The Inca trail, Machu Picchu

We stayed in a small town in the sacred valley the day before we started the Inca trail. We got ourselves some inca style wooden walking sticks and missioned it up to some ruins on the hill face in the rain. The ruins were pretty amazing and and got us very excited about what we were about to see on our four day trek along the famous inca trail.

We got up early the next day ready to set off on our adventure following the steps of the incas. We were kitted out with alpaca knitwear, walking staffs and dyke walking boots as we set off the first day along the trail. We encountered some ruins on the way along with Andean locals along the track.
 

We discovered the rumors about the porters were true. The Necane-sized men hooned past us carrying our bags, along with our tents and food for the next three days, wearing minimalistic tyre tread sandals as we were left struggling with our day packs and full on hiking boots up the steady incline. We reached camp by lunch time where we would spend the night before tomorrows early 5am start. Ironically, the porters clapped us in on our arrival to camp as we noticed all our tents had been set up for us and had a three coarse lunch waiting for us. We chilled out at camp before we were served another three coarse meal for dinner. The team looking after us we absolutely amazing and we were treated like royalty to the extent we felt embarrassed. We were woken in the morning by the roosters followed by a cup of tea delivered right to our tent door along with warm water to wash our face, hands and feet. With a great 5am start to the day we ate our breakfast and set off on the second and most challenging leg of our journey. Inclining over 1000metres and a couple of hours, we victoriously reached the top of dead womans pass 4200metres above sea.

 

We all dealt with the altitude quite well but it did make it that much harder to breathe and get our selves up the hill. We all went at our own pace and met at the peak for a triumphant photo. The drizzle began to settle in so everyone whipped out their rain ponchos for the first time and hooned it down the other side towards our second campsite. The steep original inca stone path mixed with a bit of rain made for a lethal track. The porters were not phased by this as they ran past us with our big bags. With a few minor slips among the group we all made it safely to camp where once again we found our tents set up and lunch waiting. We spent the afternoon and evening chilling out playing cards etc. Frano was forced to perform the SPC haka on his lonesome after losing a game, much to the confusion of the non-English speaking audience. We were fed with another amazing dinner and gifted an even more amazing cake for dessert.

Unfortunately the sleep at this campsite wasn't too great as our tent was situated on top of a rocky sand-bed but we were woken with more royal treatment. We set off day three after the most amazing breakfast consisting of pancakes topped with chocolate sauce. After a short walk we explored some more inca ruins and another small city along the way. Unfortunately Necane was feeling quite ill from a range off things so we kept it easy at the back of the pack until lunch. After 5 hours of hiking we indulged in another 5star meal courtesy of our porters before taking on the "gringo killer", thousands of slippery, declining, inca stone steps, some verging on the classification of a ladder.



The scenery was just amazing as we entered the jungle as we were now much lower in altitude. The third day definitely the most impressive in both ruins and scenery. We came across more ruins shortly before the third and final campsite. These ruins were the most impressive and extensive yet as well as maintaining much of the originality. A lot of the more popular  ruins have been restored, well maintained and taken apart and had the mortar between the stones replaced. Although this is done immaculately, and is better for the long run, they currently lose a certain quality about them. These final ruins have been left un touched with overgrown grass and moss covered stones. They had a really amazing quality about them.
Just before camp we stopped and some of the group took on the porters in a game of football. Just before dinner some of the group came to explore some more ruins close to the camp site.


These ruins were even more impressive with extensive water channels throughout the old city feeding the agricultural terraces. 600years later they are still doing their job. The stonework was immaculate with each stone fitting together like a giant vertical jigsaw puzzle. We explored the sun temple, various houses and terraces getting some wicked shots of the ruins before heading back for dinner. We tucked into our final supper and went to bed early as we had a 3am start in the morning.
We were woken before the crack of dawn. We packed our bags up and were first in line for the machu picchu control gate. The line built up as ever other group lined up behind us before the gate opened just before 5.30am. The gate opened and we were first off the blocks as on of our porters set the pace. We were so keen to be the first at machu picchu we ran the 6km along the inca path to the sungate. Reaching it before 6am, the view was obstructed by thick fog.



By the time we finished the final decline into machu picchu the fog had lifted to present the perfect photographic postcard conditions for the mystical city. The boys were the first people to arrive from the inca trail and were only beaten by a few tourists who stayed close by. Frano achieved his goal of getting there before the lazy tourists arrived on the train and polluted his photos with their presence.

The Machu picchu city proved to be more amazing than its reputation not just  due to it's shear scale and immaculate stone work, but the whole mystical scenery surround the ruins.
We were the first to be issued passes to the mountain wanapicchu which overlooks the city. We then began our exploration of the city. Our guide from the inca trail took us on a tour around the ruins explaining the purpose of each area, building techniques, astronomic theories, the history and the discovery of the ancient site.


We are still amazed at the size of some of the stones used to construct the walls and how they managed to get them into place, along with the perfectly fitting stones that lock into each other without mortar. Unfortunately machu picchu is so commercialised it loses some of it's mysteriousness. It is so well maintained with well groomed grass and the stones are kept moss free. The whole site has been restored, meaning it has been disassembled and reassembled with new mortar between the rocks. I would have liked to see it in more of an original state but i guess this way it won't fall into a stste of disrepair and the restoration will allow for the ruins to be experienced by future generations.

 After our exploration of the ruins, we head for Wanapicchu. Wanapicchu is the mountain peak that features in most shots towering over machu picchu. We soon learnt this wasn't for someone scared of heights and why the climb is restricted to 400 people per day. The thin path winds up to the top and became quite awkward whenever you encountered anyone coming down as it was only wide enough for one and someone faced a plummeting fall if they lost balance. Steeper than any of the paths on the inca trail, some parts required getting on all fours to climb the stone steps/ladder. Luckily Peru doesn't have OSH, so the original inca path was not ruined by safety rails as it would be in New Zealand. We reached the top of wanapicchu and found more ruins to explore after performing a few line-outs in front of the picturesque ruins of machu picchu well below us.

After looking around the ruins, enjoying the scenery and snapping some sweet shots we head back down the deadly trail back to machu picchu. On our way back down the drizzle began to settle in which is typical weather of the area. Considering we did the inca trail in the beginning of the rainy season we were very lucky with the weather we received. We could have not have had a better morning at machu picchu and considering we had been their since 6am we had already had a good look around and were all pretty stuffed by 1pm. We got back to machu picchu and Frano finished exploring the ruins in the drizzle, grabbing a few last shots before we met up with the group. We hopped on a bus down to the small town at the foot of the mountains where we grabbed lunch before our train ride back to cusco. The most amazing day to date, machu picchu truly is one of the worlds ancient wonders.
We got back to cusco in time for dinner and 24hour challenge had been set, 3-3. After the massive day, the four days of hiking and the early start everyone was pretty stuffed until we found a club serving free "Cuba Libre's". They cranked a bit of salsa and we pulled out a few of the moves we had learnt a few days before. We thought we were picking it up until we saw a few of the locals show off, they were pretty amazing. The night went on and the atmosphere started to heat up as the cuba Libre's and cervezas went down. Our attention was grabbed as the barmen jumped up on the bar, each armed with a bottle of bourbon. While one of our mates from the tour had been pulled up on the bar by a local Peruvian girl, there were free shots from the bottle all-round before the barmen took to the bar itself with the spirit, priming it with bourbon. Next thing we knew the bar was on fire and was being feed by bourbon. South Americans are crazy and know how to party. An epic night to finish off an epic four days.