The Inca Trail
3:34 pm Friday, 14 November, 2008
Alright so when I last sat down to type we were heading towards Cuzco. We flew there from Arequipa getting us into the hotel around 10. I took a quick wander around to get my bearings and was hugely impressed. It’s a beautiful city. The main squares are absolutely gorgeous and for once the churches actually work and just add to the beauty. It is perhaps the prettiest city centre that I have seen. So I wander for a bit and then we do a brief tour and all is good.
The highest Irish owned bar in the world is there and they have Guinness and so we get stuck in. They do a decent lunch (an all day breakfast roll) and I have three cans of Guinness.
It’s lashing rain and we spend a while chatting away in there before splitting off for the afternoon. Aside from wanting to do some tourist stuff, we are starting the Inca trail the next day and there are things we all need to buy. Now one of the most spectacular things about Cuzco is that it’s a colonial town but it’s built on Inca ruins/foundations. It’s very clear to see throughout and there are some noteable sights (more about them when the photos go up later today).
Anyway so I spend a rushed but enjoyable afternoon seeing things and getting my bits and pieces (waterproof trousers, spare batteries etc) and then at 7pm we meet with our guides for the trail.
Now I was of course a little worried about the trail. It’s a tough few days with the second day being notorious. That day is only about 5km but you have to climb over 1200 metres and so at the top of that pass altitude can be a serious issue. Now I had talked to people who had done it before and I was never in doubt that I was going to finish it but I was like I say a little worried. So we have our meeting and the guides talk us through the few days and show us a map and talk about the pass and the altitude and give us some idea of what we’ll be going through. They are keen to explain that it is not a “professional walk” and that most people can do it but and this is very much out of character for me, the briefing just leads me straight into an actual panic attack. I was outside of the hotel hyperventilating trying to calm myself down. It really got to me and in fact that evening I didn’t manage to have any good (always good before setting off on a long walk) and I just felt like shit. I worked myself up into quite a state.
There’s now a common joke within the group, blame it on the altitude and I have mentioned this before so I’m going to talk about it a bit more. Cuzco is high, it’s about 4000 M.A.S.L (Metres Above Sea Level) and for a few days before that we had been doing a bit at altitude but nothing too heavy, two 45 minute walks at say 3600-3900 M.A.S.L. Easy enough stuff but lets be very clear here, you feel the altitude. I’d never done anything like it before. You are over 4 kilometers above sea level and above most of your experience to date and your brain is missing some oxygen. You might not even notice for a while but some little things can start to be obvious. For me it’s dreaming, I’ve had some of the most lucid dreams ever during time at altitude over the past few weeks. Now the other thing is of course your breathing, you are getting less oxygen and you won’t notice it until the second you start doing something and then boom, you can be out of breath in seconds rather than the many minutes it might take to get you going.
So we had been warned a fair few times to take it easy on the booze and to not have a big night out. Aside from having the trail coming up, booze can have some strong effects at altitude. Now bringing us back to that briefing, I don’t really have an explanation. Three cans of Guinness shouldn’t have an affect on me, especially not 6 hours later on but they certainly did and combined with the altiude and the anticipation, it just pushed me over that little edge. It was not a good night to say the least.
Inca Trail Day 1.
Anyway the next day rolls around and its off. We have all been given rucksacks which we can fill to a max of 5 kilos. So for me that’s my sleeping bag and a few bits of clothes. The porters are now limited in what they can carry (which from the sounds of it is a very good thing) and so we spend some time running to the scales in reception to make sure things are all okay. Of course you can carry as much as you like in your own daypack. So mine has waterproofs, water, gatorade, coke, snacks, medical kit, camera and misc crap. It’s heavy but it’s okay.
So we pile into a bus and we drive for about 90 minutes to a little village that works as a staging point for walkers. Here i get a walking stick, a whole four pounds for one for my height and we get some last minute bits and pieces and then we drive for about 45 minutes or so until we reach KM82, the traditional starting point for our “Classic Inca Trek”. Off the bus and we bundle up our bags and we apply our suncream and heft our bags and we queue up for the first checkpoint.
There is a very noticeable sense of anticipation. There’s excitement and there’s nerves but on the whole once we cross that first bridge and get onto the Inca Trail, the nerves start to fly and there is almost a giddy sense of excitement. For many of us this is the culmination of our travels. Almost everyone there has come not just to Peru but to South America to do this trek and to walk to Macchu Picchu.
So we have three guides, one at the front, on in the middle and one at the back. There are 19 of us doing the walk and we have 23 porters, 2 chefs and the three guides. So our group is 47 people. The most allowed on the trail per day is 500. The first day is about 11km and it’s mainly flat and easy going. We have to walk together so that we can acclimatise a bit more and I think so that our guides can get a view on how we’ll do. So we walk and it’s a bit slow but it’s okay. We chat and every few minutes someone expresses wonder at being there and there are smiles all around the group. Our porters catchup and overtake us after a short while. There’d be a call of “porters!” and you move to one side (stop if needs be) and let them pass. Dave and Suze were telling me way back when about the Sherpa’s they’d seen and used in Nepal and now I understand about them overtaking and laughing at the slow tourists. Anyway it’s all good. There are some small ruins dotted along the way and it really gets us going to see these small farm house ruins. It’s building the sense of anticipation for the lost city every step along the way.
Then we come to what is the hard part for day 1. We have to climb about 200 metres up some steps. Now this is a good place to just clarify, when I say steps don’t imagine steps. I’ll post some photos to give you a better idea but don’t think steps! Anyway we get up this 200 metres and it’s not tough going but it is at altitude and so it’s certainly leaving us short of breath.
On that actually, about 30 minutes into the walk there was a sorta group revelation that there’s no point in trying to hide the fact you are short of breath. No-one wanted to be the first to be actually working or like that but it’s quite simple, you are not getting enough oxygen so it’s actually better to try and breath heavily and deeply even if you are not out of breath! Anyway we get to the top of this and we come to the first significant ruins along the way and they are breathtaking. We are maybe 3 or 4 hours into the Inca Trail and you reach this little plateau and below us is are the Patallacta (or Llaqtapata) ruins. We sit down for a half hour or so and our head guide, Reuben starts to tell us about Inca history and it’s all fascinating stuff as we stare down over this beautiful view.
After that it’s onwards towards lunch and it’s amazing. The food is miles and miles above anything we were expecting and there is cutlery and tablecloths and a three course meal! We spend about an hour eating and sitting and taking it easy and then we head off towards the campsite. Of course it starts lashing rain as we get close and we are all into our waterproofs and ponchos and there’s even an umbrella or two. It is however all good and we get to camp and the tents have been setup and we eat another amazing meal and knowing we have an early start the next day we have an early early night. There is a joke about a light a little bit up the hill being the pub but no-one really wants to go and find out. So we sleep and we sleep pretty well.
Inca Trail Day 2.
it’s an early start with breakfast around 5am and then a small ceremony to meet our porters and cooks and all that.
Then it’s a short but steep climb to the checkpoint and the light *was* a pub!! Once we are through that everyone is free to walk at their own pace. We have one of the guides in front and he sets off pretty quickly. Feeling pretty good I set off at a decent enough pace, probably around the tail end of the first group. I cover the “first hour” in 35 minutes and after a quick bottle of gatorade, I start off on the second section of the day. It’s easy enough going. The next part is meant to be two hours and takes you to the last point that you can buy water etc. That part goes pretty well and I’m done in around 90 minutes I’d say. Now alot of this is uphill but it’s easy going. This is probably around the 3700 metre mark and it’s been fairly easy going, but of course this is not to last. The next 500 metres up to Warmiwañusca (Dead Woman’s Pass) is tough, extremely tough. It probably takes me three hours and it’s tough tough tough. I reckon that 3800 is the magic number, that’s when the altirude really really kicks in. The steps are tough but not stupidly so, at sea level I’d not be running up them but I’d be fairly moving along. Going up that height you can literally have to take 10 paces, stop, 10 paces, stop and continue. By the second hour I was looking for markers ahead on the track, a certain bush or stone and forcing myself to keep going till there. You can’t really walk with anyone here, you don’t have breath to talk, you can’t listen to any music, it distracts you and you don’t have the breath to sing along which you’ll end up trying and you have to just stick with your pace to get going. It’s a bit of a lonely couple of hours, it’s you versus the trail and there’s nothing else.
Eventually I reach the top and I’ve dropped back quite a bit behind the first group but it’s all good. Just a few minutes ahead of me at the top are Andrea, Robin and Maree and then shortly after me are Louise and Rebecca and Leah and then Angela and Jim. There’s a chance for some silly photos and luckily the view clears up a bit and we get some photos. There’s water and snacks and photos of us all at the pass and at the high point sign (you have to touch it when you reach the top) and well it’s a great feeling. That’s the hard part done and dusted and the back of the trail is broken. So there is only one thing to be done; whisky! Reading between the lines of the what to bring guidelines I had thrown in a couple of miniatures for keeping warm and so we sit at the top of Dead Woman’s Pass at 4215 M.A.S.L drinking Johnny Walker. It was perfect!
After maybe a half an hour break we get going again and it’s all downhill. It’s not easy going but it’s by no means as tough as the past bit as been (for me anyway) but the walking stick comes in pretty handy! Maree and I walk together for the next couple of hours and it’s nice to have some breath for some banter for a bit. We rock up into camp as the first of the second group around 2.30 I think. We were shocked to discover that the first group had been there since shortly after 11 that morning! However they simply hadn’t stopped as it turned out. The didn’t quite run the whole thing but we stopped for water and food and pictures and for a rest and they just paced it onwards. Some impressive stuff out of them!
The rest of the day is free, we wait for folks to arrive and everyone gets clapped and cheered and it’s a good feeling to get into camp and put your stuff down and just relax. We play some cards (21 (not the 21 we know and love) and shithead) for hours and hours leading to much good natured abuse (the highlight being Gemma calling Rebecca who wasn’t even playing a wench!) and it’s a good end to the day. Suffice it to say that people sleep pretty well that night.
Inca Trail Day 3
Now it gets bad. The walk is easy enough but the morning starts with another bit uphill and I’m not feeling good at all. I make it up the hill but I’m last for a while. I don’t know what it is, I feel okay in myself but my stomach is all over the place. We take a look at Runkuraqay, the first ruin along the way.
Then I have to leave the trail to throwup. Not fun especially as I hadn’t had any breakfast. However this does me the world of good and shortly after I’m good to go and I catchup with the group and stick close to the front for the rest of the day. I had been a bit annoyed with how day 2 had went, I didn’t think I’d struggle as much with the hill and it pissed me off to slip back to the second group (it’s not a competition of course but still) and so I wanted to prove something and pushed on for the day. It was pretty good, it was a long enough day and we had some horrible weather towards the end with lashings and lashings of rain making some of the downhill quite tricky.
But all is well and on day three we are just a few km from the city and in fact there is a glorious moment where we round a corner and in front of us is Macchu Picchu!
Now lets sidestep for a moment. Macchu Picchu is not the name of the city, it’s the name of the mountain that the city is beside. So we round a corner and our guide points out this triangle shape mountain and it’s just awesome. It’s the first payoff for the past few days and you can taste the excitement in the air. Okay, that’s not true, most people are miserable and cranky but I’m loving every second of it!
Now the good thing about the third night is quite simply the pub! We camp at Wiñay Wayna and there is a single pub with contains proper toilets (until it runs out of water) and hot showers! I’m really not feeling good and I’ve not eaten all day but once I get into the pub and I get a coke, (’sir would you prefer a cold one from the ice chest?’) and I get that into me and I have a hot shower then it’s most certainly beer o’clock and it’s up there as one of the best tasting beers I’ve ever had in my life. Back to the camp for dinner and a ceremony with the porters etc (this involves us thanking and tipping them!) and then it’s back to the pub for a couple more beers with most of the crew rocking up and it’s a good night. I head to bed around 10 I’d say and I sleep so well.
Inca Trail Day 4.
Now I’ve already mentioned some of this so I’m going to repeat myself a bit through the miracle of copy and paste and expand a bit too. So final day, and we get up at 4am. It´s dark, of course, and it´s lashing rain and I mean lashing rain. I´ve been ill for a couple of days, I´m not keeping down food and I´m starving. So, it´s dark and cold and wet and most people are miserable.
I on the otherhand have already decided that this is going to be one of the best days of my life and nothing can get me down. Repeated abuse from most of the camp about my cheerfulness and optimism (yeah I know, shocking huh?) just makes me feel better. It is the perfect way to start the day. Maree is the only person who is on the same wavelength and so we set off sneakily calling out “porters” to get the slower folks out of the way so we could overtake.
So we power on non-stop mainly in silence, lost in thought, anticipation, adrenalin and indeed exhaustion. We reach the steps below the Sun Gate. 50 steep steps and let me tell you you ain´t seen steep till you have seen these. We scramble up and the rain stops…but the mist remains. So slightly disappointing that we don´t get a first view down over the city. It doesn’t matter though. It’s still great. I’m on a total high, the walk has been beautiful and I’m standing at the Sun Gate above the Lost City of the Incas. Nothing can get me down here, nothing. So there are some photos and then a fast pace down into the city.
Not even an hour later and we are in the city before we even realise. We pause at some terraces waiting for our guide to catchup with the tickets from the last checkpoint and for the city to open. It’s misty misty misty. We are stood on the terraces where the “classic photo” looking down over the city is taken and we can’t see shit. But it doesn’t matter, at least not to me. As we wait there for 30 minutes or so the mist drifts and you start to get glimpses of the central city and then it clears and there before you is the whole city and it’s just breathtaking. It is every single thing you could hope for and more.
So that’s the end of the Inca Trail and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I will do it again sometime down the line. Next up, the city itself!
Cusco & and the Inca Trail Peru, 25 - 29 October
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