Week Forty Five - The Little Known Third Route To Machu Picchu

Last Sunday we left Cusco on a day long journey through the Sacred Valley discovering lots and lots and lots about the Inca period of Peru's history - it was one of those things that when we booked our trip our focus was on where we were visiting rather than appreciating that the trip in Peru was entitled The Inca Heartland and therefore we were going to be well and truly immersed in all things Inca.  

Our guide for the day and for the Inca Trail trek to the secret city of Machu Picchu was David, a Peruvian who has spent five years studying Inca history and who very enthusiastically shared his very detailed knowledge with us!!

Two of our stops en route through the Sacred Valley were to a couple of community projects run by our tour company G Adventures.  The first is a whole community they are supporting - the men of the village act as the porters on the Inca Trail Trek (see later) whilst the women run the Planeterra Community weaving project.  They raise the llama and alpaca, shear them, clean the wool, dye it, spin it, weave it and then sell the products of their labours to those who visit plus in the city.  It was a fascinating visit.  We were guided round by one of the local women who explained what the different woven patterns represented and then proceeded to show us how they clean and dye the wool using only natural ingredients from cactus sap to eucalyptus and other local plants.  The whole experience was just full of colour - from the outfits the local women wore to the wools they were dying and the products they had made.  Two women were weaving pieces whilst we were there - I had intended to have a go but to be honest the process was beyond my comprehension with it taking about five minutes to set up a single line of weave.  In the photographs you can see the size of the pieces they were making - apparently it takes a month to complete one.  Hence the difference in price between the real and factory products.

From here we continued to the second project - a community restaurant where everything is organically grown / reared in the restaurant premises and the people who work there have been trained by one of Perus leading chefs who apparently owns a very popular restaurant in London.  The food was amazing.  Three taster sized local dishes with a salad.  A light but filling lunch....well actually as it turned out our guide Raul forgot to mention that what had been served to us was an appetiser and there was still a soup course, main course and dessert to follow - parallels were drawn to the good old Christmas episode of The Vicar of Dibley where many Christmas dinners have to be consumed!

The afternoon saw us arrive in Ollantayambo (the location of our last night in a bed prior to four days trekking / camping) where we spent the afternoon exploring the Temple of the Sun, one of many Inca archaeological sites.  The amazing things about the Inca sites is the manner in which they were constructed and have survived til today.  Each stone is individually selected to fit with the others around it in a perfect jigsaw style fashion without the use of any cement etc.  Then there is the wonder of how they carved out these stones, smoothed them, moved them and constructed these awe inspiring terraced cities.  Many people from geologists to archaeologists and beyond continue to this day to piece together the Inca age and to try to make sense of what they constructed from the Nasca Lines to Machu Picchu and the rationale for why they did it the way they did.  It is somewhat baffling but to me some of the proposed explanations are s little far fetched or at least far stretched.  One thing I do agree on though is that it was a major feat to achieve what they have.

We all awoke on Monday with a slight degree of trepidation about what lay ahead as we took on the Inca Trail.  We were allowed to take only six kilos of luggage each - generous we thought until we realised this included 3.5kg attributed to our sleeping bag and air mattress.  So by the time you'd taken account of sleeping bag liners, torches, hats and gloves there was only room for a couple of tshirts and shorts - a pact was struck that we'd all smell together.  We drove to KM82 which is the point at which the Inca Trail starts (Cusco is the Inca Capital so this point is 82km from Cusco).  

It was here that we met our porters.  There were fourteen of them including a chef plus a guide to look after eight of us.  Each of the porters carries twenty kilos of kit with them over the four days to make sure the experience is as comfortable as possible.  How they do what they do astounded us all - we take four days to do the trek and yet every year there is a marathon along the track for the locals and they can complete it in 3 hours 45 mins - we'll put it down to acclimatisation! They run passed you at the start of the trek and by the time you get to lunch they have cooked soup and a main course, set up a gazebo with fully decorated dining table, a chemical toilet (which is a tiny tent with a seat on which you sit and do the loo into a black bin bag).  Not only that but the chef is in full whites, the waiters have serving aprons on etc.  By the time you've finished they have packed up and moved on to base camp so that when you get there your tent is set up with your gear in it and refreshments are awaiting.  It was Sophie's birthday during the trek and Chef even managed to produce a skilfully decorated full on cake...in a skillet.  It is ridiculous.  Not only that but it is almost uncomfortable - we all said how it felt a bit awkward to have people running around after us - particularly the porter who makes sure we have loo roll and has to clean out the toilet.

I was the granny of the trip.  For the first time in my life the oldest and, other than Claire, the oldest by almost a decade.  Needless to say I was the one at the back on Day One huffing and puffing my way along what was described as the easy day.  And so it was that I went to bed that night somewhat full of trepidation about the 1.2km incline to 4200m altitude - a 5/6 hour constant climb then steep decline.

As things turned out I didn't need to worry cos nature took over and I discovered another route to the top of Machu Picchu which combines the best of both standard options....not!!

Normal people get to Machu Picchu via one of two means.  You can walk the Inca trail or you can catch a very comfortable train with windows on the roof so you can take in the amazing scenery as you enjoy your refreshments.  Nature chose the combo model for me.

During our first night I took a really bad fever which stayed with me til the alarm call at 5am by which time I also had an upset stomach.  It was clear there was no way I could continue in the trek but unfortunately that meant only one option - to walk back out the way we had come in - a 13km walk (thankfully mainly downhill or flat).  And to add to the humiliation a porter had to accompany me.  So by 6:30am me, my porter, my fever and my dodgy stomach were retracing our steps from the day before. I have never experienced a walk like it - the most gruelling three hours of my life with a couple of inclines which nearly killed me.  What makes it worse is that you meet other groups going the other way and you can see them looking at you wondering why you're going the wrong way....something they work out when one by one their guides would exclaim "oh oh walking out that's not good".  

So my route to Machu Picchu went something along the lines of one days trek in, one days trek out, a bus journey and taxi journey back to Cusco, the rest of the day in bed, a 4:45am rise to get a bus and train back to Machu Picchu village, the rest of the day in bed, another 5am rise to get the bus to Machu Picchu and a final short but very steep walk to The city itself to be reunited with those I'd started with.  Certainly memorable especially as I was still ill - in the interests of decency we'll just refer to it as travellers sickness!!

The team, including Claire, did an astounding job managing the trek - they assure me they now know each other in ways they never thought they would and that they've experienced sanitation provisions they also never thought they would (Lonely Planets categorisation of the bathroom facilities under Ugly in the good, the bad and the ugly are apparently very accurate).  

I clearly can't comment on the track but I am assured by the rest of the team that whilst the experience was testing it was equally rewarding in terms of the views of cloud Forrest, glaciers, mountains etc.

What I can comment on, and the one thing we all said, is that Machu Picchu itself is breathtaking.  Not just the city but the full mountainous vista surrounding it.  More than worth the pain (whichever version of that you suffered).

After another very in depth tour from David and a wander round ourselves we started our journey back to Cusco where we now get to base ourselves for three whole nights with no agenda, no early starts, no to do list - bliss (the trip is amazing but it is full on scheduling, travelling, visiting - it's nice just to stop for a breath).

Cusco is a big tourist town and no matter where you go people approach you trying to sell tourist goods, get you into their restaurants etc.  One of the biggest touted trades is in massage given they are well aware that people are looking to sooth their aching limbs after the trek.  On Friday Lucy and Oli wanted a massage and Claire and I a pedicure so we decided to go on the hunt for a discounted group package. 

It is the most bizarre experience - massages are touted by Peruvian women on every inch of street and there is a certain sense of backstreet brothel as you negotiate on the street then get taken up back alleys to the establishments they operate from.  So picture the scene.  Four of us agree where we're going, we struggle to find the place, ask for directions only to be guided by a woman we don't recognise to a place she assures us is where we're looking for but isn't, we chastise her for trying to do us over then meet the woman we do recognise who takes us to the same place and it turns out that the first chastised woman is actually the owner.  Price agreed we go into a room which has six beds squeezed into it - it's probably 10ft by 10ft so bare that in mind with what follows.  Oli and Lucy get their beds and the curtains are drawn, I'm guided to a plastic stool and Claire gets another bed.  The girls doing the treatments then appear ( current count four customers and four staff).  The next thing I know two other guys appear and take the other two beds leading to a total of twelve of us in this tiny intimate room.  So now I'm the only one sitting upright with no curtains round me and the new guys curtains aren't pulled properly and I have to avert my eyes until I'm confident they're on their beds and decent.  I finally cease averting my gaze to realise I have the feet of the two newcomers staring at me and a Peruvian woman on a stool lower than mine wanting me to somehow get my feet onto her knees.  As it turned out she'd have done a better job of giving those guys a pedicure as the soles of their feet were at least facing her.  What a bizarre bizarre experience - the surreptitiously taken birds eye photos really don't do it justice.

So one last day of relaxation until we hit the road again all recovered (a few of us have been ill) as we take on the final leg of our group adventure to Lake Titicaca.

Whilst marvelling at The Inca Heartland I...

...HUNG OUT AT....bed and the toilet...

....WINED ON....electrolytes...

....DINED ON....crackers....to be fair Raul took us out the other night to an amazing venue in Cusco that was very arty, quirky, modern and apparently the preferred getaway of many a celebrity...a boutique hotel, restaurant and bar called Fallen Angel.  It was amazing and I would have loved to try the best of the menu but it was lemonade and pasta for me.

So until post Lake Titicaca lets all take a moment to appreciate good health and have a good week.