Colca Canyon, Cuzco & The Inka Trail

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So yes, the title does indeed imply that I have survived the Inka trail...shock horror!! It was fantasic, but I shall come back to that later....
Following the failed attempt to leave the city last Wednesday we spent another day in Arequipa...the streets were crawling with protesters, especially in the main square where we had all organised to meet for lunch! Was a good atmosphere though in the town, had no idea what they were chanting, but they all seemed to want different things!! Got off the streets for a few hours (having planned to shop and having found the shops to all be shuttered up with a tiny door open in case of a riot kicking off!!) to a museum with the best preserved mummy in south america, huanita. Was interesting learning all about how she was destined from birth to be sacrificed and how she was buried at the top of a mountain as a sacrifice to the gods....was trully amazing how preserved she was...in a glass box which was kept at sub zero temperatures to ensure the quality doesn´t deteriorate. From there we mooched around for a while before getting on the bus again to try to leave the city...It was an interesting journey, barely any cars on the road, and rocks everywhere, the driver did a very good job avoiding all the boulders etc, but we did make it out of the town, finally!! Stopped for some coca tea outside of the city halfway to our hostel, the plant from which cocaine is made, but legal to drink and chew over here as it helps altitude sickness. It was drinkable, but was more of a functional thing than for enjoyment. Arrived at our hostel about 9pm, it was a palace, a proper retreat with burning fires and cosy rooms and buffet dinner...mmm!!! A few glasses of pisco sour round the fire before bed.

Thursday we headed off to the canyon early early early...because condors come out early apparantly...down a nice long, bumpy mud track (joy) and into the canyon. The canyon was cool, but we only got to see a tiny section of the actual canyon because it´s so big, which was a shame, but it is twice as deep as the grand canyon in the US apparantly. Very beautiful. We stopped in Maca village to see the church and take some photos with the locals, dressed up especially for us....as they are everywhere it would seem! Anyway, from there we drove further into the canyon and went for a 90minute hike along the canyon to see condors...spotted a few early on and our guide got excited, however when we reached the Cruz del Condor, the main lookout point where the lazy (*ahem* 50 year old american) buggers get dropped off, there were loads, and the view of the canyon was truly spectacular. Wish we hadn´t missed the previous day in the canyon, but nevermind, such is life. From there we headed to another village for lunch and to the hot springs for an hour or so. Met up with Rachel and Johnathan who had both been taken ill the previous few days but had seen a doctor and were okay to move on....the dodgy food out here seems to be affecting most people at some point.....touch wood my stomach is resilient by now!!
From the colca canyon we headed back to Arequipa, catching a flight to Cuzco the next morning. Hurrah!!

Up early again (an ongoing theme with this trip, dammit!) to catch our flight. Was only an hour up to Cuzco, stopping en route somewhere else, but we flew over Misti mountain (amongst others), with a huge crater at the top. Amazing views. Landed in Cuzco about 9, to the hostel and off into town. The festival Inti Rami (Sunfestival) was happenning on the sunday (unfortunately we were to be on the Inka trail, but the town was buzzing with stages and dancers and celebrations, couldn´t move mind. Had lunch and then went around a series of uninspiring museums on our tourist ticket for the city...realising the only decent museum isn´t included in the ticket, and there was a huge queue...we shall go back! That evening we went for dinner at a rather fancy, overpriced restaurant, a choice of our guide of course, since he eats for free because he brings us along...something rather wrong there don´t you think? Ohh well, the food was good, even though service was definitely lacking....no meal in South America, especially Peru can everyones food come out at the same time....makes an interesting wait!!

Saturday up early, once more, to head out with our packed duffle bags, (no more than 7kg, including sleeping bags and thermarests...argh...) and off to the Sacred Valley to look at our first big Inka ruins......first we headed off to a small Andean community with whom GAP works closely and whose men they employ as porters on the Inka trail, and whose wives and children make local textiles out of llama etc. We had a demonstration of the full process, from llamas roaming around the yard to finnished products for sale. Was really good to know that by buying something it was genuinely 100% alpaca and that the money went directly to the people who needed it most in the remote areas of Peru.

From there we headed off to Pisac, a mountainside Inka fortress with more terraces for agriculture, shaped exactly to the shape of the mountain to preserve the shape and climatic state. Astronomical points too which are to be a recurring theme of Inka constructions- they all face East to the sun and water is an important feature. This is derived from Inka beleif that the first Inka ruler came down on a ray of sunlight from the sun, and that the first Inka queen came up from the waters of Lake Titicaca. Thus sunlight is of utmost importance, with special emphasis on the summer and winter solstices, when the sun rises, the rays of light light up only the most important area of the Inka construction. Also Inka profiles have been carved in the rocks at such important places in the horizon such that when the sun rises this is striking. Acoustics were also important to Inkas, with sounds revurberating (how on earth is that one spelt!) around the towns....the Inkas were very clever people!

From there we headed up to Ollantaytambo, another Inka city in the hills- a fortress used to great strategic importance back in the time of the Spanish invasion. The city was amazing, and is the only inhabited Inka city (although they don´t live in the bulk of the ruins....) but this means they cannot put concrete down for roads, and that houses have to be made out of mud, straw and guinea pig hair bricks....deeelightful!! I found my mudhut in the end!! Stayed the night there before the Inka trail kicked off the next morning...woowoo!!

Up at about 7 on Sunday for the Inka trail (a relative lie in!) before a brief drive to Km 82, our departure point, where we met our porters, had our bags weighed, and our group left at about 9.05. There were 12 of us in total, one guy hadn´t been able to get a place on the Inka trail because it was booked up, but between the 12 of us we had 18 porters...I KID YOU NOT!!! 18!! Insane!

Anyway, off we headed, passports stamped, numbers checked, and the day of the serpent began...called so by our guide Roberto, because the first day was relatively flat and you slither like a snake...hmm! Was quite an easy walk along the sacred river with a few ups and downs, however, we were still at altitude- 2600m. We walked for a couple of hours, taking in the scenery and arrived for lunch at about 12, where our fab team of porters had set up a tent for lunch, with water to wash hands and stools to sit on...so civilised! The food was fab too...all Inka grown crops, so lots of corn soup, (hmmm) and the mains were just great, trout, chicken, beef, mmmm! They excelled themselves!! Anyway, carried on walking after lunch for another few hours to our campsite, a little further than most other peoples camp sites, to make the arduous second day a little more bearable!! We set off before our porters at lunch, and yet they overtook us and by the time we arrived at the campsite they had set up the tents and dinner was on the way!! Insane levels of service!! Apparantly once a year they have a race on the entire Inka trail, which the porters generally participate in, the record is 3hrs 45...we did it in 3 & a bit days!! Haha! The porters also carry 25kg when they walk with us, all our crap and food, and tents and everything...respect.

Monday we headed off on the climb from utter hell!! The day of the puma, we climbed and we climbed and we climbed!! We had a 4hours hike ahead of us, from 3100m to 4200m. Ohh god, I almost died!! Daniella set off at a good pace (but having climbed Kilimanjaro it was a little fast!!) Daniella, Rachel, Katherine and I tried to stick together but Daniella was just toooooo mean!! We hit the 2hr checkpoint a little ahead of time, and the last 2 hrs was utterly horrible!! I dropped back with some of the lads behind us, and slowly plodded up the mountain to dead womans pass....yes, a suitably apt name!! Made it to the top after a lot of puffing and panting, and coca leaf chewing in 3hrs 15, which was very good methinks, however one of the lads, Tom, made it up in 2hrs 30....toooo damn fit!!!

From there we headed down the mountain to lunch, a 1 hr walk down far too many Inka steps...grrrr!! Lunch was good, everyone was too knackered to talk mind...but Roberto persuaded us to push on over the second high pass that afternoon thus making day 3 much easier and putting us ahead of lots of the groups on the train (16 in total on our day of departure!). We pushed on despite utter exhaustion to the second pass, and it was somewhat uphill again, although nothing compared to this morning. Mon dieu, I am not climbing at altitude ever again!! And right now if I never want to see a staircase ever again!! I intend on living in a bungalow for ever and ever and ever!!! Made it to the second campsite at about 4 that afternoon, having walked since 7 that morning, deeeelightful!! Collapsed, but knowing that the worst of it was over..thank god!! Dinner was fab once more, but conversation was somewhat lacking due to the sheer exhaustion of everyone!!

The next morning we headed off a little later because the trek wasn´t that long, but it was somewhat undulating, although it was through a picturesque cloud rainforrest which was nice, but nothing will quite make up for the number of steps we had to climb and descend! Third pass was somewhat cloudy so the view wasn´t much to write home about. We arrived for lunch at about 12.30 knowing that it was all downhill from there the next morning to Machu Piccu, only it wasn´t quite all downhill as we were to discover!! We went to some ruins before lunch- "Intipata" and after lunch we took a 10min walk to another ruined city - "Wiñaywayna" which was pretty spectacular. Wiñaywayna especially so because it was 100% original Inka stonework, whereas most of the trail and the other sites had been 40% restored. It is beleived the inka trail from km 82 to km 122 took between 6 months and a year to build- lots of very hard working Inkas! Arriving at our last campsite though was fantastic, because it meant we could have a hot shower, yessss!!! The lads especially were trully stinking, but the girls were also in need of a shower it must be said!! This campsite also had a bar to chill out in which was nice, although the size of tip required meant alcoholic beverages had to be resisted....dammit!

Woke up at 3.50 the next morning for a hike in the dark, to the checkpoint first, which took all of 10 minutes, where we sat (second in line i might add) for 45minutes waiting for the gate to be opened!! Apparantly it was best to be near the front, hence the horrific hour, but we weren´t quite convinced! The path from there to the sun gate which was supposed to be all downhill definitely wasn´t, it was an hour of pretty hard walking on the back of the past few days....arghh!! When we reached the sun gate it was cloudy as well so we couldnt see naff all!! Headed on from there down to the place where the sunrise was supposed to be best viewed from, however yet again, more cloud. I was getting pretty disappointed, somewhat of an anticlimax, until suddenly the clouds started clearing off and in front of us was Machu Piccu. It was trully spectacular, kind of eiirie as the clouds moved across and, thankfully, the battery didn´t die at the crucial moment!! Hehe! Spent half an hr there or so before going down into the city itself and going on a walking tour with our wonderful guide....was fantastic to see the city in its real form, not just photos! Lots of history and facts from Roberto, including how the Inkas decided to hide it from the Spanish when they conquered the Inkan empire by letting the undergrowth grow over, and in the space of a year the city was hidden....only found years later by some Spanish, but not reported to Spain because they wanted to keep the booty for themselves. The entire place was amazing, I cannot express how special it was. Some of the others decided to climb the mountain in the backdrop of all the photos, however about half of us had had enough and sat in the grounds amongst the llamas and chatted. Was good. Caught a bus down the mountain (very scary ride it must be said), ate a late lunch, jumped on a train, then a bus, and then finally made it home to collapse into bed. Unfortunately our numbers are somewhat depleted as lots of people seem to have been taken ill, we suspect it might be Bronchitus caught from our tour guide, but we cannot clarify this as yet....will not be impressed if that´s the case though!! I seem to be okay at the moment, so fingers crossed!! Anyway, am back in Cuzco today, and stay here for another few days before pushing on to the floating islands of Lake Titikaka and Bolivia...where everyone is expected to get some form of stomach upset due to their excellent food hygeine standards!!

Anyway, sorry for rambling for so long, but Machu Piccu deserves a little credit I feel!! Almost feel like I could come home now I´ve done the big one, but there´s still lots of fantastic things to see- yay!! Take care one and all, ciao, xxxx

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Photos

Colca Canyon
Inka terraces for farming

Condor
The best photo my camera could manage, I want a new one with a big ass lens!!

Cuzco
Inti Rami Dancers

Llama in central Cuzco
As close as I dared get without being spat at!!

Cuzco 2
Rachel, Graham, Me & Stefan

Dead Womans Pass
Look carefully, turning your head sideways and you can see a womans profile!!

Comments

[Nicholas Wilson]

One of the 7 Deadly Sins
Envy is renowned to be one of the 7 Deadly Sins; Your father is tempted to commit this sin whilst viewing all the amazing pictures on your Blog! Keep sending the pictures and he will soon be on a short list for Hades, but it will be worth it. Happy Hunting.