Willandclaire’s Travels

Right, we did the Inca trail 4 days and 3 nights of hiking through the forest, jungle and along hi passes it was one of the best things that i have ever done. We went with a company called Lama Path that really care about the porters that we used ; there were 20 porters for the 16 people in our group and they carry everything from the chairs you sit on for meals to the tents and food for 3 meals a day – then laden like donkeys they RUN along the trail they carry 25Kgs each – madness.

First day saw us climbing from a nice level ground up and along a few passes taking in a couple of Inca ruins that mrked the old Inca trail ; buildings of checkpoints and storage sheds and what not. Then we climbed higher and could sea snow caps on distant mountsin. Breath taking. We camped half way up the highest mountain on the trek at some 3200m and had some awesome food. I loved the fact that even on the Inca trail our chef could nock up hi quality nosh and loads of it, i quickly became known to all others int he group as a fat bastard after eating everything in site.

Day 2 – We tackled dead womens pass some 4200m high – it was hard going the altitude really gets to you and the shortness of breath really pisses you off. but still the porters run on : ) At the top of dead womens pass (so called as they found a dead Inca girls body there) we were in the clouds and it was great to see where we had come from. We lunched int he valley beyond that tackled the last moutain of the day at 400m whihc marks the edge of the Amazon Basin and can be seen by an emergence of ferns and moisture loving plants. We passed A round Inca Fort and more gaurd posts all cunningly appointed so as to throw and would be trackers off the trail and away fromthe ultimate destination of Macch Picchu. As we camped for the night we were on the edge of a plateau overlooking the dense veg of the Amazon basin below, the temp was noticably warmer.

In summary, on day 2 we climbed 2 mountains and climbed over 1200m which is just 100m less than the height of Ben Nevis in Scotland. We were hard core

Day 3 – saw us wander through Inca tunnel and descend to the old Inca astronomical site nestled in the cloud forest ‘Phuyupatamarca’ (meaning ‘Town in the Clouds’), from here we could see the mountains around Macha Picchu and the path down looked short – this was however a lie and it took ages for us to reach camp. After a little nap we wandered to see the 2nd most impressive sight on the Inca trail ‘Wiñay Wayna’ (‘Forever Young’) – this is a huge place with picture perfect concave terraces, it was an agricultural lab where the clever little Incas investigated micro climates to grow there 400 species of spuds – there is a 6 degree temp difference between top and bottom terrace. The place is stunning and ruin id the wrong word if they just added the thatched roofs then the place would be complete again, the water still flows int he ceremonial channels and it looks as if the Incas just upped and left….. actually this is what they did, and those pesky Spanish never found it to bugger it up.

Day 4 – Up at 4am to have caker for brekkie – then walked to Macch Picchu took about 1 hour and it was har dgoing but as we arrived at the sun gate for the first glimpse it was worth it, the city spawls ont he moutain side blow and looks impressive and exstenvie, there are numerous sectors to it and temples of Sun Earth Water and Sir, it is a great place and every step yields another pic. I scaled the moutain behind MP (called Huayna Picchu (2720m/8923ft)!!! ) for another great view then needed a shit so had to come down again and fast! GREat tour around the city by our guides Freddy and the sense of achievemnt was amazing. Claire did especially well as the altitude really messed with here and made her feel poo. We both loved it though.