Our Alternative Inca Trail!

With the fun of rafting behind us it was time to expose ourselves to the extremely high altitudes of the Inca trail. As we did not know exactly when we would be doing this trek we had not booked in advance. We knew that the classic Inca trail would probably be fully booked but thought that we would try anyway. We were not surprised to find that the earliest available trek was mid November. We were however surprised that the agent actually thought that we were going to say "Yeah no problem, we'll sit around in this small town and wait for 3 months." BLOODY IDIOT! Needless to say we found a different agent to help us. As the classic Inca trail was full we had several other choices, one of them being the Salkantay route. We were told that it was one day longer than the classic, a little further and at higher altitude. No problems we'll have that one please.

However we didn't realise the true error of our slap dash approach to booking the trek until we arrived at the start of the trek and casually asked the guide "so how many kilometres are we walking today?" Imagine our shock when he announced that it would be 24km, all up hill to an altitude of 3900m. All that Ellie could manage was a small "oh" when he added that it would probably take about 9 hours! It appears however that the other people on the trek were in the same, uninformed boat as us and we all had a good laugh as we wheezed and grunted our way through the thin air of the first day. Oh how we laughed!!! The general consensus in the group is that the agents are purposefully vague as to the distance as they know that no sane person would pay money to do this! The best was yet to come however, as the guide casually dropped in halfway through the first day that this is the easy day compared to tomorrow, oh how we all laughed again!! "WHAT, harder than this?" we all asked. Yeah tomorrow is 26km and we will be climbing the Salkantay pass. Which has an altitude of 4600m and takes you between two glaciers. MUCHO, MUCHO FREEO (very, very cold!) he laughed as he continued to taunt us.

Still the first day was amazing with the scenery changing from small farming towns with little pastures and rolling hills, to the huge mountains of the Andean range with imposing glaciers clinging to their craggy sides. Getting to the camp ground (oh yes a forgot to mention that we would be camping on this trip!) just before dark, we set up our tents at the base of the two huge mountains (one being Mt Salkantay) and were stunned by the amazing views we had of their peaks and glaciers.

This stunned joy however turned to bitter cold pain as the sun set and arctic like wind blew down from the glaciers! I have NEVER, NEVER been so cold in my life. We went to bed that night in as many clothes as we could fit on.

Ellie's crazy attire included, thermal bottoms, thermal top, 4 jumpers, 2 coats, 1 pair of trousers, 4 pairs of socks, 1 pair of gloves and a hat. I was not quite as well dressed but did put my hat and gloves on in the middle of the night. It was so cold that the condensation on the inside of the tent had frozen. Just the great nights sleep we needed after hiking for 9 hours and having the hardest day still to come!

Setting off the next morning we were not looking forward to the gruelling trek but definitely looking forward to amazing views of Mt Salkantay from the top of the pass. As you can see from the picture, the weather turned slightly and the amazing views were not quite what we were expecting. You can imagine our joy after slogging for 3 1/2 hours up a steep mountain pass in the thin air of the altitude to be able to see 3 feet in front of us. We've seen pictures of the view though and it does look amazing.

Eating lunch at the top of the pass in the bitter cold was not the best moment of our trip so far, but the 6 hours that followed were a lot worse.

The mist and cloud stayed with us until we got to our next camp and wandering through the unseen mountainous terrain reminded me of the start to American Werewolf in London. SPOOKY!

Descending through the clouds our camp appeared and we were pleased to find that were no glaciers in sight to freeze us and that some of the jungle scenery was actually visible. It was in a beautiful valley with a wild torrent of a river running through that sounded like an never ending freight train as we lay in bed and finally got some sleep.

The next 2 days of the trek were pretty uneventful (apart from both of Ellie`s little toes being replaced with huge blisters!) and the distances were only a mere 18km each day through mountains and jungle with only little "supermarkets" like this one to refresh us! The highlight was arriving at our third campsite to find a cow being tied up over the road. Withtypical morbid curiosity it was time to investigate. Just as I thought, it was the cows unlucky day as it's owners obviously fancied some steak for dinner. So for almost an hour we watched the local butcher teach his 7 year old son the tricks of the trade. It was bizarre to watch this small boy wielding a very sharp knife hack and chop off various parts of the cow. My personal favourite moment was when he attacked the horns on the skinned cows head with a hack saw and the cows eyes almost fell out. COOL. It was at this point however, I realised the difference between English and Spanish cuisine. We had become really good friends with a Spanish couple (Rafa and Natalia) during our trekking ordeal and Rafa started to explain all the Spanish dished that involve the parts of the cow that in England get carted off and end up in Pedigree Chum, Stomach, intestines and the tongue NICE! (when we visit you guys there had better be none of these little delicacies on my dinner plate!!).

Oh.. I almost forgot the river crossing. When we booked, our vague agent didn´t mention that anyone with a fear of heights should´t go. We were walking along on the third day when we came to very ferocious river about 100ft below us. It was a fantastic sight so we never though anything of it, until we went to continue walking and the guide called us back. "No, no we cross here" he informed us. To our surprise we noticed a piece of wire going across the river to the

other side with a small cage attached.

The realisation then sunk in to each member of the group that we were actually going to sit in this contraption and kind of zip line over the river. As Ellie and Rafa sat in it on the first run, Rafa´s concerns became vocal as he informed Ellie that "if the cable breaks we will definitely die!!" We all got over in one piece although Natalia and Ellie´s nerves were a little shook up!

Oh.. and I almost forgot the train tunnel incident! The last 10km Ellie and I walked alone as we were too tight to pay the $8 to get a train. We were given directions by the guide and we set off. However his directions were not great so we ended up having to walk (well kind of run) through 2 train tunnels where there was no way of knowing if the train was coming. We made it through safe and sound but, about 2 minutes later the tourist train came thundering along the track Just a bit of a close shave! So actually the last few days were no where near as uneventful as I thought, sorry.

The end of the forth day bought us to Aguas Calientes, the village at the base of the Machu Picchu (our final destination). So after over 86km we finally had the opportunity to sleep in bed and relax.

We had a great night with Rafa and Natalia, but unfortunately we had to wake up at 3:45 the following morning to begin the final climb up to Machu Picchu, the site of the most intact Inca Ruins in the world. After several hours of walking up the sometimes near shear track in torrential rain and climbing over 1200 steps the four of us arrived at the top to be greeted for the second time with a pitiful view. All we could see was mist . . not one Inca ruin was in sight!

We went on a guided tour around the ruins in the mist and it did add a certain air of mystery to the ancient buildings. Luckily the Inca weather gods were not totally against us and the cloud and mist cleared to give us stunning views of the huge site perched on the edge of the mountain. Unfortunately it also gave us no excuse not to climb the final higher mountain of Huayna Picchu.

Reaching the top and looking back at the famous city was worth every hard minute we had spent over the last few days and it really made us appreciate just how amazing the Inca people were (although I still think that they were bloody stupid building their most important city at the top of a mountain!) Sitting in a bar back in Cuzco with Rafa and Natalia we could finally all laugh properly about the experiences that we had shared and the blisters, hurt knees, twisted ankles and sore legs we suffered (over a few well earned beers of course!!!!!).