Head in the Clouds!!

One of my main things I wanted from this trip was to do the Inca trail, it's been a dream of mine for as long as i can remember so despite the early morning (no, I'm still not a morning person!!) it was exciting that I was finally about to do it!!! We were up at 5am (it still hurt, despite my excitement!!) for a 6am pick up. We'd chosen a company called SAS Travel to go with as along the way I've had several people recommend them, they were a little more expensive than some of the other companies but well worth the extra, esp given some of the horror stories I heard afterwards!!!

Anyway, first of all I should explain, it wasn't the official Inca Trail trek we were about to embark on... despite being aware that it was neccessary to book a good few months in advance, as i didn't know when i was going to make it there until a mere 6 weeks or so before I arrived in South America, it was impossible to book... so instead we opted for an alternative trek... the Lares Trek- a 4 day Mountain Valley trek that still ends up at Machu Picchu, the only disappointing thing being that you don't get to enter through the Sun Gate... but I was on my way and that was enough for me!

DAY 1 (Friday 6th October): So, at 6am.. a group of very sleepy people rolled out of Cusco on a bus en route to the starting point of our trek; Calca. About an hours drive toook us to this small town where we stopped for breakfast and supplies at the market, then it was really on to the starting point and the morning began with a 3 hour trek across the Andean mountain valleys. We were to become very accustomed to drinking lots of coca tea and chewing on the leaves to help us with the whole altitude thing. Despite having been at high altitudes for a while now, i was still getting nose bleeds and constantly getting breathless, a horrible feeling that makes me feel even more unfit than I am!!

We made it to our lunch spot in record time... I obviously started as i meant to continue and took up my position bringing up the rear of the group.... slow and steady people, slow and steady.. and were treated to a surprisingly good feast. Given that the team of cooks etc with us had limited resources in the middle of the andes with nowt but a tent and goodness knows what contractions to cook anything with, the food throughout the trek was brilliant, always really tasty, the veggies amoung us well catered for and popcorn, tea and snacks always provided when we arrived at our campsite each evening.... a nice and unexpected but very welcome touch.. one that you can see me trying to warm up over, with my rosy cheeks, in the pic here!!

Anyway, i digress... luckily we reached our lunch tent just as the hail started and were happily tucking into our food while that got itself out of the way in time for our afternoon activities. First up was a short drive on the bus to some hot springs.. not sure exactly where they were but they were gratefully recieved.... having revived ourselves in the springs we set off for our afternoon hike that would take us to our first campsite... the scenery throughout the day had been amazing and continued to be so for the afternoon. There was a fair bit if uphill (not my fave I'll admit) so i was exhausted by the time we reached our home for the night.... standing at 3700m the Huacawasi Community was where our tents were pitched and the locals awaiting us.

Along the route you come across many locals and children, we were naturally armed with plently of pressies for the kids.. colouring pencils and the like... or I'm not sure we'd have made it out of their alive. The locals are lovely and very welcoming and the kids are just the cutest, one thing I do find sad though is that many of them will now approach you and will outright tell you to take their picture in exchange for presents, alot of them seem very ungrateful too.. it seems a shame that these kids have become accustomed to expect material things from passing tourists but I guess we only have ourselves to blame!

Our first night was spent in the tent, feasting on a lush dinner, playing cards (Lotty, Graham and Andy... I've been spreading the Sevens, Hearts and Chase the Ace word you'll be pleased to know!!), trying to keep warm and getting to know each other a little better. We had quite an eclectic mix in our group, some kiwi's, an american, us 2 english girlies, an Austrian, dutch and any other nationalities I've forgotten to mention... apologies Team Inca.. I'm hungover as I write this and my brain's not working all that well!! All in all it was a good start to the trek, we'd survived the first day, everyone seemed nice and Katy and I tucked outselves up in our tent for the night, with our thermals on and the makeshift hot water bottles that Justin has fashioned from our water bottles for us all... (they did the trick nicely.. good work Justin!!) and praying that we didn't need to venture out to the loo in the night!! (Pic here is of the view from where our tents were pitched that night btw.)

There was just one thing that damped the day for me......... just as we started our first trek that morning I got my camera out (I was well prepared for the thousands of pics i would be taking over the next 4 days) only for my camera, after 10 months of flawless service to chose this moment to break!!! yep, can you believe it, the infamous Canon's, apparently not technically recognised as a fault but actually pretty fatal for a camera, E18 error appeared on my screen, my lense jammed and that was that... I was cameraless and not a happy girlie!! Thankfully Katy had her camera and everyone else promised me copies of their pics.. all very much appreciated everyone btw.... although I was still yearning for my little Canon, being the snap happy wannabe photographer that i am... but oh well, I have it all in my head too!!

DAY 2: Today dawned bright and early... a 6am breakfast followed by a house visit in the Huacawasi community and I hve to say.... it really does show what a multitude of luxuries we have and take for granted every day... the house was just one small room and housed a family of about 8 I believe.... including Grandma - shown in the pic along with Mum and eldest daughter here!! There were guinea pigs running around everywhere and a big carcass of something, not sure i want to know what, hanging from the ceiling, the floor was simply a dirt floor and the bed covers were Llama skins..... it's amazing how these people live. I certainly couldn't do it.

After our visit with the family we set off on our morning trek..... Day 2 is notorious for being the hardest day and we soon discovered why.... a 4 hour up hill trek across the Ibsacocha Pass (4400m) which even the stunning views over the Cordillera Vilcanota couldn't disguise this hike as being anything but bloody hard... and just to make it harder for us.... the weather decided not to be as kind to us as yesterday too..... it started with a little rain but quickly turned to a lot of rain and by the time we reached the lake beside which we were having lunch we were all soaked through and shivering.. with no way of drying out we just spent our lunch time complaining alot... poor Justin must've been sick of us right then!! The food was good though and once we'd filled our bellies we decided the best thing was just to get on and get the afternoon trek underway, we were all freezing and the weather didn't appear to be getting brighter.... in fact, it was to get worse!!! The pic here was taken close to the beginning of said section... clearly I wasn't looking even close to this spritely by half way through, let alone come the end!!

The 3 hour afternoon trek to the Patacancha Community where we were staying that night was relatively flat, with a little downhill.... so it wasn't the actual trek that hindered us... more the hail and snow that found it's way to every part of us as we trudged across the Andes, all bundled up in our waterproofs and anything else we could find to keep us even remotely warm (we'd given up on staying dry) every now and then I'd peek out from under my waterproof (I had two on and was still soaked and freezing) and take a look around me, the scenery in the Andes really is stunning and didn't cease to amaze me once in the whole 4 days and the altitude meant that we were literally walking in the clouds at times. It was awesome! In the end the whole weather thing just became comical, we were all so wet, a few people had fallen over, Katy included.. I'd only narrowly saved myself from falling at one point too and we all just decided we may as well laugh or we'll cry. The pic on the right here might give you a little idea of the conditions we were enduring that day!!! Fun fun!! and the one of the left was taken early on, apart from yours truly in action in it, I like it cos it shows just how close we were to the clouds!!

I think I can safely speak for the rest of the group too when I say never have tents been a more welcome sight than when we reached the campsite that evening.... somehow our team of cooks and porters had managed to get the tents up and get the dinner on and we set about somehow making ourselves slightly dry and warm - ish.... unfortunately for Chris (the American among us) he only had one set of clothes so had to stay in his wet stuff all evening....... not nice! We all gave our trainers to Justin to put by the fire in the hope they'd be dry for the morning... they weren't!!! The evening, unsurprisingly didn't last too long, thanks to everyone being wet through after some more cards and dinner we all headed to our tents in our vain attempts to warm ourselves up. I think I slept through pure exhuastion.... it was a really tough day for me, my hip had begun to hurt the previous day and a 4 hour uphill trek on it hadn't helped but I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself for getting through it.... and not succumbing to the temptation to get on the back of the horse that was walking alongside us to scoop up anyone that felt they couldn't carry on.

DAY 3: We were up again bright and early today and relieved to see that the skies looked pretty clear. We had some locals come and lay out some textiles and things for us to check out before leaving the campsite... a welcome sight as my gloves were still soaked through and i figured the 10 soles (about 1.20 GBP!) was worth forking out to keep my hands warm. We'd survived the hardest day and today's walk, although 4 hours long was mostly downhill, if not flat, so not too daunting and a welcome rest for my hip. The descent took us into the town of Ollamtaytambo, at a lower altitude of 2900m and with some impressive Inca ruins.. shown in the pic on the left here) where we had lunch at one of the restaurants (although still prepared by our fab team of cooks.. pictured with us all in the last pic on this entry... our fab guide Justin is the guy knelt in the front of us all with the white cap) then we had an hour or so free time to wander round the towns markets. We also got to try the local speciality; Cheeka (I think that's what it's called anyway).... it's very potent and not really that nice i have to admit but it's offensive not to drink it once you've bought it apparently.... thankfully Chris, Johnny and Justin, and one of the girls i think but i can't remember which, did a good job of finishing it off!! Good work you lot! (Below is Katy partaking in the delicacy!) There was also a random local girl who came to sing us a song... I don't mean to be offensive but she was just plain odd! I don't even know how to describe her!!

Once our free time was all used up we headed for the train station.... our walking over for the day we boarded the train to Aguas Calientes, the town that sits at the bottom of Machu Picchu and where we would be staying that night... in a hostel with hot showers and not a tent.. i can't tell you how excited we all were about this!!!! The train journey was long and hot and filled with some comedy american tourists exclaiming their 'Oh my Gawds' at every little leaf they saw from the window but it was all worth it when we finally got there and soaked ourselves in those showers... although i did then discover that my foolishness of not putting suncream on my face that day had taken it's toll.... I had a nose worthy of Rudolph and I've not doubt Katy will take alot of amusement from assuring you all that that is a very accurate description!! It's only just stop peeling and this was 3 weeks ago now!!!! haha!!

The evening was again a pretty short one, Chris and Jacqueline ventured up to the towns hot springs but Katy and I along with everyone else decided the hot showers were enough for us. Katy and I did manage to join Pami and Caro for a cheeky drink in town before dinner though, along with me firing off a panicked, 'help please research this horrid camera error and find a way to fix it for me' email to my Mum, Brother and Sister... in the hope one of them would reply sharpish. Lottie came up trumps with the research although it wasn't really want I wanted to hear and needless to say i was still cameraless the next day when Machu Picchu came into sight!! Ah well!!
We all had dinner together that night and voted unanimously that we wanted to climb up to Machu Picchu and not get the bus (as if... we'd made it this far, I wasn't about to give up and take the easy option now!!) I'm not sure Justin was overjoyed at the thought, I'm sure he's had to climb it with annoyingly enthusiastic groups many a time but he rose to the occasion well and that was that, decision made, we headed to bed to get some much needed sleep in a proper bed before leaving them at stupid o'clock the next morning in order to make it to the top for sunrise!!! I have to admit even though i was exhausted and my hip was killing me, the thought that i would be at Machu Picchu in a few short hours was soooooooo exciting!! I'd really enjoyed the trek, even with the weather and hills, but this was what it was all about.. I couldn't wait!! xx