I am up around 5:15am, getting ready for the big day. I am supposed to be at the Plaza by 6:30am, so I plan to leave the house at 6:10am. Alicia - the house mom - prepared 3 sandwiches for me to bring along for breakfast. I am running a bit late. By 6:15am, I am still in the house, suddenly the door bell rings. Turn out it's for me. There is a SUV picking me up. This is contrary to what I was told. What if I already left at 6:10am as planned. They would have totally missed me. Anyway, I am glad that I am on my way anyhow. Get to the Plaza, waiting for my travel mates of the day, they are Dutch - Frank & Leah (lovers). They come with the tour guide, Mega, who is a girl, which is not the same tour guide giving the briefing the week before. I guess plan has changed without notice. Anyway, all these are really not important. We are on our way to Machu Picchu!
Get to the train station, it's already filled with tourists, hikers, and backpackers. Our train takes off around 7:30am, and arrive at KM.106 where we begin our hiking at 10:30am. I switch seats with an old woman, so that she can sit next to her husband, they are two rows apart before the switch. I am rather happy for the switch anyway, since I would get a window seat. But then this fat woman asks me if I can switch with her as well, so she can sit next to her boyfriend. They are actually already next to each other, but they have two aisle seats. Very reluctantly, I give up the window seat and exchange with her. Otherwise, I would have taken more pictures on the train, since we pass by some beautiful landscapes. Now, I can only steal a few shots while I am using the washroom. If people can see, they must laugh at me, this guy sticking my head out taking pictures in the washroom! Go back to my seat, and I look at them, inside I think you better hold hand or talk the whole times... but they haven't, just at the beginning. Most of the times, she is taking pictures while he is doing nothing. Bitch!
Anyway, the hike starts off tough, very steep and lots of uneven steps. I am actually doing ok maybe because walking around those Inka ruins the past 2 weeks gave me enough training. However, Leah, the dutch girl, has a really difficult time couping with the hike. She breathes really heavily and she even cries. We think that she has asthma attack, she says it isn't it. Her boyfriend ends up carrying all her loads. We make it to Wiñay Wayne (Forever Young) peak after 3 hours. On the top, we have our lunch box - cold chicken with some cabbage salad. Though nothing's fancy, it's actually very refreshing. Enya is being playing in that dining hall for campers and hikers. It's kind of cheesy honestly, like you have made something extraordinary. Briefly look at the ruin on Wiñay Wayne, We continue hiking to the Sun Gates (where we will see Machu Picchu the first time). This second half of the hike is actually much easier, until the last session hiking up the steps to the Sun Gates. It's very steep. At the Sun Gate, there it is, seeing Machu Picchu, although it's getting foggy over at Machu Picchu, and at Sun Gates, it starts to rain, and getting harder too. I have to put on my poncho. I look kind of silly in that thing, but it does keep my backpack dry.
I am expecting seeing the sunset at Machu Picchu on the first day, but clearly we won't see it. With that rain, I just want to get the hell out of the Inka trail because the rain makes the rocky path slippery. My pants and socks are soaking wet, that's the only pants I have too. It is very unpleasant actually. But when we get to the Machu Picchu entrance where we will take a bus downhill, the rain stops. We take a few shots of the Machu Picchu, with clean air after the rain. Hop on the bus, and we are heading downhill to our hotel. As we move along, we are welcomed by a double rainbow over the foggy hill outside the window. It is almost magical to see that at that time and at that place.
Although, you know, we miss the sunset at Machu Picchu, the whole experience of hiking on the Inka trail to Machu Picchu is quite entreating. If anyone is going to visit Machu Picchu, I do would recommend to go by hiking. If 4 days full Inka Trail trekking (starts from KM.82) is too long and tough, the 2 days short version is good enough to get a sense of what it is.
Photos here: Day 26
