Inca Trail - Day 4

Friday 4th April
We had a Very early wake up call from our porters at 0340. Then we had a quick breakfast (complete with celebratory cake!) and we were off to the checkpoint. But the early start was worth it as our team was the first to the checkpoint! Then all we had to do was sit and wait for it to open at 0530. There were several other groups right on our tail, so we were half-walking, half-running along the trail in the early morning light, trying to be first to the Sun Gate.

It was still pretty misty, and a little damp all along the trail and yep, you guessed it, we were first to the Sun Gate, but couldn´t see a BL**DY thing! (there are supposed to be fab views of MP from here on a good day). We waited for a while to see if it would clear, but it definitely didn´t so we carried on at a relaxed pace down to MP. We reached MP about 0730, and it was still foggy when we got there, so you couldn´t see the whole site :-(.

Casiano then took us on a two hour tour of the site and the weather gradually cleared as we wandered around. The site was absolutely breath-taking, and it was so interesting learning about how they lived and why they did and built things the way they did. For instance, there were 37 different architects that worked on MP, and 37 different styles of block work, from very rustic for the terraces, to very finely shaped and crafted for the temples. Apparently it took 80 years and 30-40,000 workers to build MP - and it was never finished! It was all absolutely fascinating.

At the end of the tour we had a couple of hours to walk around on our own, so most of us decided to go and climb the small hill behind the site (the big mouintain - Winya Picchu - was covered in cloud at the top, so we decided that was a waste of time). It only took about 15 mins of scrabbling on very tired legs to reach the top, and the view was pretty special. We could see the whole site clearly from up there, and the scale of everything was impressive.

After that we headed down to the small town at the base of MP - Aguas Calientes - for our farewell lunch - Pizza - YUM! After lunch the rest of the group headed off to the train, and Andrew and I went to find a hostel to stay in. We found a pretty decent one for only s/50, which is a bit of a bargain in AC. The funny thing about AC is that one of the main roads is the rail line, so it was pretty odd sitting in the restaurant watching the trains go past right outside the door!

Andrew and I were absolutely knackered by this point, so we found somewhere to get our washing done, had dinner and collapsed into bed for a well earned rest.

On reflection, the Inca trail was an absolutely fabulous experience with amazing views of the steepest mountains towering above, beautiful, lush valleys below and fascinating historical sites along the way. We are definitely glad we decided to walk the trail, rather then just taking the lazy way our and taking the train to AC - it just wouldn´t have been such a special experience.