Inca Trail
Day 1
It comes in threes. I am supposed to be picked up from my hotel at 7:20 am. They are 1.5 hours late picking me up. Calling their three phone numbers gives only a busy signal. Finally they pick me up and take me to the bus. I make it only because of a mechanical failure that delayed the bus. We finally leave after a man comes on the bus and tries to scam the couple next to me by telling them that their travel agency didn´t pay the trekking company and they need to give him a $100 deposit. I find out that I have missed the briefing about the trek given by the guide the night before because my agency told me there wasn´t one. Two hours later the bus runs over a dog when it´s pulling out of our breakfast spot. The yelping cuts to my core and I have a very bad feeling about the whole scene. I buy my walking stick from a local for 2 solés (66 cents-ish).
We start to walk around 2 pm (finally). The first day is solid but not too difficult. Beautiful and very enjoyable. The first dinner is amazing. My group is small - five trekkers, 1 guide, 6 porters. The others in my group are 2 couples. They are super nice, the nicest people you could hope to spend 4 days trekking with. I am so glad.
Mr. and Ms. AlwaysLate (AL for short) are the most delightful and lovable couple you´ll ever meet. She´s English, he´s Irish. Their meeting is out of a Harlequin Romance - she was doing a driving holiday around Ireland, was staying with her aunt´s friend, he was the stonemason doing stonework in her garden. They met, and now she´s moved to Ireland. They are sweet, funny, and generous of spirit, full of laughs and always with a smile. They use words like lovely, fetching, and chap. Their intense lack of organization is part of their charm, with every morning beginning with a crisis of lost essential items - passports, headlamp, boxer shorts...
Mr. and Ms. NeverHappy (NH for short) are really nice as well. They are a Dutch couple, he a freshly minted doctor, she finishing up medical school. She has spent the past 20 of her 24 years traipsing around the Alps and is some sort of Super-Trekker. Her first name is WhatABreakAlready? Yikes.
All four of them carry monstrous packs. I didn´t bring as much stuff on my whole trip around Peru as they have brought for the 4 day Inca Trail.
Oh, and while we´re here, let`s call me Señorita Perfècto, since clearly I have no annoying traits.
Day 2 - Day two is legendary among backpackers as being the toughest. You climb for five hours straight, gaining 1200 metres in altitude to reach the first pass at 4200 metres. You then decend about 700 metres to camp. It is a slog. I am desperately thankful that I packed light - the lightest I have ever packed (Nick scared me into it... thank goodness). Still it´s a really hard day. Mr. NeverHappy (first name IsThisTheSummitIsThistheSummit?) is really struggling with his big pack. I stay behind with him just to be polite (tee hee!!!!! kidding...)
Day 3 - Day three is more beautiful scenery. It´s a long day, but not nearly as difficult as Day 2. We climb and descend two more passes - smaller than the first. We then descend for about 5 hours - really tough on the knees. I munch Ibuprofen the entire day and depend on my walking stick. We visit three Inca Ruins - very interesting and beautiful. For some reason I feel like superwoman in the morning, strong and fresh, like I can hike anything. During the afternoon I get a case of the grumps. The others in my group have all carried too much, and made themselves sick. This leads to 2 of them foisting their packs on porters who already are doing far more than their share, and it makes me cross. (Later, Mr. and Ms. NH would try to shortchange the porter on the payment, saying that she had carried it up the first hill herself - which was about 45 minutes of our 9 hour day). I think up names for people who load their pack up with everything including the kitchen sink and then realize they can´t carry it and expect someone else to do it for them. 'Bring shit can´t carry' (BSCC) and 'indulge myself, deny consequences' (IMDC) are two of the more polite ones. I think it´s mostly because my knees are aching, and the others in the group are winging and moaning - and asking to get up earlier (than 4 am) tomorrow (Machu Picchu day) so that we can be the first group to see MP or blah blah blah - I find this especially ironic since the reason we are always late leaving is becuase Ms. NeverHappy and Ms. AlwaysLate are never ready to go at 7 am when we are supposed to start hiking, so the guide and I stand with our packs on and wait for them while they bicker with their boyfriends until 7:20. And so now, we will be getting up at 3:30 am to quench their competitive spirits... :-) (Wow, what a grump I am!) :-)
Day 4 - The porters wake us at 3:30 am with hot tea. It is pouring rain. We eat breakfast and begin to hike at 4:30 am by headlamp. As the guide predicted, we have to cue at the entrance gate until 5:30 am when it opens, but the group is delighted that we are the second group at the gate. I must admit, it´s a bit gratifying.
The gate opens and we still have a 1.5 hour hike to the top to the famous Sun Gate, where you get your first glimpse of Machu Picchu from above. The pace is ridiculously fast, as there exists some weird backpacker competition where everyone wants to be the first to see MP from the sun gate. I am sure that someone is going to get injured in the mud, slippery rocks, and steep Inca step´s that we are climbing. I pretend that we are in the Amazing Race to make myself feel better. Downhill is painful today, but I know my knees will last until we get to MP and then they will have a rest for a few days.
We reach the Sun Gate at 6:30 am. It is really impressive to see MP at last. We see it for about 2.5 minutes, and then it is lost in cloud! I feel sorry for the people cresting the mountain at that moment, but it comes and goes for the next couple of hours. We hike down about another half hour to reach MP itself. Rumours of the train strike are now starting to circulate wildly among backpackers and everyone has an apocalyptic theory. The guides beg everyone to stop speculating until they can call the agencies in Cusco.
We tour MP. It is really beautiful and quite impressive. It begins to pour again around 10 am just as we finish our formal tour. I sit on a ledge in my rain gear and poncho and try to imagine what it looked like 900 years ago, and what exactly went on there.
I am so glad I decided to do the trek. I hadn´t planned on it, but it was really excellent. The Andes are beautiful mountains, and the scenery was amazing. The whole experience was awesome.
It comes in threes. I am supposed to be picked up from my hotel at 7:20 am. They are 1.5 hours late picking me up. Calling their three phone numbers gives only a busy signal. Finally they pick me up and take me to the bus. I make it only because of a mechanical failure that delayed the bus. We finally leave after a man comes on the bus and tries to scam the couple next to me by telling them that their travel agency didn´t pay the trekking company and they need to give him a $100 deposit. I find out that I have missed the briefing about the trek given by the guide the night before because my agency told me there wasn´t one. Two hours later the bus runs over a dog when it´s pulling out of our breakfast spot. The yelping cuts to my core and I have a very bad feeling about the whole scene. I buy my walking stick from a local for 2 solés (66 cents-ish).
We start to walk around 2 pm (finally). The first day is solid but not too difficult. Beautiful and very enjoyable. The first dinner is amazing. My group is small - five trekkers, 1 guide, 6 porters. The others in my group are 2 couples. They are super nice, the nicest people you could hope to spend 4 days trekking with. I am so glad.
Mr. and Ms. AlwaysLate (AL for short) are the most delightful and lovable couple you´ll ever meet. She´s English, he´s Irish. Their meeting is out of a Harlequin Romance - she was doing a driving holiday around Ireland, was staying with her aunt´s friend, he was the stonemason doing stonework in her garden. They met, and now she´s moved to Ireland. They are sweet, funny, and generous of spirit, full of laughs and always with a smile. They use words like lovely, fetching, and chap. Their intense lack of organization is part of their charm, with every morning beginning with a crisis of lost essential items - passports, headlamp, boxer shorts...
Mr. and Ms. NeverHappy (NH for short) are really nice as well. They are a Dutch couple, he a freshly minted doctor, she finishing up medical school. She has spent the past 20 of her 24 years traipsing around the Alps and is some sort of Super-Trekker. Her first name is WhatABreakAlready? Yikes.
All four of them carry monstrous packs. I didn´t bring as much stuff on my whole trip around Peru as they have brought for the 4 day Inca Trail.
Oh, and while we´re here, let`s call me Señorita Perfècto, since clearly I have no annoying traits.
Day 2 - Day two is legendary among backpackers as being the toughest. You climb for five hours straight, gaining 1200 metres in altitude to reach the first pass at 4200 metres. You then decend about 700 metres to camp. It is a slog. I am desperately thankful that I packed light - the lightest I have ever packed (Nick scared me into it... thank goodness). Still it´s a really hard day. Mr. NeverHappy (first name IsThisTheSummitIsThistheSummit?) is really struggling with his big pack. I stay behind with him just to be polite (tee hee!!!!! kidding...)
Day 3 - Day three is more beautiful scenery. It´s a long day, but not nearly as difficult as Day 2. We climb and descend two more passes - smaller than the first. We then descend for about 5 hours - really tough on the knees. I munch Ibuprofen the entire day and depend on my walking stick. We visit three Inca Ruins - very interesting and beautiful. For some reason I feel like superwoman in the morning, strong and fresh, like I can hike anything. During the afternoon I get a case of the grumps. The others in my group have all carried too much, and made themselves sick. This leads to 2 of them foisting their packs on porters who already are doing far more than their share, and it makes me cross. (Later, Mr. and Ms. NH would try to shortchange the porter on the payment, saying that she had carried it up the first hill herself - which was about 45 minutes of our 9 hour day). I think up names for people who load their pack up with everything including the kitchen sink and then realize they can´t carry it and expect someone else to do it for them. 'Bring shit can´t carry' (BSCC) and 'indulge myself, deny consequences' (IMDC) are two of the more polite ones. I think it´s mostly because my knees are aching, and the others in the group are winging and moaning - and asking to get up earlier (than 4 am) tomorrow (Machu Picchu day) so that we can be the first group to see MP or blah blah blah - I find this especially ironic since the reason we are always late leaving is becuase Ms. NeverHappy and Ms. AlwaysLate are never ready to go at 7 am when we are supposed to start hiking, so the guide and I stand with our packs on and wait for them while they bicker with their boyfriends until 7:20. And so now, we will be getting up at 3:30 am to quench their competitive spirits... :-) (Wow, what a grump I am!) :-)
Day 4 - The porters wake us at 3:30 am with hot tea. It is pouring rain. We eat breakfast and begin to hike at 4:30 am by headlamp. As the guide predicted, we have to cue at the entrance gate until 5:30 am when it opens, but the group is delighted that we are the second group at the gate. I must admit, it´s a bit gratifying.
The gate opens and we still have a 1.5 hour hike to the top to the famous Sun Gate, where you get your first glimpse of Machu Picchu from above. The pace is ridiculously fast, as there exists some weird backpacker competition where everyone wants to be the first to see MP from the sun gate. I am sure that someone is going to get injured in the mud, slippery rocks, and steep Inca step´s that we are climbing. I pretend that we are in the Amazing Race to make myself feel better. Downhill is painful today, but I know my knees will last until we get to MP and then they will have a rest for a few days.
We reach the Sun Gate at 6:30 am. It is really impressive to see MP at last. We see it for about 2.5 minutes, and then it is lost in cloud! I feel sorry for the people cresting the mountain at that moment, but it comes and goes for the next couple of hours. We hike down about another half hour to reach MP itself. Rumours of the train strike are now starting to circulate wildly among backpackers and everyone has an apocalyptic theory. The guides beg everyone to stop speculating until they can call the agencies in Cusco.
We tour MP. It is really beautiful and quite impressive. It begins to pour again around 10 am just as we finish our formal tour. I sit on a ledge in my rain gear and poncho and try to imagine what it looked like 900 years ago, and what exactly went on there.
I am so glad I decided to do the trek. I hadn´t planned on it, but it was really excellent. The Andes are beautiful mountains, and the scenery was amazing. The whole experience was awesome.
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