Climbing the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, Peru

by Ilana Balaban and Netiva Caftori, Aug. 2006.

This was probably one of our hardest experiences in life, and we did it!

Also visited Cusco, Pisac and Lima

At OHare	In the Admiral room	Lima's 1st night	Ilana after her 1st shower
Theatro Inca Hostel	our hostel in Coscu	our 1st room there	the stairs to the dining room
Ilana outside our door	dining room	window	some other room
the roof	the glass ceiling	roof over Coscu	red tiles
stairs down side-way:)	sitting area in the middle	getting adjusted to the high altitude	Ilana in our Cusco street
street in Coscu	door way	another street in Coscu	Coscu street
Coscu is at 3600masl	3600 m above see level	Police woman in the big Plaza	Netiva at the plaza
green at the Plaza	Ilana	Both of us	At the center fountain
People resting on benches	local costumes	walking up a side street	carrying child
mendiant	balcony	one of many small markets	going up
Some special stones	People visiting this sacred place	touching the big stone	art gallery in Cozcu
another gallery	a restaurant with balcony	corner
taking more pix	door	going down	or is it going up?
narrow street	wider street	another hostel	cross the street at your own risk
back to plaza d'armes	meeting an Israeli from taanachim	traditional hat & bag	Israeli restaurant
Eating humus w hot pitas	drinking mata de coca	happy together:)	Chalom Cachol
stairs	same street	gate	arches
same beggar	traditional clothing for a woman	wall painting near the market	the puma-one of Inca's symbols
colors	Artisanal market	woman selling	Women weaving
A weaver	Crafts	at another plaza	Near a live sculpture
Live sculpture	our new stick	our new baston	All reading the newspapers
Construction from a store	Pictures from a taxi	Going to Pisac from Coscu	on our 2nd day in Peru
	Archeological site	See white Jesus far away	Alpaca
"Sexy woman" ruins	DSCN2486.jpg	Carrying a load





Sale women along the road	Valle Sagrado	Sacred valley	Rio Urubamba O Wilcamayu
	merchants on the road	Urubamba river
Driving and looking	Driving mostly on the right side	Stopping to see the river	and the valley
River	Pisac from above	Pisac closer	Look from above on Pisac
from the taxi	sabres	farm houses	paving
Pisac market	at Pisac market	Cafes in Pisac	market
Restaurants in Pisaq	Merchants	At the entrance to the bakery	Bread oven
	Girls in search of photo opportunities	for a penny	a girl and its lamb
Child resting in market	Vegetable market in Pisaq	Women in traditional clothing	selling vegetables
at the Pisaq market	Alpaca genuine carpets	More vegetables merchants	and a dog
very colorful	baby on back
bags	wood plates		authentic material
walking in the market of pisaq		girls	chess boards in ceramic or metal
	Masks & such	on the way back from Pisaq	Back toward Coscu
The road back	Donkey (Asno or buro)
One can see a bit of Cusco	in the distance
Still from the taxi's window			Driving back to Cusco


	Llamas	pronounced yamas of course	in Castillano
or Chechwan	or Imara	Cusco spread on the hills	1/2 a million habitants in Cusco
a big city	that looks like a village	at night you can feel it	back in downtown Cusco
the Cathedral	Ilana at the balcony	Netiva w the Cathedral	from the restaurant's balcony
3 women carrying babies	Focus across the plaza	the plaza at our feet	the cathedral
the 2 of us in natural colors	now with flash:)	morning of the 3rd day in Peru	1st day of our Inca trail
1st get on our bus	travel for 1.5 hours	thru villages	and fields
travelling thru the Sacred valley	getting gas	toward Ollantaytambo	to pick up our porters
Enjoying the scenery	from our bus

from the bus window
		Arriving in Ollantaytambo	Buying sticks (bastones)
Back on the bus	towards our starting point	going through villages	sideways:(
Cows as fetish on the roof	to bring prosperity		Driving along side the river
		sitting behind the driver now	nice landscape
waiting for the train to pass	amassing stones so can cross the rail	thru the bus window	waiting for the cows to pass
again the river	another train with lazy tourists	who are going straight to Aguas calientes	what would take us more than 3 days of walk
this river must have fascinated me:)
	Didn't get the cows on the roof:(	We are now at 2600masl	Finally arrived to Piskacucho
at km 82	our cook and his assistant	prepared our lunch	with the help of the porters
Ilana and netiva are taking their 1st steps	along Urubamba river	another roof with cows, a bottle of wine and a bottle of beer	We are only 3 walkers
Ilana crosses the river 1st	almost white water	she's coming back?	nice hanging bridge
Now it's netiva's turn	full of energy on the 1st day	look at this smile	a donkey for some lucky porters
Sylvia, our guide gives us each 3 mata de coca leaves	to blow on and bury with 3 names of places we love	including Machu Picchu:)	Now we are really ready
Porters pass us by	Richard is our co-walker from Liverpool	a cavallero passes us by	Sylvia explains about the white bugs on the cactus giving red color for pigment & such
passing by villagers	with their baby	and piglet	selling stuff to walkers
Richard's back is hurting	another village		archeological site on the other side of the rail
Netiva & Sylvia	Ilana & Sylvia and the river	with Richard too	the 3 companions to this adventure
our 1st resting point	We only have 200m to climb	and 9 km to walk in 4 hours	"Easy" first day.
9 km=5.8 miles (nada:)	some landscape		my companions
		The 2 adventurers	Cows on the way
We are approaching some site	valley at our feet		terraces below
more fascinating cows	climbing toward the archeological site	old habitations below	moo
the cows are interested too	Sylvia is about to give her 1st speech	I follow the cows	they take their time

		this may be from Inca's time	12th-15th centuries
or pre-Inca time	500 bc to 12th century	luckily Ilana took notes	meeting the lawyers from California for the 1st time
back on the trail	We were told it was easy	Poor porters	with 3 days worth of food
Starting our 2nd day	more refreshed	after a good night in a tent	and a good meal
It was a bit chilly	The 2nd day is greener	we'll walk 12 km thru rain forest	& climb 1300m up
That's the easy part	going down was worse		again our porters & Sylvia
Ilana is a good steady walker		some rain forest scenery	We had 4 porters & 2 cooks
But all carried our tents	Ilana is getting tired	jungle level out of 4 we'll experience	but the spirits are high
	walk thru the wood	Sylvia was a great guide	The porters were great
Our bastones were good	a nice stream to keep us company	There were other walkers on the trail with us	They slept in different camp sites
A horse in the forest		porters of other campers	We kept on meeting same people
	A field with llamas	a llama from close
	Amazing how fast they walk	Ilana has her own camera	Dinner as it's being made
and served	by our young waiter	in a beautiful presentation	We are approaching the highest point of 4200 m
Some altitude sickness	but we are on a dieuretic pill	which helps a lot	Long line of walkers to the top
		It gets colder near the top	We are walking toward the 1st pass--Dead Woman's pass
or Abra de warmi wanusca	Our lawyers and their guide	We have reached the summit	Hurray (13,776 ft)!
Satisfied and proud	It should get easier now coming down	but no:(	1st, 3 coca leaves again to blow on & bury, Kechwan tradition
Richard has some altitude sickness too	the stairs going down (700 m)	we run at 1st	but then it started raining:(
and got very slippery:(	Good to be in the warmth of our dining room tent	having tea 1st	then dinner. We are at Paqaymayu (3500m)
The 2nd hardest day is behind us	We hope the 3rd will be easier	but helas no:(	We wasted too much time
had a late start	maybe climbed too slow		from here "only" 2000 steps down

With the red head lawyer		Experiencing fluctuating weather	Richard puts on his warm hat
Taking a pose at Runkurakay	Sylvia explains about the ruins	most of which are not original	Can even see our camp site below
We are at 3800 m	Runkuracay	looking smaller as we climb up	to reach the 2nd pass at 3950m

Black lake	from above	almost at the 2nd pass
	hard climb	but happy to reach the 2nd pass at 3950 masl-Qochapata	very happy
for the last time today:(	going down was nice at 1st	seeing some lagoons called Qochapata	nice rocks
nice blue-green lake	which looks muddy as you get closer	nice paving stones	this is an original Inca trail
See the beautiful stones	under ilana's feet	We are going toward our lunch	some terraces facing a well preserved site
called ...	Sayaqmarka (inaccessible town)	We admire the stones	and the vegetation
		Qonchamarca complex below	Richard is ahead
feeling better today	at lower altitude	above those terraces is our lunch camp	can't wait
but 1st an explanation from Sylvia	about the expedition led by Paul fejos in 1941	the site is now in the shade of a passing clowd	it should have been a warning

we are almost back to Cusco's altitude	Climbing toward sayaqmarka (3600m)	My rain puncho is drying	our knees are hurting already
	Qonchamarca is known to have served for liturgical purposes	Nice view on the terraces site	we are getting closer
		happy to get closer to my lunch	rivelet
	passing the site	& climbing up to our lunch
Nice short climb toward lunch	last going up	Last time you'll see my puncho	I'll lose it on the way down
Our dining-room tent	lunch is ready	We didn't have to wait for it	like yesterday
as usual, beautiful presentation & yummy	now going down	other lunch camps on the way	other walkers do only 2 short days or maybe 5 days.

we are very tired	going through the Inka tunnel	not too dark	and continue down
		another 3-leaves blown	flowers
those are small	am very tired and low on water		Chaquiococha area (dry lake)
3rd mountain pass in sight: Phuyupatamarka			We won't camp at Phuyupatamarca (3680m) but at Winay Wayna much below
		"Place over the clowds"	includes 6 liturgical fountains & a semi-circular military tower
From here we'll go down to intipata (2800 masl) & then	have to go down 1000m altogether till Winay wayna (2630m)

Need to get to camp before dark	Still long way down ahead of us	It's about to storm	We are exhausted
4th day: leaving at dawn	Slowly the day rises	We're going around Machu-Picchu mountain	a couple hours before we reach Machu-Picchu
	Will we ever get there?	Last hard steps
Richard & Sylvia happy. We made it!!!	Clowds are menacing	At the sun gate	overlooking Machu-Picchu
We made it!	Orchides
Before last picture, and then my battery died	3-windows	Battery renewed back in Coscu where we see the school kids from our hostel's kitchen's window	same roof
With a british woman we met	our last breakfast in Coscu	At Mariel hotel in Lima again for our last night	Visiting Plaza major
Nice fountain & garden in its center	We are in a silly mood	Hardship finally over	Time to relax a bit

Those people listen to the strike's noise		a strike	what a noise!!!
a picture of green in a grey city	which has some pink and camel colors too	in a fancy little outdoor cafe	relaxing
have some coffee with truffles		Trying some clothes at Alpaca's	the Cathedral
car-less street	with police	being very silly	some fun:)

	church door	Vendors of candles near a church
shoe-shine	again
Fish restaurant	our translator	menu was in Castilliano	ready for the taxi ride to the airport
my full bag before it was vandalized	happy to see our adventure over	we were a good couple	from the plane
the Andes	tired but happy	Clowds	We are going 1st class
well deserved:)

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