And of course because I had no camera case, I dropped my camera and had to manually pry the shutter closed after every photo. Tom also lost his glasses. We were the perfect adventurers...
So without the benefit of photos I will endeavor to decipher the series of explosive experiences which came close to breaking me.
Tom and I had been ambivalent about doing the trek with Tom's hernia and my missing bit of lung but when we arrived at Lima and met our tour guide Sebastion we were on a conveyor belt to the trek with no return.
Half of our group were sorted into the Quarry trek which was one day shorter. But us, no way, we were on the highway to hell. The only bonus was that the Quarry trekkers went to 4,500 meters and we only went to 4200 meters. Ours however had way more steps, was steeper and we had no donkeys.
Before we set off on the trek we had guided tours through Lima ( a miserable dark and gloomy place which is the capItal of the country), Cuzco ( a splendid old Spanish city built on top of Inca infrastructure) and Ollanttaytambo ( a very groovy 400 year old working highland town).
Everywhere we went we impressed by the friendliness of the people whether they could speak English or not. We had a lovely experience in a little village where they cooked us a vegetarian lunch and we tried guinea pig for the first and last time. It tasted a little like rabbit. The main diet of Peruvians is vegetable, rice, corn and potatoes. Unless you're in the cities where the main food is pizza and pasta. The scenery of the country side as we made our way towards the trek was starkly beautiful - soaring snow capped peaks and dusty little villages.
And at last we arrived at the check point where we had to have our passports stamped and off we set.
I knew immediately I was going to be challenged. This was supposed to be our easiest day but the high altitude and the up/down gradient made it far from easy. Anything with an incline hurt. My lung capacity seemed too small and my heart beat too quickly. I breathed through my mouth so it was constantly dry but my eyes and nose were both constantly streaming. We started hiking around 10.00 am and arrived at our first campsite at 6.00 pm. So 8 hours walking with an hour for lunch.
Early on the trek one girl got a serious nose bleed that wouldn't stop. We all waited in the boiling sun. Our backpacks were so heavy with 2 liters of water, two fleeces, raincoat and sunscreen and insect repellent.
After about half an hour one of the girls suggested sticking a tampon up the bleeding nose. Luckily the bleeding stopped. Our local guide, Wilbur, dubbed us Team Tampon from then on.
The trekking was hard - you needed to be constantly concentrating on your feet so that often the most astonishing mountains and flowers were caught only out of the corner of one eye.
All the meals on the trek were fairly formal experiences. The porters (who were remarkable for their speed, agility and ability to carry ridiculous amounts of luggage on their backs) set up a tent with a long table and chairs. Most meals were soup, chicken, fish or pasta with rice, quinoa and potatoes, all washed down with boiled water and tea. The chefs took their job very seriously and were never seen without their chef's hats.
I knew from day one that this was going to be an endurance test to end all endurance tests. I lagged behind the group constantly.
Lizette, the junior guide was assigned to herd me up like some errant sheep whispering "faster, faster, avanti."
At the end of day one we were all asleep in our tents by eight o'clock. There was no chance of privacy as the tents were jammed up together with no space between. The horror of going to the portable loo in the middle of the night cannot be described.
Our second day was as I knew it would be, the worst. We walked for 12 hours with one hour for lunch. It was 4 hours straight up to Warmiwanusca - Dead Woman's Pass at 4200 meters. Then we descended for an hour or so and then up to the second pass Runkuracay and the another 4 or so hours on to our camp site. Going up was torture and going down was no picnic. The thighs screamed and the ankles winced. Every step was taken with great caution so as not to slip and break an arm or a leg or a tooth. I thought of nothing but putting one foot in front of another, stopping, catching my breath and the repeating everything again and again and again. You had to be very careful because the paths were narrow an often slippery. Frequently there would be a sheer drop to the bottom of a ravine.
Everything was a supreme effort. There was no joy. I had no sense of achievement at the end because I was so bushed.
We were supposed to get to our camp site before night fall, but by 5.30 four of us were caught in the dark. They sent porters out with torches to escort us to camp. That night was the coldest - around zero degrees. Our sleeping bags were damp and the tents were sweating.
Day 3 was supposed to be easier. It was shorter - only five and a half hours but it was all up and down and quite hard. Another thing was that most of our party were deadly ill with barking coughs, flu, diarrhea and vomiting. At night I was kept awake by the hollow sounds of coughing and retching.
When we got to our third camp site we had lunch and went out to explore the ruins of Winay Wayna (Forever Young). This was for me, the highlight of the trek. There were only a few people wandering around the Inca ruins in the setting sun. Wilbur, our guide, gave a passionate if biased version of life as it would have been under the Incas. He dwelt mostly on llama sacrifices rather than the young human sacrifices that were made under Inca rule. We saw a humming bird AND we weren't WALKING!
Back to camp for our last night. Our tents were perched perilously on top of a steep hill. This was the only day we had the chance of a shower. We were allowed to use the porter's cold showers. These were truly stinky and revolting and COLD! The doors didn't close so I had Tom stand guard while I showered.
That night we slept in our clothes because we were leaving at 3.45 am next morning to do the two and a half hour walk to Machu Picchu. We were given a disgusting packed breakfast and off we started in the dark, guided by our flashlights. The stars were sensational, as they were every night.
We only went half an hour before we had to wait in a queue to get through to the Sun Gate. And then we set off slipping and sliding in the dark. Just as we thought we were there we were suddenly confronted by a sheer stone wall. This was not another staircase. It was a vertical incline we had to scale like a mountain. I was just holding myself together by a hair's breath. The whole track had been torture but there was no going back at any stage. The average age of our companions was thirty. They were constantly congratulating Tom and me for our ancient abilities.
And finally there was reprieve! We reached the Sun Gate and peered down at the miraculous ruins stretched about in the sunrise. I was too exhausted to do more than gasp, catch my breath and take a swig of water. It seemed like an anti-climax after so much effort. I burst into tears for no other reason than I could stop holding everything in. The combination of the extreme difficulty of the trek and the continual presence of dozens of people was not a great combination. We walked on down to the ruins and wandered around in the hot sun until it was time to catch the bus to Aguas Calientes to catch the train and bus back to Cuzco for a bit of R & R.
It was lovely to have a warm shower and sleep in a proper bed. I had to wash my hands twice to get the dirt off. My skin was dry and peeling off. I had developed huge eye bags.
We spent our day off shopping and using the internet at Starbucks. I even managed to convince Tom to visit the Spanish Cathedral.
And that was the end of the Inca Trail. My thoughts? Complicated to say the least. I would have enjoyed the Inca ruins more if I hadn't been completely shafted. I had bitten off more than I could chew. The pain wasn't worth the pleasure but I had done it hadn't I?
We still had one more adventure. Our trip down the Amazon. We flew out of Cuzco on Tom's birthday. He didn't seem very well and was coughing a lot. I gave him his presents and we finally left the high altitude that had made life harder for us. We went from very cold to humid jungle. We took the whole day to get to our Eco-lodge. We saw cayman (little crocodiles) and capybara (very large rodents) on the side of the river. The lodge had a Bali vibe and was quite gorgeous in a primitive way. We went for a night walk to look for spiders and snakes and then back for dinner and bed. No electricity or hot water - just candles and mosquito nets.
We were woken next morning to do a 13 kilometer jungle trek which ended with a canoe trip on a lake.
We saw Macaws, monkeys, spiders and thousands of brightly colored butterflies. It was extremely muddy. We were given gum boots to squelch our way along the trek. Because of the humidity it took over six hours to walk the trek. It was all too much for Tom. His cough had given way to a heavy flu. He took some antibiotics and went to bed. I went on the night river trip to see more wildlife. There was little to be seen so our boat driver suddenly reached into the water and fished out a cayman which he passed around proudly for us to examine. Then dinner and bed. I woke up sick as a dog and went on antibiotics too. Thank heavens we didn't feel this sick on the Inca trek. I couldn't have even done the 13 kilometer jungle trek feeling like this.
We spent the whole of next day traveling back to Lima in a sickly haze. We moved from jungle heat to Lima cold rain. Great for the metabolism. A warm shower and a final meal with our guide and fellow travelers and it is all over. Nearly seven hectic weeks beginning with our road trip, then Charlevoix and the finishing of the house and then the Peruvian adventure. Tonight we arrive in L.A for a couple of days with Joe and Aliza and then home. What a trip!
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