Slow and steady; hold your llamas

Translation:  'hold your horses' - a phrase we heard more than we care to remember over the last four days.

Apparently, our native Inca tour guide, Hilbert, heard the expression 'hold your horses' at some stage and thought it was out of context in the Andean mountains, so he substituted horses for llamas and consistently insisted they be held.

Hilbert's point was to pace us, particularly early on, knowing what was to come on day 2 of the trek.

The experience started a little shaky with our orientation the night before we set off. The meeting was very South American in nature: it started late, the requirement to check passport details seemed pointless as it apparently didn't matter if some numbers were wrong or missing; much time was spent answering questions people didn't ask and no time answering those that were asked. The guide couldn't get our names right, and forgot to organise to pick us up without little prodding.
Eventually though, it all came together and we were off.

Highlights:

• We had the time of our lives.  The group was great fun and a good cross section including other Aussies, Germans, Poms, a few Yanks and a Canadian.  We all got on really well.
• We got very lucky with the weather as apparently it tends to rain a lot (and unexpectedly) and we were told to always have our ponchos on hand, but we never used them.  Clear skies and sunshine all the way to Machu Picchu.  It got pretty cold at night, especially on the second night where we camped at 3600m altitude.
• The camp food! Every day, we were dished up several courses of wonderful peruvian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner (pity GS could't stomach it due to her gastro).  The chief even made a cake for us on the last night.  There were peaches, pastas, fried rice, a 100 different versions of potato, fish, chicken and beef stews, pancakes, omelettes etc etc.  Simply delish!

Lunch time, Day 3

• Watching the porters race down the mountains carrying 30kg on their backs (before regulation of the industry, they would carry as much as 50kg).

The whole group on the second morning at campsite

• The view from the top of the first high pass of the trip which was half way through day 2 (Dead Woman's Pass)

The low point of the saddle is Dead Woman's Pass - 4200m. This was a couple of hours before we got there. 

The view from the top (Gosia not quite there yet)

• the views in general, but especially in the jungles we walked through on day 3. Every half hour of hiking we thought "this is the best view yet" and it just got better and better. Especially after going over a couple of high mountain passes we felt the main difference between this and other great scenery (like in New Zealand or Europe) was that here you were really "in it", rather than looking at it.

 Starting the 1km (3hr) vertical descent from Dead Woman's Pass

 Sunrise on day 3 from the campsite

 The last Inca site before the main attraction of Machu Picchu

Lowlights:

• altitude making us both struggle and feel really crook as we got over Dead Woman's Pass. It was worse for GS because she had a crook stomach as well as having to climb about a million bloody stone steps (as Hilbert said frequently of his ancestors - "bloody Incas, bloody steps")

• bathroom facilities were bad. Real, real bad. Enough said. 

The 'main course' of Machu Picchu didn't disappoint. Having a professional archaeologist as a tour guide was awesome (Hilbert had actually made a very noteworthy discovery in 2012 in Machu Picchu city.)
He spent hours telling us about the Inca history, belief systems and traditions which all tied into why Machu Picchu is such a sacred place. He took great care to remind us that the Inca civilisation is not dead, given that the local people (including our porters) still spoke the same Quechua language as they did 600 years ago.

On the last day the wake-up call was at 3am (an hour earlier than the other days) and we ripped through the jungle to make it in time for sunrise at the Sun Gate (where you can see Machu Picchu city from afar).

Sun Dial  (within Machu Picchu)- each corner faces a major glacier mountain

We had to climb the Gringo Killer steps to get there - difficulty was as advertised - had to climb them on all fours!

Finished off with a beer or two or three or four... in Aguas Callientes and caught a train back to Cusco for a nice long hot shower :).

 Aguas Callientes

Well deserved and hard earned beers

Hopefully, the next couple of weeks are just as fun, if not a little bit easier on the body :)