Machu Picchu and stuff

Well, its been some time since my last entry so i may have forgotten a few things along the way so bear with me.

The colca canyon was pretty cool for its sheer size but we were all a bit dissapointed by the lack of Condors. Apparently there arent many there anyways but instead of hanging around they flew around on the up drafts until high enough to bugger off to the ocean so we only had a few minutes of seeing them.

It was still amazing to see a bird that weighs 13kg and has a wing span of about 2m cruising around without flapping its wings.

After the colca canyon we had to do a big drive day to get to Cusco. I ended up in the front cab of the truck with Phil, our driver, for the last 3 hours to keep him company. We ended up chatting about the similarities between eastern philosophies and quantum physics... It was interesting to say the least.

Cusco is at about 3300m so you definately get a bit worn out when you walk around but it only takes a day or two to acclimatize. We had one full day free in Cusco to chill out and see a few sites so i went and saw an Inca museum but was a bit dissapointed with it as there wasnt much inca stuff there at all. Apparently all the good things are in other countries which is a bit shit.

And now, its the Inca trail.

We had to travel to a town called Ollantaytambo which is in the Sacred Valley. The area is named such as it is amazingly green and lush with life. There are tropical fruit trees and everything like that which is great.

We did a one day tour of the valley and some ruins which was okay. Not that i didnt like it, but there are only so many ruins you can see before you get a bit tired of them. The ruins in Ollantaytambo are arranged in the shape of a llama when seen from the air. Those Incas were pretty into the organization of their citys. Cusco is in the shape of a leopard and Machu Picchu is in the shape of a condor. There was another place we were told about that is in the shape of a corn cob. The streets are arranged to give definition to actual bits of corn on the cob.

INCA TRAIL

The first day of the trek started with a 1 hour bus ride to kilometer 82 which is the start of the trail. We were on a one way dirt road with a raging river on one side and a whole lot of trees on the other and ended up meeting about 8 massive trucks coming the other way so had to do some very scary passing manouvers.

After checking into the trail we got our passports stamped to prove we went and started on our way. We had 14km to cover in the day and the sun was starting to peek through the clouds so we all got pretty hot and sweaty. Even when it rained it was hot, walking for so long gets you hot no matter what you do, especially when you carry your own gear like i did. The whole day was gently up hill and is supposed to be the easiest and a good starter to the trek. It wasnt easy but i didnt have too much trouble really.

Lunch and dinner were great. Always started with a hot drink and then soup and then a hot meal. We were never hungry.

Sleeping was in tents and there were no real issues there other than they were a bit too small. We were all very comfortable in them.

Day two is the hardest day as we needed to do 17km and go up 900m of pretty steep country from 3300m to 4200m before lunch. By the time we got to Dead Womans Pass (the highest point of the trek) we were pretty stuffed with the altitude. We had spread out alot by this stage so i was only at the top with two others. We only had about 5min up there as it must have been about 5 degrees and raining before we had to go down 700m to our lunch camp. My knees were aching pretty bad by this stage so going down was a bit rough. We were told that we should be getting to the lunch site around midday but the faster guys in the group arrived at 9am and i got there about 10am even with my slow down hill technique.

After lunch we had 400m up to go before heading down 300m to our final camp site. This didnt take too long either so we had a bit of free time at camp to chill out.

Day three was amazing. The scenery on this day was the best yet. We had views of snow capped mountains and lush green forest the whole time. The walk was all down hill and about 15km long. Most of us took this day pretty slow which was nice as we needed a bit of a rest. The day was fairly uneventful except for the 4 guys who wanted to go fast. They ended up making it to camp about 10am and continued onto Machu Picchu because they had time. Once there they took a few photos and had about 2 min left until they had to leave before they got pulled up by the police and asked for their tickets, which they didnt have... Our guide politely forgot to tell them they needed them to get in. 2 Hours spent in the holding cells and a whole lot of back and forth they were let out and escorted back to the camp site.

I got to the camp site around 2pm and we chiled out and bought some beer from the youth hostal that was there. Many games of bastard were played too to burn some time. That evening there was a disco for all of the tourists there and we stayed up late and drank a bit too much.

We had to be up at 4am the next morning to get to Machu Picchu before sun rise so all of us that stayed up were feelign a bit groggy. It was pissing down with rain at this point too so that didnt help at all either. The walk was only about 5km so we took it slow with the rain. When we got to the sun gate it was as foggy as anything so we didnt get to see the ruins from far away.

Another short walk later and we got to the ruins true. There was still a lot of fog around so we waited for a few hours until we took pictures and started a 2 hour tour around. We were allowed to walk around the ruins on our own after that for a few hours.

Once finished we headed down to Aguas Callientes (sp?) (Literal meaning: Water Hot) to have a swim in the hot pools which was great on the aching muscles. About 5pm we headed off on the train back to Ollantaytambo where we got a bus back to Cusco. Back in Cusco we were all really tired but there was a pact to do a 24 hour challenge. So we got up at 4am that morning and had to go till 4am the next in town. All but two of us made it and are thus feeling a bit worse for wear today.

Today has been a complete relax day which has been great. I got up at lunch time and am stil a bit tired. The muscles from the trek are only a touch sore which is good.

Tomorrow we head off to Puno and Lake Titicaca (The highest navigatable lake in the world) In 12 days ill be back in NZ so need to go do some shopping i reckon.

Until next time...