We Survived the Inca Trail!

Hola Amigos,
Steve and I got back to Cusco last night after finishing 4 days of the extremely tiring, but extremely rewarding Inca Trail.
On the 3rd we were picked up at an hour we hadnt experienced for a very long time and took the tour bus to a town where we ate breakfast and mettwo Australian girls on the trip with us, Sophie and Katherine.
On the bus we met our 2 guides, Freddie and Amateo. Freddie tured out to be the best possible guide we could have asked for. He was half Quechuan (which is the actual Incan culture and language) and he was really passionate about the culture and knew a lot about the Inca. Amateo was the assistant guide whose english was not quite as good as Freddies but he made up for by being hilarious.
Apart from Sophie and Katherine there was 11 other people in our group - 5 californian girls, 2 teachers from the US, another Aussie couple and 2 older guys from NZ (who eventually put many of us to shame).
The first day of the trek wasnt too bad, we saw the first of many Incan terraces and learnt about Inca time (when Freddie says it is 15 more minutes it means it is really 30) and Inca flat (the rest of the trail is flat until the campsite, means that there is steps up and down and flat in between them at some point).
Our first meal was one of the most surprising things that happened on our trip. When we sat down we were given an entre of avocado salad, followed by 3 more courses. No one in our group could believe their luck. I am not kidding when I say that apart from some outstanding meals every now and again, the food we ate on this trek was the best we have had in the entire 3 months we have been in South America, easily the best in Peru. Later on we met the cook, Jesus, who was an adorably shy Peruvian and I think most of us were ready to take him home with us by the end.

At the end of the first day we arrived at our camp where the 22 porters had already set up our tents and started getting ready for dinner. These guys are amazing. Every day they left after our group and arrived hours in advance to set up our campsite. While most of us were puffing up steps they would run past, making us feel very stupid when we arrived at the campsite hours later and they would applaude our efforts. But if you are thinking that it sounds like a terrible job where they are treated like slaves, you are getting the wrong idea. The job of a porter is one of the most sought after jobs in Peru, especially for the company that we travelled with who provide the porters with propper backpacks, sleepingbags and mattereses. Many of the porters for the other comapnies are just carrying their loads in sacks. The other good thing is that the weight they are allowed to carry has been limited to 25kg now, wheras they used to carry around 60kg!
Plus they were the nicest group of guys, always so friendly and ready to help you if you needed it. They did an amazing job even though the youngest was only 18 and the oldest was 65.

The second day was so much harder than the first, we spent 5 hours climbing extremely steep steps to reach Dead Womans Pass which is at an altitude of 4200m. Once at the top we made an offering to PachaMama (mother earth) so that she would help us on our trip and give us good weather. Then we made the painful 2hour walk downhill to our campsite.

The third day was my personal favourite. We all woke up a bit hesitant after the second day but it was a really beautiful walk where we moved from the mountain highlands into the amazon in only a few hours. The scenery was amazing and the walk itself was a lot easier which we were all very grateful for. In the afternoon we saw quite a few Incan ruins which were really interesting. Some of them were houses and others were temples. Freddie talked to us about how the Incas chose where to build things based on the sun and the acoustics of the mountains which was really interesting. The last part of the 3rd day was a walk down 2000 steps before we reached our last campsite. We said goodbye to all of the porters and thanked Jesus (the cook) one last time and went to bed early.

The last day we woke up much longer than the others because we wanted to be one of the first groups to get to Machu Picchu. In the end we were all on time and managed to be the second group on the trail. We started walking at 5:30am with the aim of seeing the sunrise from the Sun Gate. Our group half jogged the 7km to the Sun Gate where we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu city. Thankfully it was a beautiful day with almost no clouds. I was especially pleased because Freddie had told us the day before that if it was a cloudy day we would have to sacrifice the youngest female in our group to please Pacha Mama (that would be me).

We made it down to Machu Picchu by 7am but unfortunately there were already people inside the side and taking photots all around it. This is because lazy people come on the train the day before, stay in the nearby town of Aguas Callientes overnight and then get up early and CATCH A BUS to Machu Picchu. We passed heaps of these people while we were walking down and got some funny looks since none of us had showered in 4 days and we were all red and puffed. One of them had the foolish idea of asking where we had come from and got some interesting remarks back from all of us since we all hated them on principle already.

The city of Machu Picchu was absolutely beautiful. Freddie gave us a tour of some of the most important parts and then we spent a few more hours looking around on our own (or resting and observing the view...). When we got hungry we took a bus into Aguas Callientes where we all ate together for the last time and then went and swam in the hot springs.

At 6pm we took a traina nd then a bus back to Cusco. Steve and I quickly grabbed some takeaway and rtan back to our hostel with the aim of crawling into bed and watching some trashy TV only to be told we had no reservation (even though we had stayed there for 5 nights and left our luggage there while we were away). Eventually they arranged with another hostel for us to stay in a wayyyy nicer room so alls well that ends well.

Today my claves arecomplaining a little everytime i wlak up or down stairs but Steve is feeling fine. We are spending one more night in Cusco and then we are going to Arequipa where we have 2 offers from hostels to volunteer for 2 weeks. We are not sure which one we will be heaidng to but we will let you know. We are hoping by getting accomodation for free for awhile we will be able to save some money. As usual donations are always welcome :)

Lots of love from both of us
xx