30th September - 1st October: Inca Trail, days 1 and 2

More than six months after booking our place, it was time to trek the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.  We were picked up at 6.30am, after we'd stuffed everything we weren't taking with us into a holdall and left it with the hotel.  It was not long before it occurred to us that we might not have left enough behind: our guide, hefting one of the rucksacks, raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are you carrying that yourself or giving it to the porters?"

We hopped in the minibus and met our eleven companions for the next four days: our two guides, Ruben and Marco, who were exceptionally helpful, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic; John, a Scottish farmer, and his English wife Sophie; Femke and Ninke, from Holland; Freddie and Linda, an elderly Californian couple, and their Scottish ex-pat friend Ian; and a young Quebecois couple, Jean-Michel and Valerie.  

We'd met the latter five the previous day for our briefing, and must confess that we'd been a little worried, after seeing Freddie rising from the table and shuffling to the door with all 75 of his years on his shoulders, about how he'd get on.  We needn't have worried.  We later found out that he had 42 marathons and 2 ultra-marathons under his belt, and he wasn't far behind us for most of the way.  At the front, all of the way, was Femke; not surprising for the holder of silver and bronze Olympic medals in the women's eight, who's looking to add a gold to her collection in London.

It was about a 90 minute drive to Ollantaytambo (halfway through which we noticed the 14th passenger, a small Bolivian chap half-buried under the bags in the back).  There we stopped for breakfast (at the Hearts Cafe, a not-for-profit run by an English ex-pat), bought a eucalyptus walking stick for the equivalent of 60p, and otherwise resisted the entreaties of a host of saleswomen.  From there we drove another hour or so along a bumpy gravel track to Piskacucho, the start of the trail.  There we met the dozen porters who would carry our tents, supplies, and assorted equipment.  We also found out that most of the others had paid extra to have a porter carry some of their gear.  Looking on with a hint of envy, we swung our rucksacks onto our shoulders and off we went.  Very briefly, as the first stop was for the obligatory group shot in front of the Inca trail sign (slightly abbreviated as we scurried out of the way of the train coming from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu).

Loading up the porters at Piskacucho

Train coming...

After presenting our passports and passes at control, we set off west along the Urubamba River, with verdant mountains rising up on each side of the gorge.  The first three hours were flat and easy, occasionally punctuated by brief explanations by Ruben (for example, he found and squashed between his hands a small bug, showing us the red dye used by the Incas and by local people today).  After a short climb, we stopped at Willcarakay, Inca ruins that had been rebuilt by archaeologists to show how the houses would have looked.   off to the other side, down in the Urubamba valley, we could see the remains of the Inca village of Patallaqta and, over the river, the lush land used for agriculture today.  Ruben gave us a brief history and geography lesson while we perched on rocks on the edge of the mountain.  From there we then walked for another half-hour or so to Tarayoc, our lunch stop.

View down to Patallaqta

First day's scenery

Professor Ruben

The porters had bounded along ahead of us, and by the time we pulled in they had already erected the main tent and prepared the first of what would be consistently excellent meals.  A filling corn soup was followed by chicken, salad, and enough rice to feed twice our number.  Any rice that fell from the table ( I was, of course, the principal culprit) was quickly gobbled up by the chickens and chicks, while the porter chased off the curious pigs and piglets.

Lunch stop, not only for us

After lunch we walked for a couple of hours, this time more uphill, as we ascended from around 2600m to 3000m above sea level.  On the way, we had a chance to weigh our bags.  The porters are only permitted to carry up to 25kg each, and there are several control points where their loads are weighed.  If the baggage exceeds the limit, the agency responsible is fined.  After the porters had finished, we tried ours: 16kg for me, 10kg for Clem.  This wasn't a particularly productive exercise, as our bags predictably felt heavier now that we had a measure of their weight.

On we plodded.  Clem was particularly pleased that Ruben pointed out along the way the kind of stones where tarantulas might well be lurking.  Despite the arachnid threat we made it safely to our first campsite, Wayllabamba.  Our nimble porters had already arrived and set up our tents on ground that had sufficient slope to keep us dry if the heavens opened but was just flat enough that we could sleep without ending up in a pile-of-two in one side of the tent.  After quickly check for creepy-crawlies and spreading out our kit in the tent, we emerged to find that the Scots already had cervezas (see, fluent) in their hands.  I'd assumed that they had brought them up with them (or paid for the porters to carry them), but no, apparently one of the more enterprising locals had a sideline in beverages.  The premium for hauling them up to 3000m?  A princely five soles de oro, equivalent to around one pound.  Slipped down a treat.  

Campsite

No spiders in here

After another filling and enjoyable meal (again catering for at least 20), we were tucked up in our sleeping bag, spread out like a duvet, by around 9, ready for the 5am wake-up call the following morning.  Apart from slightly sore shoulders we were in pretty good shape despite our bags.  That had been the easiest day, however, and the hardest day was to follow, so we went to sleep with some apprehension for the day to come.

-----

We were woken at 5 by a hand thrusting two cups of mate de coca into our tent.  By the time we had dressed and packed up our bags, sunlight was filtering through light clouds into the valley.  After breakfast (pancakes, received with great delight by the Dutch) and some faffing time, we were ready to set off for the tough ascent up to Warmi Wanusca, Dead Woman's Pass.  

The first 45 minutes was up a fairly gentle incline, but at altitude even this was fairly tough sledding.  This boded not so well for the steeper sections to come.  We had a brief break in Ayapata, at 3350m, and then it was time to journey through the cloud forest.  The scenery was beautiful as we climbed up alongside a mountain spring surrounded by foliage, but the trekking was hard work.  The ascent was continual, alternating between sections of stone steps laid by the Incas (and in some places replaced after landslides) and sloping stretches of mud and small stones.  The steps were particularly tough, and after 30 minutes we were definitely starting to struggle.  One foot after the other we pressed on, slightly heartened by the fact that we were overtaking other groups, and after around an hour we emerged from the cloud forest at the small campsite of Llulluchapampa, at around 3800m.  Here we sat in the sunshine, posed for photos in front of the stunning vista, and devoured our snacks while we waited for the rest of our group.  This was also the furthest that the locals had hauled up supplies to sell, so we topped up on water and foul-tasting but replenishing Gatorade.

Porters galloping out of the cloud forest

Posing halfway up to Dead Woman's Pass

After a good, long break, it was time to tackle the hardest part, an hour's climb up to Dead Woman's Pass (thus named because it resembles a woman lying on her back, apparently, not due to tourist casualties).  Again we had some regrets about the weight of our bags, but we kept the legs pumping and finally made it up to the pass, encouraged for the last 50 metres by those who had beaten us to it.  Here, at 4200m, we had just enough time to take some photos before the clouds swept in over the mountaintops and the hail started, thankfully turning quickly to light but cold drizzle.  We huddled up in our waterproofs (at least we were now justified in hauling them up the mountain) and waited for the rest of the group and our guides to arrive.  

We stop for a photo, the porters plough on

Successfully reached the pass

More posing for photos at the pass

Waiting at the finish line

Once the group was reunited, we set off down the valley on the other side of the pass, climbing down steps for an hour or so and descending around 600 metres.  Thankfully the rain stopped as soon as we got below cloud level, but the steep and slippery steps made for slow going (not for the porters, of course, who leaped past us in their flip-flops).  

Heading down from the pass on slippery steps

We arrived at Pacaymayo, our campsite for the second night, at around 12.15.  We'd made decent time, so for once the tents weren't quite ready for us.  Some porters were setting up the personal tents while the rest helped to prepare lunch.  We made the most of the time by slipping into swimsuits and going down to the stream for a good wash.  The water was ice-cold but we felt much better after washing off the grime of two days' trekking, tipping a bucket of freezing water over each other and laughing at the squeals.  We also had a decent audience, though I'm not sure I was the main attraction.  Our plans for drying off were thwarted by a quick rain shower just after we'd toweled off and hung up clothes to dry, but we managed to find some shelter for the clothes and for us.

Spectacular view from the campsite

The stream where we washed off two days of dirt

After another great meal, we had the afternoon to relax.  We'd bought a couple of books with us (Hiram Bingham's book about his discovery of Machu Picchu, and a book about South America by Eduardo Galeano), so we tucked into those while soaking up some sunshine.  We then had tea and popcorn at 5.30, closely followed by dinner at 7.  We wrote up our journal by the light of a headlamp, and again were asleep by 9 ready for another 5am réveil.