Another early start!!! And Happy Birthday’s all round to Nicola. Everyone was very sweet asking after me and wishing me a happy birthday. With everything that is going on at home, it was really lovely to be with a group of people who a few days ago didn’t know me, but they all looked after me and made my day special..... Especially Shorty xxx
There was also apologies all round for the noise from the Spotify party the night before. I will be totally honest it just became background noise and I slept through.
Was feeling a little better and managed some toast and a banana to try and get my strength up. Got some fresh rehydrating salts and we were ready to go - well sort of....
After breakfast and sorting all our stuff out the “Stubborn Mules” (as we were now known) hit the trail at 0700. Today was billed as a seven hour day, three hours up hill and four down. Of course the uphill came first, so we strode out onto the old Inca trail and started up hill. Today we had no mule support, rather two local chaps who walked with us with the medical kit and extra water.
The main group pulled out an early lead as Nicola was still feeling the effects of her illness (no sustenance for 48 hours....). After an hour we reached the point of no return and had “the discussion...” Nicola decided to go for it. The views from the trail were stunning, with alternating blue skies and cloud cover - very majestic. Shorty took a bunch of photos that we will try and attach, including some very dodgy ones of me in my sun hat - that was a good purchase before we left, not least because of the snow/wind blasting that we had had on the pass day.
We also had a Kili repeat incident this time with some French dudes - the classic of us stopping to let them go past (always nice for a breather) to then have them stop literally 5 minutes further up the hill. Quite some words were exchanged :) Doesn’t sound terrible, but when you get into a rhythm then having people block the way is a pain in the neck.
Nicola battled bravely all the way up to a resting point with bathroom, food and drink for purchase (it continues to amaze us both that the locals getting everything to where it needs to be on foot, possibly with the help of a mule, where we caught up with the rest of the group who sang Happy Birthday as she came into view, led by the crazy Pepe (who did threaten to keep doing it if Nicola didn’t get a move on).
The next section was the steep section and although it took us a wee bit longer Nicola kept trudging along. We summitted yet another pass and started to head down to lunch. Lunch was taken in a lovely little building just down from some Inca ruins. But the building and the ruins paled into the back ground as we caught our first sighting of Machu Picchu - looking over the mountains to the Inca terraces. This was why Nicola battled on today to see this view - it was really quite emotional.
After our delicious lunch of avocado (the Peruvians have the best avocado - have we said this already), trout (from a fish farmer we passed), lentils and quinoa it was time for the big descent.
To get to lunch we had to gain 2,300 feet; to get to the train to Agua Calientes we had to lose 3,400 feet and in a hurry....... Much was made of the fact that we had a train to catch and limited time to do it so we started to hare down the one person wide switchbacks. A few other groups all started at the same time and before long we were all bunched up with some trying to overtake.
Now, I know it could have been worse (Pepe told me during the break that sometimes the trail is pure mud and one has to go down sideways!) but it was very muddy and slippery and eventually the trail loungers decide to slow down and get out of the madness, it worked. Needless to say one should never believe the hype, we got to the station with plenty of time to spare. We had a couple of beers in a lovely private room laid on for us and then we were escorted to the train for the 45 minute transfer to Agua Calientes, to be honest I think you could have walked it in 30 minutes but it was nice to be off our feet and looking out of the window. This is where we said goodbye to Yarik - he was not wrong on that first day when he said to Nicola “we are going to become good friends”.....
The trains are all designed to have picture windows all along the side and across the top - so the journey teased us with spectacular views of the mountains. It was a very very slow train ride. The arrival in Agua Calientes is quite something - the train just goes up the main street, it is hard to describe, but really quite unique and fun. As we were sitting at the end of the town to do the switchback to get into the station, Pepe pointed out the cute restaurant beside us - it was the hotel we were going to be staying in. It was so tempting to jump out the train and walk over as we sat there for a good 20 minutes.
Into the hustle and bustle of the train station - people everywhere, dogs everywhere, shops everywhere. Final push to the Hotel Inkaterra - what a hotel, we had been told it was the best hotel in town and it lived up to it’s reputation. Our room was lovely - after a relaxing shower and sorting out of our bags, Shorty and I headed down to the bar area to open my birthday cards with a glass of champagne (that I nursed for 45 mins....). Thank you everyone for the lovely cards. The rest of the team soon joined us for our team meeting and pre dinner drinks. General consensus was to go for the earlier sitting as tomorrow was going to be a 5am start.
Dinner was at the restaurant that sits between the train switchback - at times not that peaceful - the menu was lovely and even though I was still not doing great ordered some simple food that was absolutely delicious. Jim was on a roll and went very heavy on the red wine - few slower people the next morning. After a delicious dinner, good company, some wine, we toddled up to bed ready for the next day.
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