Camino Inca (Uno)

One of the major "to do" items on our Bucket List was to stand in the Gateway to the Sun at dawn and look down on Machu Pichu. Here we are with couples from Ireland and Portugal on our way to scratch that off the list.


We paid for a four day hike on the Inca Trail, but when we got to Cusco a two day general strike was announced and there was not going to be any way to get to our jumping off point on time. We visited a shaman, who bore a disturbing physical resemblance to my desceased father. Inca Ernie rubbed and spit essential oils on us, waved condor feathers over our heads while shaking a snake's rattle and, as we chewed coca leaves together, it was jointly decided we could and would do the 4 day hike in 3. This made the 6 porters, 1 cook and 2 guides very happy.



So, at 3AM the next morning, instead of the previously scheduled 6AM, we took off to go up the Sacred Valley and over two mountain passes. First, there would be a freezing night and then a descent into tropical jungle. Finally, another ascent to Machu Pichu, the Inca civizilation's mecca.


There are still peoples who live in the small towns along this route after thousands of years. This is their highway and these beasts of burden are their 18 wheelers hauling in and out everything they need or want for their daily continuous existence up here high in the Andes.


It all seemed so easy in the beginning. La-La-La, this will be a lark.

Then, it began to get colder

and steeper.

The 8 hour hike turned into a 10 hour one and

I became less reluctant to pose for pictures.

However, none of our discomforts seemed to leave much of an impression on the porters as they merrily skipped up the mountain with hundreds of pounds on their backs and recycled tires for sandals on their feet.

Every little summit we reached was celebrated with the enthusiam of having just topped Everest.

Looking back on it now, I realize it wasn't the final destination I remember lovingly....................... it was the journey

and the companionship.

So many thousands of feet, for so many thousands of years had bore down on and worn down these same stones we were bearing and wearing down on that each and every step made that realization more impressionable and concrete.

Nonetheless, the bearers laughed, whistled and chirpped like mountain songbirds as if all this were nothing extraordinary at all. Quite the opposite in fact, today was just like any other day at the factory. Punch in, run up the mountain, maybe have a few giggles and punch out. No bigge!

For us though, it was as if we were looking through a window into an entirely different world and with each step we could feel it was getting closer to the time when we would have to crawl all the way into an ancient past leaving our modern present far behind.