• Tag Archives Piscacucho
  • Start of the Inca Trail

  • Inca Trail Day 1

    The trail starts with a bridge across the Urubamba River.

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    Then a mostly dirt path begins.

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    The path is surrounded by bushes and flowers which are very colourful.

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    These round ones are particularly neat.

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    These blue ones were also pretty.

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    The first set of ruins we came across was Qoriwayrachina.

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    It is just a small cluster of houses, probably used by travellers or guards along the trail.

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    There weren’t really very many insects. Mostly ants.

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    There was also this giant bug working his way down the path.

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    There were tons of birds chirping, but most of them were hidden or far away or flying.

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    Here are a couple more Incan buildings.

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    It was pretty cloudy the first day so the mountain tops were obscured.

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    A couple of the snow tops were visible for a few minutes before going back behind the clouds.

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    In the hills there were many Incan tombs. Some of them are in natural caves, but others were built out of stone.

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    They blend into the mountains. The one above is in the bottom middle of this picture.

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    The path was more or less flat the first day, but near the end it began to climb.

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    There were lots of brightly coloured spiky caterpillars.

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    This one was gooier with smaller spikes.

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    There were also pretty flowers.

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  • Inca Trail

    For some reason Matt refused to tube down the Urubamba River to Machu Picchu.

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    And Kerri refused to take the train.

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    So we decided to hike the Classic Inca trail.

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    It is normally done in 4 days, but last week there were some mud slides at the last camp site, so we had to do it in 3.

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    The Inca trail is 42 km long, so it’s like hiking from St. Albert to Leduc.

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    If there were a couple of mountains between St Albert and Leduc.

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    The weather was great, despite it being the end of the rainy season. It only rained when we were safely inside our tent. And twice while we were in the lunch tent. And on the other side of a mountain while we were walking. But never on us.

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    Some people live along the first section, and horses, donkeys and llamas are allowed on it.

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    Most of the second and third days are on the original Incan stone paths, so animals are not allowed. Only 200 tourists and 300 porters per day are allowed.

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    Between hiking days we camped.

    imageThis is our food tent.

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    It was cosy and dry.

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    The food was wonderful.

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    The sleeping tents had just enough room for the two of us and our stuff.

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    This is our toilet tent. It contained a two toilet seats mounted on a buckets. One for #1 and one for #2.

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    This is one of the larger campsites.

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