Inca Jungle Trail Day 1 ~ Video

You may have already seen the video I posted of our Inca Jungle Trek, taken from days 2 & 3, which consisted of a lot of hiking/trekking, and a bit of very cool zip lining. If not, you can find it here, courtesy of Vimeo.

Having discovered this video after being tagged on facebook, I went on to explore Lucas’s videos a bit more, and found that he has another video of our trip. This video is from day 1, which was cycling (freewheeling really…) all day.

I thought I would go ahead and share this video too, and if you like you can read my account of day 1 here :)   

Inca Jungle Trail: Day 1 - "Biking to Machu Picchu" from Lucas Amorim on Vimeo.

Inca Jungle Trail Video

I'm going to be busy helping out with hay baling this afternoon, so I wasn't sure if I would have time to post today or not. But then somthing cool happened that meant I have something to share with you afterall :)

One of the lovely people I met while on the Inca Jungle Trek in Peru in January tagged me in a link on Facebook.

When I clicked to see what I was tagged in, it was this awesome video montage of the middle 2 days of our trip! 

It was so good to watch that I thought I would share with you - I'm the one who appears with an orange rucksack cover - the walking poles were an attempt to protect my hip injury as much as possible!

Inca Jungle Trail: Day 2 and 3 from Lucas Amorim on Vimeo.

If you liked the video, you can read my blog posts about the trip here:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Machu Picchu in Pictures

Machu Picchu in Pictures

Still in the midst of packing stress, so I thought I'd go for a photo post this time, from my South America trip.

You can read my posts about this trip by clicking the South America label, or just enjoy these pictures :)

The mists made for poor visibility, which made for poor photos, but I hope the subject matter can speak for itself:

Inca Jungle Trek, Peru ~ Day 4

The 4^th day began at 4am. Not the sort of time I really like things to begin, but when Machu Picchu is the goal then I guess you have to make some exceptions.

I made my way through the rain and dark and the small town of Aguas Calientes to meet up with everyone else. The accommodation where we had been due to stay for night had not had enough space for all of us, so along with some others I’d had to stay somewhere a little further away.

I met with Grace, and as not everyone was ready we decided to set off by ourselves. We were able to leave our baggage at the hostel and carry just the drinks, snacks and waterproofs that we would need for the day. Walking without my heavy-ish bag felt like a wonderful relief, although perhaps not enough so to make up for the earliness of the start!

We retraced our steps along the route of the river, back towards the railway line we had followed the previous day. We arrived at the bridge over the river in time to be not too far back in the queue, and waited out turn to get through the check point. Showing passports and tickets, we were let through and we started to follow the path.

The path was obviously very clearly marked and very easy to find. Unfortunately it was also very steep! As the road for the bus snakes its way up the mountainside making switchback after switchback, the footpath cuts right though heading straight up in a series of stone steps. The steps lead up through cloud forest, and every time you reach a section of road you emerge into the open in order to cross the road. As the morning gradually lightened, these breaks in the trees began to afford mist-veiled views of the surrounding area. 

'Happy Mountain', with the river running around it.

Grace led the way up, and stayed hot on her heals for several sections of path. We steamed past other walkers, legs pumping like pistons to carry us onwards and upwards. All of a sudden my body decided it couldn’t keep the pace any more, and no matter how hard I tried I could no longer keep with Grace. My legs didn’t hurt too much, but they just wouldn’t respond to my demands to go faster, and after a little while longer my breathing couldn’t handle the thin atmosphere either and I had to take a break.

It was so frustrating to watch people who we had cruised past earlier, now cruise past me. I’m used to being reasonably fit, and I found it really difficult to face up to how unfit I was right then. My rest stops had to get more and more frequent, and I got more and more frustrated. There were other people on the track going at my pace though, and we would end up leapfrogging each other – I would pass them as they rested at one road crossing, then they would pass me on the next. I got talking to a few people who I kept encountering, and the banter cheered me up a bit.

The steps up just seemed never ending, and I began to wonder if I would have any energy left at the top for looking around Machu Picchu! Finally though I made it to the entrance. Despite being the last of our small group to arrive, there were few other people around and we got through the entrance checkpoint quickly.

There was yet more walking to be done from here to get to the site, along a path and then up more steps. Then all of a sudden there it was, on our right hand side, shrouded in mists but still one of the most famous and instantly recognisable views there is. 

Clouds of mist came and went all around us, and the sun rise was a mere gradual lightening of the sky thanks to the thick veil over the sun, though we were assured that it is spectacular during the dry season. 

The sun rising above the Incan Sun Gate

The Urubamba river, where we began our ascent earlier, was a brown ribbon far far below us, testament to how far we had come that morning.

When the mists allowed, you could see snowcapped mountains from the ranges around us.

We stood in awe for a while, trying to soak it all in. Still relatively few people were there and we were able to contemplate this magnificent site in peace. Our reward was that the mists cleared briefly, allowing us to get some better photos.

It was mind-blowing to think of people building this almost 600 years ago, without machinery as we know it, and without the use of the wheel. it has undergone substantial restoration, but the reason it was so much better preserved than other areas is equally amazing - the Incan people, knowing that the Spanish were on their way, went to work destroying the paths that led here and destroying path junctions so that as many paths as possible would not be found. So successful was this plan that the Conquistadors never found Machu Picchu, and it wasn't discovered by outsiders until American historian Hiram Bingham came across it and brought it to World attention in 1911.

We did have a long tour of the site, with a few things pointed out, but I confess I was so tired and there was so much to take in that I can't remember too much. However, you can read all about Machu Picchu in lots of places, for example here. 

After many hours of exploring the site, we were so tired that we felt it was time to leave. We had met up with my husband after he had arrived from the 'real' Inca Trail, and the three of us headed off. I was delighted to find that the bus was running again afterall, although we had to get out to walk around the areas of landslides, and then re-embark on a new bus!

Back at Aguas Calientes, the final thing to do was to shop at the handicraft market while we waited for our train back to Quito. What an amazing day :)

I will put up more photos of Machu Picchu in a separate post, but for now here's my favourite:

 

Inca Jungle Trek, Peru ~ Day 3

Continued from here

Of course all good things must come to an end, and it was time to get out of the wonderful hot springs, get dressed back into our cold wet clothes, and get to our accommodation for the night and dinner. The accommodation was very basic – one bathroom between about 20-something people, and my room was crammed full with 7 beds and barely enough room to walk between them.

Santa Teresa, our town for this night, while small still had a lot more going on than had Santa Helena. There were bars and discos to enjoy after dinner, but most of us were too tired to contemplate this and so we chatted with each other when we got back to our hostel before going to bed. Some people did go out however, and I don’t think they enjoyed the next early start one bit!

At dinner we had been given a presentation by a representative from a zipline activity centre. So for Day 3 of the trek we had the option to trek for a full day, or to go ziplining – including a 1000m zipline, claimed to be the longest in the world – then just trek for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Grace and me all geared-up at the start

Although an extra expense, it wasn’t too much (equivalent to £20 or US$30) and so I opted for this easier option. There was some steep uphill walking involved in getting to the high point to start ziplining, but not hours of it by any means. 

We whizzed down several ziplines, and although they involved being suspended by a single cable above the ground far below, they seemed much more enjoyable than the plywood crate of the previous day! I can sometimes be pretty scared of heights – earlier in the trip I’d got really anxious just climbing up the tower of a church in Quito – but on this occasion I was feeling pretty brave and took it all in my stride. 

The first zipline - about 400m long

One of the ziplines was said to be the longest in South America, and I've even seen some claims that it's the longest in the World! At 1000m (1km) long, you can barely even see the person on it as they near the end. You need to tuck-in as you zip along to keep enough speed to make it to the end. I managed to zip all the way to the end of the line, but several people - either because they were enjoying the ride and taking photos, or simply because they couldn't hold the 'tuck' position the whole way - had to haul themselves up the final bit. Although the ziplines are taut and on a slight decline, there is still enough weight in the cable that they have a curve in them, meaning the last bit is slightly uphill. Of course you could make the cable downhill all the way, but this would be really dangerous as you would go so fast!

The kilometre-long zipline

The kilometre-long zipline - less than half-way and see how small she looks already?

The final zipline had a platform attached to it before you reached the end, from where you transferred from the zipline itself to a rope dropping to the ground, down which you abseiled back to the start point. A very neat finish!

The final zipline - you can't really see the platform but it is there!

From here the plan was to get a minibus to meet the rest of the group – those who had chosen to hike all morning – and go for lunch at a spot near the railway line at Hidroelectrica, the hydroelectric plant. This plan came unstuck as the rainy season causes the rivers to swell, and meant that the road we needed to take was impassable for the minibus as the bridge had gone down. We therefore had a short hike before lunch, over a makeshift bridge and on to Hidroelectrica for lunch. 

 

Crossing the makeshift bridge, you can see the diggers and things in the background clearing away the damage ready to rebuild.

As we hiked towards the lunch stop we had views of Machu Picchu Mountain, and it was heart-flutteringly amazing to know that nestled up there, the other side of that mountain peak, was the fabled site of Machu Picchu.

Pointing to Machu Picchu Mountain. And looking chubby thanks to lack of exercise in the previous 10 months!

As we ate our lunch we were told that we had the option afterwards of either hiking 2 hours to the town of Aguas Calientes, or taking the train. No-one else opted for the train, and so my competitive spirit dictated that I didn’t either. I wasn’t too worried as the following day I could take the bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu. So after lunch we set off to trek along the railway line to its termination at Aguas Calientes.

This was a long trudge, but 2 hours didn’t seem like too much. Of course 2 hours was actually more like 4, and I was getting pretty tired. This was NOT helped by finding out, at the point that it was too late to do anything about it, that landslides on the road up to Machu Picchu meant that in actual fact, I would not be able to get the bus the following morning. This kind of annoyed me, and I was pretty anxious about how my hip (and fitness levels) would hold up. Luckily, being South America there was plenty to keep me interested and distracted along the way. Flocks of parrots in the trees (silhouetted with the branches so I still couldn’t get photos), colourful butterflies everywhere. 

Grace is a geology graduate and was pointing out interesting rock formations, and I even spotted some leaf-cutter ants carrying out their work. They cut the leaves and carry them back to their colony as sustenance for the nutritious funghi that they cultivate for food. You don’t think of ants carrying out agriculture do you? We had only ever seen them on TV before, so we stopped to watch them for a while as they carried their heavy loads.

We eventually reached the point where we could leave the railway track, pass the bridge we would cross tomorrow on our way to Machu Picchu, and follow the river into the town. Here, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the mountains, as though it was rewarding us for the long slog we had just endured.

A massage, a dinner, and a beer with Grace later, and I was more than ready to hit the sack for a few hours of sleep - before our hideous-sounding 4am wake-up call the next day.