Macchu Picchu !
Wed July 16th
Last night you would not believe the rainstorm we had at high altitude! Fortunately we all had admired the view atop a mountain at our campsite that overlooks the town of Agua Calientes where we will camp next. We had all gone to bed at our usual nine oclock or so, as its already dark and were all tired. Then about ten thirty the rain began. True it sounded worse being in a tent, but I thought we were all going to float away! Paula and I were cold… I ended up putting on almost all clothes I had with me, including hat and gloves and wool wrap I´d bought on the bus ride to the trailhead a few days ago. After a bit, we could hear the porters around our tents…it turned out that they were digging little trenches under our tents so that the rain water would not flood our tents. Ingenious! How lucky we are to have their expertise!
We got up after our wrestless night in the morning really early… four thirty a.m. came Admiel´s rooster call that now is ¨coca tea! coca tea! and walked with Carlos to the top of the mountain to see over the surrounding mountains, all fogged in with clouds. It was like being on top of the world!!! It was amazing!! We did not see the sunrise as I had hoped, but it was still amazing!
We hiked back down to a great french toast breakfast made by our cook Benadicto. His meals have impressed all of us, I¨ve even taken a few pictures I will try to load when I get home since I have limited time here.
Today´s hike covered miles of jungle territory as well as several ruins sites. We got the treat of eating inside at a group site I think made specifically for backpackers to have a break here along the Inca trail. I met some GAP tour members today (another company that does tours similar to ours) and want to check out that company as well for future travel. Their porters were on the trail with us a lot today. Did I tell you the way we have to watch for the porters as we hike, giving them the rite of way? When we glance behind and see a porter, we´re supposed to move to the left and let the porter pass on the right, calling ¨porter!¨so that others ahead can move aside for these strong folks to move along. They practically fly down the mountain, jogging! It is incredible! They all have, as I mentioned, a lot on their backs, and it is amazing how gracefully they go down the mountains in nothing more than sandals a lot of the time! One member of our group joked today that with the wet rock from last night, the sandals must be the snow tire version of rubber as these guys never falter! It is truly amazing!!!!!
When we finally reached Macchu Picchu´s Sun Gate, as I said it was incredible! We were walking along the trail, and would hear footsteps behind us. Instinctively I was about to shout ahead Porter! And then realized these were tourists behind us who had ridden the bus to Macchu Picchu. They looked clean, and I was envious of their morning shower. Soon, soon, we would get ours too. Tonight in fact! We will camp at a campground here in Aguas Calientes.
I can honestly say that this archaeological site is the most amazing thing! It is enormous! Carlos and Admiel took group photos of all of us to commemmorate our survival of the trek. We made it!
After encountering several tourists on our walk from the Sun Gate, I am so thankful and really feel blessed to have walked the Inca Trail instead of just taking the bus to see the site. We saw more ruins, and got more history than I ever would have if we had just stayed in a hotel in the area and visited on the bus. (No offense to any of you who have done that in the past… it´s just that with all our efforts hiking and getting up early, etc. it was just amazing to look back on it all and realize how much we´d seen and experienced. Magical almost….)
We took the bus to Aguas Calientes once we walked the rim of Macchu Picchu. We went to the hot springs, walking from where the bus dropped us off, through the tourist shop area, up the hill to the hot springs. After so much walking, we all were whining under our breath ¨no more stairs please!¨and were all relieved when we finally got our suits on, took a mini rinse shower (actually many of us had soap! Real soap and shampoo! It was a miracle!) Then we all celebrated in the warm hot spring pool with a beer. It was wonderful!!!! What a way to end our trek!
We ended up having dinner together in Aguas Calientes at a great place Carlos had been before. Great Peruvian food… I had an amazing dish of Ilpaca and vegetables and their customary serving of thick french fries. During dinner, eight oclock at night we could hear the starting of a parade in the streets! I was amazed there would be such an affair at night… but Carlos said the locals were celebrating a Catholic feast day of a saint. (one of the Mary´s). We went out into the street after dinner, to walk to the campground and stopped and watched the parade for a few minutes. Truly festive!
It was great to camp in a huge grassy park area tonight. It was much warmer down here at lower elevation, and we actually had a bathroom and mirror instead of our portable toilet tent we´d used for the past four days. True the toilets here are often very simple, and you have to bring your own TP, but that´s life here. Simple.
Tags: Travel
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