Inca Trail Day 4:
It was an early start after a late finish, we woke up at 4am to the sound of Millys alarm. It was still pitch black outside and we couldnt hear the porters moving about. We started to get ready and about 15 mins later the porters came round - the first time they hadnt been on the dot for waking us up - either they didnt like their tip or they thought it was early too! We finished getting ready and stumbled out of the tent. We had a look around, none of the others seemed to be stirring although it was hard to tell. I shined my torch on each tent in turn in the hope it would hurry them along but stopped short of actually knocking on each tent or anything like that.
Then it was down the narrow slippery path to the main building for breakfast.. We sat at our tables and William Wallace turned up with cups etc and everything bar the hot water for tea, we then sat and sat and sat with all the other groups finishing their breakfast around us. Eventually the others started to appear, complaining that they hadnt heard the porters wake them up. Finally tea arrived and then some omelettes - however it didnt seem that long since dinner the night before so although we forced down the omelettes we didnt tuck into the bread as well.
Eventually it was time for us to go, just as we were about to head off Nadia dissapeared to the loo and we had to wait a while before we could get underway - this was a bit frustrating as we had been told that it was a 2hr walk to the site and that we wanted to be there for sunrise. It was now 5:40 and sunrise was at 7:15 so we were expecting to have to peg it. We were told by our guide that if someone wanted to pass to let them by on the right (as that is the side of the drop :-) ) and to go at our own pace. We eventually headed off and the guide let us past while he sorted out something at the guard post at the exit from the camp (no one is supposed to leave MUCH before 5:30 as it is dangerous)
We started out at a cracking pace, Mills in the lead. Unfortunately we soon caught up with the group in front - they had obviously not been given the guidance about letting people past but they were only going a little slower than us so we settled in behind them. Over the next hour or so it got steadily lighter, we were all walking very fast and panting well. As we started to become able to see we could appreciate the scenery a bit more which made the walk easier - less like some mad race through the dark. Eventually we came to a set of steps that were more like a ladder and scrambled up them using our hands to help. At the top we found loads of people milling about and some questions to the guides that were already there (ours had yet to catch up) let us find out that this was the sun gate.. a smallish structure that was built on the hillside overlooking Machu Picchu, it has a large battlement like notch in the
walls which when looking up from Machu Picchu on the summer solstice is exactly where the sun rises...
Unfortunately this morning although we knew the sun was in the process of
rising we couldnt see it or Machu Picchu. All we could see was a swirling white mist. Our guide appeared and took us along to a place a bit further along that he claimed was the best view. A couple more minutes of watching and the drifting mist started to part.. there were cheers all round from our group and those on the sun gate as Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains started to appear from the mist. It all looked quite mystical and you could tell even from the snatched glimpses that the surrounding scenery was majestic. All the cameras came out and we kept taking snaps trying to catch the mist at its clearest.
We then started to head on down past loads of terracing towards a small house we could just about see that is where the most famous pictures of the ruins are all taken. On the way down we saw some llamas all lying on the terraces whom we proceeded to snap. Then a load of workers strimming the overgrown terraces.. One of them chatted to our guide and told him that the helicopters werent going today - this meant that we were going to have to walk the first 12km along the tracks past the damage to catch the train! We were gutted, had been very much looking forward to a helicopter ride! The guide let us know that this wasnt at all definite and that we would get better information at the site. We carried on and eventually got to the small house.. from there we were on a slight rise
and could look over the whole of the main city.. it was amazing some of it was quite damaged but other sections seemed almost complete other than missing roofs etc. We stood and watched for a while taking snaps and were told by our guide that when we had finished we needed to go down to the site entrance (not into the city) where we would meet and he would start our explanation...
We went down after a while, signed in and deposited our rucksacks, we also left our sticks there as they were not allowed to take them in - there was a huge pile of the sticks and I asked our guide if the good ones went back to the markets, he laughed and gave me a punch in the arm (I took that as a - yes but youre not supposed to know - kind of answer :-) ) We had another wait while everyone got together and then started into Machu Picchu. Our guide explained the city for a while in English and Spanish (he had not been able to find another mixed group that he could swap some of us about with to get one english and one spanish group) then we were taken round varous of the sections of the city and gave the most popular explanations for their purpose and on some occasions his own. It seems some people think the city was a show of strength for the Inca nation, others think it was a city of witches - our guides personal opinion was that it was a city of pilgrimage. Each option gives its
own explanations as to what various structures where for. The whole place was fascinating and I couldnt wait to have a good look around!
The tour finished and our guide told us that we (me and mills) would have to meet him at a resturaunt in Aqua Calientes at 12:30 - there was a good chance we would be on a helicopter.. it was already 10:30!!! we would have to leave and catch a bus at 11:30, that meant we had way less than an hour to look at the site! I was a bit gutted about this to be honest.. after 4 days of walking and having come so far we were going to have to rush the end! Fortunately when he told us on the explanation to wait to take photos until we explored it at the end we had ignored him as we would never have the time to revisit all the interesting places.. the guide had left us in the temple of the condor (so called as it had a carved condor on the floor) we wanted to take a photo but 4 policemen arrived and very slowly took turns to stand in front of it and have
their picture taken.. all very frustrating. We finally got our picture and said goodbye to the rest of our group.. they were all staying the night in Aqua Calientes and so had far more time than us. We dashed around and got to see some of the things we wanted although I would have liked to have seen more. All too soon it was time to go to the bus. It had been fantastic to see though and had been a brilliant end to the four days.
We headed down and bought tickets (we would rather have walked but had been told we didnt have the time). The road down to Aqua Calientes was very steep and on the way down as the bus was empty it stopped for any walkers it passed on the lower stretches of the road. On getting out we walked along to the resturaunt to meet the guide. We sat while he told us that indeed the helicopter was a no go and we would have to walk down the track! We had time for a spot of lunch and grabbed a plate of chips and a coke - all we could afford after the unexpected bus tickets. Then it was off to the station where we said farewell to our our guide and wandered in. There were a huge number of people there and a Peru Rail representative with a megaphone telling us what would happen. There were still a load of people at Machu Picchu who we would wait for before starting to walk! This was annoying - we could have stayed up there an extra hour! Anyway, we were given a free Inca Cola - a bright green
fizzy drink that tastes like Tizer and eventually made to line up on the
platform in groups according to the coach number of our ticket. We were given a free bottle of water and offered a poncho and left on the platform for another half an hour..
We finally set off to cheers from everyone at about 2:45 the scenery was great, and it was quite an odd site - a huge group of people scrambling down a train track mountains on one side and a fast river on the other.. we passed through tunnels and over bridges in a seething mass. At one point we were made to stop. The railway had small track service vehicles that pulled small trailers - they had used them to transport all our bags up to the main train.. now they were coming back to pick up some passengers. Over the megaphone came ànyone over 60` then ànyone over 50` etc.. eventually they gave up as it seemed noone wanted to be the first to put their hands up (and they didnt get as far as anyone over
30 :-) ) and just let the first 20 or so people on. This had broken the rhythm of the walk and we were all anxious to get going again - the megaphone lady had her hands full trying to get people to wait.
We were soon off again and walked for another 30mins then we were told that we would wait there and that the carts would shuttle us to the train as it was too dangerous to continue to walk.. there wasnt enough room to sit but the woman was the type who organises for organisations sake and persisted trying to get everyone to sit down before allowing the carts to leave even though there just wasnt room (you had to feel a bit sorry for her though, she had a very hard job and was struggling a bit, they were obviously very worried about the saftey but there werent enough off them to sheppard everyone). At this point we were caught up by Nadia which was a surprise - apparently she had been told that there was no guarantee she would get back the next day and she had a flight the day after so had decided at the last minute to join us. We sat and waited and saw one lot go on the small railtrucks. We shuffled along and got close to the
head of the vague queue for the next batch. The trucks eventually returned, Nadia got into the cabin but Mills and I were first onto the flatbed trailer that was being dragged behind - this meant that I was on the edge closest to the truck with nothing between me and the tracks! an interesting sensation when we got going! there was a small wooden post in a metal bracket on the side of the trailer so I grabbed this to steady myself - it came off my my hands - wonderful! I stuck it back in the hole and tried to use it to grip on and ended up chatting to the chap next door to me (an american from washington) it was a very uncomfortable ride and put us in mind of a fairground ride minus the safety :-) We saw some amazing views and despite my concerns the driver managed to stop slowly enough so that I didnt fly under the wheels. It was then time to get out, we grabbed our bags and walked past the damaged area of track, some of the boulders had done quite a number on the rail tracks which were largely being replaced as were a number of the sleepers - quite a
big job! We jumped into the train and spent the rest of the waiting time
reading and writing the diary. Eventually we set off on the 4 hour journey to Cusco - its so long because the train has to shuttle back and forth on a strange switchback to climb up to cusco as we were now much lower than the city.
When we arrived in Cusco it was about 9:30 and we slowly walked to the Plaza de Armas with Nadia. There was some concern as we had been told that there were 4000 extra tourists in Cusco waiting for the train to be fixed, we were also told that this meant that there were no rooms available - we felt we were okay as we had reserved a room for that night but you never know.. When we got to the hostel it seems that there had been some exaggeration as a number of rooms were empty. We organised a taxi for 5am the next morning and then were shown to our room. We did a re-pack and had showers before setting out at about 11pm for dinner at Mama America which was great, I had steak (so unusual for me) andcamilla a beef and onion dish which we washed down with a well earned pisco sour - very nice! We then stumbled back to the hostel and crashed knowing we only had a few hours before our alarms went off.