5 days Trekking to Machu Picchu - Day 3 - Sep 25, 2009

We were once again woken up early by our cooks delivering tea at 5.30. The sugary tea tasted lovely after a long nights sleep. Our bodies were still very tired from the eleven hour hike yesterday. However, we managed to get dressed and up on our feet again. We were indeed very tired and wouldn’t have minded sleeping for a bit longer.

Unfortunately, this morning I discovered that I had developed three very nasty blisters on my heels. My beloved Timberland boots were not as fit for walking as I had originally thought. I have had these boots since I was about 15 years old and they have always been fine - at least for the walking that I have normally done. However, the Inca trail we’re is very uneven. It‘s basically a dirt path that they regularly put extra stones on to make it more stable. Hence, when walking you‘re constantly sliding around with your feet and there‘s never a flat part. I think this is what killed my feet. I would have to pay very dearly for my blisters today…

Iris was a bit tired this morning too but she had recovered from yesterday’s walking. I suspect that she wouldn’t have minded a bit more resting though.

The route today was not as long as yesterday. We were only scheduled to walk for six hours today covering in total 13 kilometers. The final goal was a place called Playa where we would be picked up and taken by bus to Santa Teresa.

We set off at around seven in the morning and the group walked with its normal high pace. We were able to keep up with the pace although with a bit of a struggle. Iris was doing incredibly well but I was struggling - my blisters were hurting like crazy. Every step was painful and I really thought the day was as horrible as you could get. Both of us thought it was a bit funny - yesterday Iris was really struggling and I was OK, whereas today I was really struggling and Iris was fine.

The walk today was moderately interesting. It was mainly moderate ups and downs - no major climbs and no major descents. Iris really enjoyed the walk and I think I would have enjoyed it too if it hadn’t been for the blisters.

At one of the stops we tried a new fruit we have never seen before - grenadillos or Peruvian passion fruit. They were really lovely and had a wonderful sweet and juice taste. They were much nicer and sweeter than the passion fruits you normally get in the supermarket. We got really addicted to these fruits and bought loads of them and snacked as we walked. Really nice fruits and highly recommended.

At around 12.30 we finally got to the end of the path after 5.30 hours of walking. It was a really nice feeling seeing the bus waiting for us from afar. It made walking much easier. As we passed the finishing line to where the bus was parked I almost hoped that they would bring out a bottle of champagne or something to celebrate that we had survived our trek thus far. To our great disappointment and irony, a local 4-5 year old girl walking in front of us pulled down her skirt in front of us and relieved herself.

After a short rest at Playa the group jumped on the bus and were driven to Santa Teresa (we had a short lunch break in-between). At Santa Teresa the camp site was pretty decent but there were loads of mosquitoes. We did get severely bitten - especially Iris. It’s really good for me because I don’t get bitten so much normally and even less when Iris is around. The unfortunate thing was that the insect repellants didn’t seem too work too well with these small mosquitoes either.

The best thing about the camp site turned out to be the owner’s pet monkey. It was a very small monkey (max 20 cm high) that jumped round and amused everyone. He was really charming and Iris really liked him. We ended up taking loads (200+) pictures of him (although we probably deleted 95% as they were out of focus etc). Because Iris was so smitten with him, I had to check her backpack the following morning to ensure that she didn’t try to “adopt” him…

By the time we reached Santa Teresa, we hadn’t showered or cleaned ourselves properly for three days despite having sweated and worked like animals. Hence, we were greatly looking forward to the afternoon’s activity - HOT SPRINGS!!!

There are some natural hot springs in Santa Teresa and the council has built some very nice swimming pools where tourists can go and swim in the hot water. The pools were set in a very nicely landscaped garden and they had three or more pools there. There was the super-hot water, hot water, and cold water pools. They also had some lovely hot showers where we could clean ourselves. Interestingly, they charged tourists 15 times the price what they charged locals (we had to pay about two pounds to get in).

We got the bus to the hot springs and ended up spending about two to three hours soaking in the pools and really enjoying what the hot water did to our tired limbs. It was fantastic seeing shampoo and a soap after having been away for them for such a long time! Amazing!

The hot springs also did wonders for healing and cleaning my blisters. As it hurt so much walking we decided that it was best to take the next day off and not do any walking. I might even have had a light fever during the day due to infections in my blisters…

The dinner was held back at the camp site and it tasted reasonably good. The cooks had really done wonders and put together a small buffet of salads, fried rice, chicken wings, pasta salads etc. I’m really impressed by how hard these guys are working every day. The pet monkey sat opposite to us the whole evening and seemed to enjoy the company of the big group.

After dinner a number of local children came past. Four kids had formed a band and they sang some songs whilst playing the pan flute and the drums. They did a reasonable job but they can probably practice a bit more before they start hoping for a record contract. However, it’s still pretty strong going putting together their band and rehearsing all the songs. As the final act, the oldest member of the band did a bit of dancing to some contemporary music. It was really cute seeing his little brother in the background practicing and trying to keep up with his big brother.

We headed to bed reasonably early and had a good night’s sleep. We were also told that we had the luxury of sleeping late the next morning - until 8.30!

Marcus