Cuzco & the Inca Trail

Cuzco is also a pretty amazing city. We took it upon ourselves to partake in the culinary experiences on offer, from Japanese, Indian, English, and traditional Andean cuisine, we indulged. The colonial architecture was also a draw and we visited churches, one of which that was built by the Spanish over an Inca religious sight during the occupation (a symbolic gesture to be sure). The Incan ruins are still under the Church today. Catching up with travelling friends and the occasional shopping helped to occupy us before our epic undertaking, the reason for our presence in Cuzco, the Inca Trail.

The Inca Trail is something that I believe everyone should do if the chance presents itself. It was amazing. We started the first day at about 5:20am, a slightly more respectable time to the start for Colca Canyon. We meet our guides, Cezar and Jose and the rest of our trekking companions on the bus. It was about a 2 and a half hour bus ride to the Sacred Valley where we stopped for breakfast and to buy some supplies, water and colca leaves and coal to chew/suck on the trail, I will elaborate further shortly.

Another 45 minutes or so and we were at the start of the Inca Trail. We had to have our tickets and passports stamped as we passed through the checkpoint (there were another 3 long the way). Then we were off. It was not long however till we were passed by our super human porters, this point I can not stress enough. They are like 5 foot and 50 kg and can carry up to twice their weight. It is however illegal for them to carry more than 20kg each these days. There are official weighing stations to attempt to ensure that is the case, however the porters vary in their abilities and some of the smaller/less experienced porters give some of their weight to the bigger/more experienced ones in between the stations.

They would leave our campsites just after us, rush past and gun it to the next lunch/camp site for the day set up, cook and be waiting for our arrival. The food was amazing, 3 course meals served in a dining tent with a table and chairs (I remind you that I struggled enough with my small day pack and that carrying all of this stuff they take in their stride). There was even hot water at dinner to wash our hands in.

The second day was tough; we had to climb up to a height of 4200m above sea level at a pass called Dead Woman’s Pass. I had like a 24 hour head cold from the altitude which made the up hill climb slightly harder work. After the pass it was about 3 hours of downhill to our campsite. That night was not a great one for our group; I awoke to use the bathroom in the night to hear numerous members of the group vomiting. We awoke in the morning to find out that almost the entire group had food poisoning, only really the vegetarians and those that did not each much of the meat (2 out of like 13) we alright. This made for a slow day for the group, as many were still sick with no choice but to continue trekking.

Because we were slow though it meant that we had the Inca Trail to ourselves on the third day which was great. This was the day that we passed the most Inca ruins (although we saw ruins from day one). Cezar gave us detailed insights into the ruins and the Inca Culture as well as the Andean surroundings at every sight. 8 hours of trekking saw us walking on original Inca Stones and stairs (up until then is stones/stairs that the government installed for the trek). The scenery was breath taking, the snow capped Andes, cloud forests, Inca Ruins. There really aren’t words to do it justice; it is truly an amazing part of the world.

The morning of the last day we awoke at like 3:45am for the trek to the Sun Gate and then finally Machu Picchu. At 5am we were let through the check point and we on our way. We had to climb steps that were literally vertical, a challenge we were up to at like 6 in the morning to be sure. The view from the Sun Gate was amazing; you could see all of Machu Picchu (means old man mountain), Wanna Picchu (means young man mountain) and the surrounding mountains as the light from the rising sun fell on them.

We had a guided tour from Cezar of the ruins, the Sun Temple and King’s residence. Apparently priests in the Sun Temple would endure isolation in a small room with only corn flour and water, praying in a small hole in the wall. That is dedication for you. There were numerous other interesting stories to go with the other areas of the ruins. The Incas culture is amazing, their architecture supreme in its design and endurance, their astrology exact and informative of agriculture.