The Inca Trail (Peru)

We made it! The group at the top of Dead Woman's Pass
see all photos »

So D-day arrived, and it was finally time to do the infamous Inca Trail which I is one of the main reasons that I came to South America. I was looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time, as I knew it was going to be really tough going.

We firstly met our team who were going to help us through the trail, our first and second walking leaders, our porters and our cook. They were all male and all much shorter than me! The porters carry about 30 kgs each! An incredible weight. I could barely even manage carrying my day bag at some points on the trek!

Finally, arriving at Machu Pichu! What an incredible sight
see all photos »

Although day one was tough, as we walked 15 kms to the nearest campsite to Dead Woman´s Pass, I seemed to be find walking at altitude relatively easy and managed to be the second person in our group of twelve to arrive at the campsite (after the porters that is!) after about 5 hours of walking. I was feeling quite pleased with myself and was looking forward to the next few days of walking. Then as night closed in, I began to get a fever and sent most of the night in the lovely campsite banos (an experience no one wants to remember!) with what appeared to be a really bad stomach bug. By the morning I was very weak and had had virtually no sleep. Not quite the way to start the second day of the toughest part of the Inca Trail.

Charlie's Angels for the partially sighted! Karen, Jo and me at the beginning of the Inca Trail
see all photos »

Day two was really tough, particulary the first two hours, where we had to ascend to the infamous "Dead Woman´s Pass". I was still really sick, and had to concentrate not to be sick as I walked. The altitude really didn´t help matter either, and by the time I got to Dead Woman´s Pass, my fingers and lips had turned blue and my fever was increasing. I wondered if I was going to be able to continue. We had a little ceremony at the summit for one of the porters who had worked with the porters that were carrying our stuff, who had died a few months earlier. As this porter was one of the fastest, he was sent on ahead to get a good spot on the summit, it was there winter and it was snowing at the summit. As he waited and waited for the group to get there, he froze to death. Because of this group leader now calls it "Dead Porter`s Pass" instead. From this summit we made a steep descent, then ascent and then decent to our campsite. As we started the second ascent it started to rain heavily, and in a few minutes I was drenched despite my rain coat. The temperature dropped to about 2 degrees celsius. In total day two was 15 kms, but because of the steep climbs it felt like so much more. Because I felt so ill and weak, it took me 8 hours to reach the second campsite, and I arrived in last. They gave me special tea to try to make me better, but it just mad matters worse, and I slept for 15 hours at the so called haunted campsite, until we had to wake the next morning to start day three.

Walking the trail on Day 3
see all photos »

Day three is supposed to be a much easier day, and due to my sickness I was glad! Apart from a very step ascent at the beginning of the day, most of the walking is on "Inca Flat". "Inca Flat" doesn´t mean flat at all, it means a little up and little down! Still I found it much easier than steep ascents and descents over slippery steps. I was glad to arrive at the finally campsite although with the other 500 campers. The final campsite offered hot showers and a bar, excellent! I was certainly glad to have a shower after all those days of using baby wipes to wash. Unfortunately I was still really sick and couldn´t eat anything. By this stage the cook was convinced that he`d poisoned me on the first day when I had had dinner, but I assured them that I`d been ill for some time beforehand. The porters are very superstitious, and they decided that as I was the youngest in the group, and because I was ill, it was me who affected what kind of weather we had during the trip! It was really quite bizarre.

Day four, the best day of all! We woke up at 4:30am, although unfortunately I`d already been up the whole night in the bano again! We got ready and made our way to the final check point before Macu Pichu. As soon as the gates opened at 5.30am everyone rushed to try to get through the checkpoint to be the first to see Machu Pichu! I was certainly in no mood to rush with waves of nausea passing over me. We made it to the sungate after about an hour where you`re supposed to see the first glimpse of Machu Pichu, There was thick cloud and we couldn´t see a thing, typical! We continued to walk down to Machu Pichu and even when we got to the place where people take the classic picture postcard view of Machu Pichu, we couldn´t see a thing! We waited for the clouds to clear, but nothing happened. We walked down to the passport checkpoint exhausted, had a break for about half an hour, and then magically the mist cleared and the sun came out and we were finally able to see beautiful Machu Pichu.

Machu Pichu was incredible, a far bigger lost city than I`d imagined it would be. It looked beautiful nestled in the cloud forest mountains. We stayed there four about four hours exploring the ruins.

Although it was an incredible experience to see Machu Pichu, I was certainly ready to get back to civilisation, and so eagerly got on the bus down to the nearest town called Aguas Calientes. As soon as I got there I went straight to the medical centre to find out what was wrong with me, and I found out that for the past two weeks I`d had an nasty intestinal infection. Antibiotics and no alcohol for me for the next 7 days!