The Inca Trail...up, up, up, down, down, down,down
The time had finally come it was the night before the trail. Trying to work out what to take and what to leave was challenging. We needed to take money for buying water, tips etc but Peruvians hate giving change. Cue Rob and I walking up and down the street in to different banks withdrawing 20 soles at a time. It took a while...
We had organised our bags, checked our luggage in with the hostel and had our last shower for a few days and decided to get some shut eye. Just in time for Festival Santos Christos to take place. Cannon fire was non stop from 1am til 5 which then set off all the many many dogs and all the pipe music. By 3am we would give up and just resign ourselves to getting up an hour earlier than planned. By 5:10 our guide arrived to collect us and start the trail. Greeted on the bus by a smallish group we were off! Day one was due to be the easy day. Or so we thought. We stopped off in Ollantaytambo for breakfast around half 6 before heading KM82 where we would start the trek. First things first we had an awesome group and evdry one cheered for each other. Some were hardcore hikers whilst most of us were novices. Rob and I had packed ourselves up with thermals and walking trousers in preparation. One couple however were the very definition of novice. He in his salmon button down shirt and jeans and her in her wet look leggings we couldn't fathem how they were going to manage the day in their kit. We had to take a photo!
The first realisation that this trek would be a challenge came when over half our group had rented porters to carry 6kgs of their belongings. Maybe 6kg was going to be heavier to carry for 4 days than we had anticipated. Mani, our guide, introduced himself and introduced us to 'my office' the Andes. Shortly after beginning the trail we stop for Mani to explain about the trek, the dos and don'ts and a short history lesson. Turns out the original Inca Trail will get you to Machu Pichu in one day but the four day trek allows you to experience the Andes...the one day was already beginning to sound slightly more favourable. Looking back, day one was relatively breezy compared to the other days. However carrying 8kgs over 8hours up and down some hills was always going to be challenging.
Our porters ran ahead carrying up to 25kg each, it was incredible to watch. We reached our lunch spot to find tables, chairs, table clothes and AMAZING food. I kid you not, the most amazing guacamole I have tasted in my life. The food turned out to be the best motivator over the coming days. Our lunch was made even better by the tiny kitten who came to join us. Having stayed well clear of the millions of dogs in cusco for fear of rabies we couldn't resists the kittens tiny charm! Lunch over and we were back on the road. The climbs during day one were fairly undulating but I started to have a new definition of 'up' and 'flat'. We gathered at the first camp and all had a celebratory beer and enjoyed the last of the sit down toilets. Dinner was fantastic with all of us heading to bed early for an early rise for "the challenge" day two. Remember we talked about festivals in cusco. Well here we were being greeted by yet more party goers. In the tiny village we camped in there were yet more cannons (where the hell were they coming from), frequent repetition of the same song and lots of loud speaker use! It was the villages historical celebration we were told and the next day would be Independence Day...thankfully no villages to be seen by the end of day two.
Day two. Oh dear lord. There's up and there's up. The first quarter of the day lured me into a false sense of security. Reaching the meeting point I turned to Rob and said "well that wasn't as bad as I was expecting" only to be told by Mani that by the end of the morning I would hate my backpack...he wasn't wrong. As we set off to get to our second breakfast meeting point (yes somehow we'd all been transferred into Hobbits) it became abundantly clear that we had started the challenge. 3 hours climbing steps, second breakfast and a further three hours of climbing steps I found myself plotting out how I could burn my backpack. This is why Frejya said "whatever you do, hire a porter". You know you have gone high when the camp you started in is literally a dot in the distance. My super slow climbing speed had me paired up with Mary, a lovely American lady who kept the same pace. I figured we must be slowly losing the plot when she encouraged me to 'curse in as many languages as possible'. Getting to the top of 'dead woman's pass' was the biggest relief of the day. Only two hours down to camp, that can't be hard right?! Wrong! Down is supposed to be easy, except down was down 2000 steps. Hips, knees and back still in tact we just plodded along reaching camp in time for a very late but very delicious lunch. Claps from the porters were boarderline embarrassing as they had reached camp hours before us with about 5 times the weight each, set up all the tents and cooked a three course meal. Needless to say we were glad day two was over! Grateful for the new walking shoes we couldn't help but be amazed at the porters who completed the trek each day wearing sandals. Open toed sandals. It was incredible!
Day three, an earlier start but hurrah this was long but easier yes?! Oh wait, nope, 4000 steps to walk down in the afternoon. I swear, if I never see a set of stairs after leaving Latin America it will, be too soon!! The morning was beautiful and undulating with incredible Inca sites to see along the way. Our guide explained that each year there was a race amongst local people from Km82 to Machu Pichu with the fastest completing the entire course in 3.5hours and our assistant guide had completed it in just under 4 hours. The trail that was taking us 4 days (and four challenging days at that) people were completing in hours! Just incredible! The sites of day three were extraordinary. Feeling on top of the world (literally) we headed into the lunch tent. Rob was starting to feel less awesome as day three went on. Hot, high altitude and very little sleep does not make for a well person. We reached the end of day 3 and it was time for happy hour! Popcorn aplenty we wolfed it down before gassing ourselves out of our own tent. Walking for 8+hours a day in the heat with no shower leads to the worst smell you can imagine. Thankfully everyone smelt pretty terrible!
As we head for our last supper we are all getting excited about the short walk tomorrow. That's when Rob got really sick. Of course it would happen right at the end of the trek. Having had very little sleep and worked hard on all the walks his body decided it had had enough! How he pulled himself out of bed the last day and kept walking I will never know! What a trooper.
Day four should be easy right, only 5km left, 2 hours we were told, no worries. Except it was an hour up and an hour down. Up at 3:30, queued until 5:30 to get into the track, sick Rob, little sleep and more bloody stairs. By the time we were close to the sun gate my thoughts were along the lines of "this can F*** off now". Exhausted we just wanted to arrive and arrive we did. The view of Machu Pichu from the sun gate is breathtaking. The place is so much bigger than you expect. As our guide talked us through the significance of the trilogy in Incan times and the history of this magical place it was hard to absorb.
Machu Pichu, other than being full of tourists who are annoyingly clean, is an incredible site and it is clear to see why it is one of the wonders of the world. The intelligence behind what they created is truly phenomenal given the tools and the time they were working in.
Walking the Inca Trail gave us a whole new appreciation of the strength and intelligence that would have been necessary to have created such an incredible city and to learn about the spiritual nature of the trail.
Hands down this has been the most challenging thing we've ever done. Each day is consistently challenging in its own way but also one of the most rewarding things to do. Simply, amazing.
