and rounded. As we cut through the clouds though my first impression reminded me of Egypt - it would appear that Peru also has a tax on completed buildings so most have the top floor unfinished.
Despite having completed three flights, crossed the date line, had a sixteen hour lay over in LA and a two hour delay in Panama my journey was not yet complete despite now having a Peru stamp in my passport. I had one night in a lovely and new hostel in Lima and the following morning to Cusco - now I could rest for a few days - acclimatise and wait for the beginning of another dream come true - the Inca Trail.
The altitude headache disappeared within 24 hours and I felt that I could set off exploring and even climbing the hills around Cusco to soak up the view -
not so fast! Breathless wasn’t even in it! I felt like a 60 a day smoker or somewhat higher than that in age - Cusco literally took my breath away!
I went to the briefing for the start of the trail and met up with the 16 other people that would constitute the tourist group for my trail. We would be supported by 21 porters (two of which were chefs) and two guides. An imposing group by any standards! I went back to my room and made my room mates laugh with my childish excitement about the morning. Needless to say I barely slept despite giving myself a serious talking to - the alarm, when it went of at 3.15am, didn’t have to wake me!
I had been warned that the first day involved lots of stops, advise for which I was grateful as otherwise I would have been gnashing my teeth. I know it’s not a race, but at least half of my enjoyment in trekking is the exercise and challenge that it brings. We stopped for lovely meals of several courses and got to know each other a little which was great and eventually made camp.
The following day was another early start although 5.30am seemed a treat compared to the previous day. The second day is the hardest as it includes Dead Womans Pass - an overall ascent of a kilometre to 4200m! I had fallen into a trio of walkers around my pace who, given our unintentional co-ordination one day called ourselves the ‘Pink Ladies’. We all gathered at the top of the pass for group photos and looked at the ominous clouds forming on the other side of the pass. I tempted the gods saying that I’m really lucky and that it’d all be find weather wise - what an idiot!
I spent the rest of the day apologising to the gods of any faith or tradition I could think of for my pride! The heavens opened and the trail quite literally became a river. We all found that we were no longer affected by altitude or exhaustion as we reached near marching pace for the rest of the day. Porters were running downhill and there were a few of our group that mingled in quite well with them thus was their speed! There was nothing to do of course other
than laugh and we did plenty of that as we arrived at camp and stood wringing out shoes, clothes - even underwear.
The following morning many of the group had lined their wet shoes with plastic bags to make the day a little more bearable but at least this was a short one in terms of walking. The rain paused to give us breathtaking morning views of the ruins we
should have seen the previous day of Sayaqmarka. By the time we left though it was business as usual with the rain, although not as intense as the previous day. We all prayed that we had now had our dose of bad luck and that things would now improve. By lunchtime though things had started to clear and we were able to enjoy the ruins and the views on the way. Some of the porters had rushed ahead with our huge pile of wet clothes so that they could put them out in the sun for us and by the time we got to camp it was so hot that all we were fit for was sun bathing and beer! Clearly the worm had turned.
Our guide told
us that there were some lovely ruins just near the campsite where we were all comfy and craddling a beer. After an intense grilling - 'is it really 5 minutes away?' 'what exactly is the path like - it's not a 'Inca flat' is it?' 'can we take our beer?' After he had soothed all our concerns we walked the flat 5 minutes, beer in hand, to Winaywayna. This stunning scene had beautifully preserved buildings and dramatic terraces and was certainly the biggest site that we had seen so far. Now our appetites were truly ready for the morning!
That evening at camp we shared introductions with the porters who had cared for us so incredibly during the trip and presented them with a tip. It was great to hear where they were from and the age range was so humbling - 19-60yrs! Whilst on the one hand I could lament the intense work for people of such an age I know that conditions have improved dramatically for these workers over the years who now only carry a mere 25kgs each ... rather than the 50+ it often used to be.
Our final morning was of course the
most exciting. Once again I had barely been able to sleep with excitement and we were all up long before the 5am wake up call. There was a great buzz on the site for all of the groups as we all queued up at the final checkpoint. The guide told us that people get a bit crazy at this point and start to run etc but I think our whole group, who had been divided by fitness for the last few days formed a solid marching unit - we were so fast and no one really stopped despite how tired they may have been. The sky was spectacular. Its colours moved through a gentle lilac with grey clouds and sillouette mountains right through to being on fire. I lingered at the back trying to capture it on the move but before we knew it we were head down, camcorder out, climbing the final 55 steps that take you up to the sun gate - and there before us Macchu Picchu.
The many many pictures I took will never manage to capture the setting of the place. It's 2430m above sea level and set on a peak that has at
its far end Waynapicchu - the back bone rock of which there are some more ruins looking out over the city. The Urumbamba river loops around the city, a dramatic 450m below, and the surrounding mountains then seem to cradle the whole city. It is generally thought that the city was built as an estate for the Inca emporer Pachacuti - with construction starting around 1400AD, but the 140 or so structures that comprise the city remain largely a mystery. It is suggested that it was only inhabited for around 100 years before either the Spanish conquistadors got there, or at least the smallpox they brought with them did. The site was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham who, in the style of most great discoveries, was actually looking for something else - a different Inca city for which is was a good 4 days trek off the mark for! Gratefully though it was discovered and now, hundreds of people every day make the pilgrimage to the place with the top of Waynapicchu seeming to be an incredibly romantic spot for people to propose to their beloveds!
We walked round for hours taking in all the sites, guessing their
purposes and trying to find regular shade in the spectacular day that we'd been given in answer to all our prayers. Our guide was even taking photos with his
own camera such was the beauty of the first few rays of the day penetrating over the mountains and touching the city.
It was of course so hard to say goodbye - but eventually that was what we had to do, and as I sat in the hot springs of nearby Aguas Calientes staring up at the mountains I had to keep pinching myself that I had, once again, had one of my dreams come true.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.316s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 86; dbt: 0.056s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Paul
non-member comment
Great blog, we did the same trip a couple of years ago with Llama path (did you have guides Alex or santiago by any chance?) and it was one of the best experiences of our lives, its great to see your pics it brings it all back. Happy and safe travels. mytb.org/paul-and-emma