The Inca Trail and Machupicchu

We are back! The Inca Trail to Machupicchu - a dream come true!

I will never forget those 4 days trekking on old Inca roads built around 1450s to Machupicchu. One of my longest held dreams came true! For about 15 years this adventure has been on the top of my list of "Things to do before I die" and now we have done it. We have seen the site in sunrise and thinking back to the first moment I saw MP still gives me goosebumps.

We signed up with Andean Life (in April) and left at 5 am last Thursday morning together with our friends James and Anki and 4 other travellers (all from the UK), our wonderful guide Manuel and 11 (eleven!!!) porters! What a treat not having to carry all our stuff!!! The guides carried all our clothes, sleeping bags, tents as well as food and all other equipment for our group of 20 for 4 days. They are absolute superheroes! I will never forget them running past me up and down those hills with close to 30 kg on their back and little sandals on their feet. Very impressive!

The first day was relatively easy, we only walked for 5 hours until we reached the camp and settled into our tents after a delicious dinner. The second day was really tough, we had to climb 1000m in height (to Dead woman´s pass! Very aptly named!) and decend about half of that again. I was shattered and my knee the size of a football! All day very steep Inca steps steps steps up and down and up and down. Very tiring. But the views on top of the passes made it all worthwhile. Simply stunning. This is the profile of the walk - we did the red one which goes up and down a lot!

The Cordillera Alta overlooking us with snowcovered peaks, green steep valleys with Llamas and cows and cloudless blue skies... You should have been there! :-)))

We visited several fascinating Inca sites on the way and Manuel explained their impressive culture and scientific achievements. It is incredible that such an advanced culture has left so few traces. I feel I need to have a word with the King of Spain when we are back in Europe!

The third day was a bit easier thankfully and we reached our camp ealier in the afternoon. Big sigh! Just behind the campsite was the Inca site of Wayna Wayna which we explored all afternoon with great interest. The stone work is so well preserved after almost 700 years, amazing. And the terraces are really impressive in their geometrical precision. We loved it!

And the sheep enjoyed themselves as well!!!!








Then day 4 was the big day, getting up at 4 am and running towards the Sungate Intipunku to see the sunrise over Macchupicchu with another 192 tourists. The Inca Trail to MP is now limited to 200 tourist per day and their porters, hence the 3 months waiting lists. Nevertheless, it was a very moving moment to set eyes on the famous site for real. A perfectly clear morning (which was really lucky) and even the most chatty of tourists stopped talking.




I was so happy!!!!


Slowly we decended into the site and waited for the first rays of sun to hit the rocks and wake up the colours. It was spectacular and all the tiredness was forgotten. We walked through the site for a few hours and Manuel did a great job at explaining everything. Very clever those Inca chaps!!! Knew everything about the stars and the universe!!! They even had a perfectly precise Southern Cross pointing out where East/West/South and North is - Craig could not get enough of it!





We then climbed up Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind the site which was almost harder than the trail itself!! Ridiculously steep stairs run up to the top and I had to go down backwards on all fours for parts of it because I was worried about falling over (clumsy as I am with slightly shaky knees!!!). Not to mention the tunnel we had to crawl through and the ladders at the top! Nice icing on the MP cake!!! (As well as my 48 mosquito bites - new record!)












Once on top high above the site with all the tourists looking like tiny ants we felt like being in the clouds!!! On top of the world!



Craig and I decided to stay in Aguas Calientes for the night so we can stay in MP for the late afternoon when all the tourists are gone and we had some wonderfully quiet hours strolling around, trying to imagine life in Inca days. It felt really magical. All you could hear was the water in the little canals feeding the ritual baths and the birds singing. Very romantic and it really felt like being closer to the Gods. Unforgettable.






The trek was worth every penny and will definitely be one of the big highlights of our trip.
We are now back in Cusco recovering and doing very little... apart from making plans for our travels North towards Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands!!! Yipppieh!