Cuzco and the Inca Trail

We stayed in Cuzco for three days. Spent some time wandering around the beautiful city and seeing the various plazas and markets. The first night there was a procession of a huge cross with Jesus which was escorted through the main area to one of the churches - start of Easter week.
The next day we took a bus tour through the Sacred Valley and stopped at many towns, markets and ruins. It was interesting learning about the Inca civilization and see some of the unfinished ruins (due to Spanish invasion). Some of the towns we visited were living museums as the Inca foundations remained and the colonial houses were built on top. One of the towns - Chinchero - is known as the weavers town and we saw a demonstration of how table runners and other various items are made out of alpacka wool. That was really interesting - the spinning, the natural dyes, the weaving.
The third day we did a mountain biking tour from up at Chinchero down to the Urubamba River. It was pretty intense! The terrain was called Andean Flat which really means undulating. The scenery was gorgeous. We had lunch at the Moray Ruins which was apparently used as an agriculture university for the Incas. From here, there was a lot of single track, rocky trails and tight switch backs down to the Salt Mines and more of the same to the river. There were three other people doing the ride with us and they were great fun - met them for dinner that night before we parted ways.
The next four days we hiked the Inca Trail! It was amazing and pretty tough and several Inca ruins along the way before we even reach Machu Picchu. We had 20 porters, 1 cook and 2 guides to get our gringo butts to Machu Picchu. The food was amazing and the guides were so knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Everyday the porters would run ahead with these heavy packs and set up the kitchen tent and dining tent for lunch and then again at the next camp site for dinner where they would also have our tents ready. There was usually soup followed by 5 or 6 dishes for the 13 of us hiking.
The first day was fairly easy, only some up hill. We hiked a few hours past the main camp site to a smaller, less noisy site which was nice. The second day was the most difficult. We hiked up a countless number of all Inca stairs through the Dead Womans Pass at 4200m then down to the high jungle elevation for lunch then back up to 4000 m through another pass and down again to our campsite - again past the main one which made the second day long but was really worth it for the rest of the hike. Because we worked so hard on the second day, the third day was much easier - shorter and mostly undulating terrain. We arrived at the last camp site in the afternoon with plently of time ot relax since we had to be up at 4 am the next morning! All groups compete for a spot in the line at the control point, which opens at 5:30. It is a 2 hour hike from here to the Sun Gate where you get the first view of Machu Picchu. Unfortunately we woke up to pouring rain and mist so we only got a glimpse from here. We kept hiking down to what our guide called the postcard picture view. When we got there still nothing! I was really disappointed....we waited 10 min here and slowly the clouds and mist began to clear and then sun came out and we had an amazing view of everything! From here we walked down to the entrance and our guide gave us a tour of the ruins. It really is everything it is cracked up to be and way better after doing the hike. By early afternoon there are so many people (many come in on buses who have stayed in the nearby town the previous night and then boat loads come from the train) so we leave and a few of us quickly went for a beer at the hotsprings before a quick lunch and then a train ride back to Cuzco.
This is probably my last entry as I sit here waiting in the Lima airport for my flight home. I may get ambitious and post some pictures but more likely I will post on facebook. Hope you have enjoyed the blog!