well possibly aparts from a gorgeous young ski instructor, walking the inca trail was probably at the top of my ´pros´ list when considering staying on the truck up to lima. it did have its moments but overall i am very happy to say those 4 days have been one of the highlights of my travels so far.
20 of us from the truck went, a really awesome group who found ways to amuse themselves despite the weather not always being perfect. i am so glad i chose to do it with them.
day 1 was a long day starting with a hotel pickup at 5am followed by a coupla hours in a bus out to the start of the walk at km82. the walk started off at about 2600m and the morning was spent walking past cute little villages as we ascended slowly up. the afternoon was a bit harder as we carried on up some pretty steep stairs at times to our campsite at 3800m. we got a bit of a view but the cloud decided to close in as most people arrived so i dont really know how good the view from that camping platform is.
was certainly very good to be carrying less than 10kg when walking up stairs at altitude! our porters were amazing. they breezed past us with their 20-25kg and set up lunch for us and then did the same in the afternoon in order to set the camp up. arriving and finding your tent already erected is never a bad thing, just had to go and get your bag off the porters and chuck it in your tent and wait for your dinner. i could definetly get used to camping this way! And if you want to know anything about syphilis, ask JP…
day 2 contains dead womans pass, the highest point on the trail at 4215m and a great oppurtunity to get the lungs working! possibly wasnt so bad for a lot of us as we had put in a much bigger first day than most groups do and therefore didnt have to walk up the whole hill in one day.
day 2 was our very shabby weather day which meant the ponchos were out on show in all the colours of the rainbow. was just disappointing to be missing out on all the views after walking over the bloody pass. did have some archaeological sights appear out of the clouds from time to time which was nice although those of us who werent walkers certainly had a few questions for those of us who apparently walk around the rain seeing nothing for a hobby and at times i had to agree with them.
day 3 bought as a shabby start to the morning session but by the afternoon it has burnt off and we were left with an absolute scorcher on what was easily our best day so far. the fact we were descending for most of the day certainly pleased a few people as well.
i do like my terraces as there arent so many at home and we did see some great terraces including the best site we had seen so far, just 5 minutes walk from our campsite at winaywayna. camera copped a bit of a belting this day, but after the 2 days before it could afford to.
getting woken up at 345am on day 4 was a little rough, especially after our veritable 6-7am sleep ins the two days before. the last checkpoint opens at 530am so our guide wanted us down there first in line (didnt happen) and our porters also had to pack up the whole camp and walk all the way down the hill to catch the local 6am train.
was about an hour to the sun gate - a beautiful viewpoint overlooking macchu picchu; and all i saw on the way was ponchos in the mist. funnily enough although not at the time, this was also all i saw from the sun gate. we then walked down the hill to the site and saw surprisingly enough, ponchos in the mist. there was a lot of happy people at this point. maybe georgie and chloe who were just happy to have finished, and maybe steph who stayed very optimistic in some rather pessimistic company.
we started our tour of the site around ten as the cloud played with the tourists by wafting in and out of pictures for a while before moving a bit higher and giving the people what they wanted to see. i would not have been a happy camper if i had walked all that way to just see ponchos in the mist. we did our tour and at the end of it tobys loose trackpants were just asking to be pulled down, so i obliged them and accidently grabbed his boxers at the same time so they came down as well! and some of the girls who were standing in front of him got a bit of an eyeful of something they probably werent expecting. i honestly didnt mean to bring the lot down, that was just an added bonus. to be fair toby did take it very well, swore he would have his revenge, and then a few of us hike up huayna picchu - the mountain behind the site in all the postcards. the view from here is awesome. i never expected the site to be so big, but even more so i wasnt prepared for the pure awesomeness of the setting with huge towering peaks and raging river winding its way noisily through the valley below.
a few of us spent a while up on top before heading over to where we had walked down to at the end of the trail and seen nothing. just sat and took it all in for a while before taking the obligatory postcard shot. i have seen that image so many times it was kind of surreal to be taking it myself. it was funny how easy it was to recognise the spot. 10 metres either side and it just didnt quite look the same.
a few of us (everyone in ´not a bad view´) decided not to take the bus down to aguas calientes to meet everyone, we would rather walk. walk we thought. adam who had a sore hip and sore foot and had been hobbling along for four days ate some magical chips and was suddenly flying down the mountain with the rest of us in pursuit. we ended up getting a bit competitive with the buses as they took a windy route and we went straight down and waved to them every time they came round a corner further down the mountain, much to the obvious annoyance of some of the passengers who had paid 20 soles for the priveledge of a ride when we were keeping up with them by apparently walking (we went hard as soon as the bus got out of sight in order to beat it to the next meeting point). we beat them down to the bridge at the bottom of the hill and stopped for some photos above the raging river. it was such an awesomelu fun spontaneous experience. it is the end of rainy season and that river was the biggest brownest river i have ever seen, it seemingly had dynamite going off under the water every 5m or so and would have been a crazily suicidal river trip. started pouring on us as we walked into town which i loved and we were all absolutely soaked by the time we got to the restaurant to meet everyone else. you couldnt get the smile of my face, absolutely loved it. the last day was the perfect ending to a great trip.
we had some very funny moments in the tent waiting for our dinner some stupidly funny games - can you pass this to..., yes/no, jumping comps but that sort of stuff made the trip for me and is the stuff i will always remember. great place great ppl great trip. we went with pachamama expeditions and i can happily recommend them. we had a bit of a ceremony for them on the last night and gave all the porters and guides a tip but it wasnt worthy of the effort they put in.
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