Inca Trail...Days Three and Four
Day two, the climb to Dead Woman´s Pass is supposed to be the hardest. As I mentioned, it´s a 4000 foot climb up to 14,000 feet at the pass. By the way, it´s called Dead Woman´s Pass because the hills at the pass look like a woman in repose.
But I thought Day Three was the hardest. It was the longest at 16 kilometers. We started up a very steep ascent of about 1000 meters to Runkurakay Pass, above the ruins of the same name that Amy and I visited the day before. The pass has gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains, including Veronica at almost 6000 meters, covered with glaciers.
There were two small lakes up here and at the top of the pass many offerings left by porters. These are piles of rocks that they make for the mountain gods. From the pass, it was a 1 hour descent to the beautiful Inca ruins of Sayacmarca. This was probably the most beautiful Inca site of the trip, besides Machu Picchu. It hangs on a cliff, hundreds of meters above the valley floor and commands views that are out of this world. We climbed up to Sayacmarca on a VERY narrow, steep stairway. Again, coca leaves made this possible for Amy. We were able to spend about a half hour exploring the ruins...
then it was another half hour down to our campsite, again all set up and ready for us, as always. From here we had our last big ascent of the trip, up to Phuyupatamarca. Along the way we finally were walking on an original Inca trail, with original stones. The trail before was on an original Inca road, but the stones were put there recently. The trail here started to enter a more lush environment, with lots of large trees, beautiful flowers and even bamboo. We came upon an Inca tunnel, about 20 meters long. We finally reached the pass, our last, and the view was unreal. We could even see Machu Picchu mountain, which rises behind Machu Picchu, so our destination was finally in site.
Here started the most difficult part of the trek, in my opinion. A 1000 meter descent, which consisted of about 2000 original Inca steps. They aren´t your basic steps, they are much taller and much narrower. Down, down, down we went, step after step. The view were fantastic and across the valley we saw rain coming towards us. Soon, we had a lovely, warm rain on us, the first of the trek. It wasn´t a hard rain, more like a soft Hawaiian rain, but it made the stones slippery. After about one and a half hours of this, we were on the final path to our campsite, which was dirt, so not as slippery. We made it to our campsite at about 5 pm, walking over 8 hours that day. We had just enough time to make a short visit to the wonderful ruins of Winay Wayna.
The campsite that night was at a rather awful place, the Winay Wayna hostel. For some reason, the Powers That Be have built this ugly hostal right here in the middle of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary. The best thing about it is that it has cold beers, but there is constant loud music blaring away and the lighting is very bright. Since we had an early wake up call of 4am the next morning, most of us went to bed around 8. For some reason, the three girls who were having the hardest time on the trek, who were constantly complaining how tired they were and how hard the trek was (duh!), stayed up until closing time, 11pm. As it turned out, this wasn´t so smart.
Indeed, we were awaken at 4am the next morning, so we could get to the Sun Gate of Machu Picchu as close to sunrise as possible. We all had breakfast, but noticed the three girls who had partied the night before weren´t there. Poor Victor, our guide, had to rustle them out of bed, not a task I envied him for. But we finally got on the road for the hour plus hike to the Sun Gate. We got there only a little late, but there was a lot of fog and you couldn´t see Machu Picchu. We then headed down the last couple of kilometers and just as we arrived at the Watchman´s Hut, where the famous postcard scene of MP is taken from, the fog lifted and we could see Machu Picchu in all it´s glory, a fitting end to a most rewarding trek.
Victor gave us a two hour tour of the city, which was most informative. Then we were left on our own for a few hours until it was time to come down and take the train back to Cusco.
So ended our wonderful adventure on the Inca Trail.
In all, I guess we climbed about 10,000 feet and came down about the same. Our legs this morning were a little shakey, in fact it hurt just to come down one step!! But after a few hours of walking around Cusco, the legs are now back to normal. We are both feeling great, with a feeling of an enormous accomplishment. It was one of the most enjoyable things either of us have ever done. And I think being with such wonderful people made it easier and a lot more fun. We made friends that we will have for a long time, although they all live thousands of miles away.
So would I recommend this trek. In a heart beat. Of course, you have to be reasonably fit and not only like to hike, but love the great outdoors. But here we were, two people in their late 40s and early 50s, and we did just fine. It certainly was challenging, but I expected that. It was actually easier than I thought it would be. It was kind of like doing a difficult cycling century, four days in a row, at high altitude. But luckily, the altitude never was a problem for either of us. We had been in Peru for over a week and were acclimated. So for those thinking about doing this, be sure to get some exercise before you come and get to altitude 4 to 7 days before you start off. Also, our treking company, SAS, wss great. Their website is http://www.sastravelperu.com.
But I thought Day Three was the hardest. It was the longest at 16 kilometers. We started up a very steep ascent of about 1000 meters to Runkurakay Pass, above the ruins of the same name that Amy and I visited the day before. The pass has gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains, including Veronica at almost 6000 meters, covered with glaciers.
There were two small lakes up here and at the top of the pass many offerings left by porters. These are piles of rocks that they make for the mountain gods. From the pass, it was a 1 hour descent to the beautiful Inca ruins of Sayacmarca. This was probably the most beautiful Inca site of the trip, besides Machu Picchu. It hangs on a cliff, hundreds of meters above the valley floor and commands views that are out of this world. We climbed up to Sayacmarca on a VERY narrow, steep stairway. Again, coca leaves made this possible for Amy. We were able to spend about a half hour exploring the ruins...
then it was another half hour down to our campsite, again all set up and ready for us, as always. From here we had our last big ascent of the trip, up to Phuyupatamarca. Along the way we finally were walking on an original Inca trail, with original stones. The trail before was on an original Inca road, but the stones were put there recently. The trail here started to enter a more lush environment, with lots of large trees, beautiful flowers and even bamboo. We came upon an Inca tunnel, about 20 meters long. We finally reached the pass, our last, and the view was unreal. We could even see Machu Picchu mountain, which rises behind Machu Picchu, so our destination was finally in site.
Here started the most difficult part of the trek, in my opinion. A 1000 meter descent, which consisted of about 2000 original Inca steps. They aren´t your basic steps, they are much taller and much narrower. Down, down, down we went, step after step. The view were fantastic and across the valley we saw rain coming towards us. Soon, we had a lovely, warm rain on us, the first of the trek. It wasn´t a hard rain, more like a soft Hawaiian rain, but it made the stones slippery. After about one and a half hours of this, we were on the final path to our campsite, which was dirt, so not as slippery. We made it to our campsite at about 5 pm, walking over 8 hours that day. We had just enough time to make a short visit to the wonderful ruins of Winay Wayna.
The campsite that night was at a rather awful place, the Winay Wayna hostel. For some reason, the Powers That Be have built this ugly hostal right here in the middle of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary. The best thing about it is that it has cold beers, but there is constant loud music blaring away and the lighting is very bright. Since we had an early wake up call of 4am the next morning, most of us went to bed around 8. For some reason, the three girls who were having the hardest time on the trek, who were constantly complaining how tired they were and how hard the trek was (duh!), stayed up until closing time, 11pm. As it turned out, this wasn´t so smart.
Indeed, we were awaken at 4am the next morning, so we could get to the Sun Gate of Machu Picchu as close to sunrise as possible. We all had breakfast, but noticed the three girls who had partied the night before weren´t there. Poor Victor, our guide, had to rustle them out of bed, not a task I envied him for. But we finally got on the road for the hour plus hike to the Sun Gate. We got there only a little late, but there was a lot of fog and you couldn´t see Machu Picchu. We then headed down the last couple of kilometers and just as we arrived at the Watchman´s Hut, where the famous postcard scene of MP is taken from, the fog lifted and we could see Machu Picchu in all it´s glory, a fitting end to a most rewarding trek.
Victor gave us a two hour tour of the city, which was most informative. Then we were left on our own for a few hours until it was time to come down and take the train back to Cusco.
So ended our wonderful adventure on the Inca Trail.
In all, I guess we climbed about 10,000 feet and came down about the same. Our legs this morning were a little shakey, in fact it hurt just to come down one step!! But after a few hours of walking around Cusco, the legs are now back to normal. We are both feeling great, with a feeling of an enormous accomplishment. It was one of the most enjoyable things either of us have ever done. And I think being with such wonderful people made it easier and a lot more fun. We made friends that we will have for a long time, although they all live thousands of miles away.
So would I recommend this trek. In a heart beat. Of course, you have to be reasonably fit and not only like to hike, but love the great outdoors. But here we were, two people in their late 40s and early 50s, and we did just fine. It certainly was challenging, but I expected that. It was actually easier than I thought it would be. It was kind of like doing a difficult cycling century, four days in a row, at high altitude. But luckily, the altitude never was a problem for either of us. We had been in Peru for over a week and were acclimated. So for those thinking about doing this, be sure to get some exercise before you come and get to altitude 4 to 7 days before you start off. Also, our treking company, SAS, wss great. Their website is http://www.sastravelperu.com.
posted by Craig and Amy at 9:23 PM
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