We´ve done it! Yesterday, after 4 days hike we arrived to Machu Picchu completing the famous Inka Trail trek. It was a very beautiful trek, but as much as it was beautiful it was hard.
On the first day we got up at 3:30 am and were taken to the "Kilometer 82". From there we hiked for more than 8 hours climbing more than 1000 meters! At the end of the day we were ready to be sacrificed to the Inca gods.
Here you can see us, happy and unsuspecting at the beginning of the trail :)
The trail itself is amazing. It was built by the Incas in 15th century and most of it is intact till today. It´s a paved trail going up and down the mountains through the cloud forest. It has many hundreds of stairs you have to climb or descend (which is much better, but still painful).
Here we are, on the second day, at the top of the "Dead Woman´s Pass" 4215 meters high, after walking for another 3 hours and climbing another 415 meters. We´re happy because from here we´re to go 700 meters down for 2 hours at least. Joy!
End of the second day in the tent. The genuine joy is caused by the fact that from here we´re going only down :)We were 6 people all in all in our group. The company that arranged the trek provided us with almost everything. The food, tents and all the equipment were carried by 10 porters and one cook, each carrying 25 kg. Those people usually come from different local communities, not all of them even speak spanish. But the service was amazing. We were sometimes embarassed, because those people were working like slaves, setting our tents, preparing and serving the meals, bringing us tea and hot water to the tents in the morning, not to mention carring all the weight. Each day they started an hour after us and then passed us on the way almost running. The Inca stairs didn´t seem to have much effect on them. The meals were amazing, we couldn´t expect this kind of food under those circumstences. I´ll only add that even our napkins were folded in a different oregami manner each day.
Here we are with the porters. We tryed to thank them and smile on every possible occasion, and they were all very nice people, but still it was kinda embarassing.
Well, tomorrow we´re flying to Lima and I have to go to sleep now. So I owe you the rest of the story, where we hiked more, visited remains of Inca cities, played "Shithead" and finally got to Machu Picchu.
Well, tomorrow we´re flying to Lima and I have to go to sleep now. So I owe you the rest of the story, where we hiked more, visited remains of Inca cities, played "Shithead" and finally got to Machu Picchu.
Good night.
