The inca trail... well, part of it anyway...

I met my new GAP group on the 22nd in the evening. It wasnt the best organised meeting, there was no notice up at reception as to what time the meeting was or where or anything. The guide kept forgetting to tell us some vital information too. The group seemed nice, mostly people travelling in 2s, just me an another woman were single travellers. We got a quick briefing about the coming days and got given our duffel bags for the inca trail to pack our belongings in (the rest of our stuff was put in storage at the hotel for the week) That evening, the group didnt go out, so I went out and met my old GAP group one last time in the pub. Some evil local tried to nick my bag on the walk home, but I fought him off - go me!

The next day I was a bit hungover from the night before... We went to the Sacred Valley and around, looking at old inca ruins and the like. First stop was a local village in the sacred valley that GAP helps out. Unfortunately, due to a landslide, we couldnt visit the village, but all the locals came up to see us.

We visited Pisac (an old inca site). Its really incredible how the incas built everything and transported the rocks, and how they cut the great big stones so precisely. No-one knows how they did it. Also at Pisac we saw lots of holes in the rock. This is where they buried/mummified people. they buried them in the foetal position because they beilieved people would be reborn every 400 years. also they took the mummies out each year at the winter solstice to look after them, make sure they´re well preserved etc. They also used to sacrifice humans to the gods, but then they moved from humans to llamas...

From there we went to Ollataytambo which is where we spent the evening. There were more ruins there which we looked round and some markets (unfortunately, due to my hangover, I cant remember all that much about the ruins at that place - oops). The town still has the original inca town plan, you can see the old original inca bricks at the bottom of the buildings which is quite cool.

So the next day, we got up and got the bus for half an hour or so to Km82 which is the start of the inca trail. We had our cheesy picture taken under the sign like everyone does who walks the trail, then we had to go and cross a bridge to start the treck. The water underneath was pretty powerful because of all the rain thats been happening recently.

I found the walk itself easy that day, it wasnt far, only 11km or something, the only issue being that you´re constantly out of breath from the altitude. We were hoping to walk a bit further that day to save on the walk the second day (supposedly the hardest day), but the campsite further up was full so we couldnt. We had finished walking by about 2.30pm, which left lots of time to play cards and chat. The porters carry so much equipment with them. We had 21 porters for 16 of us. We had a dining tent, complete with chairs and tables and had 2 or 3 course meals all the time. The poor porters have such a hard job, they each carry about 26kilos on their back, start after us, run ahead of us(!!), set up tents, cook our meals and be ready for when we arrive, Then we eat and leave, the porters pack up and run ahead of us again. Incredible. I do feel really bad for them though, they have to stay outside in the cold while we have our tea and sleep in the dinner tent on plastic sheets, its so wrong. Its like 5 star camping with the waiter service and everything, but its not necessary and I felt bad.

The next day I was really looking forward to as it was supposed to be the hardest day, going up to the dead womans pass, the highest point in the trail. It was a good walk. It was pretty cloudy but it was still good. I only found the last couple of hundred metres up to the top of the pass hard, you could hardly walk 10 steps without needing to stop for a few seconds to get your breath back. We were told the walk up to the dead womans pass from the previous checkpoint took about 1.5 - 2 hours, I did it in 50 minutes which was good, but then we were made to wait for the rest of the group at the top - it was bloody freezing and we were sat there for about 45 minutes - brr!

When the rest of the group arrived, it was another hours walk down to the campsite. We were done well before lunchtime so lots of time to hang about, have a little snooze etc etc. At about 5.30 it was tea and biscuit time. Our guide told us the plan for the next day which is supposedly the nicest day of the trail, about 16km in about 8 hours, lots of pretty views and ruins to visit - great stuff.

Then about an hour later at dinner time, our guide came in looking not so happy. We asked what the matter was but he was being a bit elusive. When asked on a scale of 1 - 10 how bad it was, he said 10. Then he had to go to a meeting with some people in charge of the inca trail and would come back and update us later.

He came back, and told us Machu Picchu had been closed to visitors due to severe flooding and landslides on the train tracks that takes people to and from Machu Picchu (how we were going to get back from there). The path we had walked along on the first day was falling apart. The guide said we could walk to MP but there was no way out of there as the train was out of commission and all the surrounding villages were flooded and were currently being evacuated by helicopter. So the guide decided the best thing for it would to be to go back the way we came as quickly as possible.

Everyone was so disappointed. To have come all this way, to have done the hardest day, and then to have to go back the way we came, it was so disappointing.

The next day we were up at 4.30 in the dark and in the rain. Breakfast was a very subdued affair. Then we had to go back up the dead womans pass. It was so depressing, everyones morale was really low.

By the time we reached the campsite of the previous night, it started to become clear the damage that the path had sustained due to the rain. A bridge we needed to cross was on the verge of collapsing. We had to run accross it in pairs. Half of the bridge was already gone. The path on the other side was flooded and it was a quick scramble up the bank to a smaller path with the guide yelling encouraging words to us - ´hurry up or the path will collapse and you will die´.Just what we needed. We were the last ones allowed to cross that bridge, they closed it after us. It collapsed a few hours after we crossed it.

Then there were branches accross the path and we had to scale the cliffside to find an alternative route. We had to jump streams coming down the hillside to get past. Then we sat and waited on the hillside until the porters came to rescue us. They came carrying rope... not a good sign. We trecked across the hillside a bit more and went down to the road again. There had been a massive landslide completely covering the path, going right down into the river below (this had recently happened - the porters had got accross the path alright, it happened a few minutes afterwards). Some people climbed accross, then a lady dislodged the soil and would have fallen down into the river if one of the porters hadnt grabbed her. There was nothing to hold onto. After that, the porters tied ropes round our middles to haul us up and accross. It was so dangerous. Someone really could have died, it shook the whole group up.

After that, the porters, bless them, had already set up lunch in a random bit of hillside somewhere off the trail so we had lunch and lay down for half an hour or so before carrying on. We were watching the rescue helicopter coing backwards and forwards to the town Aguas Calientes, a village near MP, evacuating people.

After lunch, we carried on the walk back to Km82 where we started from. Near the start of the walk, accross the other side of the river, the trainline runs (or ran). We could see where it had been destroyed by the river- The train tracks were suspended in mid-air in places, the land had been totally swept away by the river and the flood. They say its going to take at last 4 months to rebuild.

Then came the time to cross the river back over the main bridge at the start of the walk. The river was really high and really strong. There was a huge wet patch in the middle of the bridge because the water was so high, it kept splashing over the sides. We had to run accross it. Some people were pretty emotional after all that.

Then we had to get back to the sacred valley where we camped the first night (about 30 minutes drive away). We got in a minibus and drove for about 5 minutes before we couldnt go any further. The road just came to a complete stop where it had fallen into the river (see photo). So then we had to get out and walk accross some fields until we found a bit of road again. From there we got into another minibus and drove for another couple of minutes before we couldnt go and further due to the road being flooded. From there we had to walk along the train tracks for half an hour or so ´stand by me´ style with all the evacuees from the towns near MP.

When the road appeared again, we got in an open top truck that you have to stand up in and got driven closer to the town. Somewhere near the outskirts, we got dropped off and walked the rest of the way to the main square.

We walked a hell of a long way that day. It was 28k from our campsite back to the start of the inca trail (and lots of scrambling up hillsides) and then at least another 7k trying to get back to the sacred valley.

So we got to the sacred valley at about 5pm. The bridge in the town centre leading from teh square to the ruins had collapsed there as well. Then we had to wait for the other GAP group to come back so we could get a bus back to Cusco. We were the lucky two groups, the other groups were stranded at Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes.

We finally got a bus back at around 8ish having had to walk to the edge of town (due to more flooding) and squish into a minibus that didnt have enough seats for us, but at least we were getting out of there. When we got to Cusco, the hotel they had found for us was just off the main square, but a huge landslide had hit that road and it was cordened off. We had to duck under the ´danger´- do not cross´ sign to get to our hotel.

When we got there, out guide told us that 4 people had died near to where we had slept and walked. Two local people were killed being hit by boulders during a landslide, and two guides were killed in their tents as they slept by a landslide.

It was a really harrowing and knackering day, both physically and emotionally. Hopefully Ill be on a bus to Arrequipa tomorrow evening... if the roads arent flooded... I really like Cusco as a place, but I cant wait to leave it this time.