Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 19

Rhys woke up with a hang over after beer pong and spent the day relaxing playing Pokemon. I headed into town to join a free walking tour. I highly recommend it. Rather than being a standard city tour the guide takes you to non-touristic places off the beaten track. We spent 4.5 hours visiting various cafes, restaurants, bars, museums, jewellery and alpaca workshops, tattoo shops and viewpoints of the city. At each stop we learned a little more about Cusco and Peru and sampled tonnes of different foods and drinks from chicha to causas.

The next day we started the Inca trail – the second time for me having walked it last time I was here. The Inca trail is a 43km (26 mile) trek that combines Inca ruins, mountains and cloud forest, arriving on the final day at Machu Picchu. Having spent 3 weeks or so at altitude we were pretty well acclimatised and decided we’d save money by not having a private porter and carrying all our own gear (well except for tents and food). Although the second day had most of us panting a little on the climb and the steps on the third day required a lot of concentration, I definitely found it easier second time round and me and Rhys were usually the first to reach the passes or the camps.

The first day of the trek was a relatively easy 12 km walk. After being collected from our hostel at 6am, our bus drove for 2.5 hours through the picturesque villages of Chinchero, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo, to kilometre 82 (the start of the trail). After crossing the Vilcanota River the trail climbed steeply up to a small village where the ruins of the Inca hillfort of Huillca Raccay came into view. Throughout the day we had views of the Urubamba mountain range and the snow capped peak of Veronica standing at 5860m. We also passed the extensive Inca ruins of Llactapata, primarily an agricultural station used to supply Machu Picchu with maize. Although the day started slowly as our guides insisted on us walking as a group (there were 15 of us) and we had to stop every 5 mins for everyone to catch up, by the end of the day we were allowed to walk at our own pace and made it to camp in good time.

The second day was another 12km hike. After following the river bank for a while we dropped into a beautiful cloudforest and then the uphill really started, the wooded area became increasingly steeper and the views more and more spectacular once we reached the tree line, visibility was high and we could see for miles down into the valley. After a second breakfast we climbed the steepest part of the trail to the first pass at 4,200m known as ‘Dead Woman’s Pass’. Once at the top we waited for over an hour for the rest of the group and the guides to catch up before starting the decent to camp. We arrived before lunch and spent the afternoon taking siestas and playing dice.

The third day was our longest day but also the most spectacular, we covered 15km. From camp it took just under an hour to climb up to the small circular ruins of Runkuracay and then another 30 minutes to hike to the second pass at 4,000m. At this point the path started to look more like a paved Inca trail and 80% of the paving was original. The section between the second and third passes was especially beautiful as the path crosses high stone embankments and skirts deep precipices, passing Sayacmarca, reached by way of a steep stone staircase and Conchamarca, a small Inca dwelling situated in the shadows of Sayacmarca, which was probably a tambo for weary travellers on their way to Machu Picchu. The path then descended into cloudforest full of orchids, hanging mosses, tree ferns and flowers. At the third pass we stopped for lunch with stupendous views of several snow-capped peaks including Salkantay (6,180m – our guide said he’s only been able to see this mountain 3 times in his career) and Veronica (5,750m). A few minutes after the pass is Phuyupatamarca, the name means 'Town in the Clouds'. After the ruins came the decent of the Inca staircase of a thousand steps. It takes a long time to walk a thousand steps and your knees are none too happy by the end of it. That night we camped at Wiñay Wayna, the last official campsite before Machu Picchu.

Our final day saw us up and ready to go at 4:30am. We queued at the campsite gate ready for the trail to open at 5:30am for the final 5km walk to Machu Picchu. The trail wound around a mountain and through cloudforest before coming to an almost vertical flight of 50 steps leading up to the Sun Gate (Intipunku). It is quite a sense of achievement when you finally reach the gate although Machu Picchu still looks tiny in the distance (although I have to say it wasn’t quite the same feeling you got at the end of the ‘W’ since you’re staying in relative luxury with 3 course meals twice a day and are carrying half as much weight our bags weighed in at 8kg). A short walk further and we arrived at the ‘Watchman’s hut’ for the typical photos of the well known postcard view. We had 30 minutes to treat ourselves to chocolate bars and cold drinks before our guide gave a two hour tour of the major sections of the ruins. After the tour we had free time so we headed into Agua Calientes for a celebratory beer while some others stayed to explore the ruins further. We all met up in town for lunch and then a few of us headed up to the (extremely murky) hot springs. After a few happy hour drinks on the way to the train station we boarded for the 2 hour journey to Ollantaytambo from where we were collected by our bus for the drive back to Cusco. Although there was a lot of talk of doing the 24 hour challenge and going to Mama Africas, by the time we got back we were all pretty tired and after a MacDonalds we checked back into our hostel for a good nights sleep.

We were lucky and had a really good group, Tom and Frank from Australia, Stephen and Rachel from Northern Island, James and Charlotte from England, Jeremy & Claudia from Australia and a group of 5 from Switzerand. We also knew 5 or so other people in different groups who we bumped into at camp or along the trail each day. The porters were amazing, for the 15 of us we had 2 guides, 18 porters and a chef, the oldest porter was 68 and known of them stopped smiling despite carrying nearly 30kg and running along the trail. When we got to camp each night the tents were pitched and dinner was underway, we certainly didn’t go hungry – pancakes and eggs for breakfast, soup, 3 course lunch and dinner and popcorn for afternoon tea. We even had a gigantic cake one night for dessert. We were even more lucky with the weather, considering it was wet season it only ever rained when we were in camp and the views were incredible.

The next day as we unpacked our gear ready to return the rentals to the shop, Rhys discovered an Australian passport. Luckily we worked out the hostel Frank was staying at to return it before enjoying the best pork sandwiches in the whole of Cusco for lunch. Rhys had been talking about getting his lip pierced for ages so our next stop was a tattoo shop where he got his lip pierced and I had my nose re-pierced. We spent the rest of the day recuperating at the hostel until 7pm when we headed to the Plaza de Armas to meet up with a few people from the trail and a couple we bumped into again who we met in Argentina for dinner/drinks. As we were walking down a small cobbled street to a restaurant the electricity for the whole city went out. It was pitch black and immediately the shop owners started closing up. We hurried back into the Plaza and headed towards the candlelight glowing from Paddy’s the Irish bar where we ended up staying – the Shepherds Pie was incredible.

Our last day in Cusco Rhys spent chilling at the hostel. I wondered up to the white Christ, a miniature version of Christ the Redeemer in Rio and to look at the outer walls of Sacsayhuaman, a huge Inca site on the outskirts of town. After admiring the view of the city I wondered back down through the San Blas bohemian district before stopping at a little café for a local specialty of stuffed peppers. At 7pm we booked a cab to the Cruz del Sur bus station to board an overnight VIP bus to Arequipa.