Inca trek from hell - Part One

Okay we've been putting it off for a while but we'll finally give you a brief on the actually inca trek. The trek we planned to do was the a 5 night/4 day trek through a mountain range...we didn't quite make it!

As mentioned in the last post...the first few days of Cusco were relatively fine. A few headaches and shortness of breath but the altitude sickness tablets and local coca leaf products (tea, candies and the actual leaf itself) were helping a lot. The other side effect from the altitude was the inability to retain liquid so all in all we felt a lot like old folk with bladder problems...we moved slowly often needing a rest every few steps to catch our breath and we needed to be in close proximity to toliets. Uncomfortable?...yes!...but manageable.

Then came the real adventure...we were picked up from our hotel by our guide (Rudy) and our cook (Tintin)...to start the trek we had to take an overnight 6 hr bus ride to a hostel for a couple of hours rest before taking another 2 hr mini-bus ride around a very tight mountain road. Let me first tell you about the most uncomfortable 6 hr bus ride...the bus was big enough but there was no toliet and if you read the first paragraph you'ld realise what a problem this could be...the only toliet stop came at the 5 hr mark (luckily we were able to hold it in after going twice in 5 minutes just before the trip started)...the road were very bumpy so Kwells was a must...there was assigned seating but we soon realised this didn't mean that they couldn't let extra people ride in the aisles (apologies again to the little kid I accidentally kicked awake walking pass)...it was late so the lights were out for people to sleep and some 'other' tourists (the only other two on the bus) decided it might be a good idea to play the radio really loud (much to the annoyance of everyone else on the bus)...this went on for a while until they finally understood that the yells of 'por favor' were not 'please turn it up louder'...we're pleased to say that they weren't australian (bloody tourists!!)...but the final straw was probably the uncontrolled kids who kept putting their feet in our faces from behind in between our head rests (i think Jas probably cop the brunt of this assault). So in summary the bus ride was pretty shit!

Finally got into the village where we would be resting for a few hours...quite simple but the beds were a very welcome sight after the bus ride...we managed a few hours sleep, had breakfast before taking a minibus to our first stop nearby...a section of jungle where they grew a number of crops...mango, pineapple, coffee, oranges, coca, etc. Everything was grown together because some crops required shade and some didn't. We ended walking through the crops for a few hours while Rudy showed us a few different crops. After the short jungle trek we hopped back on the minibus and made our way to the start of the actual mountain trek...a little village with no tourists in sight.


The last capital of the Incas


Last capital - upclose


The temple of Patchamama (or Mother Earth)


The temple of the Sun, also the place where they kept their juicy mummified Incas. Juicy because at special ceremonies the priests would drip a fermented drink of some sort on to the mummies, which would then flow downstream to the temple of Patchamama. This was meant to be symbolic of conception with the sun as the father, the earth as the mother and the mummy-infused juice (or mummy-tini if you like) as the sperm.