Inca Trail Peru – Part 3
Here it is! The the end of our four day hike on the Inca Trail and what Chris (and fellow hiker TJ) ate for the good bye dinner.
Allow me to remind you where we were:
That’s right: House of the Inka – Machu Picchu.
This is the third, and final post of our four day trek along the ancient Inca Trail.
If you need to catch up, check out Inca Trail – Part 1 and Inca Trail – Part 2.
It seemed every where we walked around the ruins, we found or were told about these highly sophisticated plans. For example…
…this rock here was designed so at a certain time of day that the shadow creates a llamas head.
Believed to have been used for astronomic clock and calendar, this rock is called ‘Intihuatana’ or ‘hitching post of the sun.’
For our grand finale to the hike, we hiked up the Inca Draw Bridge. Before being allowed any further up the trail, we all had to sign in and print our full name, country and time.
At first we didn’t understand and thought it seemed a bit odd –
– but we were literally walking on about a three foot wide trail alongside straight cliffs of 500 meters. Through the tree branches to the left, you can see the built up stone wall and I wish there were a way to better show case just how close to the edge these trails had been constructed.
Hiking to the Inca Draw Bridge was an impressive way to end the hike.
Look at that thing!
One, to simply walk the trail was exhilarating, and two, just to see the construction of this bridge was mind blowing.
So lush and green, the vegetation in this picture is deceptive, the drop was straight down to a certain fate. Looking down into the deepness of this ravine, I found it difficult to wrap my head around how people were able to construct this engineering wonder that has lasted hundreds of years.
In times of turmoil, those boards could be pulled in cutting off that access point to Machu Picchu should the need arise.
After we walked the trail, we understood why we had to sign in and out.
One could spend days or weeks to explore Machu Picchu, and although we could have all easily stayed longer, it was time to catch the bus into town where we would have a final good bye lunch with our guide Ramiro.
There were a lot of switch backs to get up and down the mountain road.
Not to mention, pretty much every turn was a hair pin turn.
After being on the trail for four days, the sounds of cars and trains in town sounded so loud in the village.
Andrea and Kristy ordered the biggest avocado we have ever seen. They let us all try and it was so amazing later we all ordered the same thing.
Then these two sisters ordered giant steak meals and ate (almost) all of it. They were such fun and I felt a longing that my sister could have been on the trail with me as well.
But nothing was going to be like the dish TJ and Chris ordered.
Everyone wanted to get a picture of the cuy, or otherwise known as…
…a cute little guinea pig!!! (Chris – how could you!?)
Sally felt the same way about her husband TJ, who was sharing the meal with Chris.
At least he looks like he died happy.
Eating cuy is a local food and quite a common dish here and Chris and TJ wanted to try it at least once.
Everyone safe and happy after completing the Inca Trek.
One last photo of the cuy, with it’s head resting on top of it’s eaten body.
We had a walk through the town, which seemed to have a noticeable emphasis on happy hour.
We all took a soak in the hot spring pools.
And boarded a train back to Cusco.
If you ever get a chance to hike the Inca Trail – do it. It was one of the best hikes we have ever done and is a ‘stand alone’ hike. In deciding whether or not to hike to Machu Picchu, we read a lot of rave reports about the park and we read a lot of negative reports about the park, in terms of over use and porter exploitation. Overall, the park was managed better than I had expected. There is strict control on the number of visitors in the park and the trail is closed every year in the month of February. Expect for the bathrooms at the last camp, I saw people actively cleaning and maintaining them for use. No doubt there can be continued improvements to bathroom facilities on the trail, but overall, people used the bathrooms. As far as fair treatment of staff on the trail, I think this is the hardest area to know what goes on behind the scenes. We looked around and found a company we liked that charged the average rate for the trail. All the staff in our group seemed to be happy and looked after. Although we can’t control (and know for sure) how the fees we have to pay for hiking get divided, we had control over how much we tipped the staff, and that money we know went directly to them for their hard work. There are many factors and concerns about the welfare of Machu Picchu and two sides of the ongoing debate of ‘how is’ and ‘how should’ the park be cared for. Wherever you may fall in this debate, if you decide to go, you always have control over the type of visitor you are in these special places. You can be the loud, climb on the stones, not notice the candy wrapper fell out of your pocket guest, or you can be the visitor that comes and goes from the park without a trace and perhaps has a few extra candy wrappers in their pocket. In choosing how you will conduct yourself in these heavily visited areas, you have a chance to take the fate of Machu Picchu into your own hands while you are in the park.
If you are wondering where to plan your next hiking adventure, get to Peru. Where else does one get such an opportunity to walk in the foot steps of the gods?
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An amazing Trail tale! Thanks for bringing us along.
Oh your welcome. The trail was unlike anything I had thought. Even after seeing this post, or any other story about the Inca Trail, there is still so much for the individual to find on their own walk along the Inca Trail.
MAN! I so wish I could visit those ruins. I visited a bunch in Mexico and they were amazing. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/View_from_Pyramide_de_la_luna.jpg
Hotter than heck and the air was so thin after climbing to the top.
That side trail is epic with the boards. Best place to fend off from Zombies when the come wouldn’t you agree?! Man so beautiful. Thanks for sharing Tiffers.
I remember those ruins you visited…Central and South America just have so many ruins. And yes, the air gets thinner.
I have a reading list of books now I want to get when we get back to the states, because the more I learned about the Inca’s, the more I realized how ingeniously they were prepared for zombie attacks.
Thank your for taking us on this adventure with both of you, though I think we needed to see a picture of chris’s face when he bit into that grotesque cuy!! Anyway the best part of that trek for Olivia and me was the hot springs pool!:) Which I am sure you both deserved after a 4 day trek!:) Again amazingly beautiful pictures, thanks for taking the time to share!
The cuy are only grotesque once they’re cooked. (ah!) Alive they are the cutest little things running around making their little ‘cuy, cuy’ noises. 🙂 Glad you were able to enjoy the hike.
One HECK of a hike! I don’t know what would be scarier, crossing the drawbridge or eating the Guinea Pig!
Eating the guinea pig, definitely.
that poor little guinea pig! our little bunny is quivering at these pictures. great photos of the trail!
Haha, tell your bunny not to go to Peru. The cuy is a very traditional dish. I hear it wasn’t that bad.