Trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

This was our big trip in South America, we had booked it months in advance as numbers on the Inca Trail are tightly controlled to avoid over crowding an limit the effect of people on the trail.

We were picked up early from our hostel in Cuzco (which is a fantastic city, spent 10 days there in total), and took a 3 hour bus ride out to a a place called 82km, the start of the Inca trail. There were sixteen trekkers in the group, with two English speaking guides, two cooks and twenty-one porters, or Chaski`s which means messenger in the local language; Quechua. The Chaski`s were always miles ahead, they ran off carrying all the tents, food and cooking equipment to make sure camp was set up by the time we got there.

The first day was easy going, pretty flat and we didn`t have to walk a great distance, only a few hours. But this was enough for my groin injury I picked up hiking the Colca Canyon to flare up again. This wasn`t a great start, but I thought it would ease up after a nights rest. When we arrived at our first camp site I was surprised by the amount of stuff we had at our disposal. There was eight tents for sleeping, a huge dining tent to seat 18 and a cooking tent. The food was amazing, every meal was three courses, and really good. To name a few things; pancakes, omelets, soups, fish, pasta dishes, and even a birthday cake we all knocked up on a single gas burner for 18 people, all served hot at once, clever stuff.

The second day of the trek was the hardest, we ascended up to 4200m taking in some pretty big Inca style steps, they are naturally physically small people, but they build big steps! My bloody groin was pretty bad by now, I was leaning heavily on my walking pole, but it didn`t distract from the extraordinary scenery and the numerous Inca sites we visited along the trail.

The third day we took in even more Inca sites, there history and uses explained well by our two guides, who were constantly on form and a good crack. The views along the trail just kept getting better and better and the weather the whole way had been perfect, the one rain shower lasted only half an hour and had the courtesy to begin and end while we were under the cover of the dining tent eating lunch!

On fourth and final day we were woken early (4am) in order to get to the entrance point to the Machu Picchu, we still had a two hour trek to go before we would get our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, and still had to tackle the `Gringo Killer`. This was the final assault up 60 near vertical steps in order to reach the Sun Gate- the look out point covering the whole of Machu Picchu, you only get to go here if you have done the full Inca Trail.

Once we reached the Sun gate there was almost complete cloud cover cross the whole of Machu Picchu! It looked like the perfect postcard picture moment was out the window. But like all the other groups on the trail who had congregated at the Sun Gate we stuck around. Within 10 minutes the majority of the cloud lifted to reveal Machu Picchu carved into the side of one of the many steep mountains surrounding us, with some wispy cloud hanging around below us for good effect, once again we had perfect weather right on cue.

After taking in the view and taking a bucket full of photos, we made the final decent down to Machu Picchu. Once there out guides gave us a tour of the site, explaining about the various geographical, architectural and religious features. After that we were free to explore by ourselves and climb the adjacent mountain, Waynapicchu, recommended trekking time was 50 minutes to the top, I sweated it out in the now boiling sun and ran up the steep paths and steps in just over 20 minutes, leg fixed itself! The view of Machu Picchu from the top was amazing, probablt the best I have ever seen (see photos, but they don`t do it justice).

After the decent we headed down to the town Aguas Calientes, where we all had a final meal and said good bye to, and tipped the guides. A train and a bus later and we were back in Cuzco by 10 pm by 11 everyone from the trek was in a bar for one last drink!

The whole thing could not have been better, (apart from the leg!)

Photos       www.picasaweb.google.com/lmcgrath85 

Next we would be going south and leaving Peru and heading to Bolivia.