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The Inca Trail
Much to Penny's dismay, we set the alarm for 3.30am to be ready for the bus at 4.30am. On the bus we met out guide, Casiano, the porters and cook(known as the Red Army funnily enough) and our fellow hikers - Marek, Anna, Brian, Steven, David and Robert. We broke the journey with breakfast in the town of Ollantaytambo and finally arrived at our starting point (called KM 82) at around 8.30am. We spent 30 minutes getting organised and started walking about 9am. We slowly walked up through a valley for about five hours until we broke for lunch near the village of Huayllabamba, the last village on route. After an amazing three course meal cooked on a single gas bottle we headed out for the afternoons walk which we had been told was the most difficult. They weren't lying....we climbed over 500m in height to an altitude of 3800m. We arrived about 5.30pm and collapsed. (I did at least!!). I was so tired I could hardly eat and disappeared to bed straight after dinner at around 8pm. I'm pleased to say that everyone else did the same thing!! I don't think I have ever been so physically tired.
The next morning we were up at 6am and after breakfast bgan another climb, this time of 400m. We arrived at the heighest point of the trek, known as Dead Woman's Pass at a height of 4200m after about two hours. We took some pictures and started to descend. After 600m of descent we stopped for lunch. The downhill stretch would have been OK if not for the knowledge that the afternoon would see us climb back up 400m to the Second Pass!! We finally reached our campsite at around 4.30pm, had tea and went to bed again!! Party animals!!
On the third day we had a lie in until 6.30am. The first hour of the walk was ever so slightly uphill to the Third Pass but after that we had about four hours of downhill to our final campsite at Winay Huayna, which we arrived at for lunch. We had a nice sleep in the afternoon and visited the nearby massive Inca Ruins of the same name around sunset which were amazing. We had a drink in the bar (yes, there is a bar at this particular campsite) and had a bit of a celebration with the porters - thanking them for their amazing hard work. We struggled to walk the trail with small daypacks. They literally run it carrying tents, sleeping bags, gas cannisters, food, chairs, etc!!!
We got up at 3.30am again on Day 4 and were waiting at the checkpoint at 4.30am. Once the gates opened at 5.30am we quickly (45 minutes) made our way to Inti Punku (the Sun Gate) for our first view of Machu Picchu. Our good luck with the weather continued (we only had half a day of cloud and only one brief shower) and we got an amazing view over the site from the mountains above. Another 30 minutes walk and we arrived at the site of the usual Machu Picchu photo (see the attached photo) and began a 2.5 hour informative tour given by our guide, Casiano.
Machu Picchu is as amazing as you would expect (although probably bigger). We had a few hours to wander and take it all in before getting the bus down to Machu Picchu town (known as Aguas Calientes) where we had lunch and a few drinks. We got the train at 4.20pm followed by a bus back to Cusco, arriving about 8pm.
After a lovely shower (the first in four days!!) we went to bed for a well deserved rest. 45km (27 miles) up and down mountains over four days.
It was an amazing trek made even better by a lovely bunch of people, great porters, an incredible cook and a legend of a guide. Casiano has walked the Inca Trail over 250 times and even ran it in 5 hours!!! We would recommend the company we went with to anybody. They're called Llama Path.
Right now we are back in Cusco. Penny has just had a massage and we are off for some drinks with part of the Inca Trail group tonight. Tomorrow we catch a flight to Arequipa for our Colca Canton tour and then on to Nasca a few days later to see the legendary Nasca Lines.
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