Inka Trail

We arrived today in Aquas Calientas (¨Hot Water¨) after 4 days on the Inka Trail.

Day 1
We got picked up from our hotel at 9am by our guide Lucho. Lucho was great, he speaks great english and is very nice. We had to pick up a few more things from the office so we had to go by the main square. While there we were able to watch a parade of all the police and rescue personel. Kind of neet, I guess its something they do every Sunday but its a different organization every week.
We were then off to pick up our porters in Outumbo (sp? will update when we actaully know how to spell it). Our porters are local Kechuen people who Mayuc (the group we booked our trip through) always uses. By the time we picked everything and everyone up we were off to kilometer 82. By the time we got there it was time for lunch. We had our first experience with the food that we were going to be in store for during our trip. First we had soup, then a vegie and chicken stir fry thing. Was actaully kind of good considering the suroundings, a dirt parking lot in the middle of no where. Once we finished our lunch we started on our first day of hiking. After about 20 minutes of walking Jeanne really had to use the bathroom and was practically running up the hills and along the trail. Because we were going at such a good pace we made it to our scheduled camp site around 2pm. Our guide then decided to go a little further. We ended up camping in a little medow area right next to a small river or large stream. There was even a donkey grazing as we got into camp. He really could care less that we were there, he just went on eating away. We got into camp early and had such a good pace going we arrived at the same time as our porters did. This meant that dinner was still a few hours away so we just relaxed and enjoyed our surroundings. While we were waiting for dinner our porters set up a litttle camp table complete with table cloth, flowers, place settings and hot water for tea, coffee or coco. We enjoyed our hot drink while waiting for dinner( this table was set like this for each meal we had, breakfast, lunch and dinner). For dinner we again had soup, something yummy for dinner and then a bannana custard for dessert.
Day 2
We awoke to our porter at our tent door with hot tea and warm water to wash with (we got this treatmeant every morning). We had omlets for breakfast and hit the trail about 8:10 am. We were camped a little before all the other groups but by the time we reached where they had been there was no sign of them. Since we went a little further the first day our guide decided that we would make the first big pass of the trail today. We ended up having lunch in the locaton that we were supposed to camp and figured our guide was correct. The first big pass that we had took us up almost 3,000ft to a total of just under 14,000ft. The trail was long and gruling with a lot of steps along the way. Once we reached the top we were able to hang out with the lamas and enjoy the view. The bad part about going up 3,000 ft was that we had to go down about 2,000 to our camp site. The way down was a whole lot more stairs. Not sure what was worse, the way up or all those steps on the way down. We got to camp around 4:00pm, again not long after our porters. Since we were hiking so fast, we passed about 1/2 the other groups on trail. As it turns out we ended up staying in the same location as everyone else. This wasn´t really that bad becuase we were a little ways away from them. For dinner we had soup, beef stew over rice and strawberry jello for dessert. Not bad considering this is our second night on the trail and no electricity. Once we finished dinner we hit the sack around 8 and listened to the rain most of the night. This was really the only rain we ran into on our whole trip. There was a lot of misty clouds that we walked through but nothing that bad.
Day 3
Woke up to after a cold night to hot tea and warm wash water. We had oatmeal for breakfast, that was really yummy and hit the trail around 8:40. Since we were in the same camp as everyone else we were easily able to tell we were the LAST ones to leave camp. When we finally got out of our tents we could already see people hiking up the second pass. This pass was much steaper but not quite as high. By the time we reached the top of the pass and started down the other side we had managed to pass just about everyone else on the trail. From the time we summited the pass it was all steep stairs down to about 9,000 ft. This was a very long day, we didn´t make it to lunch until around 12:30 and were ready for a break. The location where we ate our lunch was again supposed to be our camping location of the day. Given the fact that we reached it at 12:30 our guide had us eat lunch and continue on to the next large camping area. As we were on our way to lunch our guide told us to go ahead because he had to get some stamps on our tickets (check point). This meant we were hiking for about 1 1/2 hours on our own. We were starting to wonder where lunch was since it was so cloudy we couldn´t see where we were going most of the time. We knew we weren´t lost since the trail is well marked considering its all paved with stones. It got to a point where we just heard some voices and followed those to our lunch area. We left lunch to continue our downhill approach to our next final camping area. We were the first hikers to arrive at the camping area and since we were officially supposed to be there we had a little difficulty finding our cook and porters. We decided since it was still early, around 3:30, and we were the first ones in, that we would take a cold shower. This was a little colder than we bargined for and ended up just rinsing off as fast as possible. The doors didn´t have locks on them so we held them for each other and while Rick was in the shower he was yelling when he got into the water and I was sitting outside laughing since I had just gotten out. Not much of a view in the evening becuase we were still in the clouds so we just ate our dinner and went to bed. Dinner tonight was soup, pasta, vanilla pudding and hot drink.
Day 4
We got up a little bit earlier today, 7:00 instead of 7:15am. We were met with apple pancakes and hot drink. Before we left camp we were formally introduced to all our porters, 5 of them, and our cook, Sergio. Each of the porters dressed in their traditional dress and gave us their name and age. We were then off to the Sun Gate and then onto our final destination of Machu Picchu. Todays hike was only around 1 1/2 hours. It was mostly what they call Inka flat, this means mostly flat with some rolling hills a few steps until we reached the base of the Sun Gate. The trip to the sun gate was the stepest we had encountered yet, but it only took about 20 minutes to get to the top. It had been clear all morning so we figured it would be clear when we got to the Sun Gate but we were wrong. We got to the top and as we peered off the other side we were supposed to be able to see the entire city of Machu Picchu. Instead we saw a great wall of white. We hung out here for a few minutes with the hope that the coulds would disperse enough that we could see the city below. We were not dissapointed. After just a short time the clouds cleared and we were awed by the view.
Machu Picchu
From the Sun Gate it was another 20 minutes or so until we reached the actual city. As we walked the clouds cleared even more and we ended up taking a lot of pictures as we went. We will create a photo album to post once we get home. Our guide took us on a tour of the city and gave us a small history lesson of the area. The city has been restored to about 70% to 80% of what it had been and it was absolutly amazing. There are aqueducts that run through the city that even today still have water in them, the architecture is just amazing. They have massive stones that are fit together so well that even today a piece of paper woudn´t fit in the cracks. The city even has its own lamas that roam around. Our guide mentioned that they are the most famous lamas in the world. Their pictures span the globe.

Tomorrow we plan to go back to the city and hike to Hyanapicchu (pronounced Wanapicchu). This hike should only take us about 45 minutes to get to the top of the mountain but its going to be the hardest and steepest that we have had yet. Considering how sore and tired my legs are, its going to take all I´ve got to make it to the top. Of course Rick feels great so there is no getting out of it. There also happens to be a geochace at the top so there is no talking him out of it.
Just kidding, we came all this way, I don´t care how tired I/we are we are going to make it up the mountain.

We are off to rest up for tomorrow, We will make another update we reach Cusco, before we leave for the airport to head to Colombia.

Good Night
Jeanne and Rick