The Inca Trail
On friday I left Bec in Cuzco and headed off to start the four day trek along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. It was sad to part company but once the trek begun there was no way of getting off the trail short of a donkey ride or perhaps a helicopter. The entire trek was 42km. Day 1 was a fairly easy walk through a beautiful green valley, gradually climbing to our first camp of Huallabamba, a small village nestled in the foothills of the Andes. We covered about 11km on the first day.
The local porters who carried the bulk of our gear were really friendly and encouraging despite our general lack of fitness, and gave us a rousing chorus of clapping and ´Hola, Amigos´ when we arrived at camp each night. They were absolutely amazing; they would leave after us each morning after packing up camp, and arrive at the next nights camp before us in time to have our tents and meals prepared. I even saw a porter giving a tired girl a piggy-back! And all in sandals!
Day 2 was the real killer as we had to ascend to 4200m at Dead Woman´s Pass, a saddle between two peaks so called because from a paricular angle it looks as though a woman is lying along the mountain top. The second nights camp was higher than the first and one could say we were truly in the mountains. Mist and cloud rolled into camp obscuring everything and covering our tents in dew.
I was surprised at the amount of people walking the trail. People from all over the world seem determined to conquer the trail - ofcourse with a big contingent of aussies. At night we sat down to lovingly prepared meals of stewed chicken, rice, salads and pork. The cooks were quite astounding with their culinary creativity, fashioning all manner of local wildlife from different vegetables. My personal favorite was a penguin made out of cucumber. The cold nights force us to huddle together in the mess tent to play cards and swap stories.
Day 3 was my Everest! Unfortunately I got sick and there was no relief and no way back. I think the cause was on the first night sharing as tent with on of the guides who was also sick. Anyhow, there´s nothing like having to puke off the side of a cliff to get one´s priorities in order! It was a shamee too because the descent was beautiful; all day we came down the mountain we had climbed to previous day, passing Inca ruins which had literally been built into the mountain face. I managed to stumble into camp with barely an ´Hola´ before collapsing into my tent and passing out.
The following morning we had to be up at 4am for our final assault on Machu Picchu. It was a 5km hike to the ´Sun Gate´ but unfortunately for us our clear weather had broken and all was shrouded in mist and rain. However, I still managed to gain a look at Machu Pichhu, and even dying of gastro and sodden through, it was a site to behold: a temple built 3800km high along the top of a mountain ridge sheer on either side!
I´ll let the photo´s speak for themselves when I get a chance to put them up. Cheers for now,
phil.
