The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

We had an early rise on Thursday after a couple of days exploring Cusco - a tourist ticket covers loads of sites here so we had the chance to visit a couple of museums as well as a few local Inca ruins to get the legs in shape for the Inca Trail!

The bus dropped us off at Km 82 where our trail began and what would be four days of trekking before we hit Machu Picchu on the Sunday. Everyone in our group, apart from Rich and I and another couple, had hired porters to carry their stuff the entire journey ... the four of us looked on with envy when we were struggling to attach roll mats and sleeping bags to our packs in the rain!

Off we go ...!

We eventually got going into day one of the trek - a fairly straightforward and flat morning led us to believe that it was in fact as´easy´as the guide had mentioned. After a really good three course lunch we cracked on into the afternoon where things started to get a little harder and a little more uphill. All in all, we covered around 14kms which made for tired legs and feet at the end of day one!

We arrived at our first campsite around 5pm in time for tea to find all the tents set up and dinner on the go. The porters carry absolutely everything we need from gas canisters to tents as well as four days worth of food and drink .... they fly past you at some speed too! These guys are ace, they cover the distance so quickly every day and each one carries around 30kgs worth of gear ... trust me, they fully deserve their tip at the end of the trek!

A porter flys past!

View from tent on the first night

After a cold non-sleep in the tent we were up bright and early to tackle day two, the most difficult day which involved a hike of 1km up followed by the same downhill on some knee-jarringly spectacular steps through cloud forest and mossies in order to make it over ´Dead Womans Pass´, the highest point on Trail at 4200m. It hurt so much! Hopefully the photies will do the scenery some justice as we were spoilt over the course of the trek by some spectacular views.

The nightly entertainment usually consisted of learning a few new card games (which helpfully breaks downs any language barriers!), shivering in the food tent from the cold and being well and truly entertained by a group of Irish girls who I reckon are pretty much going to laugh themselves around South America and keep everyone else amused at the same time!

A couple of the Irish ´lads´

Into day three - bliss compared to the previous two! We headed down from the mountains to a warmer climate and were safe in the knowledge that we had covered pretty much most of the Trail in the previous two days. A four hour morning trek and then straight to camp number three which had ..... A BAR!! After a tour around the local ruins, we hit the cerveza all looking forward to the final day.

Looking happy on day three!

We were woken at 4am on Sunday to trek the final two hours to Machu Picchu - it was raining so we were all praying the clouds would clear before we hit the Sun Gate which is where THE picture you always see is taken from. Sadly, we saw ´nowt from here so began plodding down the steps dodging llamas on the way.

Eeek, hope it clears!

It began to clear around 8am and Machu Picchu began to slowly unravel itself bit by bit - it was great to be on the ruins and piece together where everything is ... takes a while to appreciate how big the place is and you´re wowed by how the Incas built something so big in a place so high and so isolated. As expected, definitely the highlight of Peru so far and so glad we booked the Trail early enough to be able to get on!

Next stop Lake Titicaca, our last stop in Peru.