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Day 1: 12 kms. Km 82 (2600 metres above sea level) to Wayllabamba (3100m)
Our Inca trail began at 6 am (without Evans, who did a different trek) when we were picked up from our hostel and almost ended half an hour later, when our bus broke down. I don´t think there was much car knowledge amongst our crew, as they seemed to think throwing buckets of cold water at the bus was a good solution. Fortunately, there were three other Peru Treks (the company we did our trek with) buses following us and our group was split between them.
After breakfast in Ollantaytambo, a town near the start of the trek, we (16 trekkers, 2 guides, 21 porters and a cook) set out. Day 1 was pretty easy walking wise, the track was relatively flat, with only a couple of climbs and some ruins along the way. Upon reaching our camp we were applauded by our porters - as they would continue to do every day, despite the fact that they´d usually beaten us to camp by a couple of hours and carried ten times the weight we had. Many of the porters were smaller than me,
but still managed to carry ridiculous weights, which included such things as tents, tables, chairs, gas cylinders an dthe bags of those in our group who, unlike us, weren´t tough (or stupid) enough to carry their own gear. Awaiting us at camp was a three-course dinner. The quality and amount of the food we had was astonishing. We had three courses for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with snacks in between, and lots of unnecessary food like jelly (which they set in a stream) and a very large cake of the last night.
Day 2: 12 kms. Wayllabamba to Dead Woman´s Pass (4200m) to Paqaymayo (3500m)
Each morning we were woken up by our assistant guide, Max, who brought round cups of coca tea or hot chocolate to our tents. Day 2 saw us up at 5.45, in time for a massive breakfast before the hardest day of the trip. Fortunately, we´d had a warm-up trek in the Colca Canyon, so these steep hills didn´t seem so tough. It was still pretty hard work though - 5 hours of uphill, up big rough steps, divided into three parts with excessive amounts of food, of course. It
Nearly not making it to the trail at all
Don´t think there was much car knowledge amongst our crew - they just decided to throw buckets of cold water at the bus. was a really nice track, though, walking through lush, jungly areas, with waterfalls and streams. The highest point we reached was ´Dead Woman´s Pass´(4200m). On Day 3 you can actually look up and see, between two mountains, a valley which resembles the head and upper body of a woman. At Dead Woman´s Pass we all made offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and asked for a safe trip.
Day 3: 15kms. Paqaymayo to Wiñay Wayna (2700m)
Day 3 is the longest day of the trip and is supposed to be the most spectacular. Unfortunately for us, this happened to be the day it decided to rain... and then hail. Decked out in our ponchos (you´d be proud, Stevie), we weren´t deterred and set out, despite the limited visibility. It did clear up a bit later and we were able to see how beautiful the scenery was. Due to the rain and the fact that we had a few slowies in our group, the four of us were well ahead of our group and our guides, and ended up accidentally taking a short cut. After about an hour on this path, having seen no other trekkers and
only a few porters, we started to get a bit worried. Luckily, we soon stumbled upon our camp, but caught our porters off guard - they weren´t ready for us and we even had to start our own applause! Oh well, we can probably excuse them this once, given all their hard work. Night 3 even had a bar, so there were a few beers drunk to celebrate our completion of the hardest part of the trek.
Day 4: 5kms. Wiñay Wayna to Machu Picchu
We had a very each start on Day 4 - 3.30 am. We all wanted to climb Waynu Picchu, a mountain overlooking Machu Picchu, because it has spectacular views , but only 400 people are allowed to climb it each day and most of the tickets go to the tourists who get the train to Machu Picchu, not those who do the trek. Our guide told us that for us to have any chance of being allowed to climb it, we´d have to be the first trekking group there. So a 3.30 start it was! We were the first to the gate and had to wait until 5.30 to start,
as no one is allowed on the track until then. Then we set off at a cracking pace, our guide leading us on what was basically a run with our packs on, through the pitch blackness, on a narrow path with quite steep drops in parts. I have no idea how our whole group kept up. We covered 5kms on a rough, rocky path in 40 minutes, and were easily the first group to the Sun Gate, where everyone takes photos looking down on Machu Picchu, and then were the first to Machu Picchu itself. Unfortunately for us, it had been a particularly busy morning and all the tickets to Waynu Picchu had gone...stupid tourists!
Our group had a tour of the ruins, in which we made a friend (we called him Maurie, see picture). He decided he´d have a free tour with us and followed us through the whole of Machu Picchu. We punished him by making him take our group photo - on 16 different cameras.
After our tour we had a further look around, before heading off to the neighbouring town of Aguas Calientes for a recovery session in the hot springs. Then we got
the train back - to Ollantaytambo, where we were met by our bus back to Cusco - in the dark. Not sure if they couldn´t find the lightswitch or what, but it was an interesting trip back.
Highlights/points of interest:
- Many sightings of the rare Andean Dickhead (ie. Susie).
- Very few sightings of the Andean clean person - after four days without a shower, we were all smelling very nice!
- Moaning Myrtles: for anyone who´s seen the Harry Potter movies, we had a girl in our group who sounded exactly like Moaning Myrtle. And she was a whinger too! She moaned constantly and announced to her friends at the end that she didn´t feel a sense of achievement from completing the trek.
- Getting more strange tingles from the diamox tablets (for prevention of altitude sickness). Fortunately only in my hands and feet this time, no facial twitches.
- The state of the (drop) toilets along the trek was fairly hideous. I won´t go into details... One of the girls in our group, MJ (Mary Jane, nice name. Our guide liked to call her Marijuana), needed to go to the toilet while we were waiting
at the gate on the last day, so she set off in the dark to find them. She came back covered in some brown substance - which everyone attempted to reassure her was most likely just mud - having slipped and fallen in the toilets... Not the nicest way to start the day!
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Katherine Howell
Chook
A dousing
A bucket of water would wake me up. Why not your bus?