The Inca Trail

South America » Peru » Cusco » Inca Trail
October 31st 2010

Published: November 1st 2010

Our early morning wake up call got us out of bed at 4.00am. We made it downstairs to the hotel lobby by 4.30am and were immediately picked up by our guide Javier. We were off on the famous 4 day 3 nite Inca trail with a company named Llama Path. I pre booked the trek at least 6 months in advance as I heard that the Inca trail permits were hard to obtain if you left it to book at the last moment.

Trek groups usually consisted of up to 16 like minded adventurers of differing nationalities. For our trek however, Javier explained it was only Dom, I , himself and the porters. It would have been good to meet other travellers, however the upside was that we knew we would get looked after sooo well.

I was suffering from a chest infection so I loaded myself up with antibiotics, cold and flu tabs and cough medicine, hoping for the best. Dom loaded up on Red Bulls.

We were transported by coach to the 82 Km mark, just outside Ollantaytambo, where the Inca trail begins. Javier broke down each of the days as follows..... Day 1 as difficult, Day 2 as challenging, Day 3 as enjoyable and Day 4 as unique. We put on our sunscreen and insect repellent and off we went, leaving the porters to get all their belongings together and catch up later.

The weather was warmer than anticipated so it didn´t take long before the jackets and long sleeve tops came off leaving just jeans and t shirts as we trekked over rivers, through bush areas and started to stride up gentle hills. The gentle hills soon became much steeper and thats when the effects of altitude kicked in. Note.... we started at 8923 ft above sea level. Pretty soon old ladies herding donkeys were passing us as we struggled for breath. Old men urging on Llamas laden with sacks of goods were leaving us for dead and our porters carrying sacks of tents, cooking equipment, clothing and other essentials raced past us so they could set up camp and prepare lunch for us. But like troopers we carried on. Dom was like a mountain goat (without the horns of course) as she scaled the rocky paths.

On our way up an overweight English couple from a rival trekking group called it quits a couple of hours into the trek.
I wasn´t sure if they suddenly realised they were in over their heads or one of them may have been unwell, but either way it was not a good start. Javier was very informative as he explained to us about all the Inca history, as well as the local flora and fauna as we made our way towards camp. Lunch was so good as we received a 3 course meal plus unlimited hot drinks or water to keep us going. In fact all meals throughout the trek were exceptional. One of the porters named Jorge was a fully trained chef so when he prepared the meals he wore his full chefs uniform including the fancy chefs hat.

The porters were amazing. We would always leave before the porters, yet within an hour they would race past Dom, Javier and I carrying a multitude of equipment on their backs, striding up steep mountains as a team and setting up camp ready for lunch or for overnight. At one point we stopped for a rest at a Ranger station where they had a set of scales. Most of our porters weighed no more than 70kg, and when they weighed their sacks of equipment, each were generally carrying additional weight of between 28-30kg, almost half their body weight. I was too embarassed to throw my measly day pack on the scales as it would have weighed no more than 7 kg.

We finished the first day at 12600 ft above sea level with no ill effects. All in all we covered 14km. We slept so well in our tent, which was described as a 4 man tent, though maybe a Peruvian man size, because if I streched out properly my feet hung outside the tent flaps. It was surreal waking up in the Pervian Andes to the sounds of birds and seeing snow capped mountains in the distance.

Day 2 was a killer. It wasn´t challenging as described by Javier, it was simply a brutal slog with 70% of the day being uphill and I mean seriously uphill. Javier even gave us Cocoa leaves to chew as that was supposed to give you extra energy. The locals use them all the time. They didn´t do much for me except deaden my tongue. There was one area of the hike which is named Dead Womans Pass which Javier told us is the ´Gringo Killer´ and it certainly lived up to its name. It was a winding path that seemed to endlessly go higher and higher with no respite at all. I would hope as I approached each corner that we would find a flat area, so our aching calf muscles could rest a little, but no, it just continued to rise. We stopped numerous times to catch our breath as the air is so thin and you just can´t get the same amount of oxygen to the lungs and brain as you can at sea level. Javier continually encouraged us to keep going, the altitude had no effect on him as he bounded up the narrow dirt tracks. When we eventually reached the summit we were at 13779ft, the heighest point we would ever reach on the trek.

So you reach the summit and after that its downhill and easy right?? WRONG. We had to travel down original Inca steps, that were slippery in places, yet firm in others, high in some areas and low in others, wide and then narrow, many were severley eroded and there was no continuity at all, we had to continually be on your guard as to where you placed your feet for fear of slipping and loosing your balance. For over 2 hours we slogged downhill until we made it to the lunch camp where we collapsed and didn´t really feel like eating another fantastic 3 course meal that had been prepared for us. I did make sure that Dom shared her last luke warm can of Red Bull with me as I needed the energy to keep going.

After a short break we were off again, leaving our porters to pack up before climbing more gringo killers. The porters passed us in no time as we struggled up the mountains. We experienced the 4 seasons in one day, as the sunny weather gave way to wind at the peak, before the rain came along and finally, hail. We even had occasions that we found ourselves walking through the clouds.

The mountain tops were covered with snow and looked amazing, numerous waterfalls cascaded down everywhere, everything was covered in either green or white, and well preserved Inca ruins were scattered along the trek for us to explore. So many photos were taken. After roughly 11 and a half hours of trekking we staggered into camp in as darkness was encrouching having covered 16 KM. It had been a mental and physical struggle to complete the day. That night I lay in my sleeping bag and couldn´t believe what we had acheived as I watched bright flashes of lightning appear through the canvas before hearing the thunder crash and the rain pouring down on the tent, luckily the tent kept us warm and dry.

The following morning we awoke to find more snow on the peaks than was there the previous evening yet we were in
the area described as jungle highlands. As we left camp there were jungle vines, jungle plants, Hummimgbirds,Woodpeckers and wild fruit everwhere. I was told Toucans were around but we only heard them but didn´t see any. It was warm and muggy and we covered the 10km in good time, though the mountain goat slowed down a bit, and we reached our camp which faced Machu Picchu mountain. The actual ruins were on the other side of the mountain so we couldn´t see them. Javier explained we were camped in a cloud forest....which is pretty unique in itself. Unlike the previous two camp sites, this time we shared the camp site with about 200 other trekkers who had booked through other trekking agencies.

The last morning we were woken at 3.30am to have breakfast at 4.00am. Jorge had cooked us a really nice ´Have a good Machu Picchu trip´sponge cake. We struggled with a piece each as it wasn´t the ideal 4.00am breakfast, but it was a very nice sentiment all the same. Anyway, the porters finished the cake off as we were leaving. The last part of the trek to the sacred sight was only 5km and pretty easy apart from another ´Gringo Killer´of 53 steps that you had to scale like a monkey to reach the next part of the path. The path itself snaked around the mountain and was extremely narrow in places so all 200 or so of us had to travel single file until we reached Machu Picchu. Some others thought it was a bit of a race to get their first. At one point three Norwegian females stopped in front of me to have a brief rest, I waited for them whilst the German couple behind me became inpatient and attempted to pass us all. The female managed to, whilst her male companion slipped and almost fell over the edge. There were gasps all around, however, mine was a gasp of excitement as I was hoping for a bit of revenge for the thrashing the Germans gave us in the World Cup, luckily for him he grabbed at a tree and didn´t hurt anything but his pride.

We reached the Sun Gate and saw Machu Picchu surrounded by clouds before the clouds parted and there was the famous lost city.....just like in the photos. We trekked down from the sun gate and to the city itself, and walked around whilst Javier explained about the Inca history. The views were breathtaking and again we took a heap of photos, probably too many, but hey this was a once in a life time opportunity. It was everything we expected and more. We even saw our first live Llama´s there too!!!

I would absolutely recommend completing the trek and doing it with Llama Path. But would I do it again??, my mind says yes if given the chance, but my legs might say otherwise.

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