Our sole purpose on coming to Peru was to visit Machu Picchu. When we signed up to visiting the lost Inca city I understood that you had to walk 4 days to get to it and the prize was to look down on the city from what is known as the “sun gate” then you and the few people that have walked the 41km with you would be “granted” access to the city. (In fact I had been game in trying to organise a game of hide and seek amongst the city’s ruins with our fellow travellers.)
Well, what a pile of lies. In fact I feel cheated, I’ll explain why later…
Anyway, our 7 day trip started with a welcome meeting the day before to explain what we could expect and what we would need to take with us. It became quickly apparent that we wouldn’t need to be digging holes in the ground to poo in and that we wouldn’t need to be eating cold beans out of a can. Both of which complement the other… We were told that we would need to be up ready for a 6am bus to the airport to fly to Cusco where we would meet up with the rest of our hide-and-seek team.
After arriving at Cusco we made our way to the bus, ready to take us to our hostel for the night and were confronted with women offering us “coca” to which I replied “Nah love I’m not thirsty”. Straight away our tour guide (Roger – A popular Inca name I’m told…) corrected me and told me it was Coca leaf she was offering me. Now, I don’t know much but I do know that Cocaine comes from Coca and it’s not good for you, this woman didn’t look like your usual typical drug pusher. For one she didn’t have a BMW, she wasn’t wearing any stone island clothing and wasn’t on the phone all the time. However, Roger informs us all that Coca is legal here and is used for altitude sickness (Cuzco is 3300meters above sea level and the highest point of the trail was 4250meters) and would help us to deal with altitude along the hike, so I decided to buy a bag off the woman and get on the bus, Roger explained that I should start chewing the Coca to feel its effects. After arriving at our hostel, checking in and getting our bags up to the room on the 3rd floor, a feat I managed in less than 5 seconds, I was up for meeting our fellow travellers.
The rest of the day was spent getting to know everyone and a brief tour of Cuzco city we were told that we could take 6kg of clothing with us on the hike and the rest of our clothes would need to stay in Cuzco. So Leah and I spent the rest of the evening trying to get most of the stuff we’d need over the next 5 days into a 6kg bag. Pretty simple for me pants, socks, welsh top, towel, torch, pair of shorts and my tooth brush. It wasn’t quite so easy for Leah however, 4 hours later and the early night we’d had planned had gone out of the window.
Now another side effect of altitude sickness that I hadn’t been prepared for was indecision. I’d packed my bag in about 10mins and spent the rest of the night sat watching some dodgy Spanish dubbed film while Leah packed and unpacked her “essentials” to get her under the 6kg weight limit. As I watched her pack her I doubted that I’d packed my welsh top now I had to have this to get to Machu Picchu, so I checked my bag and I had. Phew, get back to bed I thought. 30mins later and I was back out of bed, panicking that I’d not packed my towel again, fortunately I had. Then as Leah was getting into bed, I suddenly thought that I hadn’t packed my torch, by this time I was well into the film and decided that it was obviously the altitude playing funny buggers with me or the bag of Coca I had chewed throughout the day… (I’ll let you decide.. My money was on the altitude)
We left the following morning to start the tour and arrive at where we would be spending a night in a village called Ollantaytambo (Pronounced oyan-tay-tambo). An hour bus ride through some of the most dramatic countryside I’ve seen since my last drive to Aberystwyth and we get to a little community, where the wives of all the porters that would be accompanying us on the hike worked. Here they spent their time producing ponchos, hats, gloves and more scarfs than you can shake a stick at. We leave here with some hats and a poncho, why I don’t know as we’re going into the southern hemisphere’s summer but Leah tells me that we’ll need them on the hike as it can drop below zero at night!!!
The following day is the start of the hike and we get to the start armed with our day bags, sunhats and walking poles. Somehow we become ramblers overnight… Anyway 5km later and we arrive at the lunch stop and I’m hoping for some sandwiches and maybe a pack of Wotsits but we get a lot more than this. In fact, we get a 3 course lunch in a tent by the side of a river, fantastic! I can get use to this! After lunch, we rest then continue walking and get to the nights camp site with our tents already set up and a bucket full of the local brew – amazing. We rest, have a beer and get ready for bed. (This is almost too good to be true..)
The next morning we wake up at 5:30 to the most amazing view I can honestly say I’ve seen (aside from a fully cooked English done by my mam…) see below and see if you think it compares…
After breakfast we set off on day 2 and 12km, which included the highest point of the entire 4 day hike, 4250 meters and a place called “Dead womans pass”. After a full 5 hours walking uphill, we get to the point together, this was most definitely a significant achievement for us both and we were really looking forward to a rest and a beer! However, what goes up must come down our campsite is at 3300 meters and we spend the next few hours going down, down and down. We get to camp and to our surprise the chefs that have been cooking for us have baked us 2 cakes to celebrate the achievement of passing the highest point. Now baking a cake is an involved process when you’ve got a fully equipped kitchen and a fully operating oven, but these guys have only a gas bottle and a few pots and pans which they carry the whole Inca trail and these guys create two different flavours (One Orange and the other Chocolate covered in jelly)
The final day sees us getting up before sunrise (4am!) ready to get to the “Sun Gate” where we were told we could look down on Machu Picchu from afar and see the sunrise, something that Leah was definitely looking forward to and something that I thought would be “Tidy”. Anyway we get up and set off, after queuing for the trail to open up we eventually get to the Sun Gate, well I think it should be renamed to “There’s-nothing-to-see-gate-when-its-cloudy-and-because-it-was-so-far-the-sun-is-already-up” not as catchy but honest and true for when we got there.
The following picture proves this…
We start our descent to Machu Picchu, en route we meet up with an American couple coming the other way. We’re both dressed in our welsh tops, proud as punch of this and they congratulate us both, as this was Sunday morning and Wales had played Fiji on Friday night. I thought, fair play if this American pair are congratulating us we must have stuffed them. (I initially thought that at their age that they were a bit brave in walking back up the hill that they must have walked down a few minutes ago but must have really wanted more photos with the Llamas en route so I discounted their freshness) So we continued to Machu Picchu to meet the rest of our team, all aware of my desire to play hide-and-seek.
After arriving there, we get the necessary photos with the city in the background (by this time the cloud had lifted, thank god…). Sadly it became clear that hide and seek wasn’t on the cards as it’s a place of national and world heritage and a few sections (of most hide-and-seek ability) were out of bounds, gutted isn’t the word.
The final part of the trip is Roger explaining the key facts of Machu Picchu and how the Inca’s built this city. After two hours he explained that we would be travelling back down the mountain using the bus that had ferried all the other tourists up to the city. Hang on, I thought. We walked 41km to get to this place over 4 days and these bastards get here on the back up of a 16 seater… Unfair is not the word!
(BTW: As soon as I got to my laptop I found out that Wales hadn’t beaten Fiji so I guess the Americans must have been congratulating us on walking 41km over 4 days.. Cheers. :-( )
Our final night was spent in Cusco and as a group we all go out for a meal and over a few days I’ve given Roger and his side kick Rhody (AKA Antonio Banderas) plenty of banter and they’ve explained to me and one of the other lads that the local delicacy is guinea Pig. So being a typical welsh bloke I don’t show any fear and order their finest guinea pig for my plate that evening (Thankfully they suggest that me and Dave share it.)
A few beers later and its tea time. Dave and I sit next to each other and the guinea pig is delivered to us on a plate, whole! Head, legs and claws in one… Now I was hoping for plenty of meat to tuck into but unfortunately they delivered us the Peter Crouch of guinea pigs and this bugger is as skinny and long as I’ve ever seen. They cut it up in four, remove the head and deliver it back to us.
The pictures below can describe it better than I can…
Disgustingly Roger eats the head and the brain and is pretty much the happiest boy in the park at this time leaving on the side of our plate the bloody jaw of the thing… What did it taste like? No, it didn’t taste like chicken, in fact it tasted very rubbery and smelt of plastic and I definitely won’t be rushing back for it in future.
In all seriousness though, Roger and Rhody looked after us a treat and taught us a lot about the history of the Incas and kept us ticking over when the altitude got to us both. The porters and the chefs that accompanied us en route are legends, they ran the route ahead of us, each complete with 25kg on their back containing all that we’d need for the trek. In fact one of our porters, actually holds the world record for running the full 41km of the Inca trail in 3 ¾ hours! (This is mental, I don’t think I could cover day 2 in 3 & ¾ hours..)
To celebrate his achievement we had a photo with the dude, as you can see he looks the happier one to be meeting us.
Our final day in Peru was spent showering and chilling out, I’d seen guys paragliding on the front at Miraflorres and had always wanted a go, thankfully the wind was good and I managed to get my chance at it. It was fantastic, so smooth and something that Leah definitely has to do somewhere on this trip.
Right that’s enough from me, thank you Peru you were great. The flight to Rio has nearly ended and I’ve missed all the films that were on offer, time to get some sleep.
More to come from Rio with a bit of luck….
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