Inca trail to Machu Picchu
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2008
1
20
40
Trip End
May 13, 2009
Machu Picchu,
Sacred Valley,
Peru
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Week 10 Jan 5th - 11th
Carwash on way to Cusco
Monday, I gladfully left Puno. I enjoyed the lake and the islands but Puno itself was damp and miserable and I had two shockingly bad night´s sleep. A mere 8 hours to Cusco and I booked another first class bus in the hope of getting some sleep. I learned that day that booking a first class ticket in Peru is not as important as choosing the right comapny you go with! I started the journey with one other in the first class compartment, by the time I reached Cusco it was rammed. There were 2 people on the seat beside me. It turns out with this company when ordinary class fills up first class becomes the overspill... I mean it makes sense right! This and Peruvian music blaring out over the speakers, about 32 degrees heat, continued breathing fits due to the altitude all meant I didn´t gain much sleep at all. My fits did however go along way to scaring/mystifying my fellow travellers. 
Cusco Cathedral
2 days to pick up the requisites for the inca trail, Poncho, an extra bag, some gloves and wolly hat, see a bit of Cusco and get some sleep! (No more sleeping issues in Cusco as it´s a bit lower at about 3200m). I met the ince trail group on Wednesday and learned I was to be sharing a room with a ringer for Bob Geldof. I never told him this as I´m sure he´d heard it before and or might take offence, and struggled everytime not to call him Bob. I knew it was going to be a good week! We set out in earnest on Thursday morning. The first day would be some guided tours of the sacred valley, to learn some background on the incas and get a taster for what was to come. 
Local girl at entrance to Sacred Valley
We drove for about one hour from Cusco to reach The Sacred Valley. This is one of the most fertile places in the world and can
Start of the sacred valley
produce corn kernels 2 cm in diameter and 3-4 harvests a year. This was a hugely treasured and important place for the Incas, hence the name Sacred Valley. It provided a huge amount of food for the Incan Empire and was defended ferociously. Many temples sites and sacrifices to the gods were built hear in order to ensure the continuation of the climate and fertilitiy of the land. We visited two sites in the valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo and had lunch on the valley floor. 
Pisac
Pisac is a small town on the valley floor onthe Urubamba river famous for its market and Inca ruins. They sit high on an outcrop overlooking the town. They served a triple purpose, 1 As a military outpost, a lookout in defense of the southern entrance to the sacred valley and also the inca capital Cusco in the hills beyond.
2. It was also some sort of religous centre with a few temples the most important being The temple of the Sun.
3. Agricutural, the hill is lined with terraces that are still used today.
Some shopping in Pisac market
They were created by bringing fertile soil from the valley below enabled them to produce extra food normally not possible at this altitude. The incas used terracing as well for crop experimentation, enabling to crow crops at different altitudes and climates to investigate the results. Afterwards we drove down to Pisac market where I picked up a rather unusual ornamental knife. Not something I´d normally buy but I couldn´t resist. There was a bigger version (see photo) that I would have loved to have brought with me but it was too much hassle trying to send it home. Ollantaytambo
Store houses at Ollantaytambo
Ollantaytambo is the last town in the Sacred Valley and the launch pad for the Inca Trail hike. We had a brief tour of the ruins and learned that it was a major cermeonial centre. Similar to Pisac, Ollantaytambo had a defensive, agricultural and religious significance. It guards the most northernly entrance to the Sacred Valley. The agricultural terraces here were used to crops and plants for religious offerings by the high priests of the incas. The ellaborate perfectly neat stonework indicates the building on top of the hill was a temple rather than a military fort.
Just short enough to have been an Inca King
They used different brickwork for different things. A stronger design was for retaining walls to maintain the site structure and other less perfect with holes used for the terraces to allow drainage. It is unfinished and the prescence of large rocks at various heights on the ¨on ramp¨ show that it was abondoned hastily during its construction, presumably aroud the time of the arrival of the Spanish. It is also home to storehouses high in the mountain face. It is said the height protected against decay and our guide even said that potatoes discovered here in the 20th century were boiled and still edible. The Incas preserved them by squeezing the juice out of the potatoes and leaving them to freeze, apparently presering them indefinitely. That evening we slept in and original inca palace in Ollantaytambo, that had now been conveted in a hostel. Right enough of the history lessons.. Let's get on to the trail..
Our porters all 22 of them
Day 1 (Friday) We start at Km 82. We leave our stuff with the porters and watch them pack up. There 14 of us and 22 of them. Each porter carries about 25kg whereas we only have to deal with about 5 or 6.
My fellow trekkers
They do this about 3 times a month, the rest of the time they work on their farms. Yes they are crazy. They even have a race on this every year and the record time for the 49km is 3hours 45 minutes..! Thats more than a
The cop-out to Machu Picchu
marathon at 3000-4200 metres altitude with some steep climbs in the middle. The first day was a gentle introduction to the hike, about 12-14 km long. The first 5 or 6 km slowly climbing from the
Setting up camp end day 1
Urubamba River before turning towards our first mountain pass to set up camp just up from the base. Our guides told us we could purchase some guinea pigs in the last village on the trail and the porters would kill them, skin them and cook them for us.
A well earned dinner
These are something of a delicacy in Peru and are not seen as pets but bred for food. The killing of the guinea pigs took place that night and wasn't the most humane I have seen. Their necks are wrung and then they were placed into boiling water which made it easier to pull their hair out. One of the guinea pigs took quite a while to die and it was a little disturbing to witness though the porters thought it quite amusing.
The summit!
View from Dead Woman´s Pass
Day 2 (Saturday) Guinea pig was served the next morning at breakfast and to be honest I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. They contained very little meat and were not remarkably nice. Give me some alpaca anyday! That was the basis for our assault on Dead Womans Pass. Roughly a kilometer vertical climb to the highest point on the trail. We set out at about 6.30 am and were told if takes about
IT4
4 hours to get to the summit. A bit of bravado among the lads meant the pace was pushed from the
IT6
outset but a few overdid it and yours truly was first to the summit. We even beat he porters up! Although in fairness if I was carrying 25kg I'd still be climbing up there. A quick race down and we were at lunch camp 2 hours early. The afternoon was a gentler session with a climb alot less vicious and we camped out in a beautiful spot facing the sunset. 
Finally there it is!
Day 3(Sunday) it was proposed we go all the way to Machu Picchu instead of campin at the end of trail. This would give us two
Slowly..
chances to see Machu Picchu, a longer lie in in the morning, the first entrance to the site if we wanted it and an evening relaxing at the hot springs in Aguas Calientes on the valley floor below the site. So we pushed on thorughout the day for Machu Picchu
but..
but when we reached the Sun Gate, the entance from the trail side, the site was shrouded in cloud. We waited for a while and then descended towards the site. Slowly the cloud cover dissapated and the glory of Machu Picchu was there to behold a day early. It was impressive but I
surely..
think I would have been more so had we not trekked the trail. To ascend by bus up from the valley floor to a city in the clouds is more awe inspiring than the gradual build up of the inca trail. Indeed some of the other strucutres perched up on far heigher outcrops baffle the mind more,
it comes into view.
thinking about thee effort they put into their entire empire. That said it is still hugely impressive, the planning thought and protection they put into this their sacred city.
Don´t I look delighted to be there
We awoke early the following morning with the attention of returning on the first bus for some better photos but alas it was bucketing down so we decided to lie in and just to go up for the tour at 10 o´clock.
The group again
A little dissappointing but you can arrange everything except the weather. We returned to cusco that night for one last blow out as a group and then went our seperate ways. Some of these guys I may see again in Rio as many have the intention of heading that way for Carnival! 
