Caminar de Inca

·There are MANY MANY more photos to follow... this internet connection is too poor for a mass upload. They will be added later·

And so, after literal months of waiting my Inca Trail had finally arrived, and the 12th November 2010 saw me stumbling around the staff room at 5am (a mere half an hour after my roommates had come back from the night before) in the dark trying to get my kit together. Despite the Navy O Clock hour I actually wasn't collected by the tour company until 7am, but hey, how else could you tell it was South America?! Luckily there were a few others from Loki also in my group to hike the trail and so I wasn't alone in my wait and spent the time getting to know identical twins Mark and Dave, a couple called Luke and Rachel, and three Ozzy lads Rod, Ash and Casper. When the bus finally arrived we were further joined by three other couples Americans Diane and Troy, an English couple called Kate and Rich, and a Danish couple called Petra and Peter. Luckily Lance a Kiwi and Hannah (Kate's sister) also joined us, and so I wasn't the only single gal on the trip... nice to have someone to share a tent with!!
Day 01: Cusco to Wayllabamba (12km) Friday
We started our trip from Cuzco with distribution of the MASSIVE sleeping bags we had hired for the duration (mine took up most of my pack... and I had borrow a bigger pack than the one I normally travel with anyway!) and then all basically fell asleep on the trip to Ollantaytambo where we would have breakfast before proceeding on to km82 where we would start our hike from. Now I'm ALWAYS a breakfast person, but I had never before had scrambled egg sandiches with melted cheese and ham, and I have to say the discovery is up there for new foods of the trip (try it now, thank me later, dont tell the doctor I told you to do it when your heart stops beating). Excellent breakfast over and it was another half hour on the bus before we were off and hiking. It was at this point I realised that EVERYONE else on the trip had hired a porter and I would be the only one carrying all my stuff. Always up for a challenge, and knowing I could never look my friends in the RN in the face again if I hired a tiny Peruvian to carry my kit, I turned down the last minute opportunity to change my mind and embarked on the four day hike con massive bag. Day one was a relatively easy hike, ascending just over 300m and still not really noticing the altitude. We stopped at the Inca site of Huillca Raccay and were able to appreciate the beauty of an Inca site still visited by few since it stopped functioning in the 1400s. Along the way we also stopped for lunch and had our first sample of the truly exceptional food the cook travelling with us was able to produce apprenly out of thin air. We were treated to a gorgeous noodle soup, vegetarian Cerviche, and the traditional Milanesa de Pollo that first day and it was all lovely, nicest food I've had in South America was provided by Perub Treks apparently without the aid of any refrigeration equiptment. Amazing!
That night we camped at a low camp that was warm and the grass was lovely and spongy soft to sleep on. We had an introduction ceremony that was suprisingly American in influence considering Peru Tours is an English owned company, and then whiled away the rest of the hours playing cards. By this point we were well aquainted with our guides Victor and José, and Victor's terrible sense of humor. The best joke of the night, told after dinner in what was to become a standard evening ritual, was the following:
'What do you call a deer with one ear?'
- 'No eye deer'
'What do you call a deer with no ear and no tail'
- 'Still no eye deer'

Once we had recovered from our fits of laughter it took us an hour to convince him the replace 'ear' with 'eye' and 'tail' with 'legs', after which he commented, 'I wondered why people always found that joke so funny'... needless to say as I can't tell any jokes in my third language I wont be commenting further (all people of the Sacred Valley primarily speak Ketchuan)... but it made for a very enjoyable evening.

Day 02: Wayllabamba to Pacamayo (12km) Saturday
The most important thing to note about that first day was the complete absence of steps. No steps. The ENTIRE remainder of the trek we were either walking up or walking down Inca built stone steps. Now far be it from me to criticise an ancient culture, but the Incas never got round to inventing workable metals. The tools Incas used to carve these steps were obsidan and amethyst chisles. NOT EFFECTIVE TOOLS FOR CREATING FLAT OR EVEN STEPS. The steps we were walking on made your muscles scream in pain every uneven plod of the way, and day two is the day with the big ascent. Today we would be walking up a mere 1200m to reach our first pass. The first pass of the Inca Trail is known as dead womans pass as when you FINALLY reach a point far enough away to look back (on day three) it looks a tiny bit like a woman lying down. After 4 hours of Inca stairs I could think of at least one other reason it was going to be known as dead womans pass. However, the climb in itself was breathtaking, directly up through the cloud forest of the sacred valley the path is lined at the side by beautiful orchids, rare humming birds and a gorgous waterfall. Almost lovely enough to distract you from the searing pain in your thighs.
I was both lucky and well acclimatised on day two, as this was the stage in the trek when people started to get sick from the altitude. One or two because they hadn't acclimatised well enough, others just through dumb luck. With altitude sickness if you're going to get it there's nothing you can do unfortunately.
We stopped very briefly to take photos at the top of dead womans pass (which we reached in a mere 4 hours... the average group taking 7... combined with the twins, myself and the Ozzy lads were making for something of a competitive group) as it was too cold to hang around sweat-soaked for long. And then the descent began. Now before I started my Inca Trail I was told by everyone that the second mornings climb to the first pass would be the worst. I contest this. The two hours of downhill on uneven Inca stones in the pervasive rain that started coming down was a HUNDRED times worse. Ever the graceful ballerina I fell a mere 5 times getting to camp that day and would happily have traded Dead Womans Pass for those horrible wet downhill sections any day of the week. I started to feel a tad uneasy as there were many more downhill steps to be had the next day, and if it was to be wet it would be very slow going.
However the incredible beauty of the campsite (located at the top of the valley so you could watch the clouds roll up and down it) took my mind off the predicament. And having hiked the first part of the trek so fast the whole group had finished the 12k hike by 1pm so we were able to have time to watch the sunset and massage our battered thighs!
At this point a wrod should be said for the porters, incredible men who for the most part have been born and raised in the Sacred valley who literally run this Inca Trail with weights of 20kg on their backs in order to meet all the tourists with their stuff at each checkpoint. The olderst porter in our team was 54 years old. But it was interesting to have a talk on the second day about the face that Sacred Valley dwellers are adapted for the route having small wide feet and a whole extra pint of blood than the average person!!
The night ended with yet more of Victor's classic jokes, and a chocolate pudding to die for...
Day 03: Pacamayo to Wiñay Wayna (15km) Rememberance Sunday
We were exceptionally lucky on Day three as the morning dawned bright and clear for us. Today was to be the day we saw the really amazing Inca ruins, lagely unexplored and seen only by and handful of people since 1500ad due to them being only acessible by the two day killer hike and to the mere 200 people allowed onto the Ince Trail every 4 days. They didn't dissapoint, and even after a fairly gnarly downhill section I was delighted by the untouched majesty of Sayamarca. It says something that the name Sayacmarca actually means 'Inaccessible Town' and describes the position of the ruins perfectly, protected on three sides by sheer cliffs, the only entrance being a near veritcal saircase cut into the cliff face. No one knows the exact purpose of these ruins, as of yet they have been unexplored by archeologists and stand untouched as the Incas left them as the Spanish invaded the valley in 1500. After these beautiful ruins (we had already climbed one pass by that point) there was an uphill section to see some more ruins, called Phuyupatamarca, famous for its baths used in ritual sacrifice and blood-letting, and the last pass which came with some astonishing views across the sacred valley. After we were done with the amazing beauty came the 'Gringo Killers'... a set of steps that descend for four kilometers and are so treacherous, slippy and uneven that they claim at least one gringo casualty a day (and probably some porters and guides too). These were the stairs I was worried about. Especially since passing the day one campsite and all of us being told medical help was now inacessable and the only way off the Inca Trail now was to either walk or be carried out. Luckily the day had continued clear an beautiful, the stairs were for the most part dry (except where the Incas had crossed the path with waterfalls, which happened more than once). And in contrast to the day before I actually made it to camp without a single trip or fall (thanks to which ever diety of choice was listening). The hike on day three finishes in Winay Wayna which is basically an inca farm dotted with vibrant rare orchids.
We camped that night on hard stone. I was so tried, coming down from the adrenaline of not falling to my death, and so aware that we were getting up at 3.30 the next morning I slept like an infant.
Day 04: Wiñay Wayna to Machu Picchu (5km)
The final day of our trek and it was breakfast in the dark and a wait for the park gates to open so we could start the 5km assent to the Sun Gate for the money shot over Machu Picchu. In a shockingly responisble and health and safelty conscious move, the Peruvian government ruled not longer allowable to hike into MP in the dark. As I walked I found out why; the path there is sheer cliff face on your left side the entire way, and is only about 2m wide at the widest part (30cms at its heart-stopping narrowest). The night before our guide had warned us not to get our hopes up for the Sun Gate; despite our freakishly fortunate weather November is rainy season and with descending from so high we had been told we might wait 2 hours for a glimpse of Macchu Pichu through the cloud cover. It was about 7am when we arrived at the Sun Gate and we were elated to find not a cloud in sight, a straight view down to the beautiful, breathtaking, empty Macchu Pichu. Viewed as an Inca would have seen it after the same trek more than 400 years before. Its another 2k from the Sun Gate down into the famous ruins themselves, but I have to say my favourite part of visiting MP was that intial view through the Sun Gate as we stood there sweaty and exhausted and were the first that day to see the city. When we had got into Macchu Pichu itself (after posing for all the awesome postcardesque shots... see my pride and joy below) we experienced something of shellshock as after 4 days of peaceful hiking and no showers we were suddenly surrounded by tour groups being herded about all freshly showered having caught the bus up from nearby Aguas Calienties.
The ruins were spectacular though, and Victors tour was suitable taylored to 16 people who had just spent seval days immersed in Inca culture. And as we wondered round I couldn't help but feel that Macchu Pichu meant a little something extra for those of us who had hiked those four days to enter the city the way of the Incas. An amazing awesome experince indeed.
Soon it was time to leave MP and we explored the horrible little tourist trap town of Aguas Calientes (horrible overpriced place) before jumping on a train back to our original breakfast port of 'tambo and onwards to be back in Cuzco by a mere 11pm!!

What an INCAredible adventure!!

Things I learned on the Inca Trail

• Its not 'no ear deer'
• Even 95% deet wont save you from the Mosquitos. It will melt your watch.
  
• Australians are hysterical. Sometimes on purpose.
• The Inca Trail is SO MUCH HARDER than you think.
  
• Swearing in Ketchuan is often mistaken by gringos for 'hello'.
• If the guide tells all the porters you fancy Peruvian men you will be harrassed for the whole four days.
• Seeing Macchu Pichu from the sun gate is one of the most incredible moments of my life to date.