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Inca Trail
Day 1
We walked 14 kms from about 9am in the morning for 7 hours. The track started quite gently but by the end of the day it was quite a steep uphill and my asthma started to kick in as the altitude increased. It was hard going for me then but i made it ok to camp. The campsite was quite nice. The toilets were drop toilets and squatting after 7hours of walking was not a pleasant experience, neither were the toilets in the morning after people had clearly missed the target during the night when they couldnt see properly. I slept okish but kept waking up. I was sharing with Claire an english girl who is really sweet. She says she doesnt do much exercise but was always first at each rest stop she was pretty quick.
We camped in a place called Yunkachimpa. The food was fabulous we had three courses for every meal. The porters were phenomenal, they ran the track sometimes in shoes made out of old car tires strapped to their feet. They carried 25kilos some would be carrying gas canisters it was quite amazing. When you arrived to camp it was already set up and they had cooked lunch or dinner!
Day 2
We walked 17km for 10hours today starting at 8am with a break for lunch. This was the worst day as we had two passes to climb, dead womans pass was the first and highest at 4200m. The altitude really walloped me, my asthma was quite bad and I felt nauseous. Luckily there was a girl Nerydr (from Sydney) who was suffering too so we buddyed up at the back. We would encourage each other to walk a bit further and even though we arrived last we were determined to do it. I have never done anything as difficult but I was really proud of us both, we didnt moan once we just put our heads down and got on with it.
We stopped at the top of the first pass for photos and then went down the other side which was my forte, i was down first rather than bringing up the rear so felt bit better. We visited Sayacmarca inca ruins on the way and then ascended the second pass which was 3800m high and almost finished me off. But again Nerydr and I powered through I think I was spurred on by the fact that i didnt want to miss dinner!!
2000 steps down to the camp and I know have buttocks of steel!
We camped at Chakiqocha which is at 3600m and very cold. I slept in all my clothes, I was getting pretty smelly by this point not having showered but we were all the same.
It was one of the groups birthday that night and the porter had carried him a bottle of wine up which was really sweet of them.
Day 3
Woke up to the most amazing view, snowy mountains in the background as we looked out from the tent. I was glad of the cocoa tea this morning as I was freezing.
We walked for five hours for 14km this day mostly down hill. We went over one more pass at 3600m which was easy peasy after yesterday. We went to Phuyupatamarca ruins which had great views, there are some pictures of me there.
We arrived at the final camp at 1pm today which meant we had all afternoon to relax. I think they had a lot of corn left over as we had corn soup and pop corn today! We stayed at Wiñaywayna which had proper toilets with a bowl I nearly cried with joy my knees couldnt have squatted again! They were clean too, we all checked out the facilities that day. Some guys went to the bar but I was following David (a guy in our group)´s 6 P´s Perfect preparation prevents piss poor performance which was our team motto!
The camp was really busy so we just stayed around our tents.
After dinner we got an early night ready for our 4am start the next day.
Day 4
We walked 11km today. Woken up at 4am but actually had the best nights sleep of the whole trip. We had to queue to get out of camp until 5.30am. Then off we went, it was like someone had put a firecracker up our backsides we all stuck together and arrived at the sungate together (intipunku). It rained all morning and i was so worried that i wouldnt see machu picchu from the sungate we had brilliant sunshine every other day! But we got there and it was all worth it, the clouds moved just long enough for us to see the view and what a view it was. I cant describe how satisfying it was to finally see it. It is the most incredible place i have ever been.
We then walked down to the city. That took another hour and then we had a tour of machu picchu before all the clean people on the train arrived! It was so interesting and really big. The spanish did actually find machu picchu but the incas had already removed the gold and silver and the city was covered with trees so they never realised that the city existed in all its glory.
We spent most of the morning there before we caught a train and a bus back to cusco where we all spent a lot of time showering then went for a night out as a group to celebrate our achievement.
previous travel blog entry
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