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The Inka Trail..........this was the treck that our hole trip had been based around, Machu Pichu being somewhere that steve has always wanted to visit and we made it!!
We started on Thursday morning and took a bus out to Kilometer 82. We were the youngest in our group with the average being about mid 40`s. We thought this was a sure sign that we would not be the ones huffing and puffing at the back. We were however unfortunatley suprised when at least half our group decided to carry their own backpacks. We thought we were doing the local community a favour by hiring a porter to carry ours!!
We started off on a very nice gentle walk along the river which was a tributary of the amazon river. I was hoping like hell that the hole treck would be this easy or they would at least let me float down the river to Machu Pichu!! Sure enough the gentle walk didn`t last long and we started to climb gently up hill. Our guide went at a great pase though and although we struggled to start with the altitude we soon got used to it. We stopped for lunch and then continued to climb upwards covering some quite steep sections before reaching our long awaited camp around 5pm. The most embarassing thing was that the porters (we had 22 for our group of 16) who carried all our tents, food etc. They would set up our lunch tent,give us bowls to wash our hands in, hand us a drink and cook us food, clean up and pack everything away and then run past us on the trail to set up camp before we got there at night!!
Unfortunatley that night something didn`t really agree with me and I spent all night running too and from the squat toilet. At about 6am I began throwing up which thankfully stopped 20mins before we were about to start our hike for the second day. Unfortunatley for me I felt awful, had eaten no food and now had to climb a mountain for 9 hours. No one on in our group that morning thought I was going to make it but thankfully didn`t tell me at the time!! So with shaking legs and the feeling that I wanted to curl up into a ball I very slowly plodded up the mountain. Talking about it now, I can`t acctually believe I did it. Every few meters I had to stop and Steve had to encourage me to walk a few more steps up, at times he even had to push me up the steps as I was more willing to turn back than to go up. Two hours later we made to half way point of the first mountain (there were two that day) and I managed to eat soemthing and drink an energy drink. After that the climbs got slightly easier but at the hardest points steve had to carry my day pack as the guides and Steve encouraged me up. We got a great round of applause when we reached the top of the first pass.
After a short break we than had to walk down the mountain (this sounds much easier than it was) in time for lunch just to be told that after lunch we had to walk up and down a second mountain. The second day was the most challenging day for everyone but it has to be the most challenging thing I have ever had to do in that condition.
Thankfully I ate little that night and my stomache loved that so by the next morning I was ready to go again. The third day was much easier taking us through beautiful tropical rain forest filled with exotic orchids and humming birds. Most of the trail was along the true Inka Trail which means that none of it has been repaired since it was built. We passed through Inka tunnels along paths that dropped hundreds of meters below us surrounded by the most amazing mountina scenery I have ever seen. Dotted all along the trail were various Inka sites but most of them were never recorded in history books so no one knows the real reason for there existence. Next to our camp site on the third night we had another large Inka ruin that was about half the size of Machu Pichu but was obviously less visited and much more peacful. The campsite on the whole was amazing with a beautiful view of the mountains when you opened the door to you tent.
So this was it, day 4 Machu Pichu.................we all woke up at 4am had breakfast and set off along the trail around 5am. The trail entrance only opens at 5 30am so we had to wait at the check point with everyone else from the campiste until it opened. Then it was almost like a race as everyone headed for the sun gate where you get your first glance at Machu Pichu. It was amazing walking through the rainforest in the dark as the sun slowly came and the mountains began to appear around you. All of a sudden we rounded a corner and then it was one last push up a steep set of steps, we emerged out through an arch and there it was, deep down resting on the mountian in front of us. Everyone just stopped suddenly and stood there staring at it with our mouths open.
We took some photos but were told we only had 30 mins before the sun hit Machu Pichu so we decided to run down the long winding path to get there in time.
Loads of us gathered up on the top section of Machu Pichu to get the best photos of the sun hitting the building below us and then we headed down to explore the city. Although not much is known about why it existed it is known that most of it is intact as it would have been.It was left when the Spanish invaded and was never found until 1911. Obviously all the wooden rooves and beams have gone but other than that it is tha same now as it was in the 16th century and there are signs that they were still building it.
We spent many hours there and could have spent much longer. I think the Inka Trail made it theat little bit more special to acctually have travelled along the route they would have travelled and to have seen the other Inka sites along the way.
If there is something you must do in life this is it in my view..................
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