Cusco - The Inca Trail

It has been quite hard to update this blog as often without my netbook. Internet access at hostels is not as easy. Since the last post I met Sean, Clive and Jeff in Lima, we spent a few days there and then made our way to the heights of Cusco. Here we are staying at the Loki hostel where I think I am one of the oldest people there. The average age of the travelers is probably about 22. The place is great though and they have an amazing view over Cusco. We arrived the day before St. Patrick´s day and immediately scoped out the nearest Irish pub. The place is called Paddy´s and they have the most incredible sheperds pie. St. Patrick´s day there was a great time and you could´t toss a Guinness without hitting an Irish person. It was a bit surreal hearing all the Irish accents.

Cusco is a gorgeous town in the middle of the mountains and with incredible views on all sides. We planned it so that we had a few days to acclimitze before the Inca trail and I am glad we did. We hiked up to some Inca ruins outside the town for one day and hired a taxi to explore the sacred valley for another day. The rest of the time we ate well (still have to try guinea pig though) and relaxed.

This, of course, was all in training for our four day hike along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. We had received a lot of conflicting advice about the trail and I was starting to worry that the trail would turn out to be a walk in the park, over touristed and Machu Picchu would not be all that great. I was wrong. The hike was just hard enough to be challenging, there were a lot of tourists, but the park limits the number, and Machu Picchu lives up to everything that is said about it. Our group of 14 was very varied, there were a few people our age, a family with a 14 year old, a 17 year old and their mum, and a couple in their 50s. Clive of course immediately became the favorite of the group and pretty much had everyone in stitches with anything he said. He became good friends with one of the guides, and if he ever comes back to Cusco he will be well taken care of.

The first day of the hike was very easy, along some low hills, past some ruins and to a misty camp site in a valley where we camped for the day. The second day was challenging, we hiked up to about 4200 meters and for much of the day it rained hard. At the highest point, when I was almost at the top, only 10 meters away, I had to stop every few meters to catch my breath. The way down was much easier, especially after I watched the porters going down with their huge packs. They would take small fast steps an zig zag across the trail, much faster and easier on your legs. At camp we had a bit of excitement when the 17 year old girl went into anaphlyactic shock from a bee sting. Her mother had packed epipens fortunately and she was ok after one of the other hikers injected her. A scary experience because there is no way to get help quickly, no helicopter can get up there and they have no way to contact anyone. The third day was a great experience. Hiking along the old inca trails along the sides of the mountain, with steep drops at each side and great views over the clouds (or sometimes in them.) I decided to really push myself for the last downward part of the trail and legged it down at high speed following the porter method, leaping from rock to rock, unfortunately I didn´t make it the whole way down before my legs gave out and I could hardly walk :) I did pass a lot of our porters though, which I was proud of until I realized that they were carrying 25kg packs vs my 10kg pack. On the last day of the hike we woke up at 4am in order to make it up to the Machu Picchu sun gate early. It was a bit of a race to get up there with all the other groups on the mountain and our guide set a hard pace. We arrived just as the clouds were clearing for an amazing view of Machu Picchu. It is a spectacular site, nestled in a low dip between several peaks. A huge city built in a really inaccessible place. We relaxed at the gate for a while, enjoying the view and watching as the clouds cleared over the city. I couldn´t wait for too long though because I had agreed with three other guys in my group to try and get tickets to hike up Wamu Pichu. It is a peak that overlooks Machu Puichu and there are only 400 tickets a day to hike up it. Most of them go to the tourists that take the train and then the bus up to Machu Pichu early in the morning. Our guide told us that we would have to speed down to have any chance at getting them. I ran down the mountain and arrived at Machu Pichu before anyone else, but of course I managed to get lost. After a lot of running around I got the 380th ticket and the the last guy in our group got the 396th ticket.

Machu Pichu is just an incredible site and I can´t imagine what it took for the Inca´s to build the city. It is just so inaccessible and high up. We spent the morning wandering around the site, doing a tour with our guide, and mostly just looking around with slackjawed amazement. At around 10 am I hiked with the British guy from my group to the top of Waimu Pichu (the other two guys were too tired.) The view from the top was incredible and when I upload the photos you can see the one of me sitting on the cliff overlooking the city. Coming down at the top though was extremely scary, tiny inca steps, no grips, and a huge drop waiting if you slipped. That was the only point on the trip that I was scared, to the point at which my legs were shaking. I came down very very carefully.

I highly reccomend seeing Machu Pichu. An incredible site. Even if you don´t do the Inca trail or one of the other trails, it is worth going to see it.

We are back in Cusco now. Going to meet our Inca trail group this evening to compare how much our legs hurt, and then tomorrow we are off to Puno and then to La Paz in Bolivia.