surviving the inca trail; machu pichu with a twist
Our Inca trail started and ending a bit differently than most, but was in essence the same and I made it! for those of you who don’t know anything about probably the most famous trek in the world. Its a 4 day trek through original inca trails and ruins ending up at Machu Pichu the mother of all inca ruins in Peru. There loads of regulations now and you have to go in a group and there’s only allowed to be 500 people on the trail at one time (that’s 200 trekkers and 300 porters). My group was really awesome and the company (Peru treks and adventures) was the best. You can hire porters to carry your stuff but I carried all my own things (mainly cause I’m too cheap to pay for a porter) but they do carry all the food and tents.
Anyway when my alarm went off at 5.15am I suddenly thought that this was a bad idea, 4 days walking, getting up early, in the rain, walking up hills…I probably would have stayed in bed if I hadn’t paid so much money for it! It was a couple of hours drive to get some breakfast and pick up last minute essentials like cocoa leaves, ponchos and walking sticks, yeah we were all looking totally awesome. The bus was supposed to drop us off (our group of 16, plus 21 porters) at the beginning of the trek BUT because of landslides its couldn’t make it down this little road so we were dropped off about 12 kms from the start! luckily we got picked up by this little cattle truck so there’s about 34 of us and all our gear in the back of this truck heading down this dodgy road. It was instant bonding though and was much more fun than sitting in a bus!
The first day was about 5 hours, mainly flat, walking through big mountains and ruins all around. Very beautiful. At lunch time we dumped our stuff and sat on the ground ready for sandwiches or something but the porters (carrying about 50 times as much stuff as us and running the track) arrive before us at every stop and set up tent with tables and chairs and cook the most amazing food! we couldn’t believe they could make that sort of food when your camping! We all felt kind of guilty about this sort of luxury trekking but it was nice. Despite there being so many people on the track you don’t actually see many other people as everyone is spread out, so its really awesome to be just surrounded by mountains and the occasional alpaca wandering past.There was a lot of rain during the 4 days but it was better that walking in the sun.
(lunch stop)
The 2nd day is about 5 hours up hill, notoriously hard and we were all freaking out about it. It was hard…super hard, just all these steps. It was such a relief to get to the top finally! Its at about 4200meters so your really high and the altitude does make it a bit difficult to breath. From the top it was a 2 hour walk down hill, also pretty hard but luckily had my walking stick! The 3rd day was beautiful, long but amazing scenery and heaps or Inca ruins. A bit of up hill but not as intense as the day before. We spent most of the day literally walking in the clouds. The way down to the camp site was by way of 2336 steps, the steepest, biggest most dangerous steps I’ve ever seen. Plus it was raining, I’m surprised none of us broke our ankles. The end of that day really seemed to go on forever but we did make it eventually to the last camp where there is a bar and buildings! very exciting.
The porters always run ahead of us to set up lunch and our tents for the evening. They even come and wake us up in the morning with tea in bed! The last night we got a big tip together for them and the guides and did a big thank you, it was really nice to be able to thank them all personally as they do soooooo much for you. The bad news however was confirmed that night, the last day you wake up at 4am to get to the sun gate and walk down into Machu Pichu but due to land slides that part of the trek had been closed. So we couldn’t walk into Machu Pichu, which is the whole reason for the trek. We were all gutted but nothing we could do about it. We ended up still walking up at 4am and walking a couple of hours, but down to the town instead along the railway lines and caught a short bus up to Machu Pichu, so not the same but not too bad.
Didn’t take away the amazement of MP. Its huge and the clouds just wash over it all morning then lift later on. We did a bit of a tour then sat up on the terraces over looking the ancient city feeling very proud of ourselves, we had survived! It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but was amazing, will put up photos soon.
Our group was great 13 Brits, 2 Norwegians and me, all lovely people and we had a great time together. I’m so stoked I’ve done it and now feel part of the ´cool group´who has made it through, and we all definitely felt superior to all the general tourists who catch the train there. We may had smelt and looked worse but it made the whole experience more rewarding! so that was the Inca trail. Currently in Puno still needing to catch up on sleep. Debit card has decided to stop working so a bit worried about what I’m going to do about money. Have backup so I’m sweet for awhile. Stupid banks. Off to Bolivia
tomorrow!
Tags: Adventure, blogsherpa, Peru, trekking, Videos
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Arnika – we’re all jealous – what an amazing adventure – try not to get killed again tho’! Do you get to put some photos on your blog – can’t find any anyway… much love from Godzone.
man arnika…. what a hard out!!! Glad to hear you survived!!!! hope your ATM card starts working…. love tash xo