| Nov 25, 2005 - The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
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 | | show all 239 | | Day 1: The first shot, looking back on the start of our trail | | Day 1: The first ruins we saw, called Llactapata (Town on Hillside) | | Day 1: Same ruins, wide shot | | |
| | Hmm, I'm not even sure how to go about this. Like my Santa Cruz Trek, I took way too many photos to be included all here. I think about 350 in all. So I'll pick some hightlights for here, and the rest will just be saved on a CD. But let me just finish up the pre-Trail stuff.
Thursday was really just a day of organizing and getting things ready for the tour, and of closing the case with Alfredo and Exotic Adventures. While I was gone he went to iPeru and the police and explained that it was all just a big misunderstanding. He was away giving a tour so thats why he couldn't get back to me, wasn't sure what his father meant by being closed, had switched his cell number recently, and accidentally wrote me he lived on Angeles instead of Andenes where he really lives, which is why I couldn't find him. I was happy just to get my money back, but the police needed an official notarized letter saying all was good in order to close the deal. So I had a good hour and a half walking around with Alfredo to find all the right people and things to get this done. By the end, I actually kinda liked the guy. He's a horrible slacker with really bad customer service skills, but a young friendly guy and sorta cool. Maybe he was planning on giving my money back, or maybe just trying to ignore me until I went away. I don't really care at this point. I gave him some advice and pointers on handling tourists, and we parted ways. Nothing of importance happened the rest of thanksgiving. Turns out there was an all you can eat thanksgiving-ish buffet at a restaurant near the plaza, but I heard of it too late.
So, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (I'll try to keep this short). You can find a basic description of the 4day/3night classic inca trail trek on any website you google if you want to hear the typical itinerary that I followed. In general, you walk in a group of no more than 16 (we were 7) with an english-speaking guide. My group was Adam from Australia, Daniel and Stephan 2 Belgian brothers, Yountae from Korea, Bryan from Denver and Anglea from San Francisco. All food and accomodation is taken care of and carried for you by porters hired by the company. You are responsible for carrying your clothes, rain gear, camera, sleeping bag and mat, and anything else you might bring, but you can hire a personal porter for more money to carry this stuff as well. Some pople chose to do this, I didn't. My pack was probably only about 25 pounds anyway, nothing compared to Santa Cruz. The porters wake up early each morning and prepare breakfast for the group, bringus tea in our tents, then they take down camp after we set off. They quickly pass us on the trail and have the tents set up and lunch cooking by the time we arrive later in the day. There is usually a snack and hot drinks in between lunch and dinner, and then a massive and delicous dinner. I am not used to eating a lot while hiking, but it was unavoidable on this trip. The food was amaazing and plentiful, and many people I talk with say the Inca Trail was the best they ate during their entire trip. I tried to talk with some of the porters and get to know them a bit, but there really wasn't much time for that, they were usually busy and walking faster on the trail, and our group spent a lot of time together anyway. One younger guy, Remigio who was the waiter, I got to know a bit and he was cool. Anyway, the experience:
Day 1: Woke up early and waited to be picked from Loki Hostel by my company. They finally got there, and it turned out it was not the company I booked with. This happens a lot in the low season, companies will get together and share clients to fill a tour. BUt I asked specifically many times to my agency if they were the actual operators and they said yes. They also said I would have a briefing with everyone from my tour and meet the guide the night before, but none of that happened either. So I was sort of frustrated especially because of everything else that had gone down, and even more so when I found out everyone on my tour had paid $40 less than me by booking with the company that was actually the operators. For a while I was plotting what to say to my agency and how to get my money back. We took a bus 1 1/2 hours to Ollantaytambo, stopped to pick up some things, then continued another half hour or so to the trail head. The whole way I was just feeling pissed and cheated. But about 20 minutes into the walk I figured I was being ridiculous, I couldn't let this thing which happens all the time get me down, it had nothing to do with the people I was with anyway, and it would be such a shame if I let it damper this amazing experience. So I pretty much got over it, and the rest of the way was fine. More than fine actually. The scenery was amazing and the people were cool, so all was good. Once again, we are supposed to be inthe rainy season, so I was prepared for any weather. This first day was pretty cloudy so we didn't get much views of the surrounding mountains and snow-capped peaks that are visible at other times, but it never actually rained on us which was nice too. We hiked up about 90 minutes and stopped for lunch. Then it was maybe just a couple hours of moderate terrain, passing some small ruins along the way, to the camp. We got there and the porters had hot drinks and popcorn waiting for us in the dining tent, and then we relaxed until dinner. Had a fantastic dinner and went to bed early.
Day 2: We woke up early for breakfast, 5am, as this is the hardest of the 4day trek. It takes you up and over "Dead Woman's Pass" at about 4200m, and then drops down the same amount to Camp 2. We set out about 6:30am, withthe rain already falling. It rain pretty steadily the entire way up the pass, which is why I have almost no photos form this day. But, that is really my only complaint. The climb was tough, but not impossible, and also kind of enjoyable in a hard work sorta way. We rested at the top for a while in only a light dirzzle and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. We also chatted with the travellers and porters from the other groups as well. This is a nice part of the Inca Trail. It can be annoying that you are walking every day with up to 500 other people, but also nice at times. There is always someone to talk to or walk with, and you get to meet a bunch of cool people. I guess this gets frustrating and unbearable in peak season, but we were travelling with only a handful of other agencies and there is no way it was anywhere near 500, so I liked it. We continued down some long painful and high stairs the whole back side of the pass, and got to Camp 2 for lunch. It was nice not having to walk anymore after lunch, especially since I stuffed my face with all that food. The rest of the day we all just chilled, talked with some people from other groups, tried to nap a bit, and played Cherades to kill time before dinner. After that, as you can guess, we ate and went to bed.
Day 3: This day started with a short but steep climb, broken in the middle by a stop at some ruins of an old watch tower. From here we contnue the climb up to the second pass of the trail, which was apparently a strategic and holy spot for the Incas due to its central location in the valley and the surrounding mountains. Therefore, Amaru directed us through a short ritual offering of coca leaves to the Inca sun god Inti on a small rock outcropping at the pass. After this point the day is a fairly easy walk with little altitude change, and is punctuated with visits to ruins along the way. Many people say this is the best day of the walk since the hiking is not hard and the ruins are big, beautiful, and frequent. We walked pass the next two ruins, and got to a point where some groups stop for lunch. After this the trail is mostly flat and winds around a mountainside, through a tunnel at one point, for about 2 hours. It was incredible, but for the entire duration of this stretch until the very end I walked totally by myself. I did not pass anyone and nobody passed me. I loved it. Its funny, when I am travelling alone I often crave meeting someone else to spend time with. But now that I was in such a large set group, some alone time wakling in the beautiful Andes was such a gift. The weather was also better than the last two days, without any rain though still a bit cloudy. So I just strolled the path, deep in thought, at times imagining that I was an Inca visiting the holy city of Machu Picchu, at other times pretending I was the Yale professor that "discovered" Machu Picchu and what it would be like to be him walking this trail before ever knowing wat it would lead to. (Hmm, I probably shouldn't have just revealed that huh?). We got to our lunch spot on the third and final pass, gorged ourselves, and then continued the rest of the way past some more ruins to Camp 3. Camp 3 is a bit of a celebration spot since it is the last night the groups have together, and there is a place to eat indoors that sells cold drinks and snacks. We chilled there for a while and then walked with Amaru, our guide, to the ruins of Huinay Huayna just a few minutes away. These were the most complete, expansive, and impressive ruins thus far on the trip. We got a short tour of them, and then just hung out and watched the sun set over the mountains from there. It was a really great and peaceful moment. After that was the biggest dinner of all, a little ceremony thanking the porters, some small celebrating, and off to bed for a very early rise and big day tomorrow.
Day 4: The day we get to Machu Picchu. We wake up at 4:30 and have a small and quick breakfast. There is an entrance gate for this last leg of the trail where they check your passports and make sure you are registered, which opens at 5:30, but the groups start lining up by 5am. From the gate it is about 1 1/2 hours along more trail to The Sun Gate, and the first view of Machu Picchu. I felt like I was racing down tihs strectch of tail since I was so excited and wanted to get to the Sun Gate in time to see the sun rise. It is already light out by 5am, but since we are in the mountains it is not until about 7a, that the sun actually appears. However, this last leg was also pretty tough, with some uphills, and 52 very large and steep typical Inca steps at the way end. You pant your way up these, and arrive at the sun gate revealing Machu Picchu far below in the distance. I don't want to even attempt to explain this phenomenon. It was surreal, it was good, and I liked it. On very cloudy days you cannot even see Machu Picchu from here, but we were lucky enough to have alternating views of complete clarity, a foggy glimpse, and nothing but a cloud. In some ways this added to the beauty and made for some great photos, it jsut had me a bit worried about the rest of the day actually at the ruins. We stayed there for a bit taking pictures, waiting for others to arrive, and just being impressed with those around you. We then continued down and stopped again at another small ruin of importance that I can't really remember. Then the final stretch down to the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock. This is just on a small hill above the full ruins of Machu Picchu, and the spot from where you take the classic photo. By the time we got here all the clouds had lifted, the sky had cleared, and we realized we would have a perfect day. It was unbelievable and totally inexpected. It was nothing even close to what the previous 3 days had been, or what the next few days would prove to be. Just one day of perfect weather and clear blue skies. I think this great weather had to be due to the offering we made to Inti the day before. We took loads of pictures, and then went as a group down to the official entrance gate to Machu Picchu where we got our stamps and stored our big packs. From there we got a guided tour with Amaru for about 1.5 hours of the major sites in Machu Picchu, and then were on our own to walk around and explore.
Machu Picchu: It is even better than all the stories you hear and photos you see. There are tons of sites all over Peru and this part of South America that have in tact Inca ruins. But Machu Picchu is not just ruins, it is the whole damn city. Standing above it and walking through it you fight to understand how this city was created in such a high and remote place, and what it must have been like to live there. There is the residential side, and the holy side with the temple and priest's quarters, divided by the main plaza square in the middle. There are large terraced hillsides, small rooms and hallways, and another section that was probably a prison ward. All this surrounded by picturesque Andes mountains, in addition to a bunch of llamas that have now been brought in there to make the tourists pictures even better. The city of Machu Picchu sits in between the mountain of Machu Pcchu (old moutnain) and Huayna Picchu (young mountain), which is the looming peak above the ruins in many of the photos. All of the peaks have symbolism and meaning to the Incas, as well as some of the rocks in and around the ruins. I won't get into all that here, but its fascinating if you want to do some reading on it. After our tour Daniel, Bryan, Yontae and I decided climbed Huayna Picchu to get some more pictures and different views of the city, as well as to see some small ruins that are up there. It is a breathless and steep 30-45 minute climb up to the top, even with 4 days of training and no packs, but incredibly worth it once you get to the top. Not only are the views of Machu Picchu great, but the surrounding mountains are equally stunning. But there is not so much to do once at the top, so we just lounged and took more photos. By this point all the classic poses and landscape shots seemed to be getting old, so we tried to vary it a bit, goofed around, and probably made complete asses of ourselves. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time. From here Yountae, Bryan, and I head back down, so some more of the city, and then took a bus from the ruins down to the town of Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo, where the rest of the group met up for lunch at 1pm. Many people were taking the the afternoon train back to Cusco that day so we said our goodbyes. Adam, Daniel, Stephan, and a girl form another tour all were staying the night in Aguas Calientes so we headed to the hot springs from which the town gets its name (Hot Waters). After the past 4 days, a long soak in thermal baths with a beer in hand was exactly what I needed. We all had dinner together, and I think slept better than I had in the entire previous month.
The next day was nothing but relaxation and recuperation. At 4pm we took the train together 4 hours back to Cusco, where I just relaxed some more, ate dinner, and chilled at the hostel.
This was my Machu Picchu experience. Sorry for being so long-winded about it, but it is probably the most famous aspect of this entire continent, and most common reason people come here to visit at all. Despite a very shaky start, and some weather that could have been better, I had a truly unforgettable time. The people, the views, the stories and legends of the Incas, the gentle approach that the Inca Trail gives you and the way it puts everything into context all just added up to such a magical time that I would recommend to anybody able to do it. I think I'll be back one day.
**A note on the photos: I have hundreds, and I didn't know how to sort through them. Belive it or not I have edited out some and selected only the best, but left most of the ones from the final day at Machu Picchu. They may be redundant but I wanted you all to see as much as you can, though for a lot of these I just left the caption blank since its quite obvious what you are looking at. You will also see a dark dot in some pics, which is a grain of sand that got in my camera while sandboarding in Huacachina. |
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