The Inca Trail

Whoo hoo!! Back already after 4 fantastic days trekking through the Andes to see the almightly MachuPicchu! I managed to survive the 45km trek over 4 days.. carrying all my own stuff.. with bad knees and dodgy lungs!
Day1
I was surprised I even got picked up on the morning of the first day. The organisation had been so poor that I really thought i wasnt going to be going! Of course they managed to pick me up over an hour late, but what can i expect.. its South America! We picked up the rest of the group and there were 6 of us in total! We head off to kilometer82.. where we all purchased walking sticks.. and water.. water purification tablets.. cocoa leaves for the altitude etc.
First thing we had to do was show our tickets at the checkpoint.. and i couldnt believe it it, but i was was now 20yrs old, Nicole CHUMBERS, and the ticket had the wrong passport number.. also they had me written as Male!!! Ha ha ha! - obviusly great transcribers!
Finally we started walking and it was a relaxing walk along the Urubamaba river... mainly flat, and very beautiful! After only abouit 2 hours of walking we stopped for lunch and thi is when we first got a taste of the good treatment we were going to be getting. I think we were all expecting to be eating out of tins round a small fire.. but it was quite the contrary.. all very civilised! We had a tent.. then the chef brought asparagus soup for starter... then out came the chicken burgers, chips and rice and other veg. Then we were given lots of different types of teas for the altitude. After lunch we walked a further 2 hours before reaching a small village where we camped. As soon as the sun set we could feel the cold! It was absolutly freezing.. but we were then served 'tea' at 5;30 - which consisted of popcorn, cookies, and teas,... and then we had diner at 7. another good hearty meal... always stating with good hot soup and followed by solids!
The sky was amazing that night.. as it was everynight, and we managd to see the southern cross, and the milky way!
The sleeping arrangements were such that we were in pairs. There were two american girls, Amanda and Krista, 2 canadians Matt and Mark, and i shared my tent with a fellow brit Steve. I did however have the option of haring with our guide Fredy who was offering out free massages.. but thought it was best to pass him up on that offer.
That nigh we all went to bed fairly early, as we had an early start, and we had all forgotton to bring cards.. plus no fires allowed, so it was fairly quiet.
Day 2
Got woken up bright and early with a cup of tea at 5am.. luckily wasnt too hard due to the previousl early night! Today was to be the most challenging day. We had to accend 1200m over 'dead womans pass' it would take about 5 hours. Then we would have to decend again about 600m to the campsite.
We left our campsite at aboutb 6:30am after some delicious pancakes.... and started making our way up the mountain! It looked so far away, and the only way we could identify it, was by calling it the nipple.. as it looked like a womands brest! Every 1.5 hours we stopped for a rest before accending up the next part. The accent was divided into 3 parts. The first 2 werent too much of a problem.. it was the third and final part which was a killer. It was bove the tree line, so i think it was the sun which really killed us.. as before, we had been walking in the shade.. and it was a real real struggle. I started to suffer from the altitude a little.. i got a bit of a headache.. and just lost my speach entirely.. it was so woerd. I couldnt form sentences in English!
The route wasnt particularily scenic, it was just a big uphill struggle, but very satisfying when we reached the top. The walk down on the other side was painful on the toes, but luckily wasnt too far! When we reached camp at 1pm, the chef whipped up some good, much earned food. Then the majority of the group took a siesta before tea and dinner. I on the otherhand was bored and not exhausted enough, so i decided to start making my way up the next mountain which we would be tackling in the morning! I walked up abouut 250m.. saw some of the inca ruins, and just kept walking.. it hadnt been my intntion to go so high at all.. but i just kepot going.. till i realised i was 4:45 and it would be very drk soon. The way up had been extremely steep and coming down in the dark wouldnt be fun! I also cursed myself for having forgotton my camera as the pics would have been pretty good.. especially as there were no tourists, no porters... no one! The path had been tough without a bag.. tomorrow would be a really hard challenge... especailly as it was much steeper than anything we had done so far!
That night after dinner we did a spot of star gazing again, and saw southrn cross, the big dipper, lama, scorpion, and milkyway. Matt who was the photographer of the group got some fantastic pictures of the sky! So we all look forward to seeing those posted on the net!
Day 3
Apparently the previos night was supposed to have been our coldest, but i had been sweating all night due to the great sleeping bag, and wearing way too many clothes!
We started our trek up the econd pass.. it was hard work, but we made it. The way down the otherside was just as hellish as it was extremely steep! Along the way we ay 2 ruins which was pretty cool. It was all very difficult, but the porters who i have failed to mention before practically run it, with 25kg each on their back.. with tables, chairs, gas tanks stacked on their backs, and many carry other peoples bags for them too, so most people waling the trail just carry day packs.
A bit of trivia for you!!.. the inca trail is shut every february for restoration. during this time the porters all have a race to machupicchu.. and the fastest time to do the whole route which takes us 4 days.. was 3hours and 45mins!!! Can you believe it!!
After lunch and Jupe (we were serve orange juice which was abut 35 degrees.. and named it jupe. When we irt took a sip we all pretty much spat it out because it was so warm and vile) we started the best part of our walk. We went up only 100m and then walkd along the side of the mountain. We cuold see all the snow capped mountains around us and it was stunning. It was a wal through the cloud forest, but we were very luckily, as there were absolutly NO clouds at all.. so when we finally got to the 3rd pass we were able to see 360 degrees around us, which our guide says he hasnt seen in 2yrs of doing this trail. And he does it every week! We could also see the rainbow flag of Cuzco which is on the mountain of Machupicchu.. so we knew it was close.
After having some fun with the cameras and posing on the top of the mouintain we were the last group up there.. and started making our 1000m decent to camp! This was really tough going on the knees. Left me limping by the end, despte being on painkillers, neurophen cream, and supports! It took about 2 and a half hours to get to camp.. where for the first time all the groups were gathered.. and there was a restaurant, so we were able to eat inside!!
This was by far the most tiring day! after dinner, we just thanked the porters for all their work and said goodnight! We wouldnt be seeing them in the morning as they had to take a different route, and werent allowed to see machupicchu, becasue they go so fast they used to knock tourists off the narrow trail.
Day 4
We were roused at 3:45am for breakfast.. then quickly went to the gates to queue to get into the final part of the trail. We were the second group by the gates, and had to wait 45mins till 5:30 for them to open! We felt like caged animals.. and the boys got particularily competative. Once we were let in the boys literally ran! It only took an hour to reach the sun gate.. but our grup decided we wanted the postcard pic for the sunrise.. so we made another mad dash to the watchtower for the sunrise!
It was beautiful.. we all went crazy with the photos.. but were VERY annoyed as some idiots had gone INSIDE the ruins.. so lots of photoshop needs doing to the pics as there are loads of tourists in the ruins!
After sunrise we were given a tour of the ruins.. after which we climbed Wanupicchu, which is the mountain in the background of Machupicchu! The views from there were amazing! but it was a very steep climb!
We travelled to Aguas Calientes for 1:30pm to meet with our tour guide to say goodbye and have lunch. On the bus down there was the strangest boy. He ran all the way dopwn the mountain waving and shouting at our bus, then at the botom, got on and screamed at us in Quechua, and then asked for money. The he got a lift back up!
At lunch we fund out our transport arrangements for going home! OMG! This company was rubbish. The canadians were on a different train to us, leaving an hour later and going direct to cuszco. Me and Steve were on a different train to a wierd town, where we wuld be picked up by bus! On the train, we didnt even have seats together, and when we got off the bus it was close to impssible to find the sig with our names.. finally steve spotted his, and mine was below as 'Naomi Chumbers' ... WOW these people really cant transcribe.
Finally we got to Cuszco safe and sound, and then went for our celebratory night out.
On the whole the group was fantastic, and had a brilliant time despite the terrible organiation! Wouldnt change it for any other group/experience.. other than i wouldnt mind doing without the knee pain! Everyone was fantastic... and we will forever have gret memories of the Canadian shower and Jupe!