15-18 March
The Inca Trail, which instigated our trip to South America, finally arrived and we weren't disappointed, except that Sally Munro was unable to join us due to her not getting her A into G in time.
It was a tough 4 day walk - we were chuffed when Celso, our guide, told the two of us that we were good hikers and asked about our previous experience..(!?) This was no great feat considering a few of the other 4 members of our group suffered various
hindrances; Diana flew in from the USA a few days before the trail and so had some difficulty with the altitude, Kris overexerted himself on the 1st day in order to keep up with us, so stressing his knees in the process and requiring our medical attention and patience for the rest of the trip! His wife, a South African (and the only South African we've met so far!) who has lived in London for the last 9 years and is now moving to Oz (sounds familiar..Gayle?), has lost her SA accent and unpatriotically badmouthed her home country, much to our disgust! Maarten worked hard over Dead Woman's Pass to keep up with us, but on the 2nd day was leading the group.
We did the trail with Llama Path who we found very organised but to some extent we felt we were unnecessarily treated like royalty; basins of hot water met us at every meal to wash our faces and hands with a porter standing close by to pass us our facecloths, 3 course meals at every meal, high tea including milo and our tents pitched awaiting our arrival at each campsite. Nevertheless, we had a great team spirit with the porters cheering for us whenever we left or arrived at camp and us cheering them on whenever they overtook us on the trail. It was intimidating having the snake of red (our porters wearing their red uniforms) charging up the mountain behind you carrying packs more than 4x the size and weight of ours, containing dinner tents, chairs, tables and gas cylinders! The physiotherapist amongst us was very happy to see all our porters wore back supports and specially made rucksacks with comfortable straps in comparison to porters from other companies who had pieces of rope cutting into their shoulders and underarms. Our porters definitely looked the fittest and happiest.
The scenery was unbelievable and varied - jagged peaks, lots of steep mountian passes and steps, dense forest areas and inca archaeological sites along the way. These sites would have been resting places for messengers and travellers, small communities or temples. Strangely this was the first time in all our walks in South America where we heard birds and frogs AND we even saw a bear eating a deer on the mountain side!
On our final day, we woke up at 4am to be first in line at the control point to Machu Picchu with the hope of seeing the sun rise at the Sun Gate. This hour and a half final walk in the dark with our head torches, turned out to be stressful and hair raising as over eager and aggresive gringos raced and pushed past you on narrow cliff paths to be at the Sun Gate first - all in vain as on arrival there was thick cloud obscuring the view of Macchu Picchu! As we descended, the clouds lifted and we saw Macchu Picchu for the first time illuminated by the early morning sun. This sight made the last 3 days so much more rewarding as opposed the lazy tourists who merely caught the train up that morning (we were however very jealous of their fresh and sweet soap smelling aroma).
Celso gave us a insightful tour around Macchu Picchu and then he left us to explore on our own. We found a perfect spot for a quick snack until we were whistled at from the other side of the ruin by an angry official, for being in a restricted area. Our exploration of the ruin ended prematurely with a short power nap on a grassy patch. It was only when we awoke with sleep lines on our faces that we realised our position was in the view from the prime photographic point - all tourists visiting Macchu Picchu on the 18th March were graced with 3 comatosed blonde gringos in their photos!
It was an incredible experience, only wished that more of our friends from back home were there to share it with us.
The Inca Trail, which instigated our trip to South America, finally arrived and we weren't disappointed, except that Sally Munro was unable to join us due to her not getting her A into G in time.
It was a tough 4 day walk - we were chuffed when Celso, our guide, told the two of us that we were good hikers and asked about our previous experience..(!?) This was no great feat considering a few of the other 4 members of our group suffered various
hindrances; Diana flew in from the USA a few days before the trail and so had some difficulty with the altitude, Kris overexerted himself on the 1st day in order to keep up with us, so stressing his knees in the process and requiring our medical attention and patience for the rest of the trip! His wife, a South African (and the only South African we've met so far!) who has lived in London for the last 9 years and is now moving to Oz (sounds familiar..Gayle?), has lost her SA accent and unpatriotically badmouthed her home country, much to our disgust! Maarten worked hard over Dead Woman's Pass to keep up with us, but on the 2nd day was leading the group.
We did the trail with Llama Path who we found very organised but to some extent we felt we were unnecessarily treated like royalty; basins of hot water met us at every meal to wash our faces and hands with a porter standing close by to pass us our facecloths, 3 course meals at every meal, high tea including milo and our tents pitched awaiting our arrival at each campsite. Nevertheless, we had a great team spirit with the porters cheering for us whenever we left or arrived at camp and us cheering them on whenever they overtook us on the trail. It was intimidating having the snake of red (our porters wearing their red uniforms) charging up the mountain behind you carrying packs more than 4x the size and weight of ours, containing dinner tents, chairs, tables and gas cylinders! The physiotherapist amongst us was very happy to see all our porters wore back supports and specially made rucksacks with comfortable straps in comparison to porters from other companies who had pieces of rope cutting into their shoulders and underarms. Our porters definitely looked the fittest and happiest.
The scenery was unbelievable and varied - jagged peaks, lots of steep mountian passes and steps, dense forest areas and inca archaeological sites along the way. These sites would have been resting places for messengers and travellers, small communities or temples. Strangely this was the first time in all our walks in South America where we heard birds and frogs AND we even saw a bear eating a deer on the mountain side!
On our final day, we woke up at 4am to be first in line at the control point to Machu Picchu with the hope of seeing the sun rise at the Sun Gate. This hour and a half final walk in the dark with our head torches, turned out to be stressful and hair raising as over eager and aggresive gringos raced and pushed past you on narrow cliff paths to be at the Sun Gate first - all in vain as on arrival there was thick cloud obscuring the view of Macchu Picchu! As we descended, the clouds lifted and we saw Macchu Picchu for the first time illuminated by the early morning sun. This sight made the last 3 days so much more rewarding as opposed the lazy tourists who merely caught the train up that morning (we were however very jealous of their fresh and sweet soap smelling aroma).
Celso gave us a insightful tour around Macchu Picchu and then he left us to explore on our own. We found a perfect spot for a quick snack until we were whistled at from the other side of the ruin by an angry official, for being in a restricted area. Our exploration of the ruin ended prematurely with a short power nap on a grassy patch. It was only when we awoke with sleep lines on our faces that we realised our position was in the view from the prime photographic point - all tourists visiting Macchu Picchu on the 18th March were graced with 3 comatosed blonde gringos in their photos!
It was an incredible experience, only wished that more of our friends from back home were there to share it with us.
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