The Inca Trail and Macchu Picchu

The days leading up to the Inca Trail I was seriously concerned about whether I would manage or not, I had struggled climbing up a hill on one of the island visits and had struggled to climb up the hill to the home stay. David and I were lucky in that we did not struggle with altitude sickness but I was getting a lot of blood in my nose, not nose bleeds but when I blew my nose, blood would come out. This we put down to high pressure due to altitude. I had visions of me dropping me out, which I didn't want to do.

The night before we went we were given a pre trek talk of what to take and what to expect. This actually cheered me up a bit, as the emphasis was going  at your own pace. I was advised to hire two walking sticks but we had already brought some with us as I knew I would need them, David was advised to get one,which we did. We also hired mattresses to try and help us be a bit more comfortable in our tent. It is a long time since we have been camping. We were given a duffle bag each in which we were to pack only the bits needed for the days we would be on the trek, the sleeping bags also had to fit into this, we were allowed 6kg of weight each. We managed to keep our weight down mainly because the sleeping bags we bought are light, weight wise. The porters carry the duffle bags while we took day bags with snacks, sun cream, rain jackets etc. The porters are allowed to carry 30kg each, it used to up to 60 kg they carried but after a couple of deaths new regulations were brought in, thank goodness. When you see the load that they carry as they run past you , you wonder how they managed before. The weight they are carrying is weighed along the route to make sure no one is carrying too much.

We woke up bright and early for our trek and piled onto the minibus which would be taking us to the starting point. There were four from our group and 8 more from two other groups, making 12 in all.

At the starting point with the rest of the group,still smiling. A beautiful sunny day, a good way to
start, Max our guide for the trek had told us it was a flat start, mmmm not sure what his definition of
flat is! Max the guide is the same one we had been with the day before.

At one of the viewpoints we had just climbed a really steep bit to get here, which was by a river and 

through woods so it was beautiful. Just beside us are horses roaming about. 

Not sure of this pink t-shirt makes me look cuddly, shall we say,then again so does my black t- shirt and my white one. Mmmm should maybe rethink this. I was planning to lose weight on this holiday but the Peruvians eat so much, and being part of a tour group you tend to eat with the others. Even on the trek you eat a lot. You start with a lovely breakfast, stop at a viewpoint for a snack, then after 

another walk you have dinner, then when you reach the campsite for the evening you get snacks and then you have tea. With the porters and chefs carrying all the equipment for this and putting the effort into making a lovely meal you do feel obliged to eat it. In saying that, all the food on the trek was amazing, too good not to eat. 

The second day, the dreaded Dead Woman's Path. Basically you walk upstairs for miles, me and David definitely did this at our own pace, he could have done it a lot quicker but kept me company. This in itself was lovely because although we kept bumping into people, at times we were the only 

ones around. On the trek along with Max, we had two other guides Caesar and Elias (apologies if 

spelt wrong) both these guides were wonderful but Caesar in particular kept an eye on us, making sure we were alright in a subtle way as we toddled along. As we took our time we had the chance to enjoy the views and to see more wildlife, the birds on the trek are lovely with even the humble Andean sparrow looking beautiful. Saw lots of butterflies and humming birds too. 

At the summit of Dead Woman's Path, as you can see it is a lot colder, I actually zipped on the legs of my trousers here and put on rain jacket and then we needed ponchos as it started to rain very heavily and we even got a little bit of hail.

At this point the rest of our group had already started to descend down the other side. All of our guides were at the top along with a guide from another group, all of who became interested as David started to look for a geocache which was hidden close by. David wanted to head up a little bit , which went over a summit to the side but Max said it wasn't safe, then the other group's guide said it was okay and the next thing I knew I was alone at the top looking after the bags as they all disappeared from view. Then the mist closed in and I started to worry , thinking I would never see them again, and what should I do to get help. About 10 minutes later they reappeared all excited because they had found it, and we could start the trek again, which was basically climb down stairs for miles. 

The third day on the trek is beautiful,  a lot of up and down, as Max says undulating, the scenery is 

constantly changing you start with mountainside and you end up on the edge of the rainforest. On the way you see lots of Inca ruins.

When you reach this Incan ruin you have to climb lots of steps, I think that was the Incan defence system, tire the enemy out before they get here.

Heading through an Incan tunnel on the route. 

Lunch on this day was amazing, our last lunch together, the chef did a buffet with lots of choices and even baked and decorated a cake. Impressive when you think he had done a cooked breakfast, taken down his equipment and carried it up the hill to then make lunch. 

At the end of day three we suddenly turned a corner and walked out onto these Incan terraces, which was absolutely beautiful and the views were amazing. You might just see a rainbow in the photo, this was a full rainbow, which then became a double rainbow.

As we walked into this campsite we could see the tents up and ready for us, one was pitched very close to the edge of a very big drop, so we called it the death tent and wondered who it was. Yeh , you guessed it was ours.

The view from our tent

The bit of land in front of our tent. I am not very elegant crawling in and out of tents, hard to believe I know, and have a tendency to trip over the guy ropes! When it became dark we saw fireflies in the tree beside our tent.

In the evening we got the chance to thank our porters and have a wee dance! During the trip we also were introduced to the porters who told us a little bit about themselves, all were farmers when they weren't being porters.

Up really early on the last morning as we had to queue at the last checkpoint to get into the final section of the trek. There were 500 campers in the last campsite all wanting to get through that same point. We managed to be about the third or fourth group in the line, which was very good. 

We then had a brisk walk along the path, heading to Macchu Picchu, on the way we had to climb up very steep stairs called Gringo's Killers. They are so steep it is easier to use your hands to clamber up.

It was a very misty morning which gave the first view of Macchu Pcchu a magical, mystical feel as it disappeared and reappeared into view. 

The best news of all was that the whole group did it. 

With Caesar and Elias. Caesar is the one in the hat. We would like to thank all of our leaders, the porters and the chefs, we couldn't have done it without them

Macchu Picchu.

The one sad thing about doing the trek is that you are too tired to explore Macchu Picchu fully when you get there! We were given a guided tour by Max, who once more showed his passion for Incan history.

They are talking about closing Macchu Picchu in 6 years time due to the damage being done to it by tourists. They are planning to put in cable cars so people will see it from above. So if you want to do the trek, start planning now.