Inca Trail

We are officially back alive, although Phoebe insists she has a very sore achilles tendon.
It was probably the hardest thing both of us have ever done, as mostly it consisted of walking up a mountain- on winding staircases, and then down again in the rain. It was however a worthwhile experience, as the scenery was amazing and the people were lovely. We are completely tired and  I think our clothes might be unfit for the launderette, as we were hiking all day with no shower.

Day one:
On the first day we got up at 6, and then ate loads of breakfast (because it was free and we have to get our moneys worth. Next we got into a minibus and went to a village which is sponsored by the company we booked the trail with (Gap adventures). They support this village making sure they continue their way of life using traditional processes without the interference of globalisation. Phoebe bought a poncho... crazy times....

After the village we moved on to an Inca site called Pisac, which mainly consists of agricultural terraces and a religious sector, located not far into the Sacred Valley.

We stayed the night  in a place called Ollantaytambo which has another Inca site (and guess what there are a lot more to come). In case you didnt know, an Inca site is basically just walls, interesting walls but still walls. But there are different walls... pre inca walls... granite walls... lots of lovely walls.

Day Two:
This was day one of the actual Inca trail, with lots of walking and sweating. This day wasn't too hard as it was more of a warm up to get us acclimatised but still it was a bit of a shock, as neither of us had done any real exercise in a long time. We treked for around six hours but it was mostly flat and nothing compared to what was to come...

Day Three:
Possibly the worst day of my life. Literally. Actual hell. It was a little like the punishment of Sisyphus (eternal pushing of a boulder up a hill and then watching it roll back down), except unfortunately Phoebe was Sisyphus and I was the boulder.

This hill was imense in fact to get up to the killer hill you had to walk up something which was basically a mountain for two hours. Oh and I forgot to mention we didn't have trekking poles as we were too cheap to pay to hire them. At the top of the mountain is 'Dead woman's pass', at 4200metres (or as our guide liked to call it 'Gringo killer'), the peak forms the shape of a nipple which made the experience all the more surreal and emotionally traumatic.

And then of course what comes up must come down... The down part was wet, and the Inca's really couldnt get enough of stairs. They couldnt even make nice straight ones. However, on a postive note Phoebe discovered her true talent. Down hill hiking.

Day Four:
More Inca ruins and a lot more rain.

Day Five:
We woke up at 3 in the morning becasue there is only allowed to be 500 people inside Machu Picchu at once because of crowding issues, this means that it is a race to be first to get throught the gate which opens at 5.30, and even then it was a 2 hour hike in the rain to get to the Sun gate which is where you finally get a view of the famous site. Obviously they weren't going to make it easy... For one, our guide was playing cringey 80's music which is not what you want to hear at 4 in the morning waiting in the pitch black rain for a kiosk to open in a hour and a halfs time. But, we were the first group in line... and Phoebe was the second person to reach the Sun gate.

On top of that those fun loving Inca's added monkey steps (virtical climb more like) in the forest just to make our journey more pleasant and to make us wetter and considerably more dirty, (I'm sorry mum for not brushing my hair in the photos... it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.)
When we finally reached the top it was really cloudy as we were in a cloud forest so we couldn't really see that much of MP at that point anyway but that didn't stop it being beautiful.

During the day the sun came up and it was quite hot. Machu Picchu is beautiful, and it is incredible that the Spanish found it necessary to destroy such an interesting and unthreatening civillisation. It was discovered by a man called Hiram Bingham (only an american would call their child Hiram), who found it by surprise when a little boy led him there, as it was a site long known by the local people. Since then a great deal of it has been re-built with the rocks that had fallen and it is now a MASSIVE tourist hot spot filled with half of Japan and China, donned in Machu Picchu hats with attatched mosquito nets, gloves, face masks and all. There are also a lot of people like my dad skulking around with cameras desperately fighting to get the best picture- or most of the time picture of someone else taking a picture (arty). But it was amazing, so you can completely understand why people go. Oh and they use llamas to cut the grass (llamowers) and sometimes the llamas just stand in the middle of walkways creating havok with terrified old ladies and also making substancial traffic jams.