Ruins and ruined on the Inca trail

Early morning in the Andes
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Cusco and the Inca Trail

Since this entry is has a lot of explaining to do me and Mel are going to share writing this one....

After a couple of days of acclimatising in Cusco (a lovely city by the way), we started off in the footsteps of the Incas. We travelled from Cusco to Ollantaytambo with a guide via the large Inca Ruins of the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo where we got a feel for who the Incas were, their beliefs and an idea of how and why they built these big stone cities with rows and rows of terraces.

trees?
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Day 1

After this gentle introduction we stayed the night in Ollaytantambo and got up at 6am the next day and drove to kilometre 82 where everyone has to start the trail.

Our small group of 4 had a huge entourage of 7 porters, 1 cook and 1 guide. The porters are all tiny but have huge legs which comes of carrying 30k each (our stuff, tents, food, kitchen equipment etc...) along the 45k stretch of the Inca Trail. We set off at a fairly steady pace while the porters all sprinted past us to get to the first campsite to set up lunch (yes I did feel guilty!). We covered 11k before lunch along what Coco our guide calls Inca flat ground - that is not very flat at all but in comparison with what was to come I suppose it was! This part of the walk took us through small villages so we were wandering past pigs, chickens, dogs and cows. We were only 2700m high so the sun felt warm and the going was good. We stopped for lunch at a nice grassy campsite, the cook whipped up an amazing 3 course meal which we soon became accustomed to. Yes we were walking a lot but we sure weren´t going to lose any weight!

up and away
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After lunch the fun really started and we started the first stretch of what is called Dead Woman´s Pass. We only had 4k to cover before we stopped to camp overnight but we also had to climb up to 3800m high. At first we set off pretty confidently, the sun still felt warm and the scenery was amazing, we were surrounded by mountains some of them snow capped (which should have set off warning bells!). As we got higher the air got colder and thinner. We needed more breaks as it was hard to catch your breath at this altitude, still the porters kept running past us as we wearily pulled our heavy legs up the steep Inca steps.

day 4 and feeling a little tired
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Eventually me and Mike made it to the campsite. Mike was so excited that he ran off to the wrong set of tents leaving me wondering where he´d got to worried he´d somehow plunged off the top!

There was some kind of fairy godmother at the top selling chocolate, god knows how she got there and we had the best bar of chocolate we had ever had! As soon as we stopped walking it got pretty cold and then freezing so we dragged on our thermals and every item of clothing we had and huddled in the dinner tent while the magic porters brought us cup after cup of hot chocolate and popcorn to warm us up. This was merely a snack before another 3 course feast! By 8.30pm we were ready for bed, it was dark and cold and we were knackered.

Machu Picchu
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Day 2

At 6am a polite voice at our tent asked what kind of tea we would like. Yes it was early but there are worse ways to get up. We sipped our coca tea as we gazed out of our tent at the misty swirling mountains - the views from this site were amazing. Our hearts sank slightly as we realised that we had to continue up Dead Woman´s Pass again. We had to climb another 600m high before reaching our first peak of 4200m. Again the going was fairly slow as the higher we climbed the steeper the mountain got and the thinner the air. However when we reached the top we felt amazing we had really, really climbed a mountain. We were so high up we couldn´t really tell how far as below you are only other mountains so you don´t get a true sense of perspective. However it was too cold to hang around for long and what goes up must come down so we had to start the trek down. This was actually more painful on the legs that going up and in the misty rain the steps were slippy making it a pretty treacherous trail. We stopped at a campsite at the bottom for lunch. The weather at this altitude is so weird. Clouds constantly blow by so we would be cold and wet one moment and then in hot sunshine the next. Having done the down we were back on the up and had to climb the equivalent of what we had just done down (which is pretty annoying!) The weather had turned to a constant wet misty rain and visibility was pretty minimal so we were constantly climbing hoping every corner would be the last, unable to tell where the top was. We stopped at a pretty good Inca ruin on the way and at the top we joined the customary practice of a tot of rum with tea and lemon. First you have to let a drop fall to the floor for Pacha Mama (mother earth) before you take a sip yourself.

not a bad view from the tent
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After this we were making our way down again (my knees were complaining bitterly about this). We stopped at a huge ruins on the way where we learned about Inca sacrifices and carried down again until we reached the optional 99 steps which we climbed up to see another ruin at the top. We were lucky as the mist cleared a bit when we reached the top and we got a glimpse of the great views down the mountain and across to a smaller Inca site. After this weren´t far from camp. The last bit of the walk was pretty cool through the cloud forest where there was loads of weird and wonderful twisted trees and plants. We finally made it to camp which turned out to be in an old swamp. It was really damp and misty, you could hardly see 5m in front of you. Through the mist Mikey saw an animal on top of the hill which he will swear to you was a puma. I saw it too and maybe it was, it had a long swishy tail whatever it was and it looked like it was stalking something but it was too misty to see properly. When we told our guide he freaked out a bit as apparently the campsite was well known for strange happenings and ghost stories. He proceeded to tell us a long string of spooky stories before we went to bed of things he had seen himself or other people had seen which pretty much stopped me sleeping for much of the night!

Km 82 the start of the trail and all looking fresh
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Day 3

So after 2 mammoth days of walking up and down, up and down mountains we had a relatively easy day walking through the rainforest on "Inca flat" for a mere 5 hours before lunch. This was to be followed by a 2 hour walk down the mountain to our rooms in the little town of in the little town of Aguas Calientes for the night before finally getting to see Machu Picchu at 5:30am the next morning.

The walk was another day of contrast from previous days with lush green forest bordering the steep slippy stairs that wound down the mountain to the lunch site and the holy grail a flushing toilet! On the way we got to see a few more imposing Inca ruins and types weird and wonderful of flora and fauna, not even the wet drizzle that the climate was producing was stopping us enjoying the scenery (suppose that's why they call it a rain forest). Everyone in our group made it down to the lunch site in plenty of time and as we sat and ate our now customary 3 course meal in a red and blue wendy house we reflected on what we had seen and what we were about to see.

more Machu Picchu
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Before we started the trail down we got to check out one last Inka ruin called """""" which was by far the best runi so far partly because we got to have a little siesta on the terraces but mainly becuse of its size and location, its known as little machu picchu to the locals.

So the last bit of the trail, now that the sun gate is closed anyway is the 2 hour walk down the hill and along the train tracks to in the little town of Aguas Calientes. Easy or so we thought. The walk down was again down a very steep incline and after getting passed for the umpteenth time by porters running down the trail, half my size carrying excess of 30kg we decided that there must be something in this running lark and and broke out into a jog ourselves. This had a two fold effect 1: it seemed easier on the very tired knees and 2: we got down the hill a whole lot quicker than most people and had time at the bottom to soak out tired feet in the stream. Last hill negotiated and full of confidence we only had finish the trail by walking 5k along the train tracks straight into town and the nearest bar, which should take around 1 hour.

views, views
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This part of the trek seemed to take ages with our weary legs but it had the extra spice of trains hurtling in both directions down the tracks as a steady stream of people walked up it to the town. At one point several of the porters suddenly started sprinting, confused me and Mel looked at each other and soon realised what was going on as we heard the whistle and noise of a train coming around the bend. We managed to throw ourselves into cracks in the cliff as the train shot past us probably only about 10 inches from our face. Luckily the only thing that happened was me going temporarily deaf in one ear from the screaming Mel was doing.

all the porters for 4 people
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Day 4

4:30am beep beep beep, it was time to get up and go and see the famous MachuPicchu after a very nice Banana pancake breakfast from our porters. One thing about getting to MachuPicchu early like this is its very quiet as the first train load of tourists doesn't come in till 10:30am and the mountains are surrounded by a thick mist that gives the place a very eerie feel. So we did the tour looking at the various buildings Coco our guide was pointing out felling a little disappointed that we couldn't see the whole place in its full glory due to the weather.

But come 10:00 and the mist had started to lift giving the sky and mountains pockets of clarity where MachuPicchu was starting to be revealed in all its glory. By 11:30 the sky was blue and immense buildings carved into the rock that is MachuPicchu were revealed. It looked like some kind of fairytale palace with the surrounding mountains and wispy clouds. It is a very spiritual place and definitely the best man made thing i have ever seen, only Iguzu trumps it on the best thing i have ever seen period.

So we hang around there for most of the day taking in the view and avoiding Americans and finally got the bus back down (we chicken out of walking back down) to the town at around 3 ready for our train trip back to Cusco.

Now i am starting to realise that public transport in south America no matter how nice (we were on the Vista train with glass roof and big windows back to Cusco) is a little strange. Being tired as you would expect from walking 48k i decided to have a little nap on the train, anyone that knows me knows i love little naps when in transit!! But little did i know the train had organised first a dance by the local Andean people up and down the train isle in the way of entertainment. This basically equates to some guy in a multicoloured ski mask kicking his legs about and annoying me with a feather. Then a fashion parade by the trolley dollies of the latest in llama fashonware, i kid you not, i couldn't make this up. anyway to cut a long story slightly shorter we made it back to Cusco around 8ish knackered but very happy.

I would definitely recommend the trail to anyone, it is hard but the scenery is beautiful and the guides, cooks and porters that you get are brilliant. Another amazing trip complete...........how lucky are we!