Khmers v Incas

Maybe the camera didn´t like sharing the garden with a tethered pig or was worried about us using the hole in the ground as a toilet but for whatever reason it decided to have a 4 day break while we did the Inca trail to Macchu Picchu. All our pics our blurry like this one.

Bec´s right I had wanted to see Macchu Picchu for years, so I was really looking forward to doing the Inca trail. You start the trail at Piscacucho and it lasts 3 nights (camping out, sometimes without toilets or running water) and 4 days. Having been in Cusco for over a week we were fully acclimitised to the altitude and the very hard treks in the cloud forest in Ecquador had prepared us well. Before long we were overtaking all the other groups and making great progress. The 2nd day is notorious as the first part is up hill for around 4 hours and you rise to 4200m at the high point (Dead Woman´s pass) but again we were fine and despite the early start (up at 5am), the snow at the peak and the pouring rain it was still wonderful to stop, rest and take in the surroundings.

The 3rd day is fairly easy and you see some of the other sites that line the trail. Inipata & Wiñaywayna were agricultural "experimentation" sites where the Incas tried out new crops as the surroundings are so lush between the jungle and the cloud forest. They had 3000 different types of potato, 500 hundred varieties of orchid and other types of vegetation all supported by amazingly intricate irrigation systems that still work.

No-one really knows what Macchu Picchu was. What we do know though is that thousands of Incas came from all over and did the holy pilgrimage now known as the Inca Trail. I am really glad we did and had a fantastic time, the guide was brilliant and knew what time to leave each day so that we had the trail to ourselves. He picked the quietest and most scenic campsites and was happy to admit that 70% of the information about Macchu Picchu is guess work. It does feel like a mini pilgrimage when you turn a corner and finally see it in all it´s glory (I will buy a postcard, take a pic and then post it on here!).

The top pic is me receiving energy from the sacred wall, behind which I placed my uncle Roy´s pink quartz which I had carried in my rucksack for 7 months. Tony (the other person on our tour and new neighbour in the apartments) and Bec didn´t feel any energy from the wall but despite my cynicism I did feel something from under my outstretched arms, but that was probably due to the fact I hadn´t washed for 4 nights.

But, did you know there was a but coming, for all its magic and mystery I was more impressed architecturally by Angkor Wat built by the Khmers in Cambodia around the same time.