Otherwise, the trip had started well. It was a warm, lovely day and the scenery was really beautiful. We stopped for breakfast in a small town and I had coca tea for breakfast. Well .. it was actually just coca leaves and hot water, but quite tasty still.
This is my group. The picture is taken in the starting point.
The first day was relatively easy. We started our hiking trip at around 9 am and walked approximately for 2 hours down the Urubamba canyon, visited the sculpted Inca farming terraces and the settlement of Llaqtapata on the banks of the Cusichaca side river before having lunch. The porters were already waiting for us with warm coca soup, corn juice, dried sweet potatoes and pasta. It was a delicious lunch and after that it was so nice to sleep for half an hour on the grass and enjoy the sunny day. I knew that the porters were used to the high altitude and therefore were much faster than we, but I was still amazed that they could carry bags that weight over 20 kg on their shoulders, stop to help and support hikers if needed - and still make it to the resting place and manage to cook lunch/dinner by the time we arrived to the resting place and cheer when we arrived there. In a way I felt like a child who is learning to walk and is being cheered by athletes running a marathon.
This is the inca farming terrace. Here they used to storage among others corn and meat and save it there for worse times when for a reason or another there wasn't enough food for everyone. A terrace farm looks like steps which are created by using rocks and trees. On those steps it's possible to grow crops, because when it rains the water is stored on each step instead of flowing down freely.
After lunch we walked for another 4 hours or so before dinner. This time the hike was somewhat harder, because I wasn't used to hiking in the nature for hours. My knees and shoulders were a bit sore, but otherwise I was ok. The camping place was quite nice - it was a field in the mountains where it was possible to put tents and a little river where one could wash hands and teeth. We had a big dinner there - salad, soup and bread for starters, chicken and mashed potatoes for maincourse and a fruit dessert as well as a cup of tea. Considering that the 8 porters made a similar dinner for 7 hikers and 2 guides for 4 days and they carried all the incredients, cooking equipments, plates etc with them for 4 days - it was actually quite a luxurious dinner. Probably only very few campers in other destinations would eat as much and as good food as we did there.
This is what we saw after lunch:
This is me :)
They were our porters.
The second day was much harder. We woke up already at 6 am and had a breakfast. Also the breakfast was massive - an omelette, pancakes, fresh and dried fruits, bagels (with butter/jam/ham), toast, fruit juice and tea/coffee. Not even expensive hotels in Peru offer such a big breakfast! We tried to eat as much as we can, but couldn't eat everything and had to throw somewhat food away. It was really cold in the morning and I had to wear a t-shirt, 2 sweaters and a jacket for breakfast, but when we started walking it got warmer and in 20 minutes or so it was so warm that even though I wore only t-shirt and trousers I was still sweating! We climbed a steep-sided Llullucha valley and through an enchanting woodland. It was rather tiring due to the high altitude, but the scenery was so beautiful that I quickly forgot how tired I was. When we started to ascend the highest pass, Warmiwañusca (peak was on 4 200 meters above the sealevel) I was really tired. It must have taken like 20 minutes to walk a distance of 200 meters - that's how hard it was to walk. It was really hot as well (more than 30 degrees and the sun was shining brightly) and there was no shade where to stop to rest. I got badly dehydrated and got a bad migraine around half way of the to the resting place. I don't even remember a time when my head would have ached as much as it did then. The guide was really helpful and kept me company the entire time from the bottom of the mountain to the peak and gave me medicine and water to make me feel better. I'm so grateful about it, because without him there's no way I would have managed to walk all the way to peak. Each step felt harder, because the air got thinner and in Warmiwañusca I felt that my head was about to explode. I just fell on the ground and put my arms around my head and sobbed uncontrollably. After lying there for 15 minutes or so the guide helped me to continue downhill and as little as 10 meters lower I felt much better. My headache went away in 15-20 minutes and I could breath much better. We arrived to the camping place at around 4 pm after walking for 9 hours (distance of 11 km). We were served a big lunch (soup, salad, bread, avokados, chicken with yucca (a bit like potatoe), but I couldn't eat anything at all. I just ate a spoonful and went to sleep to the tent. I woke up at 7 when we had a dinner and could eat slightly more than earlier that day, but still just a little.
This is the view from Warmiwañusca:
This is our camping place.
On the third day we woke up around 7 am and had a big breakfast. Luckily my appetite had returned so I could get some energy for hiking. This day was much easier than the second even though we had to climb a steep hill, which on that altitude was quite tiring. Luckily we stopped in quite a few places to see inca ruins and to eat snacks. I was a bit surprised and dissapointed when I realised that I hadn't really seen any wild animals except few birds that far - even the mosquitoes didn't bother us there. The guide told us that there used to be plenty of animals, such as goats, deers, bears and other animals, but the locals hunted them for food and that's why there were no wild animals there. It's a pity because it was such as magnificent place and there would have been plenty of food and water for animals (at least on lower altitudes).
These are the main sights that we saw on the third day. These sights include the ruins of Sayacmarca (Inaccessible Town), an intricate labyrinth of houses and the Inca viewing platforms where one can see the Phuyupatamarca (Cloud-level Town.
Our last camping place was the nicest - unlike in the previous places there was good toilets and hot showers. We also met other groups there and there were many of them. Most of them seemed to be from the US and Australia, but there were few also from France and Italy (less than 10 perhaps). The Americans were the loudest and I could hear them from far away. They were shouting and cheering at everything possible. It was the first place where one could buy cold beer, which made them so happy that they were quite drunk as well. That evening we were served cake and chocolate for dessert (before the maincourse, which was quite funny - but it's possible that way as well). Every single one of my muscles were aching after 3 days of hiking so I slept quite badly and very little (we had to wake up at 4 am).
The last day was the best. It took 4 hours for us to walk to Machu Picchu ruins and we were really tired then, but it was definitely worth it. The mountains, the forest
and the narrow paths were mesmerizing. The ruins were surrounded by mountains shaped of a triangle many of which were covered by clouds that made them look dreamy. I could understand there why incas believed in spirits and the gods - there was something very spiritual about that place. Something that it's difficult to explain with words - only through art and poetry. That's a place where it's easy to think that there could be higher powers that have created something that beautiful.
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