Machu Picchu

Nothing quite prepares you for your arrival at Machu Picchu, especially when you’ve hiked four days to get there. I felt almost (unfairly) angry at the tourists who’d got there on the bus and were moaning about being out of breath from one flight of stairs. I wanted to shout “do you know what we’ve been through?!” in their faces. But I realised this was unfair and merely a result of 26 miles, a lot of rain and a 3am wake up to arrive to Machu Picchu in cloud.

4am: The final climb

For this...

This sounds negative but it was one of the best experiences of my life. Day one was pretty easy, not too long and mostly flat, day two was described as brutal, day three was long but beautiful and day four was when we arrived at Machu Picchu. We had a fantastic group who were a lot of fun and we spent our evenings solving riddles, playing mafia and laughing so much another tour group complained about us making too much noise at 8.30pm! They were early mornings but seriously!

Reaching the top of the brutal climb

And then starting the more brutal descent

What’s amazing about the hike is that you’re following the actual Inca trail. I realise it’s called the Inca Trail but until I was there I couldn’t really appreciate what that was. Along the way you see other Inca ruins and it helps you appreciate just how in the middle of no-where Machu Picchu is.

Our wonderful guides Juan and Raul

I was particularly impressed with three things. 1. The 60 plus year olds doing the hike. It’s not impossible but it’s a tough four days and they definitely helped the rest of us have a reason to keep going. 2. The porters. They carry about five times the weight I was carrying and most were my height or shorter so their packs were bigger than them. Not only this but they would run past us wearing sandals and to make us feel even worse… they’d clap on our arrival! We felt so inadequate! 3. Our Chef. He cooked some of the best food we have had, in the middle of no-where, in a tent! On top of this he managed to bake a cake (I repeat, middle of no-where, therefore no oven) for Chris’ birthday. AND I told them once we’d already started the trek. When asked how he did it we simply got “anything’s possible in the mountains.”

Chris and I actually found arriving at Machu Picchu and it being covered in fog pretty funny. And in some ways it was really magical seeing it appear slowly from behind the clouds. I was nervous, given all the photos and hype that it might not meet expectations but it was truly breathtaking. We added an additional day and climbed Wayna Picchu (the mountain next to it) for another view and though it physically broke us it was absolutely worth it.

Smith