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So, here it was, the day we had all been dreading and very excited about simultaneously - trek time! We had been given some duffel bags to carry our stuff in and the aim was for them to be no heavier than 5kg - hard when you are taking sleeping bag, several inners, mats, change of clothes etc! We were picked up fairly early on 29th and the first stop was a ruin site called Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman!) which means 'Satisfied Falcon'. It was damaged quite a bit during the floods and landslides in February so there is some restoration going on. You only now see about 20% of the original structure as after the conquest, the Spanish tore down a lot of the buildings and used the blocks to build their own houses in Cusco. Once again there were stones in the shape of a puma, symbolising Inca but, once again, I struggled to see it!
We then drove a bit further along really windy, steep and pukey roads to Pisac where we visited the Inca fortress which is perched on a plateau with a deep gorge on either side. Good practice for the next few days as we huffed and puffed our way to the top! We then went to the village of Pisac for a fantastic lunch before splitting into our groups and saying goodbye to the other half. Basically, a few people were doing the Classic Inca Trail which ends in Machu Picchu through the Sun Gate. I had chosen the Community Trail, mainly because people I know who have done the Classic said it was like walking down oxford Street as there are 600 people walking the same trek and it's full of litter etc. The Community Trail is exclusive to Dragoman, there were only 13 of us and the money we pay goes to the local communities to help support their existence. We were supporting remote farming communities in the Andes with traditions that date back to Inca times. The local people are native Quechua speakers who have very little contact with the general population. Their daily lives consist of potato farming, weaving textiles and herding llamas, alpaca and sheep. They are considered by the Peruvian government as existing in conditions of extreme poverty and they often face malnutrition, exposure to severely cold weather, poor hygienic conditions and a lack of decent medical or educational assistance.
So, we got into our bus to head up the 3 hour drive to our first camping spot in a tiny community called Quisharani which is at 3,850m. We got fairly close when we reached a bridge that had been washed away. We had to walk the last 30 minutes or so but luckily not with our duffel bags. We had a team of 11 people for the 13 of us on the trek - 2 guides (Luis and Fernando), 3 cooks (led by Walter - not a very Peruvian name!) and 6 wranglers (led by Raimondo who is also the mayor of several of the local communities!) plus a pack of llamas and a pack of mules. We got to our camping spot where suddenly a bunch of women in local dress appeared and started setting up their wares for sale. All of the tents were put up for us and Verity and I claimed a rather large tent for ourselves. We then had a fantastic dinner (the cooks are all trained by Luis who is a chef by trade) of soup followed by a chicken dish (all cooked in a little tent by the team of chefs who all wore proper uniforms and hats!). It was pretty cold by this point so Vee and I put on our very becoming simple hats (Steve - you would have been proud!) and we were then joined by Profi Pollito, the teacher at the local school. As part of this project, the money has gone towards funding the salary for an additional teacher at the school which allows more children to go to school. Profi taught us some Quechua which was fun (but bloody hard!). We were snuggled up in bed by about 9pm - thank God I had had the foresight to buy an extra fleecy inner for my sleeping bag. Luis reckoned it was going to reach -5 degrees overnight so I had on my sexy thermals, an alpaca jumper (specifically bought at the market that day for bed purposes!), a cotton liner, a fleece liner and my sleeping bag - and I was just about right! Vee said I looked like a worm but who cares if you're nice and warm?!
Day 2 - we were woken up at 6am by a knocking on our tent and the offer of hot tea - yes please! While we were trying to wake up (camomile tea doesn't really help in that department!), there was another knocking and w bowls of hot water appeared so we could wash. This really was luxury! We then had a fab breakfast of porridge, fruit and toast and then had to stand in a circle to do some exercise before we gave thanks to the mountain Gods and then gave our wishes (that part's a secret I'm afraid otherwise it won't come true!). At 8am we headed to the local school. This is for 5-11 year olds and most of them walk 1-2 hours to get there (and that's after they've done their chores at home like helping to herd the llamas etc). They were waiting at the gate and all shook our hands and said 'Hola' as we walked by. Very very cute! They were all dirty and dressed in random clothes, some of which were the traditional dress. They sang some songs for us and a couple of the boys recited some stuff in Spanish (which remember is their 2nd language) which was great! We then packaged some things up for them - towels, toothbrushes and combs and then a packet of books, pencils etc. One of the girls in our group asked if they were going on a school trip!! I mean, how ignorant - these kids have nothing!! Anyway, they were so grateful and virtually all of them said thank you. It really pulled at the old heart strings (Yes! Even for me!) and made you want to bundle them up and give them a good life. Mind you, we went straight for the hand sanitiser once we left!
We started uphill on our trek proper and I thought I was going to die! My God, it was difficult work. It's the altitude that kills you. As I think I mentioned before, even just sitting still on the truck is hard work s you can imagine what happens once you start moving. Well, actually you probably can't if you've never been in altitude but your chest tightens and you struggle to breathe and every movement is a huge effort. This, by the way, has nothing to do with fitness or metabolism or anything - it's individual to you so you could be the fittest person around and struggle the most. Anyway, as always, people started to get competitive and were racing to be in the front pack. What these people forget is that you can die from altitude sickness and you really have to be sensible. People started to throw up and feel very ill so 6 of us hung back and Luis took over our pace - much better. We were walking like snails but suddenly we could breathe (and even talk!). We had an emergency mule that stayed at the back (in case people couldn't walk any further) so it carried our daypacks for us up the really steep part. We climbed to the pass at 4,400m (the Classic Inca Trail only goes a maximum of 4,200m!) and then saw some beautiful lakes below us - both glacial and volcanic.
It started to rain about an hour before we were due to reach camp. Ugh, miserable! Luckily when we reached camp, it was already all set up so we just got into our tents with some tea and had a rest. We had done the trek in about 3.5 hours when normally it takes 5-6 hours so that shows you what a mission everyone was on. I slept for around 2 hours and when I woke up was absolutely freezing. I then couldn't warm up, despite having every piece of clothing on that I brought with me, including thermals, alpaca jumper, 2 fleeces and a waterproof! We had tea and popcorn and then went back to bed to try and warm up before having another fantastic dinner and being snuggled up in bed (with a hot water bottle!) by 8pm!
Day 3 - I woke up and had to use the poo tent (no!). It was still pouring down (as it had been all night - there was a puddle under my shoes in the tent and my sleeping bag was wet) and on the way back to the tent I stood in a huge puddle of mud. Just what I needed. The weather was so bad that Luis delayed our departure as he said it might be too dangerous to trek because of mudslides etc. At one point we thought we were going to have to somehow drive to the next camping spot. Anyway, it started to clear so we set off. Oh my God, this was worse than yesterday! We climbed from 3,650m to 4,800m in 4 hours in the wet. I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. I couldn't breathe and kept getting severe sharp pains in the back of my chest. I also had an awful hacking bronchial cough that wasn't helping. Luis was worried about it and kept asking me to spit every 5 minutes to make sure I wasn't bringing up any blood (nice!). The same 6 of us hung back behind the rest of the group and there were quite a few tears as everyone was so exhausted. I saved my tears (was proud of myself for that!) until later in the day when I tripped and bashed my knee on a boulder. It wasn't even my dodgy knee but bloody hell, it hurt like mad! Medical attention was required as Luis put cream on it to stop the swelling and bandaged it up. We finally made it to the top in 4 hours and reached a rather dodgy statue of JC! It was then a 2 hour walk downhill (which can be harder than up!) but the terrain was huge boulders and then scrambly little rocks which were really hard to walk on. We finally made it to lunch which was already set up in the tents in the valley - soup and stir fry (again, delicious!). A further 2 hour walk downhill and we reached our beautiful camping spot for the night. Right on the edge of the valley with an amazing view both up and down and a waterfall gushing in the background. It was incredible looking back and seeing where we had come from - almost impossible to believe that we had walked over those mountains as they were huge! Once again, we stuffed our faces with dinner and were in bed by about 8pm. Tonight we had some mulled wine to help us sleep though!
Day 4 - finally something easy-ish! We had a 2 hour walk down a river bed, on the way passing a family (4 very cute girls!) who had just got a telephone and were super excited. I'm not totally sure who they were going to call though since nobody else has a phone in the community but anyway......
We said farewell to our cooks and wranglers (and llamas and mules!) and got a bus to Ollantaytambo where we were all looking forward to a hot shower (no washing for 4 days!). The water pressure was down in the whole town and there was not only no hot water, there was only a trickle of water full stop. Aaaargh!!!!! We had lunch and chilled out for a couple of hours (Vee and I wandered into town to find a pina colada!) and then we went for a tour of the fort. Ollantaytambo is the best surviving example of Inca city planning and its narrow cobblestone streets have been inhabited for over 700 years. We went to the Inca complex which is the site where the conquistadors lost a major battle. There is a significant sun temple at this site along with a number of other temples. To transport the stones from one side of the river to the other, they basically diverted the river into a meander! Clever eh?! After another fab dinner, it was early to bed in preparation for our early start to Machu Picchu the following day.
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