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Published: November 10th 2005
Los Flacos
at the start of the Inca Trail.I must say I was a little dissapointed with the walk to Machu Picchu.
I had expected a four day trek, but in fact it was a little more than a short walk. Everyone had told me it is hard and the second day very tough, as it passes over 4500 meters, and so I had expected a bit of a mission- I had even fobed off my sleeping bag and mattress off to a porter such was the difficulty I had been expecting.
But in truth the Inca trail to Machu Picchu is a walk for fat unfit city dwellers who think a half hour walk around the park is excercise. I´ll give you a breakdown so you can see what I mean.
Km82 to Wayllabamba, guide time- 4.30 hours; time it took - 1.30
Wayllabamba to dead woman Pass, guide time- 6 hours; time it took - 2 hours
Dead woman pass to Qochapata, guide time -4 hours; time it took - 2 hours
Qochapata to Phuyupatamarka, guide time - 2 hours; time it took - 40 minutes
Phuyupatamarka to Wiñaywaina, guide time - 3 hours. ; time it took - 1.30
I have a 600 dollar
pack and this porter uses a bit of string and a bit of plastic to carry the same weight. From the beginning I was feeling ripped off... Wiñaywaina to Machu Picchu, guide time - 2.30 hours; time it took - 40 minutes.
So to sum up, I was told it would require six to eight hours walking each day, with a total of around 22 hours walking, I walked it in 7 hours 40. True, it was over 4 days, but I think I could walk the whole thing in under 12 hours straight. It wasn´t like we were even walking quickly.
On the second day we only walked for 2.5 hours from camp site to camp site. So that afternoon, to pass the time, I climbed up a mountain where we were camped to view some of the water falls, and continued on to a lake high up in the mountain. I didn´t know the lake was there, but I climbed up on a hunch, as was rewarded with a lovely lake in a large valley with a long rambling waterfall. I did not follow any trail on the way up, so I felt like a little discovery. There was no one else around for miles, as all the other walkers stayed in there tents, to rest of their obvious exhaustion. I think
aughh.. love you Russell Brown
Still, I was not going to try it either. this was the highlight of the 4 days.
The third day the walk passes some lovely scenery, as is by far the most interesting strech of the Inca trail.
I was in a porterage with 3 other people. One guy from Madrid, who is a treking agent for an agency in Madrid, and two students from Denmark. I couldn´t have wished for a better bunch of people. We are all skinny, so we named ourselves "Los Flacos" which means The Skinnies.
Well, team Flaco was first to Machu Picchu out of all the other groups, and we were rewarded with a lovely view of low clould. So we walked down to Machu Picchu in the inky stillness for our tour. During the tour the cloud lifted nicely to reveal the city. I think it is more impressive half shourded in cloud as it seems to go on for ever.
The cloud lifted around 9, just in time for the hoard of tourists that come up from Cusco for the day.
At the far end of Machu Picchu is a mountian named Huayna Picchu which is home to pure madness. At the top of this mountian they built
houses on the side of the shear cliffs, which drop down hundreds of meters to the valley floor below. I´d bet more than one sleepwalker met his fate on a long fall down to the bottom. It is also a hard 30 minute climb up, and no llama could ever make it. The view is absolutely amazing, but lord, at what price?
This is diffenately the highlight of Machu Picchu.
To avoid the tourists climbing up the mountian as you are climbing down, I recommend continuing over the top of the mountian and going down via the Great Cave. There are some interesting peices of trail on the way down.
On the whole Machu Picchu is interesting and diffinately a must see, but I would not recommend the Inca Trail. The first two days are just boring if you aren´t prepared to climb other peaks yourself, and I think the 5 day trek from Salkantay a better use of your money.
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