The end of the Safari
Asuncion, Paraguay
April 20, 2011
Back to the real Latin America
Asuncion, Paraguay
April 14, 2011
Culture and civilization
Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 10, 2011
Up the east coast of Argentina to Buenos Aires
Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina
April 9, 2011
Punta Arenas, to sell the Safari?
Punta Arenas, Chile
April 8, 2011
End of the road
Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
March 28, 2011
Hiking Patagonia
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile
March 27, 2011
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, Argentina
March 25, 2011
More Patagonia on the way to Los Glaciares
Tres Lagos, Santa Cruz, Argentina
March 24, 2011
Stones, gravel, and cut tires on Ruta 40 South
Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz, Argentina
March 21, 2011
Summertime in February continues
Bariloche, Argentina
March 19, 2011
Lake country in the summertime
Lago Malhua, Chile
March 15, 2011
To the Vineyards! South from Pirque to the Lakes
Valle de Colchagua, Chile
March 14, 2011
A weekend of comfort
Pirque and Santiago, Chile
March 13, 2011
A port with character
Valparaiso, Chile
March 5, 2011
Geysers and starry nights in the Atacama Desert
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
March 4, 2011
The last of Peru – No. More. Mountains. Please?
Tacna, Peru
February 27, 2011
Mt. Chachani – AKA self-inflicted altitude-related torture
Mt. Chachani, Peru
February 26, 2011
Down to Arequipa and Hunting for X-treme tours
Arequipa, Peru
February 25, 2011
The Andean Plateau and Lake Titicaca
Puno, Peru
February 24, 2011
The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu
Cuzco, Peru
February 23, 2011
Sand-boarding, Nazca Lines and camping at altitude
Nazca, Peru
February 22, 2011
Cruising south from Lima (and Peruvian politics)
South of Lima, Peru
February 21, 2011
A little bit of city living
Lima, Peru
February 20, 2011
Back to the mountains
Huaraz, Peru
February 19, 2011
Hunting a better left
Huanchaco, Peru
February 18, 2011
Peru – the North Shore
Chicama, Peru
February 17, 2011
Surfing in Ayampe
Ayampe, Ecuador
February 16, 2011
Doing circles of Ecuador
Baños and Quito, Ecuador
February 16, 2011
Montañita for New Year's Eve
Montañita, Ecuador
February 7, 2011
The Race to Montañita for New Year's Eve
Otavalo, Ecuador
February 5, 2011
Highlands of southern Colombia
Parque Nacional de Purace, Colombia
February 3, 2011
Cruising Colombia – Rio Claro and Bogota
Rio Claro and Bogota, Colombia
January 30, 2011
Party time in an amazing city
Medellin, Colombia
January 24, 2011
Roadtrip to Medellin
Antioquia, Colombia
January 22, 2011
South American Begins: Cartagena!
Cartagena, Colombia
January 20, 2011
Crossing the Darien – "No Hay Problema!"
Darien National Park, Panama
January 14, 2011
Good times in Panama City
Panama City, Panama
January 13, 2011
The run to Panama
Dominical, Costa Rica
January 3, 2011
Santa Teresa with a big crew
Santa Teresa, Nicoya, Costa Rica
January 2, 2011
The Interior of Costa Rica (with Kasia, Gosia, and Maciek)
Arenal, Costa Rica
December 24, 2010
Hunting beaches in Nicoya
Playa Avellanas, Costa Rica
December 23, 2010
Return to America? No, Bienvenidos a Costa Rica
Liberia, Costa Rica
December 22, 2010
Isla de Ometepe
Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
December 22, 2010
Surfing Playa Maderas
Playa Maderas, Nicaragua
December 13, 2010
Across Nicaragua to San Juan del Sur
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
December 12, 2010
Cops and potholes – The crossing of Honduras
Southern Honduras
December 2, 2010
Playa El Tunco, El Salvador
El Tunco, El Salvador
November 29, 2010
Fun with license plates
Chichicastenango, Guatemala
November 15, 2010
Chichi market, north to Coban and on to Samuc Champey
Chichicastenango, Guatemala
November 15, 2010
Road Trip to El Salvador
La Hachadura, El Salvador
November 4, 2010
Hippy colonies in the jungle
San Pedro de Atitlan, Guatemala
November 4, 2010
Into Guatemala and down to Lake Atitlan
Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala
November 3, 2010
Urban and colonial Guatemala
Lanquin, Antigua, and Guatemala City, Guatemala
October 31, 2010
Deep in the jungle at Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey, Guatemala
October 31, 2010
The ultimate tow-out
Lanquin, Guatemala
October 30, 2010
Up to the hills: San Cristobal de Las Casas
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
October 29, 2010
The Oaxaca coast
Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico
October 27, 2010
Outskirts of Mexico City
Cuernavaca and Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico
October 26, 2010
Mexico City
Mexico, D.F., Mexico
October 25, 2010
Central Mexico – Tlaquepaque to Zitacuaro
Michoacán, Mexico
October 24, 2010
Land of agaves… and Tequila
Guadalajara, Mexico
October 23, 2010
Serious chillin
Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico
October 22, 2010
Looking for surf…
San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico
October 21, 2010
Operation ceviche with Jorge
Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico
October 20, 2010
Gasoline theft
Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico
October 15, 2010
Copper Canyon Hike Days Three and Four
Barranca del Cobre, Chihuahua, Mexico
October 14, 2010
Copper Canyon Hike: Days One and Two
Barranca del Cobre, Chihuahua, Mexico
October 13, 2010
Train up the Copper Canyon to Creel
Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico
October 13, 2010
Cabo Pulmo, La Ventana and the Ferry to Topolabampo
La Paz, Baja California, Mexico
October 12, 2010
Southern tip of Baja
La Paz and Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico
October 11, 2010
Surfing Bocana de San Vincente
Bocana de San Vincente, Baja California, Mexico
October 11, 2010
Cave Paintings
Mulege, Baja California, Mexico
October 10, 2010
The Search for Cañon La Trinidad
Mulege, Baja California, Mexico
October 10, 2010
Pristine beaches of central Baja
Bahia Concepcion, Baja California, Mexico
October 4, 2010
The Mexican desert as you imagined it
Baja California, Mexico
October 3, 2010
Surfing Erindira
Erindira, Baja California, Mexico
October 2, 2010
Last stop in the USA
San Diego, California, USA
September 30, 2010
Rockin in style
Los Angeles, California, USA
September 27, 2010
Extreme desert heat
Death Valley, California, USA
September 23, 2010
Mount Whitney – Summit Ascent
Mount Whitney, California, USA
September 22, 2010
Bienvenidos a Tijuana
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
September 21, 2010
Mount Whitney – The Trek to Trail Camp
Mount Whitney, California, USA
September 20, 2010
San Luis Obispo to Lake Isabella
San Luis Obispo, California
September 20, 2010
Surfing USA… or at least procuring boards
Santa Cruz, California, USA
September 14, 2010
Wild California – Big Sur
Big Sur, California, USA
September 12, 2010
Highway 1 to San Francisco and Palo Alto
San Francisco, California, USA
September 8, 2010
The northern California coast
Sinkyone Wilderness, California, USA
September 5, 2010
Redwoods – some really big trees!
Redwoods National Park, California, USA
September 4, 2010
Looking for caves, finding gold mines
Oregon Caves National Monument, Oregon, USA
September 2, 2010
Crater Lake
Crater Lake, Oregon, USA
September 1, 2010
Leaving Hood River
Portland, Oregon, USA
August 31, 2010
Life in the Hood
Hood River, Oregon, USA
August 29, 2010
Mountain biking on volcanoes
Mount St. Helens, Washington, USA
August 25, 2010
Mountain biking Post Canyon
Hood River, Oregon, USA
August 25, 2010
White water mattressing
Hood River, Oregon, USA
August 15, 2010
Arriving at the Colombia River Gorge
Interstate 84, Oregon, USA
August 14, 2010
Offroading in the USA
Nez Perce, Montana, USA
August 13, 2010
Hiking the Sky Rim trail in Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
August 10, 2010
Almost in Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, USA
August 8, 2010
Time to roll!
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
August 7, 2010

The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

Cuzco, Peru By Kuba Soltysiak

Peru’s top tourist draw is undoubtly Machu Picchu, the “Lost City” of the Incas deep in the Andes near Cuzco. One of the popular ways to reach it is to hike a few days of the “Inca Trail”, an important ancient Inca route that once linked the city of Cuzco in the south of Peru to Quito in present-day Ecuador. The Inca empire at its largest stretched even further than this from southern Colombia to northern Chile.

Unfortunately for us, the Inca Trail near Cuzco is now extremely popular with tourists so the authorities in charge of it have put in place strict controls to both restrict the number of people doing it and make sure they spend enough of their tourist dollars on local services. It is impossible to hike the trail independently and all hikers are required to sign up for a guided hike. The guided hike packages are also regulated as to minimum standards, and so now always include a guide, cook, and porters to carry most of the gear. Although we love hiking ourselves and try to avoid even hiring guides whenever possible, we reluctantly agreed to the over-the-top package in order to be able to do the trail.

Setting out from Cuzco in the morning of Jan 29th, we filled a mini-bus with the three of us, our driver, our guide, the cook, and two porters (i.e. the three of us going camping with 5 support staff). After a drive of a few hours with obligatory stops at souvenir shops selling everything and anything made of alpaca (we bought some hats and socks), we made it to the trailhead where we started our hike after some thorough checks of our passports and guide by park officials.

Park officials also weighed the porters’ bags (they are legally only permitted to carry 25kg, although in the past they would carry as much as 40kg).

The hike itself was definitely beautiful, with amazing mountain scenery and plenty of Inca ruins along the way.

This part of the Andes that is to the east of the 6000m peaks forming the crest of the range is very humid and lush, and the waters here flow eastwards into the Amazon. There are plenty of interesting flora and fauna, including bromeliads growing on rocks and trees…

…tasty cactus fruit called Tuna that we managed to get to deep in a cactus patch…

… donkeys…

… and alpacas.

The trail is reasonably challenging for most people, since it has a lot of steep stairs and long climbs at high altitude.

However, we were already quite well acclimatized to the altitude (having slept at 4500m two nights before doing the trail, where the highest pass is 3800m) and in good shape from doing a lot of sports before it, like surfing as well as hikes where we actually carried our own gear, it was quite easy for us. We therefore spent our evenings discussing what harder hikes in the Andes we can do…

The camping experience was very different from what we were used to though. First of all, we’re used to carrying all our gear, not just our clothes. It was weird having porters carrying our tents, food, and cooking gear. When we arrived at camp every day, the porters would already have beat us there and set up our sleeping tents as well as a dining tent. Here’s our tent for our first lunch, our guide is on the right in the first picture.

Our guide would then invite us to “tea time” to have some coca leaf tea and snacks while we wait for dinner to be prepared (in a separately partitioned section of the dining tent). Here’s tea time at camp #2:

At lunch time, the porters would also stop and put up the dining tent so that we can dine in style, even if it was raining (since it was rainy season). They carried a table, chairs, and even a tablecloth – as required by regulated Inca Trail tour standards. The food was also definitely not camp food: there were interesting trail choices like fried wontons with chocolate sauce, popcorn, and even a cake (oddly, served for breakfast).

The campsites were also not exactly in the wilderness. The first night, we camped in what was basically a grassy terraced area adjacent to someone’s adobe mud house, in which the porters and guide actually slept. We found this not ideal but not necessarily a cause for complaint. Fortunately there was a stream nearby to bathe (apparently our guide said we’re the first foreigners he’s ever seen to bathe in the river – since it was quite cold and at altitude)

We played cards and hung out in our alpaca hats under the permanent roof structure at this site, drinking Chilean wine and champagne (since we didn’t have anything else to carry in our backpacks) and eating cheese that Ewa had smuggled in from Switzerland …

The second day, our campsite was really nice, nestled between two mountains, and with only a ranger station visible, and despite being designed for hundreds of tents it was a terraced area with brush in between so felt reasonably private.

The third day, however, we were originally going to camp at Winay Wayna, a big camp essentially beside a large mountain refuge (the building having the feel more of a run down cafeteria than an Alpine refuge) and underneath high-voltage power cables. Since the last section of the trail leading through the Sun Porte to Machu Picchu was closed due to mudslides, our guide suggested we hike to another camp in order to be closer to Machu Picchu and be able to make it to the site earlier in the morning. However, the campsite he took us to was not really what you dream of when you think of the Peruvian Andes…

In addition to the ducks runnning around and the stench of a duck farm, it was also beside these train tracks (they are just past a fence to the left of where those red crates are)

We complained and told our guide that the site was inacceptable, and fortunately he moved us to a much better location across the river. We’re still unsure of why he tried to put us with the chickens in the first place, but we’re guessing he had some sort of financial incentive to do so (not pay park fees for the last day?)

Finally, on the last day, after a long hike along the railroad tracks and then a bus ride up the last hill, we made it to Machu Picchu. (This unorthodox route was required due to the mud slide on the Sun Porte trail). Although quite overrun with tourists, there is good reason why Machu Picchu is probably the most famous and most visited archeological site in South America. Well engineered, well built, and in a spectacular setting, the Incas really built a masterpiece deep in the Andes here.

Note how well the stones used to fit together – they are cut so that not even a piece of paper could fit anywhere between them. However, despite the Incas’ precise construction and knowledge of earthquake resistant engineering, centuries of regular earthquakes have damaged this building and others on the site.

We also climbed Huayna Picchu, a small mountain right beside Machu Picchu, from which we got a beautiful perspective on the site.

After descending, we took a bumpy train ride back into Cuzco, showered and rested, and got ready for some more adventures in southern Peru. Following the rather large expense and unnecessary fiascos with campsites, we all agreed that we are done with tours and that we are camping by ourselves from here on with no guides, porters, and others to bother us. Little did we know what we were about to sign up for next…

 

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