Walking with the Incas to Machu Picchu....

The Incas still influence the world as we know it.  Each day, hundreds of people complete the four-day hike along the Inca trail to see the magnificent kingdom of Machu Picchu.  Each day, the same number of people develop a hatred of stairs.

I hopped on a bus from Puno.  The destination was the Peruvian city of Cusco, the launching pad for the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu!  On the way, the bus stopped at three interesting sights - two Inca ruins and a church.  Unfortunately I ´d developed quite a bad cold and a sinus infection.  It wasn´t a pretty sight for anyone and I was almost the least friendly person on the bus (there was a Frenchman in the group).

The first stop was a museum near some Inca ruins.  The ruins were fairly unremarkable but they had excavated some wonderful statues of warriors.  One had six snake heads on his back representing six lives - lucky man.  The second sight was the dramatic ruins of the Temple of Wiracocha.  The enormous rectangular two-story roofed structure measures 92 x 25 metres and is surrounded by circular buildings, into which Incas would place crops as payment of taxes.  It is also surrounded by a wall 3 meters high and 7km long.  The highlight of the journey came when the guide described it as "just like the great wall of China".  Three Chinese tourists were less than impressed with this comparison and attempted to argue their case using a Chinese-Spanish dictionary.  As the discussion became more heated they reverted to Mandarin - neither side had a clue what was going on.  It was great for the neutral.

We then briefly stopped at the highest point on the journey, Raya Pass - 4,310 meters above sea level.  Even though it was about zero degrees, there were still people selling stuff and I was mobbed by women with alpaca hats.  I accidentally sneezed on one and they left me alone.

The final stop was Andahuaylillas or "the Sistine Chapel of America".  This description was almost as ambitious as the Great Wall of China comparison, but I suppose it had some wood carvings.  After a few more hours I arrived in Cusco, bought more antibiotics and checked into the hotel to meet my fellow Inca Trailers.

There were 16 of us in total, four Americans, a father and daughter from Canada, an Irish girl, two Norwegians and five girls from the UK.  The final team member was a guy called Gabe - born in Hong Kong, educated in the UK and living in Canada - he was my tent-mate.  Our slightly eccentric guide was called Johan, a local from Cusco.

We would spend the next day exploring the Sacred Valley, between Cuzco and the start of the Inca Trail, and then four days trekking through the mountains to Machu Picchu.  We got up at 6:30am the next morning.  By this time I´d taken so many antibiotics that I´d probably created a new strain of Amoxicillin-resistant bacteria...but I was feeling much better.  First up we visited a highland village where we saw women practicing the traditional skills of spinning Alpaca wool and weaving.  I got the impression that once the tour bus got round the corner they all got out of the traditional clothes, laughed at the tourists´ ridiculous use of their language and went back to the office....but maybe I´m just being cynical.

We also saw two llamas getting jiggy - a definite highlight.

We then visited the town of Pisac, which has some great markets, and ended the day at the small town of Ollantaytambo, where we´d spend the night.  This Inca town, like most in the region, was set up on the top of a mountain.  The Incas´ main industry was agriculture but because the land was so hilly they needed to cut/build hundreds of large terraces into the side of the mountain in order to produce some flat land for farming.  These terraces are really a sight for sore eyes, especially when you consider the fact that they obviously had no machinery to move the land in this way.

Anyway, this wasn´t even the most spectacular thing about Ollantaytambo.  There is a story about the Inca king Pachacútec.  At the time the Incas were a fairly small tribe in danger of being overrun by stronger tribes in the region.  Pachacútec had a dream where he was visited by a bearded man who told him that he was Wiracocha, the creator-god.  Wiracocha told Pachacútec that he would be the most powerful king of all time and that he should go tell this to all the people.  Pachacútec then united or conquered several tribes and is credited with creating the Inca Empire as it is known today.  To honour Wiracocha, he had his face carved into the side of the mountain next to Ollantaytambo.  You can´t really tell from the picture but this face is HUGE - I cannot comprehend how much manpower went into chiseling away at the mountain face to create it...

So the next day it was Inca Trail time!  We drove to km82, the starting point of the Inca Trail today.  You are probably (maybe) wondering what the Inca Trail actually is.  The key to the Incas´ domination (at the height of their empire they ruled Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Northern Chile and some of Argentina) was their ability to transfer information quickly.  They did this by connecting all their cities with solid paths and having a network of runners stationed along these trails to perform a kind of relay race from one city to another, carrying important messages.  There were reportedly 40,000km of trails in the Empire.  The "Inca Trail" is one particular trail that was also used by people coming to visit the holy city of Machu Picchu.

We got ourselves together and strolled off in the sunshine.  The whole trail is only 43km and the first day would be a fairly flat 11km.  The trail largely follows the snaking river through the huge mountains that are typical of the region.  The scenery was beautiful and the morning walk was quite chilled.  In the afternoon it started raining a bit.  I deployed the rain jacket but found that it was quite hot walking in it (the altitude was 3,600m).  It was at this point that I made one of the top-three decisions of my life - I paid £1.20p for a plastic poncho.  It rained a lot over the next three days.

We reached our first checkpoint around 5pm, ate dinner and bedded down for the night.  Once the sun went down it was freezing and, worse still, we were on a massive hill.  I´d been donated a sleeping bag and roll mat by someone I´d met in Cusco - the sleeping bag, roll mat and floor of the tent just so happened to combine in such a way that two perfectly smooth surfaces were created.  This resulted in me sliding into a heap at the bottom of the tent every 5 minutes.  After worming my way back up five times I gave up and slept next to Gabe´s feet.


The second day is the killer day of the trek.  The trail climbs steeply over "Dead Woman´s Pass", 4,215m above sea level.  Added to that, it was raining.  A lot.  However, I had fully got over my cold and I love hiking, so I found myself bobbing along at the front whistling away to myself.  My popularity in the group probably hit rock bottom at this point!  A lot of people really felt the altitude but everyone soldiered on and made it to the top.  Even though I was enjoying myself, I was still slightly annoyed by the fact that it was fucking freezing, very very wet, and that all the nice views were completely blanked out by huge rain clouds.

There is another reason the second day is a killer - as well as a big hike up, there is a big hike down.  You climb 600 meters and then decend about 1,000 meters.  For the majority of people, going down is a killer, especially when you are stepping down thousands of large steps.  By the time we got to camp, I couldn´t feel my left knee and wouldn´t have minded if I never saw another step again in my life!  The picture below is taken at a point when I thought camp was around the corner - I´m therefore smiling.  We weren´t even halfway down...

We finally reached camp and were happy to see the sun come out.  We spent the afternoon getting to know our porters and cooks.  These guys are nothing short of amazing.  Most of them are about five feet tall but they hike the trail carrying all our crap - 25kg per person.  I´m not exaggerating when I say that some of the backpacks are bigger than the porters themselves.  In the mornings once we´d started, they´d pack up the whole camp (8 small tents, one large tent, a kitchen and lots of stuff), run past us, arrive a couple of hours before, and set up the whole camp again.  And all this at 3,500 meters above sea level.  The food was fantastic - I can guarantee that I will not eat better during the whole of this trip.  The chef was producing food worthy of a posh London restaurant using a gas cooker in a tent.  At 3,500 meters above sea level.  He even baked us a cake for desert on the last day.  At 3,500 meters above sea level!

The third morning was much of the same really - we walked between mountains and along dramatic ridges...in the pissing down rain.  Apparently there were some beautiful views.  I saw a cloud that looked like my foot, that was as exciting as it got.  I was still really enjoying the hike though and thankfully the sun came out in the afternoon, at which point I found myself on the top of a ridge with stunning views of snow-capped mountains above and deep valleys below.

We bedded down early and woke up the next morning at 3:30am.  Yes, 3:30am.  Guess what - it was raining.  We walked to the final checkpoint and waited for it to open.  At 5am we were let through and bounded out into the morning twilight.  There are supposed to be stunning views as you approach Machu Picchu but all that was visible was dense white cloud.  It was quite cool though, you could hear the river smashing its way through the valley and visibility was only about 10 meters, so it was a bit like walking into an abyss, the unknown....

We reached the "Sun Gate" at about 7am.  This is the first place you could see Machu Picchu from.  We saw a cloud.  At this point I made a deal with the weather - as long as it cleared out so that I could get some nice pictures of Machu Picchu later on I would forgive the four days of rain we´d endured.  Deal, right?


Well, we arrived at the edge of the site 30 minutes later.  It had stopped raining but it was still cloudy - the weather had screwed me.

We had to go out of the site to drop off our walking poles (they are not allowed inside) and at this point it started lashing it down.  We took refuge in a cafe and waited for it to stop.  We then headed back into the site and were given a 3-hour tour by Johan on some of the fantastic parts of the city.  At the start of the tour the wind whipped up and blew some of the cloud away - maybe the weather wasn´t going back on our deal after all....

Here are some short bits on the things that I found interesting:

1 - No one really knows what Machu Picchu was used for.  Most of the information known about the Incas comes from texts written by the Spanish when they came to South America.  They never found Machu Picchu so they didn´t write anything about it.  This was not necessarily a bad thing - they usually destroyed everything they wrote about, so Machu Picchu remains more intact than most Inca sites.

2 - A rock dedicated to the mountain god.  It is in the shape of the huge mountain in the distance behind it.

3 - The size and the quality of the stonework.  The granite blocks used in these constructions are ginormous.  The one in the bottom left of the picture below probably weighs more than your house.  The blocks all fit together so perfectly that no mortar is needed and they have withstood earthquakes significantly better than the colonial buildings in the region.  Granite is a very hard material and each stone would have been bashed with bits of hematite for months before it was ready to be placed.

4 - The Temple of the Sun.  The sun is considered one of the most important gods by the Incas.  This temple has two windows facing East-ish.  On the day of Summer Solstice the sun illuminates one window as soon as it clears the mountains.  It illuminates the other window on the day of Winter Solstice.

5 - The main gate to the city.  In fact, this is the only gate to the city and could be permanently boarded up during special holidays when the Incas didn´t want to be disturbed.

After the tour we had some free time - and the sun had come out!!  The weather had kept up its end of the bargain and I got some great pictures...

Everyone crashed out on the bus & train back to Cusco before a great night out to celebrate the fact that we´d made it.  The people were great, the trek was epic and the sights (when not covered with clouds) were spectacular - I will not forget it as long as I live!

So now I´m in Cusco again.  I still have to explore the city and I´m going to try to do some proper Spanish lessons - maybe stay with a family.  Seeing as I´ve spent about 60% of the money I brought with me, I might even try to get a job.  Well, let´s not get carried away!  Until next time, here are a few more pictures from the last few days.

Beautiful views between Puno and Cusco.

An Inca burial site - they buried the dead in holes in the mountains....

The mountain at Ollantaytambo - I just love this face.

The clouds parted for five seconds so I took a picture.  This was on day 1.

Inca ruins of a large farming town.

More Inca ruins.  And a donkey.

The second checkpoint before climbing Dead Woman´s Pass.  The map didn´t show the rain.

I continued my quest to teach the game of "Shit Head" to everyone I meet.

A small building where messengers lived.

More ruins - and tourists in multi-coloured ponchos

You can see the trail snaking its way down the right-hand side of the valley

This used to be a temple where priests were chosen by the sun.  Apparently a beam of light had to pick you out of a crowd.  Good luck getting some sun through these clouds.

I didn´t get picked out by the sun.  My mum will love this hat though.

I make it to the top of a mountain just in time to see a large cloud.

This is a keeper because you can see some background in it.

A strategic fort.

Inca walls that have stood the test of time.

A lovely view down the valley.  This is very near Machu Picchu.

Our assistant-guide Jose creating some ambiance by playing the flute.

The sun sets on another great day.  Tomorrow is Machu Picchu!

Saying a big thank-you to our great porters, cooks and guides.

Even though I am smiling in this picture, I am wondering if I am ever going to see Machu Picchu.

Lovely views from the top of the temples.

A staircase - its great.

A side-angle view of the living section.

When the Spanish came, the Incas deserted the site so that it wouldn´t be found and took everything with them.  Only one piece of gold has ever been found at this site - a bracelet beneath this tree.  It is thought that it was a last offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth.