Peru & The Inca Trail

We´re back in Cusco safe and sound after finishing our four day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. Our first day in Cusco was spent walking around, getting oriented to the city and recouping from the long flights and lay-overs (a 9 hour flight, 6 hour layover and another hour flight plus a 3 hour time change!). We're staying in a great little hotel just 10 minute walk up the hill from the Plaza del Armes in the city center. The last 100 yards is up a tiny street through which only the local Tico taxis can fit (think of a small version of a Mini Cooper) and there's only 8 inches of sidewalk on either side. It's quite the balancing act with a backpack full of gear and clothes!. At first I wondered if this would actualy be more trecherous than the Inca Trail. The hotel is great though - the building is like an MC Eicher painting with little staircases going in every direction and no two rooms are alike or even on the same floor, plus there's a nice view of the city from the flower ringed center courtyard making the high altitude hike up the hill worth while.

The next day was spent on a tour of the Sacred Valley were we visited several Inca Ruins above and along the Urabamba river valley. The stone work is amazing and the hills are patched with potato fields and dotted with llamas, alpacas, bulls, cows, sheep, and pigs. Everywhere you go you see Peruvian women with tall, wide-brimmed hats carrying a colorful sack over their shoulder. Where they come from and where they are going is hard to say - they tend to appear on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

On our third day in Peru, we began our trek on the Inca Trail. There were 16 in our group, trekkers from Canada, Ireland, England, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the Czech Republic. We all got along fabulously and we started out up the valley and through the rain forest. Day one of the hike was "easy" but was still a grueling trudge up hill so I hired a porter to carry my backback for day 2 and 3! Day two was spent hiking over a 13,000 foot pass in the mountains and day three included decending 2000 stone steps placed and carved into the mountain side by the Incas. Porters carried our tents and did all setup, break down, and cooking. It rained quite a lot but once you´re wet, you're wet so you just keep going. Luckily my pack stayed dry (thanks to my $3 waterproof cover I bought in Cusco just before leaving!) so I had dry things to wear in camp. Day four of the hike had us waking up at 4am to complete the last two hours of hiking down the valley, through the cloud forest and past more Inca ruins to beat the tour buses to Machu Pichu. As we crested the last ridge, and walked throught the Sun Gate, all we could see was clouds and fog. This was supposed to be the first sight of the most dramatic of all the Inca sites! But as we stopped to rest, the clouds rolled out and, like the curtains parting at the beginning of a movie, the vast expanse of Machu Pichu appeared below us. The group began cheering and applauding at nature's cooperation and we donned our packs and hiked the last 30 minutes to our final destination.

After a long train and bus ride home, a hot shower and long nights sleep, our group had a reunion today for lunch at an Irish pub on the main square. Doug and I had our laundry done at our hotel and checked out some more sites in the city. Tomorrow, we're off to Buenos Aires.

Until the next Internet Cafe...
Dan