Live the life you have imagined: y por fin; MACCHU PICHU!

Upon arriving in Cuzco, we took a cab to a hostel from my guidebook that clearly didn't exist where stated. Cue the tired wander about I'd become accustomed to in unfamiliar cities until we'd found another one. Next on the agenda as usual was to find something to eat, so the discovery of a nearby bakery offering a cup of good coffee soon put a smile on both mine and Marco's tired faces. We continued exploring the gorgeous city with all it's lovely Spanish colonial architecture, admittedly quite rudely built upon the ruins of the Inca's capital city after the Spanish invasion. Vendors swarmed the main plaza area, making the most of the thriving gringo population present gagging for their Inca trail experience and 'authentic' souvenirs. I for one happily participated and bought a pair of 'the pant's'. Brightly coloured - pyjama looking stripey things that I'm sure every gringo who has ever traveled to South America probably has a pair of, but no doubt not a single local owns. I swear you can't be unhappy whilst wearing them.

I woke up feeling miserable in the morning. This city being situated at 11,200 ft above sea level you are encouraged to arrive a couple of days earlier before beginning the trail to acclimatize. Obviously my body was not adjusting so well as I spent the entire day in bed while Marco played power tourist in-between bringing me back food I was trying to keep down. By the time our briefing with our tour group that night rolled around I was still not feeling better. Another German guest at the hostel offered me his help which I readily agreed to. In his (very) broken English he instructed me to shut my eyes & try take positive energy from him as he held my hand & put the other on my forehead. This carried on for a good 5 minutes until he pulled a crystal on a string out of his pocket and swung it around the palm of my hand. The conclusion reached was that I needed iron. How convenient that the girl translating his German to English for me was iron deficient & hooked me up with some of her iron pills. Literally about 15 minutes later, after feeling miserable all day long I felt great. Sometimes things do just work out. Earlier yesterday to my annoyance Marco insisted we change to this hostel from the one we originally checked into, so turned out to be a good call (I can admit it.) Bring on Machu Picchu!

A 4am start, a couple of hours on a bus & a breakfast stop in Ollantaytambo found us at the beginning of the Inca trail. We set off in our unusually small group which included Marco & I, our two tour guides Marcel & Julian, & an Australian couple. We had ten porters carrying all the equipment and supplies required for our 4 day trip, so I was quite entertained to think how many would be needed for a group perhaps 3 times our size! Our first day of trekking was relatively easy as the majority of the 12km was flat. This included our first sighting of Inca ruins, the fortress Huillca Raccay, & Patallacta. We arrived at our campsite late afternoon in good spirits, and took a moment to introduce ourselves and be introduced to our porters who we would be spending the next few days with.

Our small group of four

Caminando!

Already gaining on us

Here I will take a minute to talk about the porters! Words cannot express how much respect I have for these guys. The majority come from small villages far out of Cuzco, and from these men only some spoke Spanish as the rest of them speak their own native dialect of Quechua. There was a mix of ages within the group, the younger ones pointedly stating if they were single upon introduction (awkward?). One porter stuck out in my memory with his brave effort to introduce himself shyly in English, which he's studying as he wants to be a guide one day. So, these guys scurry along the trail at seemingly impossible speeds for someone who's carrying a 25kg load on their back - our own 'red army' as they called themselves. Without fail every stop, they would leave after us to pack up, then pass us somewhere along the trail and have the next site set up and ready for us when we'd finally show up. It makes you feel ppprreeeetttyyy lazy to say the least.

Our amazing porters

They also made dinner itself an impressive fare far from what I imagined on a tramping trip. The chef appointed each trip devises his own menu, so we were probably treated to more authentic Peruvian cuisine than what I'd ordered from any restaurant in touristy Cuzco. And to top that off every morning we were woken up with tea brought to our tent. Sometimes I found it hard to enjoy these little things without feeling guilty. The work they do is very hard and there are obviously some companies that do not look after their porters very well. I saw so many that didn't even have proper shoes and were hopping along the trail in sandals made out of tire! The Peruvian government has implemented a law where a porter cannot be paid less than 42 soles (US $15) a day but apparently it is not widely abided by which sucks to hear. If you ever end up doing the trail I strongly recommend you do some research and go with a company that takes their porter welfare seriously because you will feel a lot better about it. Just do it.

So back to the trail, day two included a steep hike up to 'Dead woman's pass'. I was starting to feel increasing grateful to my cousins advice to pay the extra for hiking poles as the pretty much the whole Inca trail is steps. At the top of the pass we captured the moment with a sweet jumping photo. This day was interspersed with bouts of rain and visits to Inca sites until we reached our final resting spot for the night. I think our porters had been getting into the grog a bit because they were particularly merry when we arrived ha ha. At dinner our guide informed us there had been a landslide on a part of the trail so we would be taking an alternative route through the town Aguas Calientes to get to Macchu Pichu rather than through the original path via the Sun gate.

Sweet jumping photo as stated

Highest point of the trail at 4200m on Dead Woman's Pass

Campsite

Nick woke up the next day feeling unwell, so we split ourselves between the guides so he could go at a slower pace. We did mostly downhill, again accompanied by buckets of rain so we literally felt like we were tramping down waterfalls the whole way. After a visit to Inca site 'Phuyupatamarca' the weather eventually began to clear up and Marco and I had continued ahead on our own to 'Intipata' as our guides were trying to organise porters to carry Nick (who by the way is huge) to our next site. Another testament to the strength of our porters! We caught up as a group over lunch then together visited the impressive Inca site Winay Wayna (Forever Young) before arriving on the outskirts of Aguas Calientes, our last overnight stop before Machu Picchu.

Winay Wayna

Y por fin the day arrived! The night before we had been presented with two options - we could either take a bus from the town center up to Machu Picchu, or hike a trail. Marco and I both agreed that even though the path was not the original it felt like cheating to have trekked for 3 days and then take a bus up. Tough kids! The one perk of the landslide was that now we had a good chance of being able to climb Huayana Picchu. Only 500 people a day are granted passes to ascend this fortress overlooking MP itself. Because it's based on a first come, first serve basis usually Inca trailers miss out because they arrive too late. Thanks to the landslide and consequential detour we had the chance to get up there earlier. Not a bad incentive to hoof it up.

Our minds ahead on the goal, we followed along the train tracks in pitch blackness until we reached the town center. Here we left our Aussie counterparts who had opted for the bus while Marco and I pushed on to the trail. This trail was MISERABLE. In my head I knew it wasn't as steep as Colca Canyon, but god it felt about 3 times worse which I guess I'll put down an accumulation of tiredness from prior days trekking? Add to that the adrenaline of racing against everyone else crawling the trail, not to mention the tour buses full of people, it felt like we were competing on the amazing race - the prize a coveted Huayna Picchu pass!

But I'm happy to say we made it! Entering Machu Picchu wasn't the impressive first sight I had imagined, as it was extremely foggy and we couldn't see anything. However as our tour guide gave us his detailed tour, the cloud began to lift. By the time we made it up to the view point where you'll find your classic postcard shot, man did we get our view!!!! Trying to describe how epic the Inca's masterpiece looks in real life rather than in a travel magazine is pointless.Of course then a mandatory photo shoot ensued until it was time for Huayana Picchu.

YAY!

We made our way over to the entrance for the 10am slot, ready for even more uphill trekking. So steep and narrow, the track has bars placed along it to assist visitors on their way up. After about 40 minutes to reach the top, it really felt like it was time to just stop and finally take it all in. Which I did. I sat on a rock looking down on Machu Picchu, with a sense wonderment at what was laying before me as well as of accomplishment for myself at having made it there. I just felt so lucky to be exactly where I was, wanting to be nowhere else in the world but sitting way up there, deep in the Urumba Valley in Peru! YEAH! I can say hands down this was the highlight of the trail for me, get it on the bucket list now!