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Day One of Inca trail: Finally we are up walikng the Inca trail. Up early and took a van ride to the starting point, here we went to Machupicchu Historic Santuary to have a outline on the flora, forna and animals we may see. Then we had to use our passports to get into the national park. The first place we stopped at was called llactapata it's bottom wall was like a snake, apparently to allow it to flood and flow. The terraces grow all the crops, and also allow them to control the flow of flood water. And the walls are all slanted backwards so they have less chance of crumbling or collapsing especially in earthquakes.
Here we learnt that all of the little community's along the Inca trail/sacred valley were abandoned in the 1500's (which means many of the names are forgotten). During this era the Spanish were trying to take over the rule. They killed the Inca (Inca means king or chief, it's one person not a population) and then killed all the royal family by 1572. After that the people became a mix of Spanish and inca known as mestizo. Between 1532 to 1572 the population went from 9 to 10 million to 3 to 4 million. People were forced to leave the country side and move into small towns and pay taxes. The sacred valley(100km long and really important for crops) abandoned communities weren't rediscovered until the 1900s by accident. No Spanish artifacts have ever been discovered in these communities so they believe that the Spanish never found them. They went to nearby bilikobumba instead.
What is interesting also is our toilets we have to use. It is a pop up tent that has two buckets. One for number ones and one for number twos. So gross, it stinks. And even worse one of our chesquis (porters) is assigned the jobs to sort it all out as things don't degrade as fast in altitude. YUK!
We have 13 chesquis, 2 cooks and 2 guides for our group of 11 people.
Day Two of Inca trail: Up at 5.30am with bowl of hot water. Then breakfast of porridge with bananas, eggs, pork sausages, toast and hot chocolate. It was bloody brilliant. Then time to start walking. We walked for two hours of pretty much just steps, so glad to make the rest spot. Continued on to the top of dead women's pass. God it was hard. The altitude made it even harder. You could only take baby steps and had to stop every ten minutes or less. When we finally made the top (4215 the equivalent of a 13,800 feet sky dive in NZ) I felt so happy. But it was raining, freezing and there was no view. It was funny watching the people still walking up. Their expressions, foul language and ways to get themselves up the mountain were priceless. Also seeing some people who were very large grinding it out and achieving their goal was pretty inspirational.
After waiting for some of the group we continued on down for an hour and half. This is where the poles we have came in handy. The whole path is made of stones by the Inca, which were extremely slippery. It took so much concentration to make sure you didn't slip up at any step. By the time we made the lunch stop we were all pretty tired. Next to our lunch tent, our sleeping tents were all set up which was surprising. Here we learnt that three of our group had a variety of levels of altitude sickness so we were now nit going to continue on any further today. It was all one family from Dallas, Texas. Bethany the mum had vomited the whole way up, Rick the dad felt sick on the way down and Jack the kid had started feeling quite ill when we were waiting at the top and got progressively worse. It took some of them an extra 4 hours to get to the lunch spot. The food so far has been amazing. Even the sublime chocolate bar was delicious. Everyone in bed by 8.30pm to prepare for tomorrow. Today we only walked 11 km and tomorrow we will be doing 16 km. Off to sleep to the sound of the river and all the frogs (which sound exactly like those trade aid wooden frogs). Bit disappointing that the weather has rained on and off, with minimal views but it's more about the pilgrimage to Machupicchu.
Day Three of the Inca trail : Woke up at 5.30am to a beautiful morning. Straight into a big hill to get the calve and arse muscles going again. Looked back up at the dead womans pass, and you could actually see a sleeping woman. You didnt even have to use your imagination too much. Stopped at a few inca settlements on the way to our lunch stop. They were all pretty cool. In one of them we seen the holes by the doors that the rope use to go through to keep the door shut. Also seen the area where the sacrifices would happen. Always facing the east. Sacrifices would have included guinea pig, llama and on special occasions a child aged between 12 and 14.
After lunch we passed through some Inca tunnels and all of the trail became the original stuff. Quite hard to walk on as its all uneven. The wooden bridges are quite funny. They are long ways full logs. With the rain they were very slippery. Not the best use of wood for bridges that I have seen! Seen two more settlements after lunch. Here it was reinforced that water was very important. And the people were very good at utilising it. Just today we seen a variety of aqueducts and fountains made to ensure the natural water source could be used. On one place has 7 water fountains that still work. Just how hard these people worked is not only reflected by the shear number of rocks they moved for the at and the settlements but also by the soil. The soil up on the hills is not that fertile, so it is strongly believed that all the soil used on the terraces to grow crops was carted up from the sacred valley below.
Unbelievably one porter completed the 42km Inca trail marathon in 3 hours 40 min. Bloody crazy when you see the slippery stoney path let alone the massive hills!
Arrived at our campsite which is on right beside a slip and apparently very dangerous just before dark.One final note for the day, the chemical toilets are so much nicer than the squat toilets. They smell so freaken bad and have urine and feaces everywhere. I can't wait to use a normal toilet tomorrow.
Day Four of the Inca trail: Up at 3.30am so the chesquis could pack up our tents and make the 5.30am train. This meant we walked for ten minutes and then waited one hour for the gate to the track to open at 5.30am. It was pissing down with rain. This made the last 2 and a half hours a lot harder than expected. There were also some steps called the monkey steps just before the end. They were extremely close together and took it out of you both physically and mentally.
Arrived at the sun gate anticipating what is meant to be one of the most amazing views of Machupicchu only to see nothing but fog. Total anticlimax after four days of hard slog! Carried on down and entered the archeological sites. Luckily the weather gods were on our side and the fog cleared enough for us to explore it properly. Such an awesome place, even if there was hundreds of other people there also. Fun fact: Machupicchu with its double c is pronounced as a k not a c as many tourists say it. So instead of saying old mountain, with the mispronounciation it becomes old penis. Safe to say the tour guide and chesquis laugh at us ALOT.
Machupicchu was thought originally to be a fortress by some archeologists. But due to its inaccessibility plus its location between the Andes and the Jungle it makes it a central location for people to get to and therefore is more likely to have a religious focus. Machupicchu is believed to be abandoned in the 1500's. It was accidentally rediscovered by a farmer in 1902. An American called Hiram Bingham was the first to explore it. He brought more people to come study it between 1911 and 1916. What is amazing is how this massive site was only occupied for these than 100 years. There are still parts of it that are yet have the bush covering it removed. The before and after photos show just how over grown it had become. It's incredible it was ever discovered. At its peak Machupicchu had 200 homes so between 600 and 800 people, not including the pilgrames who had journeyed there. It must have been a very important location for all of the people.
Today was the end of our 45km Inca trail. It was four days that included rain, fog, sunshine, altitude, hills, steps and more steps and some amazing views. The sleeping on the hardest ground ever on the thinnest mattress, combined with the shear exhaustion of both my mind and body was all worth it. It was worth it complete my pilgrimage to see another masterpiece of some of the most advanced people for their time. I can say though I was very excited to get back to Cusco, shower and have my steak and chips for dinner before a night cap with the others and a nice long sleep. Cusco is considered a very safe city, so after a drink I decided I would walk the 6 blocks home on my own. I was chased for three blocks all the way to the hotel door by a random local guy. No idea what he wanted but it bloody freaked me out. Luckily the taxi men get there dinner given to them outside our hotel so they kind of stepped in. Not a great way to end the day.
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