Hostal Continental Aguas Calientes

... 14 of us and 2 Inca Trail guides) loaded up with 25 kgs each of our stuff, tents, chairs, cooking equipment and food and huge gas cylinders for cooking! Its crazy how huge their packs are that they carry on their backs the whole way&#8230;. Made us feel pathetic only carrying our day bags with just hats, sunglasses, sunscreen and about 1.5 liters of water each!<br><br>To preserve the trail, the Peruvian government has implemented a lot of regulations (such ...

... It was built by the Incans in the 1500´s but not rediscovered until 1911 by Hiram Bingham. A little boy led him to the site for 1 coin! Most of the artifacts are at Yale University, they should give them back to Peru now! <br>We had about an hour with hardly any people around...it was a real treat. Then the tourists started rolling in and the hikers started arriving. As soon as we saw our group i ran up to give everyone a hug, i missed ...

... cheap tickets. However, this was not the end of our dilemma because the printer driver on the computer was not working. We tried unsuccessfully to re-install the driver but the only person who knew what the administration password was for the computer was unavailable at the time. We tried several times before we found a solution by transferring the pdf file via USB onto another computer and printing locally. By this time the clock had ticked on and there was a chance of us not ...

... grazing freely on the terrace grasses. I felt like it was a place to take pictures and brag about having visited in your dying days, although I've always been more interested in living culture, nature and food than places of global notoriety and historical significance. All in all, it was a destination, and I much preferred the journey; I only wish Mollie wouldn't have suffered so much along the way.<br>

... had reached the bottom, but Dee and I were still at the top, I just couldn't move, my legs were shaking, I had no energy, I was using my poles so much my hands were bruised from the pressure. I heard the radio go, it was Jenny, she was telling Ruth that the last bus would be going at 5:45, we had left the sungate at 3:15, the 40 minute walk was turning in to a marathon, this is the last I can really remember until we got closer to the bottom.<br><br>We finally ...

<br> P's report<br> This was on both of our top three places to see and it didn't disappoint one bit.<br> We set off the day before from Cusco on the train to Aguas Caliente - this is the only way into MP unless you do the Inca Trail. This would have meant booking it 4 months at least prior and we were no way that organised. Its only 80km from Cusco but the train took three and half hours - but with the views that you had it didn't matter. Aguas Caliente is basically ...

... So far we'd hiked for 18 hours, the French Alliance always at least an hour ahead.<br><br>(Mollies Notes: It was really bad. Really painful. Really steep. I thought a lot about Frodo and Samwise Gangee, what incredible heroes they were. The hobbits are going to Eisengard! The descent was so amazing in comparison to the ascent, partially because of the misty weather/ view, and partially because the pressure was taken off of my heels.)<br>

... first of 3 nights under the stars.<br><br>Today´s hike is mostly small(ish) inclines and flat trails, which does little to reveal the tourture ahead on day 2. Along the way we see several smaller Inca ruins (Llactapata, for one), and a fantastic lunch stop where our GAP guides and cooks set the bar for camp food! Our lunchtime entertainment was a treat - a couple of turkeys fornicating just outside the mess tent. Endless ...

... steps go straight up in our faces and we had our hands on them as we crawled upwards. Coming down was even more hairy and it is a miracle that they are not accidents every day especially when it has rained. However the reward is at the top, for a superlative view of the whole site, there is the classic aerial view of Machu Picchu and it is possible to spend hours arguing about how exactly the settlement has been shaped like a Condor &#8211; if you can find the head, then where is the ...

... a gentle hike at the head of the valley, crossing streams and have a talk from Jaime about the Coca leave and how to use it against altitude sickness. My favourite bit being ´it´s not a drug, it´s a stimulant!´ Then the trail went ridiculously steep uphill and comes to a series of zigzags. Which with the altitude, kind of simulated the feeling of having a PE (blood clot in the lung)-(geek)-. Then once we´d managed to caught our breath and pick up a stone ...