Its one of those things that you have to do once in your lifetime like blowing a load of money in Vegas or going to New York to see the Empire state building or visiting Clonmacnoise (ok maybe not there but you can hardly blame me for trying). So while we were killing our livers we were also acclimatising on the high chairs of Paddy O Flaherty´s pub in Cusco (Highest owned Irish pub in the World....Guinness book of records confirmation pending, beat that Johnny Fox´s).
We were lucky in that we got a great group that also included a honeymooning couple from South Africa. So we all requested that their tent be set up far away from the rest. You need your rest if you are to trek 18-20 Km in a day.
We set off and straight away we were held up at the start because some locals decided to change the boards on the bridge that day. We had to cross a plank no more than 3 inches wide and 8 feet (carrying our backpacks) while the Rio Urubamba raged like an angry wife churning up white water in a belt of fury. That was a good indication of the perils that faced us throughout the four days of the trek.
We shot up the mountain and soon enough our guides realised that this was a group that liked to trek. He mentioned that we could make it to Machu Picchu in 3 days rather than the traditional time of 4 days and we could see MP twice, so at that news the group went even faster.
When you hike the trail you get a real appreciation of what the Incas achieved when they effectively ruled the entire eastern coast of South America. They only raged war for 100 years and still took over Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Northern Argentina and Chile. They built over 12,000 km of roads and built lots of resting places and religious/astrological sites along the routes. We visited a few of the more impressive ones and I came away feeling humbled at their skill in shaping stone and their determination to build at the most impressive vistas.
The hardest day of the trek is the second day. We trekked 18 km that day with 10 km straight uphill. Put this way, we slept at 3,000 metres and hiked to 4,200 m at Dead Womans pass and decided to continue to achieve our goal of reaching the ancient university of the Incas in 3 days.
Ther second night we slept in the lee of one of the highest mountain ranges in the Andes. Salkantay, at an altitude of 6,271m and covered in ice looked down on us the next morning. It was a freezing night at 3,900 m and I was glad when the sun came out. We got our first view of MP mountain when we walked over the third pass but it was the back of the mountain so we couldn´t see the city.
After a meal which was prepared by our extraordinary cook, how did he make a birthday cake for one of the group without knowing that it was Alex´s birthday until we all sat down for dinner the night before, we set off on our last hike to the sun gate that looks over the site. I was at the front of the group as we trekked and all the time we were passed by our porters. These guys are amazing, standing no more than 5 ft 6 in, they were carrying loads that would be illegal in other countries. All of them carry no less that 25kg as well as their own gear and still burn the rest of us on the trail. There was a race along the trail (it is 43 km long so almost the length of a 26 mile marathon) and one Peruvian porter ran it in 3 hours and 30 minutes. The best time for a European is 11 hours so it goes to show how amazing these guys really are.
All the pain, frustration, cramps and self doubt disappears when you reach the sun gate and have your first view of the ancient city of Machu Picchu. The view is amazing. It feels like you are looking at a postcard or a movie set such is your familarity with the view. But this is an extraordinary movie set. Our guide´s opinion is that it was a university that taught crop cultivation, astrology and stone manipulation and it was a site that only 1% of the entire population of the 12 million Incas knew about. That would go a long way to explaining why the Spainiards never knew about it.
We walked down to the site and sat and admired what this ancient culture had created. They managed to combine beauty with ingenuity. The site is surrounded by water on three sides because the Rio Urubamba meanders along the base of the mountain on which the site sits and it is also surrounded by mountains that loom over but do not obscure it. Truly a wonder of the world. Really, if you have ever seen the Pyramids in Egypt or the Taj Mahal or the Basillica in Rome (or Clonmacnoise!) you have to visit this place.
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