The Inca Trail! — Ollantaytambo, Peru
Disclaimer: this entry will be by far the longest in the blog. Rach and Andy recommend several comfort breaks for the health and safety of our beloved readers.
The start of our Inca Trail adventure took us to the town of Ollantaytambo, the gateway to the Sacred Valley of the Incas (the Urubamba river valley). After a spectacular drive through the mountains, we arrived and dropped off our stuff before setting out for a ´practice´ hike to ready ourselves for the next 4 days.
It was only a short walk (roughly 30 mins of up climbing 300m) but it was seriously hard work as it was a steep ascent up uneven steps. It was quite worrying to think this was the difficulty we´d be facing, as the altitude really takes your breath away. However, after much huffing and puffing we were rewarded with resplendent views down the valley. After climbing down, we had a genuine Peruvian experience of watching Peru being totally dominated by Paraguay in the World Cup qualifiers...needless to say the Peruvians got quite into it even if they played like ****, and the random room above a little shop was rammed to twice past its capacity. After that, it was off to bed early to gather strength.
DAY 1 (12km walked, 300m ascent)
After meeting our larger than life guide Ephi and assistant guide Alex, it was a short bus journey to KM 82 (82km from Cusco, the Inca capital), the official start checkpoint of the Camino Inca. One of our group, Avi, had terrible timing getting a vomiting bug that had him stop the bus a couple of times on the way. Thankfully, that settled down so all of our group dropped off our kit with the porters and got ready to hit the trail.
Passports stamped, we set off on an easy section, playing games to pass the time (Andy lost, badly...). After a rest stop, we were warned that a 30 min climb ahead would be a taster of the climb we could expect on the 2nd day. It was a tough, short, hot climb that left everyone wondering how they could keep that up for a full day...
A welcome respite at the top had us learn about our first Inca site - Patallaqta. This was likely a agricultural town, but we learnt an overview of the Sacred Valley. Under threat from the Spanish, the canny Incas dug up their beautiful stone path through the valley to deter the Spanish from searching the valley. It worked. The Spanish instead took the next valley along, leaving the Inca sites on the trail untouched and more importantly, unravaged.
After another easy going hour, it was time to stop for lunch. No one was prepared for the quality of food we got on the trail. Every meal time before the group arrived, the porters would already have erected a tent with seats for all and have food cooking (they carry all the food and equipment as well as our tents and belongings!). Typically, you get a soup starter, a hot main and then hot tea to help digestion. The first lunch was delicious fried trout with rice. How the cook prepared such high quality food in such a small tent still boggles our minds...
The afternoon was largely easy going and uneventful, except it started raining which made for sweaty progress in plastic ponchos. At our first camp site (already prepared by the porters), we had afternoon tea followed by an introduction to our porter ´family´. This involved learning about each of them, what they were carrying etc. We got an insight into the new regulations on e.g. weight carried, pay, insurance, equipment for the porters. Under new regulations, each porter carries a max of 25kg, whereas before it would be anything up to 80!! For our group of 15, there were 21 porters and 2 cooks, the youngest being 19 and the eldest 65. They are only allowed to spend 20 years being a porter because of the wear and tear on their bodies. We had so much respect for these men, the effort required must be superhuman.
After another delicious dinner and a few games in the tent, we retired knowing the next day would be a big test for everyone.
DAY 2 (11km walked, 1200m ascent)
The hardest day started at 5:00am with a cheerful wake up call and a hot cup of coca tea. After a quick wash and breakfast, it was time to set off for the 7km (1200m ascent) to the top of Abra Warmiwañuska (Dead Woman´s Pass). The first section to the first rest stop wasn´t strenuous, so we were feeling confident about the day ahead. However, after that stop, as we entered dense forest, the gradient got steeper and the steps more challenging. The group started to thin out into smaller pockets of people - Andy walking with Avi (Avi, if you are reading this, yes you are the best Dead Woman´s Pass partner in the world...), and Rach forming a third of team RAA (Rachel, Akshay, Asha). The next major rest stop was well known as selling the last snacks and drinks on the trail before Machu Picchu (Akshay managed to spend nearly 12 pounds on sweets alone...).
At this point, we were half way up, but the remaining 600m was an unrelenting, lung busting slog up open fellside (with each breath coming harder thanks to the altitude). You get a mixed feeling of hatred and respect when you are gasping for air at each step and a group of porters come running (yes, running) past carrying 5x the weight you are...
Despite it seeming never ending, all of our group reached the top in a faster than average time. Andy reached the top and literally collapsed onto the fastest of our group. Even the lethargy you feel can´t disguise how amazing the view is from the top and, reunited, the group spent some time eating snacks and appreciating the view.
After all the up, the remainder of the day was spent descending 400m to our next campsite. Poles were definitely needed on this steep descent, though the views were still excellent. We arrived at our campsite at around 1:30pm, so we had a free afternoon to recover after what was agreed between Rach and Andy as the hardest day´s hiking we have ever done.
The campsite is in a spectacular location beneath a waterfall at the bottom of the pass, though Rach kept waking up in the night thinking she was sleeping next to a busy road... After lots of good food and rest, it was another early night.
DAY 3 (16km walked, 300m ascent, much more descended)
It was another 5am wake up call for the 3rd day to beat the crowds to the many Inca sites we would be visiting on this longest of days.
The start of the day was a scaled down version of the previous day, with us scaling a stiff little 300m pass. Half way up we stopped at the Inca site Runkuraqay. The accepted theory for this site is a resting stop for messengers that would carry messages from Cusco throughout the entire Inca empire (incorporating Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile). Each messenger would run up to 21km before passing on the message to another messenger with fresh legs.
After reaching the summit of the 2nd pass, we descended gently to the 2nd Inca site Qonchamarka. The sheer size of this site is disguised by the mountainside, so it is surprising when you scale the 100 steps to see a full Inca town with a temple, houses and aqueducts. It is likely that the high position on the mountain and the Temple of the 13 Windows (for the 13 full moons in the year) means this was a lookout for astrologers.
Rach and Andy both agree that the walk to the lunch campsite from this point was the most spectacular section of the Inca Trail. It is a gentle, undulating path through cloud forest up to a third pass. It has a bit of everything - tunnels cut through the mountains by the tenacious Incas, cool forested sections and exposed precipices, affording incredible views across the valley. Lunch was served at the top of the pass with amazing panoramas all round. A short walk to a nearby knoll lets you see your first glimpse of Machu Picchu (the mountain - actually no one knows the real name of the Inca site there, scientists are still searching to this day). Rach and Kirsten helped prepare lunch, as well as the group playing a game of catch with the porters. We don´t think porters are used to interaction with trekkers, as the cooks thought Rach and Kirsten were mad when they asked to help and the porters were full of smiles at being asked to join in the game of catch. The whole group was blown away by lunch (the last lunch with the porters) as they really pulled out all the stops! The main was a buffet including potato fritters, stuffed potatoes, stuffed chicken, salad, wontons, rice etc etc etc. The crowning glory, however, was a fully iced and decorated orange cake with the message ´Happy Trip to Machu Picchu´written on the top. How our cook, Eber, ever managed to produce that in that tent is a mystery and we were bowled over by the gesture.
Well fed, we descended to the third Inca site of the day, Phuyupatamarka, another site where Incan astrologers could view the Milky Way and, importantly, the Southern Cross that represents the four corners of the Inca empire. When Spanish invaded Inca towns and saw crosses adorning houses, they mistook this for the Catholic cross, however the Incas still found ways to incorporate aspects of their Pachamama worship into the obligatory Catholic items in e.g. art.
Next was the infamous ´Gringo Killers´ - nearly 2 hours (6km) of unrelenting descent down tiny, uneven, steep Inca steps. Most of the group took their time, relying upon their poles, while porters again came running past (apparently running takes less of a toll on the joints than walking them). Progress was slow and ******* the knees, but eventually the path levels out near the next site, Intipatu. This is a steep set of agricultural terraces set into the mountainside with unobscured views of the Sacred Valley. We had a long rest here before a short descent down to our last campsite. We had a lovely last dinner of stuffed chicken followed by jelly, said goodbye to the porters, then got an early night in preparation for our 3am wake up call.
DAY 4 (6km walked)
The early start is due to the queue that develops at the last checkpoint before the Sun Gate over Machu Picchu. The checkpoint only opens at 5:30am, but long queues develop long before then, so to beat the crowds you have to get up in the middle of the night.
We managed to be 2nd in the queue after a small group and we passed the time playing cards by torchlight (surprisingly hard!).
Thanks to a hare-brained scheme of Mr Terry Ho to have a ´Naked Machu Picchu´picture of the lads at the Sun Gate, once the checkpoint opened the lads set off on a gruelling run to the Sun Gate. After much cursing, huffing, puffing and death threats, Andy made it to the top with the others, first to set foot on the Sun Gate that day. After bearing all (no, you will not see it on here thank you, this a a respectable publication - go to Facebook for the smut), the girls arrived very shortly behind - disappointed they didn´t get the chance to steal the boys´ clothes.
The Sun Gate is jokingly known locally as the Cloud Gate, given that in the early morning, the valley below Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu mountain is filled with low level cloud, obscuring everything. Nonetheless, the cloud did part occasionally, giving us our first tantalising glimpse of the world famous site. After a short and gentle descent. we had finally arrived at the goal and our first Wonder of the World. The cloud obligingly lifted to allow the group the inevitable session of pictures in front of the ´postcard´ view.
Despite being bone-weary, we enjoyed our informative guided tour of the site, the last pearls of wisdom dispensed by our excellent and passionate guide Ephi. We were both bowled over at the scale of this Inca city '- the photos don´t prepare you for how vast it is. To give it some perspective, scientists have only properly searched 70% of it, and areas are still being reclaimed from the surrounding jungle! We were also expecting tired ruins, but what you have is intact buildings everywhere, only missing the original wood and straw rooves. This is testament to the building skills of the Incas, and you can still see the difference is the quality of the stonework, denoting the social divisions in the city.
After this, we had time to explore at our leisure, before catching a bus down a very precarious mountain road to Machu Picchu town (or Aguas Calientes). The group took the opportunity to have a good lunch and exploit the restaurant´s wifi to make up for 4 days of radio silence on Facebook (shock horror!).
We left the Sacred Valley on a spectacular but bumpy train ride, followed by a bus back to Cusco. The group all lingered in their first shower in 4 days before hitting Cusco town for a well deserved (debauched) night on the tiles. There is a well known ´24 hour challenge´ where, on the final day of the Inca Trail, trekkers stay up from the alarm call for the Sun Gate to 3am in a Cusco club the next morning. Andy and Rach missed out on this by 1 hour by retiring at 2am, but several of our group managed. Kudos to them.
All in all, the 4 days described above were some of the hardest yet most rewarding either weary traveller had ever experienced and a journey we will never forget!
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