Gone Tomorrow: The Inca Trail continued

Ok so starting where I left off, Day 2 of my Inca trail experience.

Day 2 (longest day)

- Woke up early in the predawn light, packed quickly, ate a huge breakfast including quinuah and apple juice like in Ayaviri.
- Started hiking the most difficult part of the trek, the steep climb to Dead Woman's Pass.
- Stopped at a restroom with running water where there were no toilet seats, just a nice clean porcelain hole in the ground. You just squat and flush. Different.
- Topped Dead Woman's Pass just as the sun was coming into the valley. Great views and feeling.
- Waited with five others for 2 hours for rest of group. Like I said, it was hard.
- Headed down the other side of the pass. I go really fast downhill because it doesn't hurt my knees as much. And because having to hit all the rocks so fast is like a video game. One day I will probably hurt myself.
- Arrived at the lunch site first due to my 'controlled falling' down the hill and found that amongst the campsite were strewn perfect granite boulders. I rinsed off in a waterfall and quickly got my stuff. I cleaned one boulder and ended up climbing two different lines on it. The porters thought this was the craziest thing they had ever seen.
- After another huge lunch, we hiked up another steep trail, this time up a mountain called Runkuraqay. Passed ruins (of the same name) of the closest runner's resting place to Macchu Picchu. That was how the Incas ran their empire: a system of runners, as well as secret messengers that only worked on royal business.
- Reached the top of the mountain by passing a series of lakes. Found the top shrouded in a fog that would stay with us much of the afternoon. Really cool.
-As we descended from the top of the mountain, the microclimate changed again to subalpine jungle. More like what you think of when you think of jungle, i.e. really amazing, with so much life it seems to burst at the seams. Ferns, crazy moss, the works.
- At the end of the descent, encountered the 'Inca University' where shamans went to learn more about the arts of animal sacrifice and embalming and stuff. It was a like a maze and the location was impressive from a construction standpoint. Pretty big and my favorite ruins at that point, maybe of the whole trail.
-Rest of the descent through the jungle to camp was accompanied by perfect views of the sunset throught the vegetation. Beautiful.

Day 3

-Woke up not quite as early for a shorter day of hiking. We hiked slow because there was a lot to see.
- Continued through the jungle and actually went through some natural tunnels the Incas utilized for their trail. Really cool.
- Took a huge group picture at this outlook where the mountain we had been walking along jutted into yet another valley.
- Started down into another climate, the cloud jungle, which was a lot of bamboo. Visited the ruins known as the 'cloud city' (because it is up on a point and often hit by clouds on this side of the mountain). This site was used to observe the stars and the summer and winter solstices for the empire. These dates were used to keep the whole empire on schedule. At the top of the moutain above this site there was also an Inca-style water retainer that was used to hold water for Macchu Picchu during the dry season. It was crazy because the water delivery system still works and Macchu Picchu is still wicked far away. There were also all of these little Inca-made water falls that ended in deepish pools. They looked like they might be used for cleaning or something like that. According to my guide Reuben, however, they were actually designed by the Incas to slow down the flow of the water and prevent erosion in their stone aqueducts. Pretty smart.
- Caught the first glimpses of Macchu Picchu mountain and the town of Aguas Calientes that sits below the MP ruins.
- Passed another set of ruins, huge concentric cirlces down the side of a mountain that were used for terrace farming.
- Hit camp and lunch (for the short day they were one and the same). Lunch was so large, afterwards I just passed out.
- Visited Wiñaywayna, known as the little Macchu Picchu. This was the meditaiton center for the shamans and Incas of MP. Everything was built in 7's and 14's as tribute to the rainbow. For the Incas the rainbow represented important things from the earth like plants, gold, copper.
- From the ruins I hiked another 15 minutes on my own to a big waterfall and rinsed off in the frigid water in my undies.
- Upon returning to the ruins, I kid you not, Rueben and Rojelio and some of the other clients were picking wild strawberries. They were delicious.
- After that, it was chilling, eating snacks, eating dinner, beer, and saying bye to (as well as tipping) the porters. Props to those guys.

Day 4

- Woke up at 3:45 am. Harder than I expected. Legs were pretty sore.
- Ate breakfast, hiked 10 minutes by headlamp to the final checkpoint. Waited in line with all the other hikers.
- At 5:30 the gate opened and as we hiked it became lighter and a lot warmer. The trail got really steep, to the point that I too, against all odds, was forced to use my hands.
- Arrived at the Sungate, Intipunku, after an hour of hiking. From there you could see all of Macchu Picchu and what impressed me the most is where they put the dang thing. It is located on a thin saddle between Macchu Picchu mountain and another smaller but very steep mountain Waynapicchu.
-We then took a million pictures from all the famous spots and made our way down to the entrance gate to the park (of course!). Wicked touristy. I chose to check my bag because it was heavy, but also checked my water. We wouldn't get food or drink for another 4 hours. Lame.
- Toured Macchu Picchu with Reuben. Highlights: there are two sections, one for the old men that were priests and such and one for young virgins known as the daughters of the Sun; The stone structures made of perfectly fitted polished stone were only temples or palaces; In Inca times the regular buildings would have been coverd in plaster and painted, but the temples were plated in gold or silver. Crazy. Also, the most likely reason the Incas left is that MP did not support itself and with the Spanish invasion goods stopped coming to the site. The Incas most likely took most of the gold and silver and headed for the Amazonian jungle.
- Went to the gate of Waynapicchu, the short craggy mountain. Four of us wanted to hike to the top. We entered after Reuben did some shady dealings since we didn't have the necessary tickets. The hike was really steep, the steepest yet, but not as long as the first part of the second day. We arrived at the terraces at the top but still had to hike up these. There was even a part where we had to squeeze through a narrow rock tunnel to keep on the trail. Waynapicchu was used as a military outpost to protect MP and it was even more insane that this shear peak had all of these huge stone terraces and buildings and crazy carved stone passage ways on it. And no railings whatsoever. So those Inca soldiers were just hopping around all over this thing. Talk about balance and sure-footedness.
- On the way down we had to use this one series of steps that were so small and steep that you basically laid down on them and sort of backed down. It was like class 3 scrambling for those of you who know what I talking about. And this is just what the Incas used all the time.
- Headed back to the entrance to catch a bus to Aguas Calientes to meet the rest of the group for lunch. Kicked it after that for a bit and then caught a train back to Cusco. I also met this Norwegian guy, Leif, on the train and it was cool to talk to him about cultural differences and Scandanavia in general.
- Once I got to the hostel I took care of some stuff and just passed out, feeling like I'd been hit by a train.

So that was my synopsis. Now pictures.

To start off, hows abouts some mountains!

Here is a handsome young man at the 'Inca Univeristy'

This is a kinda cool shot of a hole the Incas carved into a rock in the wall of the University. Holes like these were actually used to hinge and latch doors.

Sunset in the jungle

Crazy Jungle Moss!

Me and a tunnel in the trail. Can you tell I'm in more pictures now?

The cloud city from afar

A shiny mariposa (butterfly) that Reuben caught

Wiñaywayna from above, a place to come and walk around in silence. Boooring!

Shot with good lighting. Captures the sense of beauty I experienced the whole trip

The big MP!

Me andReuben and Rojelio

A portion of the temple of the three windows at MP

This is just weird. Reuben says the Incas didn't make this but I wouldn't put it past them. This rock inside MP pretty much perfectly mirrors the surrounding mountains' shape.

MP seen from on top of Waynapicchu. They designed it to look like a condor perched on a rock, wings outstretched. Can you see it? Condors were one of the Inca's sacred animals along with the snake and the puma.