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Published: December 5th 2007
How can I describe the three day, forty-five kilometre high altitude trek that took us from the 82 kilometre marker near the village of Ollantaytambo to the ancient and mysterious city of Machu Picchu......bloody hard!!
Seriously, hiking the Inca Trail was definitely one of the hardest things I have done physically and mentally, but being the ancient history buff that I am, walking the roads that the Inca used to accelerate the distribution of information, food and valuables across their empire, seeing the ruins scattered along the trail and finishing up at one of the foremost archealogical sites in the world made all the effort very worthwhile!
Day 1 Eight of us set out from Cusco (Janice and another three people in our group had wisely decided not to undertake the trail) to the starting point at Kilometre 82 and were treated to some fantastic scenery featuring snow capped mountains along the way. After a brief stop in Ollantaytambo for our last decent coffee (thanks again Will!!), we got to the check-in point, had our passports checked and stamped and finally crossed the suspension bridge to begin what for many of us was to be the highlight of
the trip to South America.
Initially the hike was pretty easy and we started thinking that all the hype about the difficulty of the Inca Trail was just bollocks...pretty soon as we began the first real ascent of the trail we realized that if this was the "easiest" day that it was going to be pretty strenuous after all. After a brief stop at the ruins of Llactapata (translates to town on a hillside) we climbed up a series of switchback paths to the day 1 campsite of Wayllabamba at 3,060 metres. Coming into the campsite first, I was able to watch the porters arrive and unload the gear and start setting up camp (also gave me the opportunity to capture each of my group members entering the camp much to their delight). The porters that do the Inca Trail are absolutely amazing - these wiry, nimble guys dash up the steep, rocky paths in sandals carrying anything from 25 - 40kg worth of equipment on their small frames.
After a few minutes in camp, we discovered that we could buy Cusquena (the local beer) from the lady whose backyard the campsite was in and were able to
settle down with a couple of beers while we got our tent organized. Following a very good dinner (considering the circumstances), we played cards for a while before heading off to bed to try and get a good nights rest as the next morning we were getting up before dawn to start the hardest day of the trek.
Day2 Waking up at around 4am to the sounds of the porters getting ready to break camp, my tent mate, Alex, and I were pleased to find a hot cup of tea at the entrance to our tent. As the group had decided the previous evening to put off breakfast until we got to a campsite later in the day, we got stuck straight into packing up our belongings - not having been camping for several years it took me longer than I expected to compress and refold the sleeping bag and air mattress, but I got there eventually!
After spending ten minutes trying to decide which toilet (there was a choice between disgusting western style toilet with no seat and disgusting squat toilet - I decided on the squat) to patronize I got back to the camp in time
Inca Ruins at Llactapata
Apparently these ruins are where Hiram Bingham camped the first night on his journey to discover Machu Picchu - softie!! We went on at least another couple of hours further!to contemplate the day's journey with the rest of the group.
On Day 2, we would hike about 15 kilometres during which we would climb from 3,060 metres to 4,200 metres then descend to 3,600 metres before climbing back up to 4,000 metres and finally descend to 3,700 metres before arriving at the Day 2 campsite at Chakiqocha - yes, it promised to be a hard day. It was also at this point that several of us noticed that the highest point on the trail - affectionately named "Dead Woman's Pass" - closely resembled the female breast (coincidence....I think not).
Hiking up a number of switchback trails, we began to come across other groups of hikers and after seeing people several times began to strike up conversations with different people. One thing that was immediately obvious was the international make-up of those on the trail - we met people from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Israel, Spain and many other countries.
One of the minor annoyances of the ascent to Dead Woman's Pass was the constant change of the weather - one minute it was hot and sunny, 15 minutes later you're fishing your rain
poncho out of your pack and then 20 minutes after that you're taking it off again as the rain has now stopped and it's hot and steamy (both inside and outside the poncho)!! This went on over and again until we got to the summit and it was just plain cold and windy (luckily it did not rain until we were about to leave the summit and begin the treacherous walk down the steep, slippery, stone steps).
After walking down a very, very, very long flight of steps in the rain we arrived at the Paqaymayo campsite to have lunch before climbing and descending the Runkuraqay pass - unfortunately the significant cloud cover coming down from Runkuraqay meant that we weren't really able to see the Sayacmarca ruins very well and as it was starting to drizzle again we (Will and I) decided to just push on and get to camp as quickly as possible.
By this stage it was absolutely pouring with rain and I began to walk as quickly as possible so I could get to camp, get out of the rain and get something warm to drink (it was also quite cold and the humidity
A message from my friends...
Sandy expresses her gratitude at having her picture taken entering the Day 1 campsite.... had made everything inside my poncho as wet as everything outside). After walking for what seemed like forever, I finally made it to camp shortly after the lead porters followed a few minutes later by Will. Over the next hour or so, the rest of the group entered the camp until finally Sandy arrived looking very worse for wear. It turned out that Sandy had caught a pretty serious stomach bug and had been sick for most of the day - the next day she had to be piggy backed by one of the porters to Machu Picchu and down to Aguas Calientes to the doctor. It was a testament to her stamina and perserverance that she was able to finish Day 2 under her own steam.
After Matt, Alex and I finished a bottle of Pisco we felt a little better and I was ready to have something to eat and collapse into bed - and that's pretty much exactly what we did.
Day 3 As Day 3 is a much shorter hike than the other days, we were able to sleep in a little later and have a decent breakfast before heading out to the trail.
This is where we
View of Dead Woman's Pass from our Day 1 campsite The weather was still pretty overcast and as we descended into the cloud forest, we missed out on seeing the ruins at Phuyupatamarca which was a real pity as they are supposed to be some of the best ruins along the trail.
Descending from 3,800 metres to 2,600 metres down 3,700 lovely Inca steps is an experience that neither I nor my knees will forget in a hurry!! Nevertheless, we were relieved to arrive in camp at Winaywayna - because this campsite is permanent it includes a bar and a bathroom with hot showers!! Putting off the desire to go get a beer, I had a brief nap before braving the weather (it was just starting to drizzle) to go and have a look around the Winaywayna ruins. I'm glad that I did as these ruins were incredibly well preserved and very impressive. Wandering around the old stone buildings you get a real appreciation for the way the Inca constructed their cities and could get a sense of what it must have been like for the people living there all those centuries ago.
Heading back to camp, I decided to have a shower for the first time in
Inca Steps
Walking down 3,700 of these in one day does wonders for your knees.... 3 days - unfortunately this was an experience that I could have done without. The shower was sooooo disgusting that I had to disinfect my feet with hand sanitizer when I got back to my tent to avoid the possibility of getting athlete's foot or worse. Anyway, after dinner we met with our crew and porters and handed out the tips which they were very happy to receive - the porters only get 100 Soles (Peruvian currency) for the 3 days on the trail, so the tips make a big difference to the lives of them and their families. It was then off to the bar for a few beers to celebrate the (almost) completion of the Inca Trail - the bar was quite full and had a good party atmosphere going on, but as we were getting up at 4.30am the next morning to head off to Machu Picchu we made sure that we tempered ourselves and got to bed at a reasonable time.
Day 4 Getting up before the sun, we packed up camp for the final time, had breakfast and gathered our final reserves of strength to make the three hour hike from the camp to
The Views
The vistas along the Inca Trail are amazing - you have to keep taking out your camera every few minutes because the scenery is so stunning! the Sun Gate, Intipunku, and then on to Machu Picchu.
Standing with probably a couple of hundred hikers at the exit to the campsite (they won't open the gates before sunrise to avoid accidents), it became easy to understand our guide's warnings about keeping away from the edge of the trail to avoid getting hit by a running hiker and knocked off the side down the several hundred feet drop. While I was keen to get to Machu Picchu, I certainly didn't intend to run so I was quite happy to "keep left" and make progress at my own pace.
Making it up the "Gringo Killer" steps to the Sun Gate, I was disappointed to be presented with only clouds and fog - this was supposed to be our first view of Machu Picchu and it didn't look good. We had also reached the recognized end of the Inca Trail - Thank God!!
While it was an amazing experience, it was incredibly hard but I was very happy with my overall performance. I'd like to thank Karen (my Pilates instructor) and Scott at Reach Gym for their help in getting me in the right physical condition to
Dead Woman's Pass
See the resemblance! complete the Trail without any major muscle soreness, injuries or anything else.
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Tot: 0.265s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 23; qc: 90; dbt: 0.1734s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Aunty Carrie
non-member comment
You need a new raincoat!
Hi Daniel! You must be amazingly fit to have achieved that! I'll have to start going to a gym myself if you think it could do that for me, too. It's absolutely horrible when you are just as wet inside your coat as outside. I remember that when we went skiing with inadequate gear. See if you can get a goretex raincoat. Goretex breathes and is far more comfortable when you're doing really energetic stuff in the rain. Love Aunty Carrie