Incredible Inca Trek
Howdy! I survived the Inca Trail - yippeee! And surprisingly enough not to sore - apart from my poor little footsies... It was beautiful scenery getting there - stayed in ollyantambo (excuse the spelling) where we bought some wooden walking sticks and saw an inca sight, then started the inca trail the next day... Was great... you walk and the porters have everything set up for lunch (usually in a little tent), with a bowl of water each so you can wash your hands and face - and the food was delicious! Then at the end of the day - same again - have tea about 5 and then dinner around 7.30... with all your tents set up when you arrive at the campsite. The porters wake you up with a cup of cocoa tea and a bowl of hot water in the morning, you have breakie and they pack everything up for you - that is what i call camping!
First day was relatively easy... I bumped into a guy i met at easter island which was pretty cool... The second day - over dead woman´s pass (about 4200m ASL) (called that cos they found a mummy up there apparently) - the altitude was a bit rough - especially for a few people who had to resort to sniffing alcohol to get them going... lots of steps - up and down so although only 9km walk was good to get to the campsite. I thought the thrid day was the roughest - our guide called it flat walking but there was definitely an upward slant and lots of steps involved. But saw a few inca sites along the way - the best of which was near our campsite, and had beautiful scenery and some very pretty flowers along the way (that was 16km of walking - took about 8-9hrs incl. lunch). On our final day we got up just before 4 - although hardly slept at all due to a noisy campsite and the porters bustling around in the middle of the night fixing our tents when it began raining. We were the first group queued up at the checkpoint to get to Macchu Picchu - we got there about 4.30 and the gates didnt open for another hour so that was a nice wait in the dark ;) It took about an hour to get to the sun gate - fog everywhere -which unfortunately hadnt cleared by the time we got there. Apparently the trail that we walked on was the same that the incas used (only about 15% has been restored) - they had a very steep staircase - have no idea how the short little peruvian incas got up that one! So when we arrived in Macchu Picchu unfortunately couldnt see too far in front of us because of the fog... We went and had a drink and came back up to MP fairly certain that the drizzle and clouds were not going to lift... and as we were walking back up to the main site the clouds started lifting - and it was amazing! All of us were concentrating on climbing the stairs... and we just rounded a corner and could see the whole site and we all were very impressed. It was pretty cool in itself to watch the clouds rise like that, and to see Macchu Picchu was breathtaking... We had a tour of the site and then went back up to the caretakers cottage for the postcard picture after all the clouds had completely cleared and just lazed around MP.
Caught the train back for part of the way - again brilliant scenery among the mountains seeing a few inca ruins along the way. Then bus for 2.5hrs back to Cusco - feels like home to everyone - but we are moving on tomorrow to Areqipea.
Will add some photos soon!
First day was relatively easy... I bumped into a guy i met at easter island which was pretty cool... The second day - over dead woman´s pass (about 4200m ASL) (called that cos they found a mummy up there apparently) - the altitude was a bit rough - especially for a few people who had to resort to sniffing alcohol to get them going... lots of steps - up and down so although only 9km walk was good to get to the campsite. I thought the thrid day was the roughest - our guide called it flat walking but there was definitely an upward slant and lots of steps involved. But saw a few inca sites along the way - the best of which was near our campsite, and had beautiful scenery and some very pretty flowers along the way (that was 16km of walking - took about 8-9hrs incl. lunch). On our final day we got up just before 4 - although hardly slept at all due to a noisy campsite and the porters bustling around in the middle of the night fixing our tents when it began raining. We were the first group queued up at the checkpoint to get to Macchu Picchu - we got there about 4.30 and the gates didnt open for another hour so that was a nice wait in the dark ;) It took about an hour to get to the sun gate - fog everywhere -which unfortunately hadnt cleared by the time we got there. Apparently the trail that we walked on was the same that the incas used (only about 15% has been restored) - they had a very steep staircase - have no idea how the short little peruvian incas got up that one! So when we arrived in Macchu Picchu unfortunately couldnt see too far in front of us because of the fog... We went and had a drink and came back up to MP fairly certain that the drizzle and clouds were not going to lift... and as we were walking back up to the main site the clouds started lifting - and it was amazing! All of us were concentrating on climbing the stairs... and we just rounded a corner and could see the whole site and we all were very impressed. It was pretty cool in itself to watch the clouds rise like that, and to see Macchu Picchu was breathtaking... We had a tour of the site and then went back up to the caretakers cottage for the postcard picture after all the clouds had completely cleared and just lazed around MP.
Caught the train back for part of the way - again brilliant scenery among the mountains seeing a few inca ruins along the way. Then bus for 2.5hrs back to Cusco - feels like home to everyone - but we are moving on tomorrow to Areqipea.
Will add some photos soon!