The Epic Hike

see all photos »

So we´ve just returned from hiking Machu Picchu. Although the trail is only 33km, it took four days to accomplish.

The hike didn´t start off well; I managed to break both the walking stick louise had brought from home, and the one that I hired, within the space of about 5 mins. We hadnt even got past the passport control to begin the climb. It could only get worse.

We got up at 5, started hiking up to dead womans pass. Its called that because weirdly, women keep dying up there

see all photos »

Walking through anyway, the first day was the easiest. it was something like 8 km. There was one steep section, but it was generally agreed it was do-able. It rained a bit towards the end, but it felt good.

It was crazy to see all our porters run past us (our group had 26 people, and 27 porters), each carrying 25kg of camping equipment, ready to set up for the next site. mad little guys.

I think the food suprised everyone, each meal was soup and a main dish, even breakfast. oh and rice. rice and salty, salty meat for every meal. That got a bit much towards the end.

see all photos »

One thing worth noting though, there was a decorative tomato or other vegetable on top of each rice dish, which became more and more complex. at first just cut into pieces, then later a flower, until the final meal, where 4 diffent vegetables were cut to resemble a toucan. It looked awesome. Anyway, I digress.

The second day was definately the hardest. We got up at 5, started hiking up to dead womans pass. Its called that because weirdly, women keep dying up there. something about the altitude. no just kidding, its more about the shape of the mountains (they look like breasts/nipples), and we walk between them. Luckily, I spent the first night fixing both walking sticks, and they worked again. We got up to the pass, which took me a couple of hours to climb to the highest point, 4000 odd meters above sea level. the climb was a killer, but there were awesome views.

see all photos »

An oversight on my part was telling louise that we wouldnt have free time to play monopoly and so she didnt pack it. also, i figured it would be dark and so a book would be useless as well. Turns out every day we got to the campsite mid afternoon, would eat lunch, and then be bored shitless until dinner, and the sleep. Of course, it was quite often repeated that the boredom was somehow my fault. someone did bring cards though so it was bearable. I also napped a lot.

I think by the 3rd day we were all sort of used to the routine, wake up stupidy early, have breakfast (with accompanying rice and soup) walk in either a steep up or down direction for a few hours. lunch. sleep/card games (no monopoly). dinner. complain about leg pains. sleep.

see all photos »

Actually, that above paragraph is a lie. the third day was quite eventfull. I had dashed ahead and was looking at some incan ruins before breakfast (we had a late breakfast that day, it was at like 8am or something stupid. )

One of the guides had heard via radio that louise had slipped on a rock, but said she was fine. She hobbled into the breakfast camp an hour later with a rolled ankle. One of the group patched it up, put straps on it, good as new. of course, this put extra weight on her knee, which also gave up on the hike towards the lunch campsite. I stayed with her this time, and it was slow and painfull going until the lunch/dinner campsite. shes such a trooper.

see all photos »

There were showers at that campsite. showers! i had to buy tickets (to the shower block, like its bloody roller coaster or something) and hire towels from probably the most unhelpful/apathetic woman in the world, but it was worth it. well louise's was warm and apparantly worth it, mine was actually pretty cold. still good though. There was also cold beers and coke. heaven.

The final day saw louise again trooper though the pain for a couple more hours. we got to the sun gate, which has stairs as steep as a ladder. could see the whole of machu picchu below, looked amazing. Obviously, we weren't as fast as others in the group, although we wernt the last ones, which is definately impressive. the clouds came in (remember that at this point we are as high as the clouds) about 5 mins after we got there, so everything was then obscured. talk about timing!

see all photos »

Machu Picchu itself was impressive, although by that point I think everyone was over walking/ruins.  We spent a few hours around the ruins, louise found a chinchilla. it looked like a big rabbit to me.

Eventually we caught a bus to the local town, and i use that term loosly, as it was literally two streets. had lunch (no salt, no rice, no soup) and finally caught the train home. I've never been so happy to sit down for a couple of hours.

Since then we got massages in town to sooth our aching bodies. They were amazing and cheap - 20 soles/7 pounds/10 dollars and lasted an hour. the massage fixed lou's ankle and knee pains as well.

see all photos »

Then we got tattoos just for kicks. yeah, we're both inked up now. oh yeah.