Inca Trail, Macchu Picchu, and Cusco

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Cusco - Inti Raymi Festival - June 24

On June 24 we arrived by plane to the city of Cusco. The original capital and center of the Inca Empire. The city of Cusco is wonderful with sunny weather during the day and cold nights. The city contains original walls of stone from the Inca empire. At night the city center of Plaza de Armas is alive with restaurants, pubs, bars, and dance clubs. During the day the main plaza and streets are alive with various sellers. On June 24 the city grows in mass proportions for the Inti Raymi festival. The Inti Raymi festival brings people from all over the world to watch a recreation of the Sun God ceremony complete with a sacrificed LLama. The festival starts in the Plaza de Armas and slowly winds its way by parade to some original Inca ruins. The celebration goes on all day with tourists and locals all participating and even continues into the night. It was a beautiful festival done in the original language of Quechawa and complete with hundreds of costumed actors. I ended the night going to an Irish Pub and continuing on to a dance club for some salsa dancing.

Sacred Valley - June 25
Today I headed out of Cusco into the Sacred Valley. Our guide for the Inca Trail was taking us on training hikes for the Inca Trail. First we stoped at a small community in the mountains were we watched how the women of the community weave alpaca and llama wool into various items. Of course we purchased some of the items to take home. Alpaca things for everybody! We headed over to Inca ruins fo Pisac were we hiked around the ruins for an hour and a half. We walked up and down many stairs and narrow paths on the cliff side that if you fell off you would die. It was tough walking along these narrow and steep paths in the ruins and would give us a taste of the Inca Trail. Next we head to the small town of Ollytaytambo to see the Inca ruins located there. The Ollytaytambo ruins contains hugh stone terraces with had many stairs to the top. At the top was a temple that was never finished. As I am learning quickly is that the Inca´s are the kings of stairs. We packed a duffle bag with the essestials we would need on the Inca Trail and spent the night in Ollytaytambo waiting for the morning when we would start the Inca Trail.

Inca Trail - Day 1 - June 26
It was an early rise as we through our duffels and day packs onto the shuttle van to take us to the starting point of the Inca Trail. The shuttle arrived at the 82 km starting point were we jumped out ready to embark on an adventure that will end at Macchu Picchu. The porters for our trip of which we had seventeen quickly grabbed our duffle bags and put them in there giant backpacks to carry to our campsite. First we processed through the control point were we showed our tickets and had our passports stamped. We walked along the path of dirt and gravel with some gradual inclines for several hours. Finally we arrived at a steep incline which would give us a taste of the 2nd day. We passed along several Inca ruins along the path until we got to our lunch spot where our porters and cooks set up table, chairs, and tents and cooked us a hot meal for lunch. The porters then packed everything up and ran ahead of us to set up our camp on arrival. After about two more hours of trekking we arrived at camp which was already set up for us and had a hot meal and went to sleep awaiting the dreaded day two of the Inca Trail. The first day on the Inca trail had been tough but nothing compared to what was to come tomorrow.

Inca Trail - Day 2 - June 27
We woke up early and had a breakfast of oatmeal and pancakes and filled our water bottles for what for me would be the hardest day of my life. The main goal of Day 2 of the Inca Trail is to trek to the top of Dead Womans Pass at 4215 meter (14,000 feet) and then descend the mountain pass down to our camp on the other side. As you can figure out already the path leading to Dead Womans Pass is all up hill. For six hours I slowly walked up a steep mountain path and stone stairs to the top. The mountain never seemed to end. You would walk around one corner thinking the top was near but it wasn´t. At 4000 meters I stopped to have a snack and hot coca tea which the porters had prepared. I rested for only ten minutes and then headed for the last 215 meters to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass. The last 200 meters was killer as I had to stop every ten steps to catch my breath. Then it happened, I hit that barrier were you feel you can´t go on anymore. I had to push myself every single step just to keep moving to the top. Every step seemed like hell but some how I pushed myself foward. I some point I wasn´t even sure if I would make it to the top. I thought I am going to have to sleep on this damn bloody mountain. Then step by step I told myself not to give up and I made it to the top. It was a relief I have never felt before to have made it to the top of Dead Womans Pass. I took my picture at the top but it was freezing up there and the clouds had surrounded us at the top and it was misting on us. Making it to the top of mountain pass was the most physically demanding thing I have ever done in my life but once you are on top you must come down. I immediately set out down the path of jagged, slippery, and uneven stone steps to our camp for the night. I descended as fast as I could as I had already used up all my energy to get to the top of the pass. It was dangerous going down the path as you could easily slip on the rocks or or break twist and break an ankle. Two and a half our laters and exhuasted beyond imagination I arrived at the camp for the night. I bearly made it up to the couple of stone steps to my tent and crawled into my tent exhausted, drained, and more tired then I have ever been. I closed my eyes took a nap and thanked god I had made it through day two.

Inca Trail - Day 3 - June 28

I woke up early after my day of hell and prepared myself for day 3. Getting out of the tent I could barely walk but slowly my muscles warmed up and we started the hike of day 3. This was the best part of the Inca Trail because the path was mostly original from the Incas. Day 3 on the Inca Trail is the 2nd hardest of the day. This day we would trek up two different mountain passes. The first mountain pass started right out of camp and ended on the top at 3900 meters. Then you descend stone steps into the Cloud forest and pass several Inca control points and then you go up the second pass of the day. Going the up the stone steps you arrive at the top at 3600 meters and we had lunch. The next part was to descend over 3000 stone steps to the 3rd night camp. Slowly going down the steep and narrow steps until we finally reached the last camp after four hours of going down steps. The crazy thing is the porters carrying there hugh packs run down the stone steps to the camp. The 3rd night camp had a pub and I enjoyed a ice cold coca-cola after all the trekking. I went to bed in the tent on the side of the mountain waiting to get to Macchu Picchu tomorrow.

Macchu Picchu and Inca Trail - Day 4 - June 29

We woke at 3:30 am to get ready to hike to Macchu Picchu. Walking in the pitch black, sore and tired after 3 days of hard hiking we made our way to Macchu Picchu. In the dark we hiked along narrow paths on the mountain both up and down hill till we reached the Sun Gate and saw our first view of Macchu Picchu from a distance. After another 45 minutes of hiking down stone steps I arrived at the Gate House where the famous post card picture is taken. Walking around Macchu Picchu is amazing as almost 80 percent of what you see is original. The Spanish never found Macchu Picchu so it is not a ruin. After four days of hiking Macchu Picchu was amazing. I am glad I hiked the Inca Trail and saw Macchu Picchu the way the Inca did it. We took the train back to Cusco. I took a shower after four days of hiking and feel into bed with stone steps and mountains dancing around in my head.

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Photos

View from the top of Dead Woman´s Pass
We treked up from the bottom of that mountain pass in the picture.

Comments

[Brenda]

OMG
Oh my God, I would have never made the 1st hour of this trip. I can see it was worth it for you to make it. Very beautiful pictures and awesome scenery. I almost died when I saw the stone steps.