Bring Your Porter and Lots of Water: Machu Picchu!

As Ania said in her last post, we both loved Cusco. So much history, culture and beautiful buildings. After three days of enjoying all the city has to offer, we set off on a journey that we'd been looking forward to for months: the Inka Trail to the 'lost' city of Machu Picchu. 'Lost' in inverted commas because it was found 100 years ago by the American professor, Yale University's Hiram Bingham!

On the Thursday before we started our trek, we met our guide, Bruno, who came to our hostel to give us a briefing of what the four day trek would involve and what equipment and supplies we should bring.

Day 1

On Saturday morning, as per our instructions, we met Bruno in Cusco's main square, La Plaza de Armas. We arrived on time at 6:30am, and then finally after 7 our bus turned up, but not before I'd ran back up the huge hill (I'll take this opportunity to remind you we're at 3,400m above sea level - this is not easy!) to our hostel to call the tour booking company! We should be used to 'Peru time' by now, nothing runs on time! After an hour and a half on the bus, we arrived in Ollantaytambo, a small village where we bought some more snacks, an extra backpack and a walking stick each. We also met the other people in our group. There were six of us, and as it turned out, everyone else was from Colombia, the next stop of our trip! There was a family, dad Juan, mum Monica and daughter Alejandra; plus Olga, who was travelling on her own. Olga lives in New Jersey in the USA, so she spoke pretty good English, but Juan, Monica and Alejandra had little, so it was a great opportunity to practice our Spanish and get some tips on what to see in Colombia!

After a quick stretch and some time to gear up with our sleeping bags and other things, we started our 45 kilometer journey (about 28 miles), but not before posing for some photos in front of the sign at the start. From L-R that's Olga, me, Ania, Alejandra, Juan and Monica.

Between us we had two guides, Bruno and Larry, but you'll hear more about them later! The first day of the Inka Trail or Camino del Inka (literally, Inka walk, en Español) is pretty easy. The scenery is breathtaking, and that goes for all four days, this is not a boring walk with something cool at the end. Ania and I agreed to think of the entire four days as the trip; and this was the right way to go. If you embark upon this journey with only thoughts of Machu Picchu in your head, you might as well do a day trip on the train. So the first day we took it pretty easy. We started with sights of a river running along our right, saw the train carrying tourists to Machu Picchu whizz past us and enjoyed seeing the surprisingly diverse amount of wildlife on the trail, including these guys, who were outside the toilets near our lunch spot!

Speaking of lunch, we ate in a small village, where our porters set up a large tent, dividing it in two for a kitchen section and a dining room section. It really is amazing what these guys conjure up on the road. And they carry everything! Not your own personal luggage, Ania and I were carrying 8 and 9kgs respectively of our own clothes, snacks, medicines, repellants, etc. But the porters carrying pots, pans, tents, food, cooking gas, everything! They really are heroes. I'll get to them in a moment!

After a lunch of soup and pasta, we spent half an hour climbing quite a steep hill:

Again, the views were fantastic! Our guide, Bruno, told us that this was but a taster of the hills we would be climbing tomorrow, except it would be for much longer! Five or six hours of this instead of half an hour!

Triumphant at the top of Day 1's 'mini-hill'. After Day 2, it doesn't seem so much of an achievement! Here's us two with Bruno in the middle:

Before we went on this trip, Ania and I would often refer to it as 'Machu Picchu', but really it should be called 'The Inka Trail'. We saw these ruins on Day 1, the first of many we'd see along the way. This was at the top of the steep but short hill we scaled.

Having started walking at around 10 or 11am (I told you Day 1 was easy), we arrived at our camp at around 5pm I'd guess. It was great that we still had some light! The porters had already set up most of the tents. Within half an hour we were given a lovely spread of biscuits, popcorn and a variety of hot drinks to choose from including tea, coca tea and hot chocolate. This was to be the norm every day. God bless the porters!

Ania with our tent at camp on Day 1:


We had dinner that evening and talked away, mainly in Spanish, with only a few pauses for Ania to translate the rapid Peruvian/Colombian and English-people-who've learnt Spanish in Buenos Aires Spanish! Our group got along really well, despite a slight language barrier, and everyone, guides included, were brilliant! When the light was gone we made for our beds. No surprise with sore feet all round and a 5:30am start to look forward to!

Both of us slept surprisingly well! Bruno did us proud hiring feather-down sleeping bags. Included in the price of the tour was a wafer-thin roll mat to sleep on and we used the clothes we weren't wearing as makeshift pillows! I'd also expected to be much colder than I was. I went to bed wearing loads of layers but ended up taking almost everything off during the night. The male Duggan hot-bloodedness strikes again! Guaranteed Never Cold(TM).

Day 2

Day 2 is probably the toughest day. It's shorter than Day 3, but the walk is much more difficult! After being woken up at 5:30am by a porter carrying a steaming kettle and offering us coca tea (see: legends!), we breakfasted at 6am on PANCAKES (have I mentioned how much I love the porters?!) and were on the road by 6:30. For the next five or six hours, we were officially walking uphill. Day 2 is also when you climb to the highest altitudes of the whole trail, culminating with Dead Woman's Pass at 4215m above sea level. I noticed the breathlessness and Ania was affected a bit more than me, but nevertheless I'm happy to report that neither of us went through the hell we experienced at altitude on the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

As always, there was gorgeous scenery and the chance to simply enjoy each other's company uninterrupted for hours! This was also the day that we discovered how fit Juan, Monica and Alejandra are! They set off at their own pace, leaving us to eat their dust. We arrived at camp at 2:30pm. Those three got there at 11am! Sheesh!

Me walking with two porters overtaking me. Note the size difference between my backpack and the ones they're carrying!

Beautiful scenery. Two horses pose for us in silhouette before the mountains on the morning of Day 2. I love this photo!

Joined on the trip by more random animals! Ania makes a doggy-friend for a bit as we climb towards Dead Woman's Pass.


I was keen to create a bit of a video diary as we trekked and I took many videos. I've only chosen three for the blog for uploading reasons and so as not to bore you! Here's the first, with me interviewing Ania as we approach Dead Woman's Pass.

Gorgeous flowers lining the Inca Trail:

Ania climbs on up on Day 2:

We made it! The two of us knackered, yet smiling, at Dead Woman's Pass:

That was one tough climb and you start to notice the altitude at Dead Woman's Pass! Here we experienced some of the great camaraderie of the trail. Random people from all sorts of different tour groups, guides and tourists alike, were shouting encouragement and clapping as people conquered the Inka Trail's highest point. It certainly felt like we'd really achieved something! Hell, we had!

After a short break at DWP we then began a steep descent of around one-and-a-half hours down to our camp. 'Downhill', we both thought, 'Fantastic!'. A refreshing change from uphill to be sure, but after a while those Incan steps take a toll on your knees! We walked mainly on our own down the steps, passing more great scenery and briefly crossing paths with a woman from Canada/Florida who was in her MID 70s! Massive respect to her! Soon we spotted tents and toilets in the distance. Finally, we'd made it to camp! Our porters had set things up as always in a big campsite with lots of tourists. There was even a stream where I soaked my feet in freezing water. A few seconds was bliss! I was glad we'd set off so early. Having arrived at 2:30pm (or 11am if you're from the planet Krypton), we had a well-earned lunch and then headed into our tent. Here's video diary 2:

After our sleep we got up for our usual 'tea time' of popcorn, crisps and hot drinks, and then dinner! Bruno and Larry then briefed us on the plan for the next day. We were to get up at 5am, an even earlier start!

I had an even better night's sleep on Day 2. I think you figure out a way of making yourself more comfortable as you go along! Or perhaps you just need to get used to it! At 5am we got our cups of tea and after getting up and dressed in record time, ate our breakfast (no pancakes this time, but I still love the porters!) and headed off at 6ish.

The reason for that early start was to get the longest day's walking over and still arrive at Day 3's camp with time to enjoy the daylight. It's not nice getting up so early, but as you'll never sleep that well on such hard ground, it really is worth doing.

Day 3

Early morning of Day 3 at Day 2's camp. We were above the clouds with glorious views!

Day 3 consists of 8 or 9 hours walking. None of it is a tough as Day 2, but there's just so much of it! We started the day by climbing a steep hill, then we reached this cool structure, where Bruno gave us a brief tour. He really was a great guide, he spoke excellent English and knew so much about the Trail!

Our guides, Larry on the left and Bruno on the right:
After some more walking we passed two rain water lakes and then came to another set of Incan ruins. At this next spot Bruno told us all about chasquis (or chaskis): the Inca messengers who would deliver messages or collect delicacies such as fish from the coast. The system would work like a relay race, with chasquis waiting at their stations to relieve the previous runner.

We climbed these steps up to a ruin to hear all about the Incan chasquis. You can see one of their waiting stations in the background:

Some of the original Inca Trail. We climbed down these steps, which I imagine would be treachorous in the rain. You can just see a fully-laden porter on his way down from the top:

It was on this day of the trek that the surroundings became noticeably more rainforest-like. The humidity increased and the jungle became far more dense and lush.

More beautiful ruins shrouded in cloud on Day 3:


Finally, we made it to camp on Day 3. Of course, Juan, Monica and Alejandra had beaten us by ages as usual! Thanks to our early start we had time to visit another Incan ruin right next to our camp. Behold: Wiñay Wayna!

Cool, isn't it?! Those terraces were used for farming. The Inca's re-acclimatised lots of different kinds of plants, including their beloved coca leaf, which didn't originally grow at such high altitudes.

Ania playing 'Where's Wally?' amongst the Wiñay Wayna ruins:


The impressive views from Wiñay Wayna:

That night we had our final meal and the porters and cooks pulled out all the stops. Afterwards we tipped them and the guides (all, so well-derserved) and gave them a big round of applause. Great guys who do very hard work. Some of them are only around 18-21 years old.

The meal you can see below is actually from the lunch of that day. That's chicken and vegetables with rice, and something I'd wanted to try in Peru for a while, quiñoa. Vaguely like couscous, it's delicious!


Our porters, cooking up a storm in the most basic of facilities:


Enjoying another great meal. L-R that's Monica, Ania, me and Alejandra:

The whole gang! Back row, L-R that's Olga, Juan, Monica, Jesus the chef, Alejandra, Ania and me; with the porters in the front row:

That night we went to bed even earlier, with the prospect of a 3:30am start ahead of us! It was exciting, but didn't seem real. Tomorrow, we'd be arriving in Machu Picchu!

Day 4

At 3:30am we got up and the porters had already started packing up. They have to get everything down to the town of Aguas Calientes (beyond Machu Picchu) in time to catch a train. If they miss it, they have to walk, back the way we came. We got out of their way as quickly as possible and Ania and I said goodbye to our roll mats and sleeping bags. Slightly less to carry! Ye-es!

After some hanging around in the campsite's communal area with hundreds of other trekkers, we left at around 5am. It was still dark at this point and Ania and I both felt wrecked after three days of hard walking. Our group joined a queue of tourists at a checkpoint. After checking our documents, the guards let us through and then we were off!

Some people were running past the whole group, hoping to be the first to glance Machu Picchu. I had a moment of what I've dubbed 'Machu Picchu insanity', but Ania's request for us to slow down brought me to my senses. It's still going to be there, whether you're the first or last! After about two hours we climbed some steep steps and reached the Sun Gate. This was it, our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Wreathed in cloud, still in the shadow of a mountain that for now blocked out the early morning sun, there it was. Any fear of it having been built up or that it would disappoint was immediately lost. I'm not ashamed to admit that I welled up a little. There it was: the famous lost city of Machu Picchu:

After collecting ourselves we started walking once again. Forty minutes later we were there. Machu Picchu. We queued for photos and took some incredible shots, some of which you can see below.

Our group with a very cloudy Machu Picchu in the background:

We were lucky though, we had a crisp and clear day for it and the clouds were moving fast, meaning they weren't in the way of our photos for long! This is one of my favourites:

Machu Picchu in all its glory:

A sign inside MP commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hiram Bingham's discovery of the city. Ania and I got there 99 years and 11 months after he found it in 1911, just a month before the 100th anniversary!

We then left Machu Picchu, very briefly, to stow our backpacks at the main entrance, use the loo and get changed into shorts. It was starting to warm up! After a quick break we met Bruno inside and were joined by three young Aussie girls and the elderly lady from Canada/Florida that I mentioned earlier for an English-language tour. Bruno was really thorough and didn't disappoint with an entertaining two-hour tour of Machu Picchu. Inside we saw some wonderful sights and learned how the city functioned when people used to live there. We took so many photos. Here's a selection!

A circular tower with a window pointing towards the Sun Gate, to enable the first morning light to flood the room at the earliest opportunity:

Two different kinds of wall inside MP. Note the different styles of brick-work, the one on the left very smooth and the one on the right very rough. The smooth kind were used for important buildings like temples and palaces; whereas the rough kind were used for everyday buildings. They slope away from each other, apparently for increased stability! That's the city guard tower you can see with the pointed roof in the background. We'd climbed down from that point earlier that morning.

Me with just a part of Machu Picchu and those beautiful mountains behind me:

Bruno mid-flow at the city's calendar/sun dial. People put their hands on the sun dial to try and absorb the energy it's soaked up from the sun. Part of it was broken recently when a company filming a beer commercial accidentally dropped a lighting rig or some kind of crane onto it! Whoops!

After our tour we parted company with Bruno for the time being and were given time to wander on our own. First we came to the area of Machu Picchu that you can see below. People were relaxing and snacking on these terraces, while a group of llamas pranced happily around. Two lucky/unlucky tourists discovered that they love oranges and we saw one llama jump over said couple from a terrace above them as they sat eating a snack!

Us having fun with llamas. I was feeding this guy peanuts and raisins (he was the only one who liked them!) and he got closer and closer. I felt like we were doing that famous Smith and Jones sketch!

These guys looked so relaxed that I thought I'd imitate!

Ania: surrounded!

At 12:30pm we decided to bid farewell to Machu Picchu. We'd been there for something like four hours but still didn't really want to leave! We had lunch booked with the rest of our group at 2pm in Aguas Calientes though, so we moved on. You can get a bus to AC, but we walked it. It's more downhill for over an hour! But what's another hour or so when you've walked for 25-30 hours in the past four days?! Incidentally, Bruno told us that every few years they hold a race along the Inca Trail. It's mainly porters and guides who take part. The current record holder did the whole trail in 3.5 hours. 3.5! It took us four days! Unbelievable!

Anyway, we walked downhill to Aguas Calientes and soon got our first glimpse of the pretty little town:

We found Bruno, Larry and the rest of our group at a little restaurant where we ordered pizzas and pastas and I had a well-deserved botella grande of my favourite Peruvian tipple: Cusqueña Malta (a malt beer):

We waved goodbye to Bruno and Larry for good at lunch and thanked them profusely. They really were great guides and if you're planning to do the Inca Trail, I would really recommend them. Bruno's company is called Cusco Explorers but we booked through our friend Julio at Karikuy. Then we had some more free time until our train and a bus back to Cusco. Ania and I spent it wisely, going for an hour-long soak in Aguas Calientes' hot springs. It really helped our muscles! If you don't speak Spanish, Aguas Calientes translates as 'hot waters', which explains the town's name. Here's a snap of the baths:

At 6ish we headed down to the train station and met back up with Juan, Monica and Alejandra. Olga had caught an earlier train. The five of us took a two-hour train to Ollantaytambo and then a 1.5 hour bus back to Cusco. Ania and I trudged up Resbalosa Street up to our hostel of the same name, exhausted, but happy. We had completed a glorious trip along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!

Goodbye to Lima...and on to the Incan capital!

Hello everyone! We're now in the ancient Incan capital city of Cusco, in the Andes, and it's beautiful here. But before I tell you all about it, I still need to fill you in on our final days in Lima at the Karikuy project. In particular, we paid a visit during our last weekend to the San Francisco Monastery and catacombs, right in the centre of Lima. It was built in the 1600s, and the first thing you notice about it is how ornate it is. There are carvings and paintings covering every surface, including one huge painting of a Peruvian version of the Last Supper scene, in which the disciples are dining on Peruvian dishes such as 'cuy' (guinea pig) and spicy rocoto peppers. My favourite room of the monastery has to be the famous library, which is lined with dark wooden shelves and spiral staircases leading up to second-level walkways with thousands of books dating back to the 1400s. Here is the outside of the monastery:

But the visit got really exciting with a trip underground into the somewhat grisly catacombs. These crypts contain the remains of over 25,000 burials (although this is an estimation since it has not been completely excavated). The catacombs were used up until the early 19th century, when their use was banned in an effort to stop the spread of epidemics. The catacombs have several sections: first the bodies were stacked on top of one another in one area and covered in lime to reduce odour and disease. Aftre they had decomposed, the bones were then moved to an ossuary, where they were stacked more compactly (I don't envy the people who had that job). In these catacombs, the bones were (rather creepily) arranged in concentric circles in sunken wells which served as ossuaries, and some skulls were hung from the walls. There was a remarkable equality in all this: people from all walks of life were buried here, rich and poor, from servants to monks, all piled in together. Walking through the dark catacombs with their low ceilings, there were so many skulls and bones everywhere that it was hard to take in that these were all people from centuries ago.

An ossuary well full of remains. We were told that the bones in this one were ten metres deep:

The centre of Lima is full of beautiful colonial architecture, which is a nice antidote to the sprawling grey of most of the city. Here is the parliament building:

Another view of the main square:

The above picture also gives a good indication of the weather most days in Lima. It is winter here at the moment, but also Lima has a sort of microclimate of its own, so that it is often overcast and grey here when elsewhere in Peru the sun is shining!

Another outing during our last weekend in Lima was for ceviche, which is a famous part of Peruvian cusine. Basically, it's raw fish marinated in lime juice and spices. (Being veggie and also ill at the time, I didn't have any, but Stu assures me it was delicious.) Here is the huge platter the guys shared, with fish, squid, langoustines, oysters and crab, decorated with a celebratory umbrella:

(One thing I won't miss about living in Lima is how hard it is to get anything vegetarian. In the more touristy places in Peru finding veggie food isn't a problem, but we were living in a non-touristy area where meat-free meals were virtually unheard of.)

During our last few days in Lima it was Julio's aunt's 79th birthday. She lives in the flat below us, and all the family came round for a little party. We were lucky enough to be included, and it was lovely to see how important family is in Peruvian life. Most of Julio's family lives within five minutes' walk, and the house was full of uncles, aunts, and cousins. Everyone was fed and there was enough cake to feed everyone twice over!

On our last night in Lima, Julio and the other volunteers surprised Stu and me with a cake of our own:

It says 'Feliz Viaje', which means 'Happy travels'. We really weren't expecting anything and I actually felt a bit tearful about saying goodbye to our friends here.

Here we are with the delicious cake (Kate, me, Julio, Stu and Naysi, Julio's girlfriend):

After a quick internal flight we arrived in Cusco, which was the capital of the Inca empire and is today the jumping-off point for trips to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. But Cusco is much more than just a gateway town; although it is very touristy, it is a beautiful city in its own right. There are beautiful colonial plazas and buildings, and many of the colonial buildings were built by the invading Spanish colonisers on the remains of the Inca buildings they demolished, so the sturdy Inca stone walls are still very clear. It´s very hilly, and our hostel is up a steep cobbled alleyway that gets you a bit out of breath to walk up in the thin air (Cusco is at about 3400m altitude).

Our street in Cusco. You can see Cusco´s rainbow flag here (not to be confused with the Pride rainbow flag):

Murals in Cusco´s streets:


We chose a great time of year to visit Cusco, since June is a month of celebrations. The week we arrived there was the Corpus Christi Catholic festival for a couple of days, followed on the 25th June by the Inca winter solstice festival, Inti Raymi. And the week after we leave marks 100 years since Machu Picchu was ´discovered´ by American explorer Hiram Bingham and made known to the wider world. So we arrived straight into a week of parades, brass bands in the streets, decorations, dancing and all manner of festivities. (Actually, as I write this now a parade is going past this internet cafe with loads of folks in costume playing drums and panpipes.) Our hostel has a lovely roof terrace with a great view of the main Plaza, but we also headed down into the mayhem to have a closer look.

The Plaza de Armas during Corpus Christi, with one of many statues of saints being carried in the foreground, and the cathedral in the background:


On the day of Inti Raymi, we walked up the steep hill behind our hostel to the Incan archeological complex of Sacsayhuaman (which I´m ashamed to say still makes us giggle like teenagers because it is pronounced ´sexywoman´). This is where the main part of the festival takes place in a big square. The festival is a recreation of the traditional Incan winter solstice ceremony, in which the sun god is worshipped. There are a few changes: traditionally a llama is sacrificed and the high priest holds aloft its bloody heart in honour of Pachamama (Mother Earth) - these days this is acted out but the llama isn´t harmed, thank goodness! You can buy tickets for a seat with a close view of the proceedings, but we opted to do as the locals do and sit on the hillside overlooking the complex for free, albeit faraway view. It was a swelteringly sunny day, and we got there a good few hours before it started to bag a spot to sit. As the day wore on it got more and more crowded, as entire families squeezed into any free gaps on the steep rocky hillside. Vendors climbed about selling drinks, hats and snacks. It great to get a taste of this big day out, but it was far from comfy! Finally the festivities started, and dancers in traditional Andean/Incan dress paraded in formation across the square in time to music which blared out out over the speakers.

The procession comes down through the Sacsayhuaman ruins into the main square. In the square was a stone plinth, on which the man portraying the Sapa Inca (which is a great honour) overseas the proceedings:

Our seat on the crowded hillside, looking across to a second crowded hillside:

A taste of the music and dance. The costumes were great, and several of the spectators were in traditional Andean dress too:

Finally Stu and I got so uncomfortably overheated and squished in the crowd that we decided to make a break for the exit. This was actually quite difficult, as we had to climb over everyone else to get out! But we managed it, and headed back down the hill to get a well-deserved ice cream from a street vendor. (The were loads of markets and snack vendors on the walk between the town centre and Sacsayhuaman, including several stalls selling charred-looking guinea pigs on sticks - yum.)

We´ve really enjoyed Cusco, which is a great place to hang out, eat great food, and buy souvenirs. But the real reason we came here was, you guessed it, Machu Picchu. And not just Machu Picchu itself, but the four-day trek along the Inca Trail to get there. But that story is for another post...