Reunited

As Lili was still in the hospital Katja had to leave alone for the five day trip to Incas' Sacred valley and Inca trail. This was our first time spending time apart from each other on this trip (otherwise we have been together 24/7). Our first day was spent in the Incas' Sacred valley visiting three different Inca sites. The day included walking a lot of steep steps both up and down which was good preparation for the Inca trail :) Our guide Fernando was really enthusiastic about the Incas and he told a lot of stories about them. Incas' three rules were don't steal, don't be dishonest and don't be lazy, I guess the last point explains how they managed to build so much in only 100 years. The Incas carved and shaped a lot of stones which must have taken forever in the 16th century. They also preferred to live up in the mountains (and not in valleys near the rivers which would have been thousand times easier for them) to be nearer to their Gods.



Inca site in Ollantaytambo



Mountain carved by the Incas to resemble a man



Floating steps

The next morning we started our 45 km hike to Machu Picchu. The first day of the hike wasn't that hard. We hiked for about 12 km in total and we only had a few really steep uphills. On the first day, our guide asked us if we wanted to take a detour (which was supposed to show us how the Inca trail looked like when it was discovered) and we decided to take it. It almost ended up being a huge mistake as Katja slipped and almost fell down off the mountain.The last bit of the hike before reaching our first camp site was a really steep and long uphill which was a good preview of what we had ahead of us the next day. :) Our first night's campsite was a really nice place with great views apart from the tarantulas that lived near it :(






At the beginnig of the Inca trail

Our dangerous detour



Tarantula

First night's campsite

The next morning we were woken up by our porters (we were 12 people doing the Inca trail and we had 17 porters (!) who carried all our stuff including our personal belongings, the tents, all food etc. We felt really bad for them cos they had to carry almost 30 kilos in their backs and they were really small people!) at 5 am, the wake up call was really nice, the porters brought hot coca tea to us into the tents where we could enjoy it before getting up! :) We had heard a lot of bad stories about the second day of the hike as we would climb up 1200 meters in total in just four hours. Our first night's campsite was located at 3000 meters altitude above sea level and we had to hike to Dead woman's pass which is located at 4215 meters above sea level. That was also the highest point of the trail. The second day's hike had four parts, three parts of just climbing up and one part coming down from 4215 meters to 3600 meters. The first part of the uphill was ok, it was steep and uphill but not that long. The second part was maybe the hardest part, it was a long and very very steep uphill. A lot of the steps that were made out of stones were so big that you had to lift your leg up really high so that you could reach the next step, therefore you could really feel the workout in your muscles when we reached the second resting point. The third part of the uphill was really steep as well with even bigger stonesteps. Our guide told us that it would take us about two hours to reach Dead woman's pass from the second resting point. He also joked about racing Katja up there and said it would only take him 25 minutes to get there. Katja and two Swedish guys reached the top in only 45 minutes being the first ones to arrive there. (Our guide Fernando took another detour which was apparently even steeper than the normal Inca trail and he was the last one to reach the top :)) The fourth part when we had to come down from the Dead woman's pass wasn't that nice. It's much harder to hike downhill due to the steep steps! It's also much easier to fall and hurt yourself when you come down. We were again the first ones to reach the second night's camping site. We arrived there almost two hours ahead of time and decided to take a nap before dinner :) As there wasn't really anything to do after dark, we went to bed at around 7.30 pm every night :)

One of our porters carrying the big backpack

The trail

At the top!



View from our tent on the second night



 On the third day we hiked for about 16 km in total. The day started once again with a really steep uphill, it felt (if even possible) even steeper than on the second day but luckily it wasn't a long uphill. After the first steep uphill we only had a few uphills and the rest of the hike on the third day was really steep downhill. At some points it would have been easier to turn around and "climb down" because the steps were so steep. Two hours before our lunch break it started raining :( we wanted to be in the rain as little time as possible and some of us ran to our lunch spot. Even though we had waterproof gear, Katja's shoes and pants were soaking wet when we reached our lunch spot. Luckily our porters had arrived there earlier and we could sit inside our food tent drinking hot chocolate while waiting for the rain to stop. The sun came out when we were having lunch and everything dried up really quickly. We reached the third night's camping site at around 3 pm and went to see another Inca site before having dinner. Our camping site was a really luxurious place, it had hot showers and a bar serving cold beer! The views were once again amazing, our tents were facing the Machu Picchu mountain.



Cloud forest

Our second night's campsite down in the valley

The rest of our group coming down the really steep steps

Inca siteWinay Wayna (forever young)

On the fourth day we had to wake up at 3.30 am because we wanted to see Machu Picchu in the sunrise from Intipunku (the sungate). We woke up, had a really quick breakfast and walked to the control point to wait for the guards to come and open the gates. We had to wait by the gates for 1,5 hours because the guards start working at 5.30 am (we went there early because we wanted to be one of the first groups to arrive at Intipunku, and it was well worth it because we were the second group to arrive there). When the gates opened, we hiked (or ran because we were worried we might not make it there on time) about 4 km to Intipunku. The sunrise over Machu Picchu was amazing and the early wake up was really worth it. The rest of the day was spent at Machu Picchu. This is where we reunited with Lili as well. We were sure we wouldn't find each other there but luckily we bumped into each other there by accident :)

View near the gates at 5 am

Intipunku, Machu Picchu in the background



Our Inca trail group, Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu mountain in the background



The temple of the sun

Wayna Picchu in the background



Inca bridge, it is forbidden to cross the bridge as many people have died there

  

Reunited

After spending the day in Machu Picchu we took the train back to Cusco and slept the night in a really fancy hotel which had a hot shower that worked (which is btw really rare here). The next day we took the nightbus to Lima and after realising (and after we almost got ran over by a car) that the city was not for us we spent there only one afternoon and took another nightbus to sunny Mancora! Katja realised that for the past six nights she only slept one nigt in a bed! :)