Inca Trail : Day 3

Inca Trail Hike – Tales of my four day walk to discover Machu Picchu and the incredible Andes.

Chaquicocha – Winay Huayna

• Wake up: 6.00am
• Breakfast: 6.30am
• Start trekking: 7.00am
• Arrive at camp: 1.00pm
• Distance Covered: 9 km’s
• Elevation Change: 3600m – 2680m above sea level 

The rain gods were playing with us again all night, nothing but very heavy rain and wind, and it was cold.  Not much sleep was had by anyone at all – again. All through the night I kept asking the rain gods for it to clear for the walk today, and in the end they obeyed.  

Breakfast

• Omelette | sausage | toast | potatoes (more of a plant root really)
• Honestly these guys are amazing

A good day’s walk

We all felt better this morning after a resting, (not much sleep all round, so we all look really attractive right now) but I think with yesterday out of the way there was so much to look forward to now. We were so much closer to our destination, Machu Picchu.  We were all sore in the legs, even Elvis was sore, but we were happy with where we were at and keen to see what else was out there. 

Thanks to yesterday’s efforts, today is a half day of walking, so we could take all the time we wanted or needed to during our stops. We could take it easy, look and just enjoy and take in the spectacular scenery and section of the trail.

It was a great first half of the day. The path went up and down as we are now used to doing, but it was a lot easier compared to yesterday. We stopped many times, not that we needed to from a breathing standpoint but from a “stop. take in the view. and learn.” standpoint. Again there were a number of ruins along the path across the day and Elvis was good at taking us through the history of the people who lived here and the history of the trail. 

Wow, the scenery

I also think that with so much time up our sleeve today, the scenery was somehow even more spectacular – waterfalls, bird life, just the sheer might of the mountains was in more plain sight than ever before. We watched the clouds roll in over one spot, completely change the lighting and mood of everything in its path, then roll out, changing it all back again….all in a matter of 10 mins. 

The Man Caves

The second half of the morning was downhill again, rocks and stones both wet and dry, slippery, jagged and sometimes flat. I  took my time and I was fine, it was nothing compared to yesterday. We also had to climb down, in and through some rock caves. The mountains have carved out some natural formations meaning that we had to climb through a hole in the rock that was like a cave, water running down most of them and no real ‘steps’ to lock onto on the way down, just slippery slopes, but they made for some interesting pathways, and competitions from the team to see who could get through without slipping… hint – no one won. We affectionately called this section of the track the ‘Man Caves’ and Mike was very excited about them.

I should mention that having a paleontologist (Ethan) and Glacierologist (Carli who was also a microbiologist) on the tour meant we were in the know about many of the rock formations and plants that we we walked by. Carli was always on a berry hunt asking which ones were good to eat. Elvis said he had never had such knowledgeable people on the tour in one go who could tell him more about the natural rocks and habitat. I’m stoked they came along too as we all learned so much more with them around. 

We were on a roll by now, we absolutely caned the last 1.5 hours and didn’t really stop much. I think the excitement was building, or we were so much fitter from the day before… not! Also, and probably the real reason was that the rain was coming and we all wanted to get to camp before it arrived. 

The Amazing Phuyupatamarca

The last Incan ruin before camp was spectacular!  Phuyupatamarca. It’s called the city above the clouds due to the altitude 3,600m above sea level. It had everything including sheer cliffs and near vertical stairs to boot, of course. Luckily we had to go down the stairs to get to camp, not the other way around. Lisa and I may have resigned at this point if we had to walk up them. This site also contains Inca ruins, with five small stone baths which during the wet season contain constant fresh running water.

With each ruin, we just shook our heads at the incredible architecture of the Inca / Cechwan people. So innovative and intelligent to have built these structures that still stand in full formation to this day and have withstood the ever changing Andes weather! 

We finally made it to camp just before the heavens opened up! I was desperate for the loo and so glad that I had become a genius with the toilet situation by now.. if you know what I mean. So I raced off and did my thaaang, and got back to my tent just in time. Phew!

We were all pretty exhausted and retreated to our tents for a little while to see the rain period through. I did some stretching inside the tent as my calf muscles and especially my quads were very NOT HAPPY JAN and screaming at me.  I also stretched my back a bit. The rain only lasted for about 45 mins thankfully, but it was a really good time for all of us to rest, relax and take stock of what we had all achieved to this point. We are so close.

The sun came back out and we were able to enjoy siting out in the open taking in the views and chatting with each other in a really relaxed and happy environment. We had the afternoon to relax and only 2 more hours to go tomorrow. It seems to have gone slowly but really fast at the same time. 

Lunch

• Entree: Chicken salad (beautifully presented – even for me)|/ Vegetable soup
• Mains: Beef stir fry | Broccoli in mash (I had the mash) |Salad | Vegetable stir fry | Fried rice
• Dessert: Don’t remember 

Best Happy Hour Ever

Happy Hour: there’s never enough popcorn for happy hour but this time, we managed it with bringing out the card games. Now I am not generally very good at card games but tonight I played with the uber-intelligent Ethan and we won!! It was a really close game so I felt quite brainy for once. Thanks Ethan. You’ve made my night.

There was one other present for Happy Hour: a Cake!  A fully fledged cake with icing!! How the hell did they do that up this mountain? Who brought it here and how did it end up looking this good if it was in a bag for three days? The best thing was, there was cake before dinner.

Dinner – they have outdone themselves tonight

• Entree: Vegetable soup
• Mains: PIZZA!!!! | Potato chips | Massive chicken and vegetable kebabs | spaghetti |Beef slices in sauce | vegetarian dish
• Dessert: Sorry Chef, I don’t think anyone was hungry!

Mike said another great line at dinner tonight. Given we had a late lunch then Happy Hour full of cake and popcorn, we weren’t really hungry when dinner rolled around.  I usually gave Mike my leftovers and he’d eat them with pleasure, but tonight he simply said ‘Paula I can’t be your trash can right now’ .. that made everyone roll around with laughter.

It is customary to tip the porters at the end of your trip (we were advised of this in advance) and so we had a little ceremony after dinner with all the porters around us and Ethan gave a little thank you speech in Spanish. We cheered so hard for these guys who had done such amazing work over the past 3 days. The tip then had to be divided among them all, and with such a small group we all felt so bad that our tip wouldn’t amount to much, but it was all we had.

This is what the kitchen was across the 3 night’s camping.

What to do tomorrow?

There is only 2 hours of walking to go tomorrow till Machu Picchu. Elvis told us at dinner that there is a short 5 min walk to the Checkpoint gate, where everyone’s permits are once again ticked off. Hopefully none of us have gained another year along the track. He said that it is always good to be the first people there because then you are the first ones to then get onto the last part of the trail that leads up to the Sun Gate (1 hour in and 1/2 way to MP). Apparently this part of the trail can be kind of skinny so you don’t want to get stuck behind anyone.  

Elvis said that everyone wants to be first to the gate to set themselves up for the morning.  Not being competitive AT ALL, we decided that we’d of course like to be the first ones to the gate so we’d do whatever it took to get there, and get up as early as needed. Rather than the regular 3.30am up and at ’em call that most tour groups do for this little competition, it was decided that a 3.00am rise and shine was the go for us. We were determined to be the first at the gate and so with a secret hand shake the deal was sealed. Don’t tell the other groups. 

After all the festivities, we were probably the first campers to bed, we could hear the other campers doing their presentations etc. for a while after we went to bed and there was a lot of happiness all round. I think the general feeling around camp was excitement. Happy to have gotten this far and excited at what was coming tomorrow. Good on everyone for making it to this point. It’s not easy but the feeling of accomplishment is most definately worth the effort.

As you can imagine, knowing I had to get up early meant that I would probably not get a lot of sleep. BUT we were all really excited. I am absolutely looking forward to finally seeing the grand Machu Picchu. A bucket list destination and something I think I have earned these past three days.

Bring on tomorrow. 

Travel is the best.