THE INCA TRAIL

After over 3 months in Latin America we finally reached the date that was initially the primary reason for travelling to the continent in the first place - hiking the original Inca Trail for 4 days to reach Machu Picchu - the hidden city of the Incas.

We first had to spend a few days acclimatising in Cusco, which isnt really a bad place to kill some time as it used to be the Inca capital of South America. The city is covered in old Inca walls dotted around everywhere, mostly (due to those pesky spanish) as the foundations or lower walls of newer structures, but they add a real air of history to the city. These walls famously remain standing during Cusco´s heavy earthquakes while those newer walls around them crumble and fall showing the fantastic skill of the Incas from over 500 hundred years ago.

After a fascinating tour of the Inca temple of the sun and a visit to the Inca museum (many many pots, little little explanation. The mummies were good though!) and many hours spent idling through the city, we hired the camping equipment and we were ready for the Inca Trail starting at 5am on Friday.

With more than just a few butterflies in our stomachs, we and 14 others met for breakfast, bought some last minute supplies, and were dropped off at the starting point, 42 kilometres of lung-stretching knee-grinding calve-killing mountains ahead of us. The first day was easy enough, with terrain amusingly labelled as Inca flats by our guide (which means at no point is it actually flat, but the inclines and declines wont kill anyone) we rambled happily in the sunshine, occasionally regretting that I had cancelled my porter as I had to carry all of my gear (Kate sensibly decided 40 dollars was more than fair in return for not having to lug a very heavy bag around for 4 days), and we started to get to know our group. The group consisted of 6 English, 5 Aussies, 2 Dutch, 2 Americans and one Irish - amazingly we got on great with every single one and have surely made a few long term friends. We have camped many a time back home, but we will definetely find it difficult to go back to real camping - for the 16 trekkers there were 21 exceptionally hard working porters and 1 cook who carried all food, tents and cooking equipment, meaning all of the rubbish aspects of camping were left out - we simply arrived at our destinations to find our tents ready and waiting with our food bubbling away nicely, it was fantastic! We paid a little more than avergae in order to go with a company who treat and pay their porters fairly (many are overworked and very very much underpaid having to carry obscene amounts just in the hope of a tip as their wages are diabolical), and it definetely paid off as the porters were amazing, always smiling and the food and camp were unbeleivably good.

Day two was a different story to the first; after camping at 2700 metres (already pretty high up) we awoke at 5.30am and had to hike up to 4200 metres to reach dead womans pass by mid morning - one of the hardest things we have ever done. The air was very thin, requiring a stop at least every 5 minutes in order to stop our hearts from bursting out of our chests, and the wonky stone steps were absolute agony to climb. There was great camararderie between all of the group and with the porters, everyone urging each other on to reach the (very very cold) top where we rested before continuing on well sort of rested if you call being unable to breathe properly for an hour watching other trekkers grunt their way up and collapse at the top! All members of the group were of different levels of fitness, but Kate was very pleased to find herself in the quicker half of the group, an accolade she has rarely acheived before - our hiking around in ecaudor and north peru has obviously paid off, those little legs happily keeping up with others twice as long! A descent for the rest of the day didnt require quite so much lung power but was exteremly hard on our knees due to the painful stone steps along the trail. Extremely happy to make it to camp by mid afternoon we spent the rest of the day hanging out with our new friends playing many a game of (massive) wild Uno and learning about where everyone was from/been to/heading to - we really were so so lucky with our group it was amazing.

Day three (again starting at 5.30am) is known as the gringo killer, owing to its vicious downhill original Inca steps. It was, however rather eaiser than the previous day, although by the end of the 15 kilometres we did both have knees similar to those of an 87 year old skiier. Day three was when the Inca ruins really started to crop up regularly, we passed several fortresses, rest houses and agricultural terraces, all still standing over 500 years after they were built, thankfully the Spanish invaders never discovered Machu Picchu or the Inca trail so everything is still in great condition. It rained pretty heavily during the afternoon, but seeing as this is the rainy season we can count ourselves extremely lucky this was the first time we got wet at all (excluding the "refreshing" mini shower in an ice cold mountain spring that I and several of the other guys were stupid enough to brave on day two). Arriving at Winay Wayna the final campsite just before teatime we congratulated each other having made it almost all of the way, and had a couple of outrageously overpriced beers lukewarm beers in the makeshift bar - but they still tasted amazing after 3 solid days of strenuous hiking!

The final day required waking at 4am in order to be hiking the final leg of the trail by 5am (still dark). Incredibly tired and aching this two hour walk may have been the hardest of the whole trek, but all pain was forgotten when we turned the corner through the sun gate and got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu (rather further down than the standard postcard view from the top due to some stubborn clouds that did eventually budge when we made it closer to the lost city). Even after seeing the view from countless guidebooks, posters and postcards we really werent prepared for what we saw - an enourmous Inca city nestled between jutting rocky mountains in the cloud forest; it was absolutely spectacular! We toured the ruins with our guide for a couple of hours, being sure to feel smug when passing clean people there on a daytrip (at one point waashing my face in the sink of a bathroom i was greeted with a look of pure disgust from a fat lazy clean american boy, a look that only made me feel more proud we had made it here the hard way!), exploring the temples, altars and plazas of the place that was once home to perhaps over one thousand Incas. It really felt like you where walking back in time, it is so lucky the Spanish werent clever enough to find it as it surely would have been destroyed if they had! We had been dreaming and saving to see Macchu Picchu and to trek the Inca trail for a very long time, but when we finally made it it was even better than we could have ever hoped for, an experience we will never ever forget!

We spent the afternoon attempting to relax in some hot springs in the nearby town, and although our muscles may have ached slightly less we werent too happy about standing around in what was essentially a bath shared with at least 40 other smelly trekkers! Eventually arriving back at our hostel in Cusco at 10pm we showered (it still feels like the grime wont ever quite be gone) and then slept like babies! Yesterday we met up with most of the group for a big celebratory night out, involving many happy hour cocktails, a couple of ninja flips from Brandon, arse tattoo showing from Simon, ridiculous dancing by many, a seriously musically-retarded DJ, and a fantastic end to the trip.

For the past couple of days we have volunteered in an after-school center for some 5 to 11 year old children, where we have played games, taught English and Maths (also learning spanish in return from the children) and enjoyed being in the company of some of the friendliest, most welcoming little faces on earth. One particular highlight has been looking down to discover my 5 year old protegee Nolberto eating his newly finished piece of work! We have really enjoyed hanging out with the children, and we probably learnt just as much from them as they did from us. I was particularly heartened to discover that (during an english lesson on parts of the body) 5 year olds in Peru find the word penis just as hilarious as my five year old self did!