The Inca Trail
Hey guys,
We are back! We survived the Inca Trail. I know, 500 make it too every day. But still, that was something.
So the first day was kinda funny. The guide couldn´t find any porters or chef willing to come along with us because of ... Christmas, yes. So here we were on the bus, waiting and waiting, still in Cuzco, being told every 10 minutes that it would take another 5min for them to find some staff and to buy the food. Ok, we only booked the tour 3 days prior to the departure date but one of our fellow excursion-mate had booked it 3 weeks in advance. Needless to say that we had also paid a considerable amount of money to take the excursion, that is 210 bucks.
Anyway, after hours wasted waiting on the whole thing to get organised, we eventually had lunch at Km82 which is the departure point of the Inca Trail. We were lucky, at least the sun was shining, so it was nice walking the 6km to reach the campsite, following the traintracks and stopping at various Inca ruins. Oupsy, I forgot to introduce the group. We were 5 tourists: 2 Dutchies, 1 Canadian and ourselves. Only men (hum hum hum). We had 1 guide, 4 porters and 1 chef. Except for the guide, the four of them would always walk fast in front of us in order to have time to get the tents and food ready. Food was excellent.
24/12/06 We were somewhat late on our schedule because of the mess from the previous day. So we were up at 5am. The dear porters brought us some warm Mate de Coca to help us bear the morning coldness and to make us wake up faster. Had a big breakfast with porridge, pancake and toasted bread. I still wonder how they are able to prepare such gorgeous meals in the middle of nowhere. After passing the checkpoint, we started our 12km trek. The morning went okay cause the weather was good and we stopped to see some ruins. However after having lunch, it started to lash and we had to walk up the 
mountain (4000 meters). And of course, after going up, we had to go down and we couldn´t see a damn thing with our ponchos on and the heavy rain. It was so slippery. Our backpack just seemed to get heavier and heavier after each step. We managed to catch up our delay and were staying in the same campsite where most people doing the Inca Trail sleep. Imagine after walking 12km under the rain, with a heavy backpack (ok just 10kg), you finally reach the campsite and you can´t find your fecking tent!!! I was just raging. I spent 1hour walking aroud, calling David´s name (we don´t walk at the same pace). One of the porters rescued me and I got to the tent, completely soacked. That was Christmas Eve!!!!! Played poker again and had an early sleep.
25/12/06 This time, we were only up at 6am. Hum lie-ins are good.... This time we had to walk 16km to reach the other campsite. The day went much better. In the morning we visited Inca ruins and in the afternoon we went thru the jungle. It was great even if it rained a bit. The campsite was located in a wee kinda village with a restaurant. Guess what? We played poker and 31 again, had a good meal, tipped the porters after a small presentation and went to bed at 10pm.
26/12/06 Up at 4am. We all had sore tummies and couldn´t eat anything for breakfast. We queued at the last checkpoint of the Inca Trail and then the race started. The goal was to reach the SunGate early enough to watch the sun rising and blazing on the Machu Picchu. I just don´t know where the energy was coming from. Just big excitement I suppose. Felt great to be flying over rocks, jumping and running even if it was like 5:30am. But, there was no sun rise...... sigh..... just a thick fog covering the whole Machu Picchu. Couldn´t see a thing. Fortunately, the weather cleared up and by the time we got near to the site, we could see it well and take the traditional pics. We visited the whole ruins with the guide for an hour and were free at 9:00am. Being up so early, it felt as if the day was already over. There are many paths to walk around the site but my legs were just killing me and I suppose we were all knackered from the 4-day trek. However we decided to go for a last walk to see some inca bridge which didn´t proved to worth seing at all. The guide had asked us to meet in a restaurant down in Aguas Calientes at 2pm. So we left the Machu Picchu and walked downhill for an hour meanwhile it started to rain heavily and again we just got drenched.
The guide needed us to buy the return train tickets to Cuzco as we have to show our passports. However 
our train had been cancelled and we were told we would have to spend a night in Aguas Calientes and take another train the following morning. Just try to picture us. We had been walking 34km for four days without taking a shower and all our clothes were wet. We had paid a huge amount of money just to hear that the agency couldn´t find another train for us to get back to Cuzco knowing that there were more trains. We argued a bit with the guide, had to pay an extra 20 dollars each and got on the Inca Train which is kinda the top of the class with all the Gringos on. Indeed the ride was just great. The whole group wasn´t together but at least David was with one of the Dutch and I was with the other two. Had beer and a nice piece of chocolate which reminded us that we were in the Xmas period and even got to see a fashion show!!! The waiters turned into models. They weren´t too bad. I was so amazed at looking at the American women buying some of the clothes for prices not less than 150 bucks!!!
After 4 hours on the train, we reached Cuzco at 7:30pm. We wanted to go the agency to claim our 20 dollars back. But 2 men were waiting for us outside the station. After one big talk, we eventually got refunded, went for a nice meal and greeted goodbye. It felt so good to sleep in a bed. Simple pleasures.
27/12/06 Last week, we had started a tour of the local ruins around Cuzco but had to stop because of the rain. We had bought a 10 day valid ticket to visit them. So today we went to see these ruins. When you have just done the Machu Picchu, you become a tad picky on what you visit. Anyhoo it was good to walk. We needed our km quota! We got our bus tickets for tomorrow night. After doing the Sacred Valley, we will take a night bus to Arequipa.
By the way, hope you all had a nice Xmas and thank you for your comments on the blog. It feels so good to read them. Take care.