The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu in the clouds
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After talking the talk it was finally time to walk the walk. Our fellow trekkers where a friendly bunch of Brits, Americans and Canadians and thankfully not hardcore "I´ll race you to the top" types.

Luckily we had hired a porter to carry our stuff, as we had both filled our day packs with enough energy bars and drinks to power the national grid for a week. We wanted to give ourselves every possible, legal, advantage.

Furthermore we took up all the extras offered to us - the walking stick, top notch matress and artic grade sleeping bag - we looked more like we were going to climb Everest.

Cow + sheep + horse = Llama
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Day 1 was easy walking, and we discovered to our delight this was going to be luxury camping. The porters ran past us as we walked, and when we arrived at the camp our tents were up and Ronnie the chef was already preparing a 3 course dinner. The food was excellent, in fact some of the best we´ve had in Peru.

Day 2 was the big climb up 1200m to Dead Womans Pass at 4200m, the highest point on the Inca Trail. It was hard going, but a great feeling and a spectacular view when we reached the top. Then we had to climb down the other side to get to the camp. (If the Inca´s were that clever why didn´t they build a tunnel- M)

Our group at the start of the Inca Trail
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Day 3 was a short steep climb followed by never ending steps down. In fact going down such uneven and steep steps was in some ways more challenging than going up. As we cautiously made our way down, David complaining much of the way, the porters sprinted past with 25kgs strapped to their backs. That stopped the whining - for ten minutes at least! This was also the longest day - we were woken at 5am with a cup of Coca Tea (David was even drinking it as it has been proven to help with altitude and overcoming fatigue) and arrived at the camp at 6pm.  It´s not all about just walking we stopped at some amazing Inca sites regularly along the way.

First Inca site we visited
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Day 4. Until today the weather had been extremely kind to us, but as soon as we tucked into breakfast at 4am(oh yes 4am!) the heavens opened and the only piece of  equipment we couldn´t hire, waterproof boots, were sorely missed. We squelched our way to the Sun Gate, for our first view of Machu Picchu, only for it to be totally covered by cloud. We kept our spirits up by whistling ´Singing in the Rain´and headed down to the Sacred City. Finally we arrived and you can see our first photo with us sporting attractive ponchos.

Approaching the 2nd Inca site
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Machu Picchu is undoubtably a wonderful sight, with a magical setting amongst mountains and clouds. (My mum would say it was "very nice John"- M). Fortunately the rain stopped allowing us to explore the site and retake some of our photos. See "after" picture of us looking slightly less like drowned rats.

We felt v smug as we walked around the site having just completed the Inca Trail, and still with enough power in our legs to speed past lazy tourists who´d got the train up! Hurrah for us! See you at the top of the next trek!