Inca Trail!!

Wow, what an amazing experience! We set off at 6am on the 27th November...already tired, getting on a bus with lots of other sleepy gringos! The bus then slowly filled up with the rest of our rather smelly porters! Breakfast stop in the touristy town of Ollyantaytambo...of course you wouldn't find Chris and I in the restaurant...we were sat in the sunny plaza eating bread and honey bought from the market the day before, plus some rather tasty banana cake, 2 big pieces for 16p!

The trek started at point 82km (the marker of the railway line). We loaded ourselves up with our bags and water, getting our first taster of how our backs were going to feel for the next 4 days! We hadn't booked an extra porter and we were too late to book one when we got to Cuzco, so unlike most of the rest of our group we were carrying all our own clothes, sleeping bag, mattress, etc....with the 2.5 litres of water we had each, my belongings weighed in at 10.5kg!! Needless to say our shoulders were burning by the end of the trek....but we both felt pretty proud, especially when the two annoying amercian women in our group were complaining about just carrying their daybags!

The first days hike was pretty easy, in fact we were both a bit dissappointed...not much of a challenge! But the food made up for it, 3 course lunch and dinner....all prepared amazingly considering we were in the middle of nowhere! Not to mention the rather smart dining tent that was erected each time, with cutlery all laid out and handwashing facilities (warm water, soap and towels!). This was hardly roughing it! The highlight of the day for Chris was getting to join in with the porters for a game of soccer (we're in the Americas now)...it looked like a pretty rough game and I was scared he might injure himself, but needless to say he excelled himself despite the altitude and scored twice, although he did nearly injure one of our porters with a rather tough tackle....considering they each carrying 25kg don't think it would have been a good idea to put one of them out of action!

The 2nd day was the tough one...we had 1200m to climb...unrelentless uphill, mostly steps!! Luckily we were left to do it at our own pace ( other than for a 1hr stop for elevensies...popcorn, cheese & crackers, bread & jam, tea, coffee, etc) ....Chris and I both prefered to keep a good speed and as such were easily the first to the top of Dead Womans pass ( by at least 30mins) even tougher because we were carrying all our kit....they had offered optional porters for this part of the trek because it's so tough, but they were nearly the same price as you paid for one for the whole trek!! Considering it was the hardest day of the trek we were finished by 1.15pm (we had started at 7.30am), giving us the rest of the day to recover....we filled this by playing the internationally known game of shithead with our Porters and reading our books....hardcore trekking, huh!

The 3rd day was the longest, 7am till 5pm, but was definitely the most scenic!! The morning was rather wet as we walked through cloud forest, but by the afternoon the sun had come out allowing us to enjoy the sights of the many inca ruins along the way! Again our pace was unmatchable by the majority of the group, we even took the longer optional route back to camp in oder to see further inca ruins and were still back before the useless american women (by this point they had made enemies with the whole group for the relentless whinging....I'm sure they were only doing the trek to impress their friends back home...they didn't seem to be enjoying any of it! although they had fresh makeup and lipstick on each day their faces looked liked smacked arses in every photo) By the time we reached the last camp everyone was feeling rather exhausted but pleased to be in view of Matchu Pitchu mountain....so we all celebrated with a beer at the campsite bar!! (What a joke...we were supposed to be in the middle of nowhere but there was a restaurent and hot showers!!!)

We went to bed feeling the worst was over, only a short 2hr walk to Matchu Pitchu in the morning!! But...Patcha Mama was not happy, and we were woken in the middle of the night by hurrendous thunder and lightening!! It continued to rain relentlessly for the rest of the night, and when our wake up call came at 4am we were less then enthusiastic about getting up! At least we didn't have to pack our tents up in the rain...thank god for porters! But the rain turned out to not be such a bad thing as by the time we got to the Sun Gate (high entrance to Matchu Pitchu) we had a perfectly clear view....normally at this time of year it is obscured by fog! We took all the necessary photos and then had our 2 hour tour of the sight! Although we were knackered we weren't going to turn down another challenge...so we took the optional climb to the top of Waynapicchu!!! Well worth the effort...a difficult climb but the views were amazing! (supposed to take 1hr, we did it in 33mins...did I mention how fit we were!!!).

Took bus down to Agua Caliente, missed out on the expensive lunch but sat watching everyone else tucking into their juicy steaks! Got train back to Cuzco at 4pm, arrived back at 9pm knackered and collapsed into bed...still very smelly!!!