MPC Chapter 5 - The Inca Trail

I left you at the Guinea Pig House of Horrors eagerly awaiting (I'm sure) the final 4 chapters in the Machu Picchu Chronicles, when we zoomed off to our eco village for the month. Little did I realize just how isolated it would be and just how disconnected from the world it would feel. With our one trip to town per week...we call it Tuesdays in Town...and that is the only time when we 'escape' and get our hour on the internet and have some time to collect provisions for the week ahead...mostly toilet paper and snacks. I have been able to write on my netbook and that has been a G-d send for getting through the blog and keeping you updated; however, there is no internet so posting the blogs has become a tricky little task.
Needless to say, I digress...the Inca Trail. There are a series of trails carved out by the Incas that snake all through South America but the most famous one, of course, is the one leading to Machu Picchu. It is up, down, in , out and all around mountains with 'to die for' views of the Andes, snowy peaks and mist covered forests. Spectacular. After our mid-afternoon snack of gamey, boney childhood pet, we were all reved up and energized for our trek on the real deal Inca Trail. There are many ways of getting to Machu Picchu, and some do not include an actual jaunt on the Inca Trail...the one in which Inca warriors would run for 24 hours drinking water from plants and roots along the trail, stopping only every 6 hours for a brief rest and body massage before continuing their race along the trails to get food and supplies for the people. We actaully stepped foot on these very trails.
There are all these sort of make-shift signs in Spanish and English throughout the jungle guiding you ever closer to the Inca Trail...building up the excitment and anticipation, though quite honestly I didn't really realize just how amazing it would feel to see what we saw and touch what we touched. I am really not that much of a history buff, especially back in my middle and high school days...it was so hard to stay interested and focussed in my history classes, but what I have learned about myself of this trip (one of the many things) is that I like to be a part of the history...maybe not the making of it, but certainly a part of it so I can say, "oh Machu Picchu, yeah I trekked all the way up there on the actual real Inca Trail." Who knows, maybe it makes me feel kind of cool and we all know how I love have a bit of street cred!
Honestly, when we all emerged like drowned rats from the wet, rainy, humid jungle to this thin path winding along the percarious mountain edge secured only by thousands of rocks stacked one on top of another over and over again beneath where our feet marched ensuring that the land would not slip down the mountainside thousands of metres to the river and rocks below, it was a breath taking moment. We all kind of got giddy with a side of vertigo, but it was like a playground for adults. Abraham hung back and let us all run around taking snaps and talking about how cool it was that we were there...just being there and breathing that air and seeing those site was amazing. We were so high above it all...almost floating along this trail...the smells and sounds all encompasing. You forget everything when you're up there...everything just lifts away and you are left with that moment...that one special moment after days of climbing and pushing yourself and wanting to give up and not giving up and pushing through...for that moment.
This is what it felt like to walk along the Inca Trail and we still had Machu Picchu to experience...what would that feel like if the Inca Trail made me quiver? We all caught up with one another at a sort of Titanic meeting place at a point on the Trail that juts out from the side of the mountain to the middle of the open space between two forest covered mountains with the chocolate milk coloured Urubamba river angrily raging below. We all delicatly tip toed to the edge of the world on this cliff point to sit and take some "I'm the King/Queen of the world" photos and just relax and take it all in. Abraham had a little red notebook in his backpack filled with maps and pictures and information about the Incas and their history. He gave us a brief presentation, which was quite fitting at that time and we absorbed his stories and soaked up our moment before it was time to continue to our next stop about 10km further to round out our second day of our Inca Jungle Tour.

Picture Compliments of Fraser Perrie