Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2005
1
13
80
Trip End
Jun 17, 2006
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Machu Picchu,
Peru
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Day 1. Three hour bus ride from Cusco. Our tour group was made up of one guide (a peruvian, resident of Cusco, named...Smith...?!), thirteen trekkers, and eleven porters (including a chef). We had a great mix of people - us three Aussies (Charlie, Al and myself), three brazilians, three argentinians, one american, one german, one brit, and one portuguese. We walked for around 3 hours to our first night's camping ground, this was more of an introduction to the trek, not very hard walking, pretty flat, passing by several local communities trying to make a buck selling cold drinks, chocolates, etc. However it seemed like their existence is not dependent around the tourists that pass through their villages, it's merely coincidence that they happen to live right on the Inca trail. Apparently in this region there are 49 dialects spoken, however most speak both Spanish and Quechua (native peruvian-bolivian language). Along the walk, we smelled some delicious local Andean mint, seriously this was spectacular mint, I can't adequately describe it, suffice to say it made some truly kickass mint tea.
01 Here begins the trail
We learnt a fair bit about the Incas on this day, mainly background information for the hilltop ruins we will be coming across. Got to the campsite, porters had put up the tents and cooked for us, it seems kinda strange, a little wrong, camping this way, but it's the only way it can be done nowadays. And the trek does get a LOT harder.Day 2. This is the hardest days trekking. It's pretty much a solid 4 hours of steep uphill climb to the first mountain pass of the trail, followed by a quick descent to camp. We were woken up at 5am, and at 6 we were away. The climb to the pass was tough. Given the high altitude, your lungs and heart are forced to work bloody hard. Myself and an argentinian guy around my age, Andrés, led the group up to the pass - which totally surprised me given my apparent general lack of physical fitness. We reached the pass at 9:30am, and felt like we were on top of the world. Followed soon by a fit and experienced brazilian trekker, Michael, we descended to our campsite by 10:40. The scenery was magnificent. We passed by many a llama, and were passed by many a porter, however I think uphill, the three of us easily competed with the porters, it is downhill where they totally dominate. So we had the whole day to rest and relax from the hard morning's climbing. Up to now we have been incredibly lucky with the weather, no rain at all, and considering it is the rainy season, some Inca gods must have been smiling down upon us! So we sunbaked, got to know our group, played cards, chatted with our new mates about random trivia and logic puzzles, and then headed to bed for an atrocious night's sleep.
02 Our guide, "smith", on the left
Freezing cold and rainy weather(but better then than during the day) plus thin sleeping mats equals bad sleep.Day 3. Woke up at 5am again, getting used to this now!! Heaps of walking today, around 7 hours I think. Got guided tour of a few Incan ruin sites, some fascinating stuff which you can all read about elsewhere! Lots of downhill walking amongst gorgeous dense jungle (what us Aussies would call rainforest), with porters absolutely sprinting past us. 2 hours were purely down steep, thin, crazy Inca steps, which the porters seemed to fly over. Campsite was near a hostel/restaurant place, where the softies of the group had hot showers and beer was available, but we felt that it would be too wrong to do the Inca trail but with these kind of creature comforts in the middle. Having said that, the porters gave us an absolute feast on their last night with us, including chicken, steak, rice, potatoes, spicy stuffed capsicums, etc.etc. Visited some stunning nearby Incan ruins before dinner, I have some cool panorama pictures to collate when I return home!
Day 4. 3:50am wakeup. Now that's ridiculous, but it was TOTALLY worth it. We were the second group to the government control point, and after passing through that, Andrés and I quickly passed most of the first group to be among the very first to Intipunka, the "Sun Gate", where we first saw Machu Picchu. It was a brilliant view, and with no rain all day, the Inca gods were definitely on our side. Took some great photos from both the Sun Gate and the top house of Machu Picchu (where all the postcard photos are taken). You can see a small collection on this blog. After a two hour guided tour of the city, Charlie and I climbed up to Waynapicchu, another Inca citadel right on top of a very, very steep mountain. The view of Machu Picchu and surrounds were phenomenal. Sweet-smelling tourists arriving by bus started to make us feel uncomfortable, so we headed down to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes for lunch and to farewell our guide. A train and bus trip back to Cusco, and the trek was over.
My overall Inca Trail experience was one that I will treasure my whole life. I suggest to you all that one day, you make your way to Peru and do it. Not the train/bus just to Machu Picchu. Not the soft 2 day version. The serious, tough, 4 day trek. Machu Picchu was impressive, but the trail as a whole was SO much more. Over the four days, we felt some kind of spirit of nature, some spirit of the Incas. Sometimes we felt like we were discovering the area for the first time. We felt not like tourists, but like adventurers, discoverers. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Now go and do it!
Comments
Inca Trail
Have you come across the Inca quick-step yet? If not, you might meet it in Mexico- its called Montezuma's revenge there!. Good to hear you are having a great time- the photos are super and so is the commentary!
Dad
Hello for Germany!
Hey Tom,
Photos are awsome, I want to go to Peru! Good to see you and Al will play cricket anywhere. Munich is fabulous (not quite so impressive as where you are). Partying hard, working enough and skiing a lot.
Fun travels and lots of love,
Claire.