We have survived our five-day trek, unfortunately my camera wasn’t so lucky and passed away before reaching Machu Picchu… the photos of the Inca city will therefore be courtesy of our guide, who very kindly lent us his camera for the day. The rest of our trip will be brought to you thanks to our new camera : a wonderful 27 shot disposable camera, so please don’t expect too much! But we have only got less than four weeks of travel left, so the inconvenience is minimal.
Last Sunday we got picked up at 4:30 am (ouch!) and driven to the start of the hike. We were a group of 12 (7 Americans, 2 Irish, 1 Scottish and us) and were very lucky to end up with very interesting and friendly people, including our two guides Santiago and Franco. It was four star hiking : our bags were carried by horses and mules, at every stop the tents were up before we even arrived, we were fed excellent meals cooked up by our very own chef, and we were even given a bowl of hot water morning and evening to have a little wash!
The first day we left the agricultural villages of the highlands to reach the Andean flats (which are actually very up-and-down) where the sun allows temperatures to reach 25 degrees C during the day, but nights are below freezing. We camped at the foot of a glacier, but thanks to the sleeping bags and hot water bottles provided we were quite cosy.
The second day was the hardest one physically, with 4 hours of steep uphill to reach the spectacular Salkantay pass at over 15000 feet. Pete and I didn’t suffer too much, but some members of the group had just arrived from sea level and had to face the effects of altitude sickness. Thankfully we were provided with “emergency horses” which they could ride to get some rest every now and then!
Then there were 6 hours of downhill walk through a strange forest filled with colourful flowers and bizarrely shaped trees to get to the next camp, which we reached after dark.
The next day was an easy walk (6 hours of downhill) but saw the death of my beloved camera… We hiked through a cloud forest and then a rainforest, where (astonishingly) we found wild strawberries, courgettes and begonias, but also banana, coffee and avocado plantations. We had the afternoon off so spent it playing cards and getting bitten by the many mosquitoes which inhabit these tropical lowlands.
The fourth day there was a train strike, so we changed our plans and hiked along the railway line to reach Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the mountains where Machu Picchu is nestled. We didn’t walk the famous Inca trail (they limit the number of walkers to 500 per day and you have to book about 6 months ahead…we aren’t THAT organized!), but all roads lead to Machu Picchu!
So the last day we got up at four (ouch again!) to climb the hundreds of steps to the Inca city before dawn. At the top we found ourselves in the middle of a cloud, with about zero visbility, but just as we reached the summit of Waynapicchu (the “young mountain”, as opposed to Machu Picchu the “old mountain” in Quechua language, an illustration of the notion of balance so dear to the Incas) the mist disappeared as if by magic and we were able to admire the beauty and complexity of this 400-year-old terrassed city from up high. Our guide was passionate about the Incas and disclosed fascinating details about their lives (they were the ruling class of the Quechua people, were very tall people – many rached 2 metres !- and in a hundred years built a very elaborate society with ingenious knowledge of architecture, agronomy and astronomy, based on the balance of all things : earth, wind, fire and water, masculinity and feminity, old and new, etc…) And we even spotted a Chinchilla!
Then we took a train and a bus back to Cusco, which we reached last night, pretty exhausted.
This morning we enjoyed our first lie-in (7:30!) for a while, and we are going to spend the next four weeks before flying back to Europe to take it easy and not do much!
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