The Inka Trail & First Glimpse of M.P

Emma had her first “full night” sleep despite the 5am wake up from Felix again (must have been the beer!). Rach made use of the anti sickness tablets - all morning meds taken with inka kola of course. At breakfast we said goodbye to the chef and assistant chef, who made a lovely “welcome to Maccu Picchu” goodbye cake.

Then, a challenging 3 hour uphill hike, which we were rewarded with the most incredible view - our first glimpse of Manchu Picchu mountain and the site of the ancient Inka town we’ll be visiting tomorrow. Felix has told us about other Inka (or Quechua) sites that are equally as interesting, that have not yet been fully excavated or have good infrastructure to welcome tourists yet, like “Choca kirao”.

We reached our first viewpoint, which was a campsite, and bought a couple of coffees to keep us going for the 3 hour descent to come. We sipped them admiring what we deemed the most incredible landscape either of us had ever seen - the rolling Andes, Macchu Picchu, and snow capped peaks.

On the way down, we rested to hear some insights and stories from Felix in a restored Inca village building.
Among many interesting things, he told us there were no horses in Inca times - they were re introduced when the Spanish arrived in around 1530. Felix showed us a “Kipu” (messenger device) which is yet to be decoded, and told us of how the Shamen (spiritual individuals) are called upon to heal people’s mental health e.g. phobias, PTSD, etc (no health provision for this).

The descent was very painful on Emma’s hip and swollen ankle, despite copious amounts of ibuprofen and some Brazilian caffeine fuelled paracetamol. She opted to take the train from Hydroelectrica to Aguas Calientes to save any pain from the last 10km. Rachel continued the hike and the two were reunited at Hotel Royal Inti with some Inca Cola. That’s 60km walked in 4 days (70km for Rach!)

We later met the group for tea and had a relatively early night in preparation for our big day tomorrow - visiting the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.Read more