The Inca Trail

Well after an early start of 5am we headed to the Plaza de Armas to start our journey with Llama Path.
More surprisingly found ourselves to not be the last people to arrive and were clapped onto the bus by the porters. Turns out they did this for everyone which did make us feel better. Last two arrived late (this was an omen for the rest of the trail) and we were off. Stopped for the obligatory breakfast and last minute goodies and it was onto km 82 we exited the bus and sorted our gear out, before heading to the checkpoint for the obligatory photos and to commence the trail. After a stamp in the passport we were on our way.

Our group consisted of 8 from the US, 2 from India and ourselves. We pretty quickly got to know Barb and Doug, the oldest in our group in their late 50s and Matt and Emily who were our age. Em has quite possibly the most unusual laugh we have heard in a long time and we must admit it made us smile everytime we heard it. There was also Jeff and Lisa, Ashisa and Guria and Sandeep and Richa.   

Our first day consisted of 16km pretty much uphill from 2720m to 3800m where we were to camp for the night. The trail starts out relatively easily and follows the river, passing through a number of small villages.  The day is lovely and warm and as we walk everyone is smiling and happy as we thin out as we get higher.

Coming across our first Inca site, Llactapata, we were surprised to learn that the most important inca building is not always the highest one. The site itself was pretty impressive. Very well preserved considering the amount of people who pass by. The Inca people were impressive in that they didn't use any type of mortar to keep the rocks in place rather they fitted them exactly.

And then it was lunch and a sign of how impressive the porters and cook - Carmelo- were. Lunch consisted of an avocado entree and then a trout main. Way more food and better than we could have imagined. 

After lunch the trail started to enter into the sub tropical forest and the expected steep uphill. To both our surprise we were actually at the front of our group. To my surprise because I was concerned about my fitness level and to Phils surprise because I wasnt complaining. He has since nicknamed me the little bull terrier. The vegetation has turned sub-tropical, with tall Onja trees, ferns and lots of orchids and bromiliads.

It was also when we came to be in absolute awe of our porters. We were carrying backpacks with a couple of kilos in them compared to the porters who were carrying 25kgs and were easily walking past us. At about 5pm we arrived at our campsite after 9 hours of walking, tired but with big smiles. Everything was set up ready for us. After a happy hour - tea, coffee, lots of popcorn and biscuits it then went into tea, a 3 course meal of sorts.

Our tents are set up wth an amazing view and we pick the furtherest one away. After tea it was into bed, which was a little strange at 7pm but I think everyone pretty much went out to sleep straight away.

Day two was an early start up at 5:30am. We were already awake when they bought us our coca tea. Wont go into details but Phil's day didn't start well after he accidently spilt his tea and it's probably the first time i've ever seen him snap.

Apparently we are the quintessential campers. Probably because we actually do camp whereas the others were quite clueless about it all. With muscles we never knew we had telling us all about yesterday's walk we set off. The going was quite tough but the beautiful landscape gave us plenty to look at and we arrived at Llulluchapampa for our first snack break. As we moved on it got colder and the clouds moved in. The last uphill for the morning (we thought) and we surprised ven ourselves when we arrived at Dead Womans Pass at 4200m, the first of our group. It was so much colder than I expected but the views were spectacular.

Our guide Flavio told us later that he thought they may actually close the trail due to snow which was expected. The trail hasn't been closed since 2005 and were were a little sceptical but we should believe the guide because as it turned out the pass was closed the day we got to Machu Picchu and our mate Helen was one of those who had to turn back and take the alternative route.
I think we would have been disappointed if it was us although with the rain that came in maybe not . . .

After reaching Dead Womans Pass and waiting for Sandeep and Richa for 50 minutes - I wont elaborate on these two at all other than to say that privileged indians sums them up nicely - we would have had an amazing group without them (although in saying that they were nice enough) - it was onto the next pass which involved a steep decent to 3580m - Phil didnt enjoy the downhill or the fact it was the side of a hill literally and then back up to the 2nd pass at 4000m before a decent again back to our campsite at 3600m for the night. I even managed to see a mountain rat on one of the climbs which was cool and got a photograph although it was scurrying away. It was the only native animal other than llama's we saw on the trail.

As we headed towards our camp it turned into a mist covered forest. Kind of cool and completely unexpected. The weather was also starting to turn bad and we passed on the extra Inca site due to Phil's knees and the fact it was getting dark. Turns out we didn't miss too much. Tea was again amazing and to my absolute delight they had Milo. It must be an Australian thing as the American's hadn't seen it before. Turns out we have a good group of people and as the trek went on we all got more chatty and generally everyone gets along great.

Another early start of 6am for the supposed half day hike due to the distance we had already covered. Phil unfortuanately not sleeping to well and it pretty much rained on and off all night. We were up and ready to go with unfortunately a few taking forever it seemed to get going. After a short hike we stopped with Flavio telling us more about the Inca's. Many parts of the trail are the original stones and walls. We passed through the first of a number of caves, most with very steep stairs up and down.

Phil and Flavio struck up a conversation and I realised quickly I should leave them to it. Turns out Flavio was in the Peruvian army special forces and was happy to talk to Phil who was also army but not so keen when I was close by. Funny how you suddenly feel much safer, not that I felt particularly unsafe before. No problems there and I left them to it and enjoyed the scenery. For someone who doesn't really get into the hiking thing I found I was really enjoying this.

Next stop was Phuyupatamarka, a truely impressive Inca site. Tiered agricultural terraces, fountains, aquaducts and buildings to honour the gods. We were given a explaination from JJ, our second guide as to the design. Apparently the designs are to match the stars as it is considered a place of worship and astronomy. The Andean Cross represents this.

After we moved on the weather deteriorated quickly and we moved quickly to the turn off to Intipata, where we were to turn to our next campsite. Phil was keen to see Winay Huayna and when everyone else turned up and wanted to go I was reluctant as it seemed it was really going to rain but ended up going. Should have listened to myself and gone onto the camp.

Winay Huayna was a truely amazing site but unfortunately for me it had started really raining and I ended up rolling my ankle and having another half an hour to walk to camp. More disappointing was that when we got to the site we walked straight through it, with no explaination due to the rain. The end of the day had turned into a rainy cold disaster but amazingly the porters had managed to get our matresses dry. Absolutely no idea how.

Arriving back at camp I found I could hardly walk on my ankle and had the makings of a potential migraine. This is where Ashisa came to my rescue. Ashish, an anaethetist, had some amazing pill which not only helped my ankle but also the headache. With our half day trek turning into a very long full day we were looking forward to a shower we were disappointed when they told us the showers werent working so it was back to the bird baths of the previous nights. 

Interesting fact
Americans call a bird bath a w**** bath.

After an early night we were woken at 3am for the final leg to Machu Picchu. We awoke to find it raining and freezing. After a quick breakfast it was off to the final checkpoint to wait for the rangers to open the path to Machu Picchu.
After getting sick of waiting for two previously mentioned people we headed off to get some of the little shelter available available. Getting close to being the first there was nice and we had some shelter adn seats until the gates opened at 5:30am.

After the gate opened we were off. The trek we expected to be an hour turned into 3 hours. It was all very rushed, even with the very slippery rocks. Arriving at the final stiars, wow they were almost straight up, we pushed through to the top. The steps had bought us to the Sun Gate but we were disappointed when our guide JJ, failed to tell us we were actually at the Sun gate and pushed us forward to where he thought we could get better photos from. I was just stunned as as a guide I would have thought he would have told us it was the Sun Gate as pretty much everyone wants to see that. I returned to the sun gate and grabbed a quick photo but it was the first time I was disappointed with the trail and our tour. Unfortunately due to the heavy rain, cold and miserable weather it turned out to be a disappointing end to the trail.

Machu Picchu was amazing but the fog and mist enveloped it making it hard for any of our photos to do it justice. We walked through Machu Pichu to the toilets before coming back in for a tour around. We still can't work out why we did that. By this stage I was freezing and shaking pretty much from my bones. After a short walk I couldn't cope with the cold and concerned about getting sick for the rest of our trip we left earlier and made our way by bus to Aguas Calientes. I guess that we actually got to see it look eerie which was nice.

Funnily enough the rain and cold - and bandage - probably helped the most with my ankle since it just about froze and didnt swell up too badly. A good outcome in the end.

We met up with the others for lunch (not a good lunch) and afterwards we wandered up to Matt and Em's hotel to drop off a signed picture of everyone. It was their honeymoon and Em got so sick on the final day they went straight to the hotel and missed lunch. We just couldn't let them miss out on the photo and we all pitched in and bought it as a gift.  Turns out we didn't miss much more of the tour around Machu Pichu as everyone was so cold and called it quits which was nice to find out.

On the way back from the Hotel we found a nice looking restaurant with a fire in the middle of the room and a woodfire oven. We decided this was exactly what we needed and headed in. Quite possibly the best pizza we have ever had. The wine was absolutely divine too. It was a lovely way to warm up and end our trek. Pity we hadn't all gone there for lunch, I think we all would have settled in for the afternoon!

Surprising things about the Inca Trail Tour
- Our guide was ex military and when we learnt what he had done we all felt very safe
- Hummingbirds are cool but damn hard to get a photo of
- There is no way you could do this trail in Australia - No hand rails and steep descents in the rain and on slippery rocks. . .
- Our oldest porter was 65 years old
- The fastest time anyone has run the entire trail was about 3 hours 45 minutes - God only knows how there was no way we would have run down some of the steps

All in all it was truely an amazing experience and one we would recommend to anyone and especially using Llama Path.