The One You´ve All Been Waiting For!

Asking about at least ;-) The Inca Trail - TICK! What a way to finish off our time in Peru and just about our adventures in South America. Four days of serious uphill climbing at altitude, this has been the most challenging hike yet and our muscles will need at least a few more days to recover not to mention lots of hot showers. As with our trip on Lago Maracaibo we were really lucky to end up with a fantastic group of people. From left to right above we survived the hike with Laurens & Yepa the mayonnaise lovers from Holland, Shannon and snoring Bill from Canada, Jason, aka "hobbit" the Kiwi and Sarah & Ewan from the UK on the other side of us.

DAY 1
None of us slept the night before - combination of excitement and worrying about missing the 4am pickup. So nine, very sleepy people took the bus up to Ollaytantambo for a quick breaky stop and a chance to buy our bamboo walking sticks which we all agreed was the best 3 sole investment we had made in Peru. After a bit of faffing about at Piscacucho (Km82) with our oversized rental sleeping bags (to think our lovely squashable sleeping bags are lying at home!) we were off. Starting at 2200m above sea level it was up, up and then steeper up for 8 hours to reach our campsite of Llulluchupampa at 3600m for a very cold night´s camping.

Along the way, Stu was tempted to sniff an Angel´s Trumpet flower to test out the theory that this highly potent plant puts you to sleep in minutes. You really can´t tell someone not to do something! Kaz on the other hand was busy sucking on coca leaves to keep her going. Legal in Peru and easily obtainable from markets for about 40cents you take a wad of leaves, scrape off some ash which works as a catalyst, roll up the leaves and stick between your gum and cheek and wait for your mouth to go numb. Trying this at home would land you in jail.

There is an annual event for insane people which is a running race to the top of Machu Picchu along the same Inca trail. The record of 3hours and 34 minutes is held by a local running with nothing but a bottle of water and a bag of coca leaves. It definitely seemed to help with the altitude but didn´t compel us to start sprinting 40km uphill!

With our early start and the slog of the day, the last hour or so was gruelling work. Good job we kept our wits about us as we could have been run over by a passing herd of llamas who looked like they were going for the running record.

DAY 2
Up bright and early (a recurrent theme) we started the morning with a "meet the porter" session. Our guys came from a village in the mountains above Cusco which the tour company work with. They're all Quecha farmers who work as porters for the extra cash (Stu tried to extract exactly how much from them but Spanish is their second language too). Apparently over the last few years they've tried to regulate/protect the guys a bit - they used to be expected to carry 30-40kilos but now they're limited to 20kilos of "cargo" and 5kilos of their own. At this altitude this is heavy! Stu borrowed their scales to weigh his own haul at 15kg which was quite enough for him, though nothing when you get jogged passed by the porters. In- coming!

Day 2 mainly consisted of 2 passes, from the get-go another 600-700m up, up, up to the highest point on the trek of 4215m, not our highest so far but we were both mighty pleased we were acclimatised. Check out Kaz making it to the top before the guide and even the porters looked pooped! The other side of the pass dropped us down into the clouds and with the porters enjoying the gravity-assist and nearly running us over (they need cow bells!) we made it to our first Inca site, Runkuraqay, a circular building which served as a trading post and Tambo (resting spot for the runners who delivered messages and apparently the King Inca's fresh fish all the way from the coast on foot in just two days!). More down, down, down to lunch and then up, up, up to the second pass at about 4000m.
With the second pass over, Victor our guide assured us it was all smooth sailing from now as we braced our aching legs for the descent to the second campsite. The trail took us through the clouds and some beautiful forest to Sayacmarca. This sight was the home of a rich and powerful Inca family who held ceramonies to worship the mountains nearby. The Incas and locals nowadays who still follow their beliefs (quite a few in the mountain around Cusco) venerated the spirts living in the high mountains. This family had a shrine complete with a carving of a mountain god on a huge boulder in the middle of their complex. Can you spot the big fella?

Approximatly 90% of the route of the trail is original with the new sections only ammended following landslide which destroyed those parts of the path. The Incas were quite the civil engineers, building bridges, tunnels, outcrops and carving steps to ease the way. Victor took full advantage of the first tunnel to do the "jumping out" trick, much more scary than his story about the legend of "the punisher" which just caused a torrent of innuendo from all of us. Oooh matron!

That night proved considerably warmer, maybe because of the lower campsite or the whisky Stu had smuggled along (now that explains the 15kilos!). The party was broken up by six freezing porters who were ready to convert the dining tent into their bedroom and no, didn't want to join the party. Funnily enough the only people who slept all through the night were those who'd taken a wee dram...

DAY 3

Right, the easy day! Hmmm. One little pass of 3700m, a bit of "Andian flat" as Victor called it: up, down, up, down and then down, down, and more down to the last camp site. On the way we checked out Puyupatamarca (apparently the Incas conquered their empire by means of Scrabble contests, no suprise with names like these). None of the sites´ original names survive, they were all named by their discoverers in the local Quecha, generally after their obvious location, ie "Fort on the hill", "Round building", "Fort above the clouds". We never went to "Fort of the knackered hikers", but it must have been there somewhere. Kaz and Stu agreed that despite all the high passes this day was the hardest with the relentless downhill steps and the subsequent crunching of knees and continuous risk of falling on our arse, which Kaz eventually managed rather unelegantly, followed shortly by Bill who managed to make it look like he was just taking a seat. Bastard!

This so called half day ended at tent city, where everybody congregated for the final dash to Machu Picchu. The only upsided of a campsite as crammed as this was the offer of hot showers and cold beers at the bar. mmmmmm. With no rest for the wicked, we were off to one more site before dinner, Wiñaywayna, the best yet and apparently an agricultural site used to adapt plants to growing at high altitude. A huge set of terraces, some more high precision stone buildings and lots of fountains. The Incas were big on water worship too. Shannon had a refusal when she saw the steps, "I am NOT going down those steps!" and shared the quiet companionship of our tail man, Joseph instead.
This being the last night, Victor set up a "ceremony" to farewell the porters, playing the violin to the tune of "the plight of the porters". Understandable but shouldn't the tour company pay them properly in the first place? With the tip decided, our best Spanish speaker was not so subtly shoved to the front to deliver the speech of thanks. Stu thought on his feet and hoped that their grasp on Spanish was worse than his. We were up at the bar until a respectable 9:30pm before crashing in preparation for our 3:30am wake up, sans tent service.

Day 4 - The Amaaaaaaazing Race

With the hard yards over, today´s challange was to make it to the Sun Gate, a ceremonial center overlooking Machu Picchu before the 20 other groups camped in tent city. The solution, a 4am start. Ouch. So after a quick brekkie, much stumbling about in the dark and a sigh of relief from Stu at not having to carry half of Target bargain camping bin on his back we did the mad dash to the first check point to be group 3 or 4 on to the last section of the trail.

With paperwork over, we dashed, literally along the trail in the twilight. Much to all of our surprise the last dregs of energy held out (or the adrenaline kicked in) and we overhauled 2 of the groups making it to the Sun Gate in time for, well we never worked that one out. Suffice to say the view down onto Machu Picchu was the reward of the trek, a pretty stunning view it was too at that time in the morning.

A short pad down to the site, a bit more paperwork and one of the best bacon and egg rolls Stu's ever tasted prepared us for Victor´s tour of the site itself.

Machu Picchu, where to start? Its huge. Opinion is divided over whether it was a Hacienda (luxury hangout) for some big-wig nobels or a university, study, center of excellence type place. Either way, it survived pretty much intact as the Incas legged it when they realised they stood no chance against the Spanish . The site then lay almost unknown apart from a few local farmers until American explorer/Indiana Jones type Hiram Bingham stumbled across it in 1911. Bingham had a quick scout around, realised what he'd discovered, filled his pockets with gold and silver artifacts and headed back to the US to secure funding to further investigate the site. The rich stuff, as the goonies would say, was never seen again...

The site consists of a few distinct sectors. The agricultural sector being a huge set of terracing (more of which is still being discovered) which supplied some of the food to the city (the rest came from other sites previously passed on the trails in the form of taxes). Above this lay the religous center where the priests worshipped the sun, moon and other celestial bodies, as well as water and the Pachamama, or earth mother. These buildings include a round temple with stone work so fine you can barely tell where the huge boulder ends and the building begins. Above this area is a quarry where much of the stone work for the site originates and above still a platform with the major shrine and the Intihuatana (hitching post of the sun). This precisely carved and placed rock was used to predict the solstices and allow the priest to claim control over the length of the day. It was also damaged when the local brand of beer had a "small" accident with a crane during the filming of a comercial and chipped off a chunk of it.

At the center of the city is a large plaza, with fantastic acoustics where the Inca (there was only actually one Inca, and lots of subjects) gave speeches and other important events were held. Nowadays its the holding pen for the grass-cutters or Llamas which wander the site, providing photo ops and occasional scares for the grockles. (Gotta' squeeze in those llama shots!). There also grows a picturesque tree which sprouted when a local hammered in a stake to which to secure her loom. She left the stake and it grew.

Behind the plaza is a series of buildings which were study centers and housing for the Chosen women (destined to either be married to the Inca or sacrificed) and high ranking young men. Below the plaza is a temple devoted to the Condor. The Incas believed the Condor carried the souls of the rich and powerful off to the afterlife. To enable this they kept the mummified bodies in a kind of crypt where they'd bring them out on high days and holidays, feed them, clothe them and generally keep them spick and span. In the temple was a condor shaped altar where the priests sacrificed Llamas to attract the carrion feeding condors down.

With our tour of the site over the choice was then climb Michu Picchu mountain (the biggie in the photos) or lounge in the shade. After three days of walking only Ewan and Sarah were crazy enough to climb the mountain. Hats off to them. We opted for the lounging in the shade option, only to discover the Inca´s other talent was constructing entire cities devoid of any shade... Fooey!

The logical solution was therefore to head to Aguacalientes (or Machu Picchu town) to soak away our muscle pains in the hot springs while sipping icy beer and pina coladas! Nice.... Finally a train-bus combo took us back to Cusco late and we headed to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep...

Love, an exhausted Kaz and Stu zzzz.............

Meal of the trip: Actually all of them, the food being consistently good. Maybe a close call between the endless popcorn on day two or tent service, a hot drink in your sleeping bag in the morning.

Arse of the trip: United Mice's top quality equipment turning out to be the tent and sleeping bag you used in the back yard when you were 10. No, Target isn't a top outdoor brand.