For those of you who are unaware of the existance of the Inca Trail, just a quick summary (and for those who do a refresher). At it's full extent the Inca Empire stretched from roughly Northern Ecuador to Santiago to Chile. Bordered on one side by the mighty Pacific Ocean and the other by the imposing Andes, the Incan empire was spread lengthwise down the continent. An extensive series of highways, along with stops for messagers and all the associated appartus of administering an empire, was the fastest way to get around. At its height, the Incan empire only lastest 100 years. From 1438 - 1532 the Incans were the dominate culture in this area of South America, until they were boldly and ruthlessly conquered by literally a hand full of Spanish conquistadores (an absolutely fascinating story - but more about that later). The fact that the Incan empire only latest for a century is a testament to the prodigious public works that the Incans built. The series of highways being one example, with numerous citadels and religious sites being another. These are often perched high in the mountains and were constructed out of solid stone with bare hands, no wheels, llamas, and definitely no dynamite. Incan architecture is amazing, especially the joins in big slabs of stone, which fit perfectly and look completely natural. Bear in mind too that they didn't have iron or steel tools.
What is traditionally known as The Inca Trail is a stretch of trail running from near Ollantaytambo in the Urubamba Valley, and finishes at Macchu Picchu high in the mountains above the town of present day Aguas Calientes. The majority of the tourist trail follows the original Inca earth and stoneworks, including two llama width "paved" roads, and thousands of stone steps placed on hillsides. According to our guide Miguel, the proper trail should start just outside of Cuzco and run all the way to Macchu Picchu, but that would have added about another 15 days to the trek!
An 8am start to the day and a brief van trip to a place known as Km 82 marked the start of our Inca Trail trek. Not long after getting out of the van we were mugged by a whole lot of old ladies selling walking sticks for 3 soles (about NZ$1.30) - a bit expensive but they were to prove invaluable over the coming few days. The sticks were made of bamboo and had nicely woven handlke covers in traditional Quechua patterns. Just another quick history lession. People use Incas to refer to the people of the Incan Empire. However, this isn't quite correct. The Inca was the ruler of the people, and the common people were mostly Quechua and other cultures that the Incan Empire ruled - just like in the Roman or British Empires.
Once we had all bought sticks and negotiated our way through the old ladies we stopped to have our compulsory group photo at the Inca Trail sign. As you can see by the photo below there is a train track running in fron of us. This track runs to Aguas Calientes, and on the tracks people take the "Train of Shame" as we called it, to the town then take a bus up to the ruins. It was tempting at the start to just jump on the train and not have to trek 4 days! But I resisted and we shouted insults at the lazy people on the trains as they passed. Mostly fat Americans we assumed! You can also see the sticks we had in the photo.
After a walk along the train tracks and a quick rendition of "Stand By Me" (can anyone get the reference?) we arrived at the first of a number of checkpoints along the trail. A few years ago the Trail was a free for all, which inevitably caused heaps of problems with rubbish, overuse and crowding. So, the Peruvian government issued controls that only allowed 500 people to use the Trail each day. Contrast this with at times 2000 people using the Trail as I understand used to happen. As a result, we were allocated passes that allowed us to be on the trail for four days, including time at Maccu Picchu at the end.
After getting my passport checked I posed for the standard Englishman in the wilderness photo by the rope bridge crossing the Urumbamba River. As you can see below I had cultivated a fine beard to keep my face warm in the cold wilds of highest Peru!
Now is probably a good time to explain the magical qualities of coca leaves in the Inca Trail experience as at this point on the Trail our guide Miguel explained the role of coca in the Incan Empire. Coca was used extensively in the Incan Empire for religious and ceremonial reasons, among other functions. Primarily the royal and upper classes only had access to it, but as the Incan Empire and tradition broke down following the Conquest, the usage spread widely among the working and peasant classes. At its basic level it is the leaf of the plant that cocaine is made from. Whereas cocaine is made by refining the plant, coca leaves are simply just natural. The main benefit according to the locals and scientists is that it helps (somehow and I am not too sure of the processes) the body cope with altitude and give strength to carry out physical activity.
We left an offering of coca leaves on a rock just past the bridge, as a tribute to Pachamama, the Incan "Mother Earth". I am sure she appreciated it as the journey over the next few day was an amazing experience. Or maybe that was because of the coca leaves I used! Hahaha. Just to keep the worriers happy it's not hallucenigenic or a drug in the bad sense, or even illegal in Peru. What you do is wrap a few leaves up in a ball with a catalyst (using banana leaf ash) and place it under your tongue. There you leave it for about 20 minutes and then spit the stuff out. The theory goes that all the good stuff will dissolve into your body and give you an increase in energy. I was keen to test the theory over the coming days.
The morning we began the Trail it was overcast and a little rainy, which suited me just fine as it kept the sweating factor down to a minimum. Our porters head begun a we while before us, and up the road, but as they were carrying about 40 kgs each of our stuff it was not surprising we passed some of them on the way, but not for long! Mostly that was on the uphill legs, and even then we had these little dudes with these big backpacks (not like Macpac, but more like flour sacks with ropes around them) and wearing sandals fly past up on uphill legs. Downhill, they were always flying past us. Everyone has to have porters on the trail, and we had about 17 porters and cooks for the fifteen of us. We also had our guide, Miguel, and his assistant guide, Gato (well his real name was Enrique like our GAP guide but his nickname was Gato, which is cat in Espanol).
The porters would generally hoon off ahead and have our lunchsite or campsite all prepared and ready - even with individual bowls of warmed water to wash our hands and faces. Lunch on the first day was a three course meal, including dessert. So much for roughing it! They even set up a tent, with tables and chairs for us to sit out of the elements. From that you can get an idea of what they were carrying in total, plus our two man tents, 6kg of our personal gear allowance, their tents, food, and other equipment. Lunch was spent in a quiet valley with a small river through the middle, and looking up at the mountain in the background, I knew I was in Peru!
The sun eventually came out after lunch on the first day, but even with the overcast skies prior the sweat factor was rising on the back. That was probably the most uncomfortable thing for me throughout the whole trek, was the sweat that came pouring out of my body. Physically the Trail was fine, but I sweated more water out than I thought my body could even contain! Most of the walk on the first day was fairly straight forward, with a couple of calf burning uphill segments. Great for the physique. Along the way we passed by a few Incan ruins, the most notable being Llactapata in the valley below our first climb for the day.
On the way to our first campsite for the night we passed by a spot with a beautiful view of Mt Veronika, one of the major mountains in the vicintity that was one of two revered by the Inca. The campsite was further than the normal first day campsite as we were trying to get through the Trail in three days instead of four. Usually people do it in four days and on the fourth day race to the Sun Gate in the dark to see the sunrise over Macchu Picchu. However our guide said that each time he had done that this year (and he does it every week) it was cloudy and Macchu Picchu couldn't be seen. So we were working on the basis that we would get to Macchu Picchu on the afternoon of the third day, spend the afternoon there, sleep in Aguas Calientes, then come back up to Macchu Picchu again on the fourth day for more time at the ruin and our official guided tour of the citadel.
Campsite was reached at about 5pm as the clouds started to roll in. The location of our camp was at Yunkachimpa and had a beautiful view across the valley to an imposing mountain called Casamientuyoc. After changing out of sweaty clothes, washing the hands, face and upper body with warm water we had hot chocolate and biscuits. Dinner was a three course meal, with a dessert of chocolate pudding. After finishing my dessert everone else was full so I had another 6 or so chocolate puds. Yum. The campsite was at about 3300m above see level and the next day we were heading straight up to 4200m so I needed all the energy I could get. After checking out the beautiful stars following dinner it was time to hit the hay and rest up for our big day coming up.
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