Superhikers

Cusco was our base for the next few days before we left to go on the Inca trail. We arrived during Inti Raymi, the second biggest festival in South America. Cusco was crazy, packed with people, locals and tourists alike. Each day they had elaborate parades through town dressed in brightly coloured clothes which made for quite a sight when contrasted against the stone streets and buildings. The festival goes back hundreds of years and is celebrated each June, reaching it´s peak on the 24th when they sacrifice a Llama and march up to an old inca site called Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexywaman!!) for more festivities.

We also visited some impressive Inca ruins in a little town just out of Cusco called Pisac. We were there on a Sunday so got to see the local markets in full swing and found a little place that sold the most amazing cheesecake. We ate way too much and then headed out to see the ruins which were an hour´s hike up a steep hill in blazing sunshine. We soon regretted stuffing ourselves with cheesecake, should have done that after the walk. The ruins were very impressive and built in an amazing spot with spectacular views down the valley.





Our Inca trail started with a 4am pickup from our hostel and a bus ride out to the start of the trail. Definitely not how the Inca´s started their pilgrimage from Cusco but we weren´t complaining!! We had a great group of people on our tour, 10 Americans and us 2 Kiwi´s. To carry our equiptment we had 18 porters. These guys were amazing, they are pretty small in stature but incredibly fit and strong. Made us feel pretty pathetic when they breezed past us laden down with over 20kg of weight on their backs. Our guide, Casiano was great, very patient and knowledgeable. He called our group the ¨Superhikers¨ which was a bit of a contradiction but we were happy to keep the name. It became out group greeting whenever we would see another member of our tour along the trail.

The first days hiking was pretty easy which was a bit of a relief as Phil had been struck down with food poisioning the day before. Pretty crazy that we had gone 2 months with no problems then the day before I get sick. We camped out in a lovely spot with views over the valley to a glacier topped mountain. After happy hour which consisted of lots of Milo and mountains of popcorn, we were served up the most amazing dinner. The food on the Llama Path tour blows your mind, enough food to feed an army and it all tasted so good. Guess thats why we needed 18 porters! Breakfast the next morning consisted of pancakes, porridge, toast and more Milo. We hadn´t seen Milo in South America yet so it was a bit of a novelty having Milo with powdered NZ milk to warm us up in the Andes.

Day 2 started off steep and stayed that way for half the day. We ascended up to an altitude of 4200m to dead womans pass. No women died here though, apparently it looks like a woman lying down from a distance but we hadn´t chewed enough Coca leaves to see the resemblence. Once you reach the pass, you descend down some steep Inca built steps for about 700m where we met up with our porters who had packed up our overnight campsite, passed us on the trail and cooked us a 3 course lunch. They must think we are pretty hopeless. After lunch you go uphill again passing a very scenic inca ruin along the way. We started getting into the cloud forrest here, making for a quite dramatic change in both surroundings and temperature. The forrest was really beautiful, home to some pretty amazing looking orchids and lush greenery which was nice to see after weeks spent in some rather barren landscapes. We visited another even more impressive Inca fortress late on day 2. This place was built into the side of a cliff and had a really impressvie aquaduct system. The views from here were amazing when the clouds cleared. We arrived at camp pretty exhausted after what was definitely the hardest days hiking.




Day 3 started off early once again. The weather had cleared up overnight and we were greeted with the most spectacular views down the valley. The walking this day was pretty easy and passed through another amazing feat of Incan engineering, tunnels through solid rock. We arrived at our camp just after lunch and visited another Incan site. This place had the most amazing terraces which the Inca´s used to experiment with growing different types of vegetables. The stone baths here still had a working plumbing system with running water. After another huge meal we put on a show for our porters which consisted of 4 different acts from animal puppetry to the americans singing their University fight songs to imitating pan flutes using beer bottles then the girls did the rocky horror time walk which the porters joined in on. Yet again I think the porters thought there was something wrong with us, altitude sickness maybe??



We woke up at 3am to start our walk up to the sun gate where we would enter Machu Picchu. We were the first group there and were greetd with a beautiful view of thick cloud so no fairytale view of Macchu Picchu which was a little disappointing. The cloud did clear slowly though so by the time we reached Machu Picchu we got to take in the specatacular sights. Phil climbed up Wayna Picchu, which gave a spectacular views of the ruins and surrounding area. Machu Picchu is built in a very dramatic site surrounded by steep mountains and a rugged river. There is so much said about Machu Picchu that it would be easy to think the place is overrated but its not. The scale and quality of the buildings is incredible. The Incas were a truly amazing society and the structures they left behind have survived multiple earthquakes but sadly alot have been damaged by treasure seeking humans and irresponsilbe tourists climbing on them. The trail was an amazing way to see Machu Picchu and other ruins which are just as impressive. Our tour company Llama Path was great and we were lucky enough to have a like minded group of easy going people to share the experience with.