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Lost City of the Incas
Entry 25 of 28 | show all | print this entry |
I survived the Inca Trail! It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Once I get back from Peru, I promise to post lots of photos and go into more detail about the hike...
I ended up doing the hike with an agency called Intiwatana, which in Quechua - the language of the Incas - means "the place where the sun is worshiped." Each Incan holy site has an Intiwatana, which is an altar dedicated to the sun. So anyway, the agency was great. It was like a luxury hiking trip. There were only four tourists in our group: me, a German couple in their mid-20s, and an Argentine girl who is 19. Then we had a guide, a cook, and four porters! In total it was a group of ten people, only 4 of whom were tourists. The porters carried our tents, all the food, and the cooking supplies. I thought I was going to have to share a tent, but in the end we had three tents, so the Argentine girl and I each had our own tents and the German couple shared a tent. Plus, the porters carried a table and stools for us to eat our meals on! It was almost ridiculous. The thing is, you can´t hike the Inca Trail any other way. The Peruvian government requires tourists to hire a guide, so everyone who does the hike ends up with the same sort of service that we had. Some groups even had a higher ratio of support staff to paying tourists. One of the more expensive companies, SAS, had a group of 14 tourists and 24 porters!
But anyway, getting back to the hike. We left Cuzco Thursday morning, made a few stops along the way, and got to the start of the trail at around 1pm. Then we had lunch before starting the hike at 2pm. The first day we hiked 10 km and got to the campsite around 6pm. The second day is supposed to be the hardest day because on that day you hike uphill for 1000m to go over Warmiwanusca, "Dead woman´s pass," named not after an unfortunate hiker but after the shape of the mountain - so I`m told. I didn´t actually see the shape of a dead woman as I was huffing my way up the mountain. I got up to the top without too much trouble. But then we had to descend 600m, and this killed my knees and my legs. The descent was all on stone steps which don´t cushion your feet at all unlike walking on dirt. I practically collapsed after reaching the campsite at 2pm.
It rained all night the second night which was not a good omen - plus, only a thousand feet above us it had snowed during the night. Then I woke up the morning of the third day with a terrible stomache ache. I couldn´t eat anything for breakfast - all I had was coca tea, which by the way is the Andean cure for any ailment. This was very bad, becuase since I didn´t eat, I had very little energy, and the third day is the longest day of hiking - about 16km including two ascents over mountain passes. We also passed four different sets of Incan ruins on the third day. The first set of ruins were just 25 minutes hike from the campsite. It had just stopped raining by the time we reached the site. From there it was another 25 minutes to the top of the pass, and by the time we arrived the clouds had totally cleared and I can honestly say I saw one of the best scenic views I have ever seen. We could see for 360 degrees and there were snow-capped peaks in all directions. By lunchtime, my stomach still didn´t feel so well so all I ate was soup. Then we hiked through a cloud forest up to the final pass from where you can see the back of Machu Picchu mountain, except it was all covered in clouds. However, from there it was a descent of over 1000m on stone Incan steps. After descending just for fifteen minutes we were below the clouds and could see the entire Urubamba Valley that surrounds Machu Picchu - you couldn´t see Machu Picchu itself because it was on the other side of a mountain. I felt like I would never make it down to the campsite that night because my stomache was still hurting and since I had barely eaten I had almost no energy. But the magnificent view gave me the strength to keep going, and finally by 5pm I arrived and collapsed in my tent. By that evening the antibiotics seemed to have taken effect because I was able to eat some dinner.
This morning we woke up at 4am, had breakfast at 4:30, then got in line to enter the park. At exactly 5:30am they opened the gate and we started walking towards Machu Picchu. The feeling as we walked along the trail that hugged the backside of Machu Picchu Mountain, 1500ft above the Urubamba River, was just amazing. As it started to get light, we could see clouds below us, and it was like we were walking through the sky. By 6:30am we turned a bend in the trail, hiked up a set of stone steps and reached the Sun Gate from where we had our first view of the ruins of Machu Picchu. It was an amazing feeling to finally see the destination after 4 days of hiking. From the Sun Gate it´s another hour to actually reach the site. I have to say, the ruins of Machu Picchu are beautiful, but it´s really the setting that makes this place so special. The site is 1500ft above the Urubamba River which curves in a U all the way around the entire site making the site almost an island in the sky, then there are the lush semi-tropical mountains all around, including the prominent peak Huayna Picchu which is the mountain that always appears in photographs of the site. After a brief rest, we had a 2 hour guided tour of the site, then we had free time to wander around the ruins and take it all in. I climbed to the top of Huayna Picchu, from where you actually look down on the ruins and have an unbelievable view of the whole area. Then at 2pm I took the bus down to the town of Aguas Calientes where we had lunch and then took the 4pm train back to Cuzco - the train ride itself had some great views, as it follows the river at the bottom of the valley. For some reason the train dropped us half way to Cuzco, instead of going all the way as it normally does, and then we had to take a bus. We arrived just after 8pm.
That´s all for now, but I hope to add more details and photos soon...
Latest Comments (1)
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Can't Wait (reply)
Jan 11, 2007 08:54 EST by kristinabeaton
I've always wanted to see Machu Picchu:
this makes it all the better. I can't believe that they carry all the stuff like that- it sounds really tough.
If you had to hike all that: I suppose I should start practising before I go.. haha!!
Thanks for sharing :)
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