The Inca Trail in two words: Amazing and tiring

Hello all and welcome to the latest installment of my blog. I am currently still in Cuzco having yesterday finished the Inca Trail. With all the hype that accompanies the experience, it could easily have been something of an anti-climax arriving at Macchu Picchu. However I am happy to say that my high expectations were filled and that the whole experience was amazing.


Since I last posted I travelled by bus from Puno to Cuzco (the starting point for my Inca Trail) stopping at a number of Inca sites on the way. These sites were nicestops on the way to Cuzco and helped to build my anticipation of the Inca Trail, as well as helping me to gain a bit more understanding of the Inca culture before I saw their masterpiece.


I then arrived in Cuzco the former capital of the Inca empire which was mainly destroyed by the conquistadores. However many of the major buildings in the city are made from the ruins of the former Inca buildings and it is a spectacularly pretty city with many wide squares to laze around in. As something of a backpacker Mecca it is also a great place to go out, as a I found out in the few days before my Inca Trail. However with so many tourists it is also very expensive. Therefore maybe there is a silver-lining to the cloud that was the bout of food-poisoning I got two days before I left for the Inca Trail. It was so severe I was concerned I may not be able to go on the trail. Also more irritatingly considering how much street food i have been eating of late (it's cheap), I got it from a restaurant. However fortunately it cleared up and I was able to go on the trail. Also realistically I can't expect to travel for three months in South America without getting food poisoning at least once.


The trail itself was spectacular. The walk lasts four days stopping at campsites in the evenings and passes a number of important Inca sites before reaching the famous Macchu Picchu. The trail itself is suprisingly hard. Due to its' popularity, I had expected the trail to be little more than a gentle stroll. However this is certainly not the case. The trail ascends and descends for almost the entire four days, with at times entire days being spent going uphill. Despite the trail being more challenging than I had thought, it did make the experince slightly more of a challenge, it also meant that as I was fitter and a far faster walker than most and because my group was one of the first groups, at times I was the first person to reach Inca sites and had long periods of time in Inca sites alone which makes them slightly more special than when there are 200 people around. Then finally on the fourth morning we got up at four in the morining to head to Macchu Picchu. The city itself is amazing, however to my dissapointment when I arrived it was so misty you could not see ten metres in front of you, let alone the monuments. However with a bit of patince, the mist began to clear revealing the city in all its glory. The presence of the mist also gave the city a somewhat ethereal quality making it almost more magical as it was revealed before my eyes. In time the sun came out and revealed the city as you see in the photo above.


The experience was truly great and probably the best of a great three months, hopefully there are more to come. Next I head off to Ecuador where I am hopefully spending some time in the Amazon.


Speak to you all soon


Phil