The "hike"........ to Machu Pichuu

A quick night in Lima then saw us heading to Cuzco city, Peru.  Cuzco has old Catholic churches which were built by the Incan.  Yes, the Inca after the Conquistadors "conquered" them, they made them pull down their Incan worship sites and build Catholic churches.  These are incredibly well built, no surprise there.  We wandered into the local produce market which had rows of potatos, corn, bread and some frogs for frog and squid soup, yum, yum. We were off to hike the Inca trail with 14 others.

 A couple of Scots, Canadians, Fins, Sweds, Norwegians and a Brit thrown in for good measure. We started the trek at  km 82. The first day started with a coca leave and llama fat offering to the Incan gods.

Our guide was of Incan descent, so he explained the traditons of his people which included this offering to ask for a good journey. We hiked up 11km the first day and saw some pre-Incan sites and had our first lecture on the plants, flowers and herbs growing along the way.  A wet sleepless night in the tent left us a bit afraid of the next day. Why you ask? This day would take us up and over the summit at 4200m and down the other side for a 12 km day. Well, we made it by stopping every 100m or so to slow the heart rate. Did you know it is tough to catch your breath at this elevation?  Our guide had given us Incan herbs to inhale and coca leaves to chew to alleviate the symptoms and it worked! A steep descent and we were at our next campsite at 3600m. Another wet sleepless night was punctuated with a multitude of frog croaks. Who knew that there were a least a million frogs at 3600m? So a bit wet and with little rest we undertook the longest hiking day. This one started with a steep ascent to some Incan outlook posts.

They had conquered a number of tribes so still had to be on the lookout for enemies. Did you know the Incan cross represents the condor, puma and snake on one side and water, sun and earth on the other? Nope, neither did I. The final day got us going at 4:15AM. Yes AM! We hiked to a check point where we had to wait in a line up until 5:30AM. Everyday hiking the trail there are 500 people. Half of these are tourists and the other half are the porters and guides. The porters are amazing. They are small men that wear rubber flip flops.

 They run most of the time while carrying anywhere from 50-100kg on their backs! There are small farming communities on the trail and the porters, besides carrying all the lazy tourist gear, take stuff in for the farmers. Then after harvest they carry the produce to market for them. There is also the occasional donkey that helps out but they can only go to a certain elevation. The porters are the same as the sherpas at Everest, without them, hiking this would have been impossible. We gave them chocolate as we were trying not to die at the side of the trail while carrying only our day packs and they were carrying food, tables, chairs, tents etc. You get the picture. Anyway, we hiked the last four kms to the sun gate as the sun was rising. The morning was foggy so when we got there we could not see Machu Pichuu, AAGH!  Do not panic, our guide said it would clear. Another 45 minute hike down took us down to the entrance gate and he was right, it had cleared. Ok, so the pictures do not do it justice, it is stunning.

 There are temples to the sun, water and condor to name a few. This city was built for the wealthy, the educated and the brains of the civilization. It was built this high to avoid tsunamis, floods on the rivers and to have an eye out for the enemies. They used stone from the mountain and built onto the bedrock as well. There are thousands of terraces that were used for agricultural experiments.  Anyway, the site also has hundreds of steps and the views are stunning. I hope you get the idea from the photos. They push about 2500 people a day through here. A train can be taken to Aguas Calientes followed by a switch back bus ride takes people to the site. They can hike up to the sun gate and say they hiked the Incan trail, CHEATERS! Anyway, this is worth the hike up the trail, as the anticipation builds with each day.  This site lived up to all expectations, so plan to do it and include the hike.

We learned that the Incans as well as the modern Peruvians eat guinea pig which they claim to have cultivated. Trust me, it tastes a bit like duck but they really need to work on their presentation,

see what I mean.  .  Now we are off to Lake Titicaca to see some floating villages at about 4000m, more coca leaves and flower water.