Agua Calientes

Agua Calientes is an odd little town with railroad tracks running right through its middle. Restaurants and hostals line either side of the tracks but there are also winding side streets. It seems completely tourist-based, which is understandable as thousands of people visit Machu Picchu every week and pass through the town. Everything is very expensive.

Effrey managed to change my ticket to the 2pm train and directed me to a cheap internet cafe close by where I spent most of the next two hours. It started to pour again but I felt quite cosy wrapped in fleece, writing and sipping my first coffee in 4 days. I decided not to go to the hot springs but just to wait until I got back to the hotel to shower. Needless to say, I had a lot of space around me on the train as a result!

Inca Trail - Day Four

At 3am it started to rain and I lay inside my tent with fingers crossed. It lightened at 4 when we were woken and packed our things. I could see headlights dancing around like fireflies as everyone throughout the campground seemed to be in a hurry today. Indeed Effrey was. Today was the rush to the Sun Gate.

A quick piece of bread and jam and gulped cocoa tea and we dashed down to the line-up. The last check-point did not open until 5:30am. We were about 75 people back out of 200 with 20 minutes to wait. Effrey warned us that people might run up the side of us to get ahead and to keep to the mountain side - just to be sure, "the left side".

Promptly at 5:30, the gate opened and the line started to move. I guess all the rabbits were at the very front as we didn't seem to have any problem with passers. But we also set a pretty brisk pace.

About 30 minutes in, it started to pour. We pulled out our ponchos and kept moving. I had too many clothes on and kept waiting for Effrey to call a break so I could de-layer. But he didn't. I climbed the last steep 50 steps in fleece, swimming in sweat. Bad planning.

In the end, I think Effrey was more upset than anyone about the weather. We waited at the Sun Gate for about 20 minutes, waiting for the fog to lift but it held fast. Then we continued on to the next stop where one gets that famous "tourist above Machu Picchu" photo - same thing there. By now the rain had stopped but the fog refused to budge. We decided to descend into the ruins for the tour portion.

After being rather isolated for 3 days hiking the Trail, it felt a bit of a shock to flow into bus loads of clean tourists and other hikers. So much noise! On the other hand, flush toilets (for 1 sole).

Effrey ushered us around, trying to avoid the groups, but even by 9:00, we were bumping into other tourists while listening to him explain the different buildings. Many people now take the train up the night before and get up early.

Machu Picchu was mystical with the fog lifting, then cascading over the rocks. It is a huge place - I was grateful we had a guide explaining the important areas to us. Some people wandered about on their own with a map and seemed a little disoriented.

I won't go into any detail about the tour and exactly what we visited as Machu Picchu is easy to research. I will say that I was fascinated by the fact that the Incans built earthquake-resistant buildings without the use of mortar. It seemed to me that the Incans were very clever, always testing ways of doing things from growing different crops in the terraces of Moray to leaning their walls slightly to counter tremours. I wondered if they had more earthquakes then so they could test more quickly. Imagine waiting 20 years, or even a generation to see if your hypothesis worked!

After the tour, I said goodbye to the kids and rode the bus with Effrey to Agua Calientes to try to change my train ticket from 7pm to earlier. I was exhausted and it started to rain again, settling in for the day. Now the trek was over, I was anxious to get "home" to Cusco.

Inca Trail - Day Three

Effrey had us up at 5am as today was the "long" day. He became quite anxious when he saw another group heading out before us and urged us to hurry up a bit. My back is killing me today - TG for portable heating pads.

Heading out it was very very steep and Sophie and I were soon down to our usual coping methods - her with her iPod, me cursing silently outward but loudly inward. About 1 hour into the hike, we came to a ruin but it was 100 steps straight up to see it. I took a pass and continued on by myself while the group went up. The path changed to flat and downhill, the landscape from rocky mountain to cool forest. No one was around me at all, which was lovely and peaceful. And so I walked for about 30 minutes and then of course, the others caught up. Across the valley, we could see smoke. Effrey said it was farmers burning their fields to prepare for the rainy season. Then up along the side of the mountain we went, through several tunnels and along narrow paths with sheer drops on the side.

Lunch was on top - freezing cold even with my fleece on. Washroom was funny - in the middle of a field a portapotty on top of a hole in the ground. Door wouldn't close but view was lovely once you managed to balance.

Then after lunch came the stairway to hell - about one hour of steep and uneven stairs down to the next Inca ruin - no way to skip or rush so it was thud! thud! all the way down. The ruin was interesting and gave us a bit of a break before another hour of stairs down. Where the trees broke, we could see the larger ruins, small in the distance, of where we were headed for the last camp. They looked so small I wondered how we would ever get there.

It took about one hour to reach them and when we did, it felt like we had reached the end of the world. This was my favourite moment of the Trail. I remember sitting on one of the higher plateaus and dangling my legs over the edge and feeling very very happy.

Another 15 minutes we were in the last camp: 9 hours of hiking, including breaks. Camp was rowdy as all the groups got there eventually and there was beer and showers to be had. We kept clear though as we were to be up at 4am for the final hike to Machu Picchu. I found it a bit jarring to be in so much noise again and the sound of the train startled me.

That night after dinner, we said goodbye and thank you to the cooks and porters. They were to leave on the earliest train in the morning, taking a shortcut down the mountain with all the gear. Only two carried our duffle bags to Agua Calientes to leave them at a restaurant for us to pick up later. We put all our tips into one pile (150 soles each) and Effrey sorted all the tips out by seniority. Cook and assistant cook get most, then head porter, then a bunch of money to be divided among the others. We all had larger bills when 20s and 10s would have been best. Then he called everyone together and we stood rather awkwardly about when he asked us to say something and he would translate it for them. I said thanks to the two men who brought us cocoa tea every morning. Someone else generally thanked the cooks, others picked specific things like me, so I think we covered everyone. One of the porters moved forward and said he hoped we had had a pleasant journey. In order of hierachy, four of us - the three men in the group and I - handed the tips to the appropriate receiver and shook hands. Then we shook hands and said thank you to each person and the tipping ritual was done.

Inca Trail - Day Two

Official wake-up was at 6am though I heard the porters rustling about, unzipping flaps and calling out quietly "Morning - cocoa tea or coffee, madam?" I opened the inner flap to find two men outside, one holding a tray of cups and the other a steaming canister of tea. Shortly thereafter, as I was packing up my clothes and gear, another brought a basin of warm water and a bar of soap for a quick wash.

For breakfast in the communal tent: bread, jam, quinoa porridge and pancakes filled with apple. Water was waiting outside for us to fill our water bottles. Within 45 minutes we were on our way. Our tents had been taken down while we were eating and were well on their way to the next campsite. I left camp in long pants, short-sleeved shirt, arm warmers, wool hat and fleece. Within the hour I was stripped down to shorts and shirt. It was 8 degrees when we left.

In my notes that night, I wrote: I am in camp right now so it is easy to feel rather kindly about today. It was brutal. Sophie and I ended up alone at the back. The going in the morning up Dead Woman's Pass (1200 metres - steps - up in 3 hours, I think) was so hard, we decided to pick out markers maybe 30-40 steps ahead and just get to that. We had to stop to catch our breath. Thankfully Effrey gave us the room to do so for the most part. My legs felt like jello when we stopped and concrete when we pushed on. I could recover my breath fast enough when we stopped but within 10 steps I was gasping again. Even an emergency sports gel didn`t help. Toward the end, at the high altitude, we were down to 10 steps and a break, 10 steps and a break. The rest of our group made it to the top and were waiting for us. I was having trouble breathing for the last 100 metres. Effrey came up and poured a liquid into my hands, got me to rub them together very quickly for heat and then hold my hands over my nose and breathe deeply. That really helped. I asked him later what that was - aguaflorida, for altitude sickness.

Reaching the top was glorious and for me, my second favourite memory of the trek. It took us 4 hours to reach the summit, including breaks. It wasn`t quite cold enough for fleece on the sheltered side but standing up in the open, I really was happy to have mine. Effrey showed us the glaciers in the distance and told us how much they had receeded just over 3 years. They provide most of the farmers' water so he was worried about how they would make out in the future.

Coming down the other side was a treat for me. After lagging at the back, I positively skipped down the stairs on the other side for 2 more hours, though I almost twisted my ankle a few times. 6 1/2 hours of hiking, including breaks.

The camp is next to a small river. Some of us soaked my feet in the cold water. Luxurious place, for there are toilets that flush and a place to sit, not squat. Beautiful views of the valley. By 4pm I had my wooly long johns and fleece on as it was quite cold. This is the campsite at the highest altitude so the coldest of the 3.

Effrey offered us hot water bottles (gatorade bottles filled with boiled water) - I took one as I had given my heat sticks to the 4 people who froze last night (the warmest night) and it was very cozy in my rented down-filled mummy sleeping bag - I had to take off most of my layers to sleep. Again cards, an amazing three course dinner and then off to bed at 7. I felt bad we had taken that long as the porters sleep in our dining tent and several were shivering outside.

Inca Trail - Day One

I woke at 4:30 with a thousand butterflies inside. Thank God for hot water. As I dressed, I could hear the chirping of phones all around waking others up.

Last night I spent an hour packing and unpacking, weighing and rearranging. Finally my porter bag came in at 5.9kg and my backpack, I think, at the same, even with half the trail mix out! The hotel gave me an id tag for my suitcase so I could claim it later and I left it in the room.

At 6am a van came by to pick me up and inside there were a bunch of kids. We looked at each other a bit dubiously. These were the people I was to spend the next 4 days with? I found out they had been travelling together for the last 2 weeks, which made me feel a bit more doubtful. But then I thought well, could be worse, and I came here to see the Andes, not make new friends.

The van drove on for 1 and a half hours to Ollantaytambo where we could use the bathroom in a small hostal, buy walking sticks, rain ponchos, hats, cocoa leaves, etc. We were swarmed as soon as we got out of the van. Around us, porters were gathering to bundle trekkers` equipment and bags. Most of the porters, we heard later, come from rural communities around Cusco.

After another hour along a gravel road, we reached the start point, km82. There were many other people there - 200 hikers are allowed every day. One of the staff came to give us each that day's snack bag: banana, 2 candies and chocolate cookies. We took our obligatory Inca Trail sign group photo. At the checkpoint, the official had a massive list and carefully checked my name and passport number. Our guide also had a group ticket. He was anxious to put some distance between us and the other groups and off we shot over the bridge and onto the Trail. At first the going was not too bad, comparative to the Bruce Trail pace, and we hiked as a group.

The first break was about 1 1/2 hours in, if I remember correctly, next to someone´s home. The women of the area sold water, gatorade and juice. Porters from all the different companies stopped to break as well and drank chincilla, a home-made sort of grape juice. For day 1, we passed through communities who use the Trail as their sole source of traffic. We had to clear the way several times for men with donkeys laden with goods, even once a small pig bundled up on one.

Lunch was served sitting down in a group tent: maize soup for starters, then fish, rice, and green beans. My first squat toilet. I took a photo, of course. Some manuvuering (sp?) required.

After lunch it became quite hot and I started to fade. Effrey the guide was sweeping right behind me, which I hated. I started to realize that his breaks were scheduled like Lucinda's on the Bike Rally - there was always a big hill after! The last break amused me - a window ledge with the usual gatorade, water and juice but with a sign: "Credit card accepted". A final 10 minute push to the campsite and we were done for the day at 3:30pm.

Today was my bad luck day: 1) I lost my treasured Montreal cap that someone gave me when I was nervous the first year I did the BR. 2) I lost the tips on my hiking poles, rendering them almost useless and forbidden on the Inca Trail rulebook. 3) I started to question my ability to complete the Trek and cursed myself for not training harder (that part didn`t last long as I managed to persuade myself it was not me but the fact I was trying to keep up to 22 year olds!) 4) I fell off my camp stool and scraped my hand.

Effrey was most concerned when I told him I had lost my hat and found a local woman to sell me the ugliest Inca Trail hat anyone has ever seen. (It came in handy later tho) The sun is incredibly strong in the Andes - I had sunscreen on and still got red. The bugs were also bad. I had pants on when we started and unzipped to shorts and got eaten alive.

Our campsite is a little away from the others. My little tent is right at the edge of the "cliff". I was glad I rented the optional thermarest as the default mat was very thin and worn.

At 5pm was tea: popcorn, crackers and jam and of course, cocoa tea. The group played "Shithead" which is a great game. I watched and wrote my notes, set up for the night.

At dinner we were formally introduced to the 2 cooks and 13 porters who would be taking care of us for the next 3 days. Imagine 16 people working to give 7 pleasure. Effrey then asked us to introduce ourselves in Spanish and say where we were from.

Effrey then told us yet again how difficult day 2 was - the others didn`t seem bothered but I was a little freaked out as I had found that first day (the "easy" day) a bit tougher than I had anticipated. Off to bed by 7:30pm - for the star-lovers, there were thousands in the sky. It was completely black by 6.

update

So right now I am in Agua Calientes, totally exhausted and ready for the 3 and a half hour train ride to Cusco where I´ll try to write more fully about the trek while it´s fresh in my mind. Aqua Calientes is a small town at the foot of Machu Picchu with the train tracks running right through the middle. Shops, restaurants and hostels line the tracks. Our guide pointed out an internet cafe close to the meeting place and I am feeling a bit more human (albeit filthy) after a hot coffee and a bit of catching up. Surprisingly I didn´t miss the internet at all.

I loved the trek. It was better than anything I could have imagined. The Andes are startlingly beautiful. The going was very very hard. At times, I was desperately gasping for air and my legs turned to concrete. It really did become a matter on mind over matter. Two people from the other group turned back on the first day. I was with 4 21 year olds and 2 24 year olds, and on day one, I tried to keep up and paid for it later. Once I talked myself into thinking with common sense, I walked a lot by myself, many times with no one in sight, and enjoyed it more. It rained today so we were unable to get the standard photo shot of us before descending into Machu Picchu as it was totally covered in dense fog. But for me, it was a climax regardless.

Apprently there was a strike in Cusco yesterday over the high cost of living here and some tourists became a little nervous as there were huge boulders placed in the road and a tree was chopped so it fell over right when a bus went by. Their cab driver took them down side roads to avoid the demonstrations. But it was only for 24 hours so trains, cabs and restaurants should be fully operational by the time I get back to the city.

Inca Trail meeting

Last night my guide came to go over the trek to make sure I knew of the supplies I needed and how our days will look. There are only 7 of us - not sure if they know each other or what but I ended up with my own tent! That is a good thing in some ways but if it´s as cold on night 2 up in the clouds as I imagine it will be, I may be missing the extra body. He advised me to get some altitude sickness pills and I think I will heed his advice. I am not suffering too much but we will be going about 1000 metres higher and exerting ourselves.

We leave on Monday at 6am. I have arranged a sleeping bag and thermarest rental through the hotel and have a small duffle bag to stuff those in as well as anything else I would like NOT to carry myself. The total weight has to be under 6kg. Apparently they now weigh the porters´loads at the entry point and cause a ruckus if someone is over. That, I think, is a good thing.

The guide - I must get his name again and brand it on my head or something - also let me know that Aqua Calientes, the town under Machu Picchu, is very expensive. That makes sense but I am glad he mentioned it as I was working out how much money to take.

the view ahead

Click on the pic below if you need bigger. Me, I find it intimidating enough at this size. Yikes!

It's a bit off, I think on the day 1 time. From what I've been reading, there's a three hour bus ride to km82 and then about a 5 hour hike.

up, up, up, down, up, down

The Inca Trail is a 4 day hike of 45kms. (For a great chart of the climbs and drops, see here.) Most travel companies bus people to "kilometre 82" (the start of the trail) and it's a 12-14km or so hike to the first campsite, which as far as I can tell, takes about 5-6 hours. That's the easy part.

Day 2 is the commonly-known "killer" day - During this part of the trail hikers are exposed to the Andean elements: first scorching sun and then, closer to the pass, freezing winds. 12kms, 9-11 hours hiking from 3000 meters (9,842 feet) to 4200 meters (13,779 feet), the Trail's highest point at Dead Woman's Pass. There is a celebratory shot of something at the top if you can catch your breath enough to gasp it down.

Day 3 sounds hard in a different way: steps, 2000 of them, going down. I think this is where my poles will come in handy. Beer, advil and a tepid shower at the third campsite. (16km, aprox. 6 hours)

Day 4: I'll be high on adrenalin so nothing will matter. We rise at 4:00am and trapse 5km (under 2 hours) in the dark to the Sun Gate to watch the sunrise over Machu Picchu.

Today I'm going on my second hike with the Bruce Trail Club (18km). These "practice" hikes are good for wearing in the new boots, building some leg muscle and learning where the trouble spots are. The first time I went, my feet were on fire for the last 10km and I couldn't stand that night. I now know all about blister surgery - which is surprisingly easy and painless - moleskin, socks, etc. I believe you can read all you want to prepare but that you also have to get out there and feel it.

footwear for the Inca Trail

Apparently some people do the entire 4 day trek in sneakers but I wasn't going to be one of them. I won't go into the dreary details of shlepping about town trying to find a pair of decent walking boots. I'll just offer the following suggestions:

- try to shop for them at the end of the day when your feet are tired and swollen
- wear the socks you will have on when wearing the boots
- buy light and buy waterporoof
- look for ankle support
- don't buy them if they're uncomfortable (probably the most important tip - I have a hard time with new shoes in general so didn't believe this was possible - it is - keep looking)

Most stores will allow you to exhange or return the boots if you keep the receipt and the box, and if you've only worn them inside your home. Ask what the return policy is before handing over your cash. (BTW, I have a hardly-used pair of North Face boots, women's size 8, if anyone's interested. Going cheap! lol)

Another thing: Buy them early and wear them in! I am wearing mine walking about the city but also on hikes with the Toronto Bruce Trail Club (which organizes bus trips for weekend hikes). After trying three different brands, I settled for Keens (Targhee II Mid) from MEC. They are surprisingly listed as Light trail shoes but I am optomistic they will be adequate.

Some other travel bloggers have recommended bringing a pair of sandals on the trek to wear in camp (with socks, as it is apparently quite cold up there in the Andes!) but also for the shower at the end of day 3. It can get a little knarly.

Inca Trail - head's up

I almost waited too long to book my place on the trek. The Peruvian government has limited the number of total trekkers that can start the Trail on any given day to 200. I eeked onto that list for September 1, booking way back on April 18.

Another mistake on my part: I had read this, of course, in my prior research on the Inca Trail but was watching the GAP Adventures website for the tour to "guarantee" before I booked. My thought was what if I book my flight and they can't get the minimum number? Then, suddenly, overnight it seemed, my trip's status went from available to waiting list. I rushed down to the GAP Adventures office in a frenzy.

I was on a "let's wait and see" list over the weekend so as a back-up plan, emailed Peru Treks, a highly-reputable local trekking company and asked if they had space. A swift response supplied me with all the information but stressed urgency. It was with some regret that I emailed them back Monday afternoon to say that GAP had come through for me. If I had been more experienced at solo travel, I would have liked to have booked with them.