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Challenging trek to a lost city

I'm wearing my warmest tracksuit. Underneath are thermal long johns and a long-sleeved vest. My thick ski socks are pulled up over my knees and I've tugged my woolly hat down over my eyes and ears. Only the tip of my nose is exposed after inching down into my four-seasons sleeping bag. If I don't move a muscle, I'm just about warm enough.

Not that I can move a muscle - after several days trekking the Inca Trail in most of them have completely seized up. It's 2am and I wake up to the dawning realisation that the four litres of water I've drunk that day to keep from dehydrating need instant release.
The rain is pounding on the tiny yellow two-man tent I'm sharing with my trek mate Pauline. I know that outside it's pitch-black and we're camped on a ledge two feet in front of a sheer mountain drop. What the hell am I doing here?
I fumble for my torch and, shivering uncontrollably, try to pull on my soggy waterproofs without elbowing Pauline. Next I retrieve my muddy boots from the bottom of my Therm-a-Rest and reach to undo the zip of the tent. I clamber out and clumsily zip up the tent behind me to keep out the worst of the sheet rain.
There's no way I'm going to make it up the hill to the toilet tent - you wouldn't either if you've ever shared what amounts to a bucket with more than 20 other people (no chemicals allowed up here). I'm careful not to pick a spot behind the tent as it's sloping downwards and we've already got enough leaks to contend with.
My knees scream in protest as I crouch down, and I'm close to tears as the cold rain finds its way inside my hood and down my trousers seeping through to my thermals.
I pass the rest of the night damp, cold and miserable. I'm up long before our 5.30am wake-up call and my spirits don't improve as the rain continues relentlessly while we pack up for the final leg of our four-day trek. I have a brief burst of optimism while eating breakfast. The 30 porters in our group are truly amazing. They have looked after us unbelievably well - waking us up with tea and warm bowls of water, cooking extraordinary meals on calor gas stoves and transporting absolutely everything we need on their backs - all with permanently cheery smiles.
I force myself to drink coca tea as I'm convinced it's the only thing keeping at bay the awful altitude sickness I suffered on arriving in at the beginning of the week. It's made from coca leaves - and classified as a Class A drug in the UK because of its use to make cocaine - but it tastes disgusting.
We're all aching, exhausted and irritable. What the hell am I doing here? It had seemed such a good idea last summer when Pauline and I decided to make a pact to mark our 50th birthdays with a challenge to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
But I have to admit, we actually "enjoyed" - in a masochistic kind of way - the experience of a lifetime. That rainy morning was the lowest point. For most of the trip we'd been on a high as tall as the summit of Wayna Picchu - our ultimate destination offering spectacular views of Machu Picchu.
The route of the Inca Trail includes an impressive variety of altitudes, climates and ecosystems that ranges from the high Andean plain to the cloud forest. The trail is lined with flowers and the ruins themselves are often covered with the orchids after which they are named.
Within minutes of setting out on our first day, the clouds, which had been clinging soddenly to the mountainside, suddenly vanished like a puff of smoke. A searing sun sliced through the lush vegetation, highlighting the glories of our surroundings - huge, sweeping mountains, abundant with trees and brightly-coloured flowers and the strange music of the many different species of hummingbird that have made their home here in paradise. I cannot find the words to express just how beautiful it is.
But the trail along following the steep and higgledy-piggledy remains of the centuries-old Inca steps is tough. So we felt triumphant when we reached the 4,200m-high Dead Woman's Pass - the highest point on the trail.
Now we were nearing the greatest Inca treasure of all - Machu Picchu. Due to an earlier landslide, we couldn't reach it via the Sun Gate and had to make a detour along an extra punishingly steep descent, followed by a 90-minute trek along a railway line to Agua Calientes.
Many of the shops, hotels and restaurants in the town are built within a couple of feet of the tracks - fortunately there are only three trains a day. Exhaustion and the somehow soothing roaring of the Urubamba River at the back of the hotel soon had us fast asleep despite the excitement of knowing we would see Machu Picchu the next day.
And it was worth all the pain. Five of us decided to climb Wayna Picchu. Only 400 climbers are allowed to make the hour-long climb at any one time. It presents the most difficult challenge of all. It is steep, slippery and in places only inches from sheer drops. The occasional handrail or piece of rope was often the only aid to safety. But when you finally make it, you really are on top of the world. The sun was out, the views of Machu Picchu were stunning and we were overcome with emotion.
This challenge was the hardest thing I've ever done. Would I do it again? I've already sent off for Charity Challenge's latest brochure.
* The trip was organised by Charity Challenge, which operates more than 100 challenges each year. Expeditions include treks, mountain climbs, white-water rafting and community challenges in Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. For more information, call 020 8557 0000 or see www.charitychallenge.com.
* Feeling inspired? ... more

The peak rush hour train to Machu Picchu

From the Daily Mail

Every day Peru's Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas, is rediscovered by at least 1,000 tourists who are slowly destroying one of the wonders of the world.
More people now come to this sacred citadel in a week than ever lived there in its 15th-century prime.
And the attempt to improve facilities for international visitors - better hotels, a helicopter service and a planned cable car to replace the bus trip up the mountain - have only made the wear and tear worse.
It's easy to see why so many want to flock here, for every kind of holiday from backpacking to whitewater rafting, mountain hikes and even hippy magical-mystery tours to re-enact the Incas' pagan sun worship.
When I caught sight of the emerald green grass slopes and stone-coloured remains of Machu Picchu, flanked by its awesome, snow-capped peaks, I felt the same sense of wonder I had when I first saw the Taj Mahal. You go expecting to be disappointed. Miraculously, you're not.
For nearly 500 years Machu Picchu was covered by impenetrable rain-forests and surrounded by forbidding granite precipices.
It lay hidden from the gold-hunting Spanish conquistadors, who sought to destroy all traces of an Inca civilisation that had stretched in its heyday to Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and to the borders of Argentina and Brazil.
The site was first uncovered in 1911 by an American scholar-explorer, Hiram Bingham, later a Senator and Governor of Connecticut.
But Bingham didn't know he had found Machu Picchu: he thought it was Vilcabamba, final refuge of the Incas against the Spanish invaders.
Fifty years later, however, after a massive earthquake had shaken up the scenery, the real Vilcabamba was identified by archeologists, who then realised that what Bingham must have stumbled on was Machu Picchu itself. So there were really two Lost Cities of the Incas, not one, which seems very careless of them. ... more

Into the sacred valley

From the Daily Mail

The guard sported a semi-automatic rifle, a thick moustache, and a pair of sunglasses as dark as the underworld.
Beside him a flight of steps led underground to a massive steel door that could have come from Fort Knox.
I tiptoed down, and emerged in a room whose walls glinted and glimmered with hundreds of pieces of gold.
Glass cabinets were stuffed full of vases, brooches, rings, and figurines. Skulls had eyes made of gems; a funerary mask showed a fearsome human face with the fangs of a jaguar, his eyes picked out in turquoise.
A knife with a silver blade and a handle of gold shaped into a mask was deceptively beautiful given its grisly purpose: 'sacrificial knife' said the label.
It was the lure of treasures such as these that brought the first Europeans to Peru nearly 500 years ago - the conquistadors.
Luckily some of the country's treasures escaped even their ferocious greed - among them the exhibits in this private collection, housed in a vault under a private house in a leafy suburb of the Peruvian capital, Lima.
The Museo del Oro, or Gold Museum, is one of the most popular attractions in a country that is packed with breathtaking sights.
Peru is blessed with arguably the most fascinating, and some of the most accessible, archaeological remains in all the Americas.
Add to that some stunning high-mountain scenery, plenty of local, colourful culture, and Peru makes an ideal choice for a first-time visit to Latin America. ... more

Machu men on the trail of the Incas

From the Daily Mail

Unless we get there quickly,' said Steve, our tour leader, pointing to a faraway mountain ledge, 'we won't get to camp before dark.' 'Righto,' I replied with a wheeze and tried to put a spurt on. 'And don't try walking too fast at this altitude,' he added, disappearing ahead of me. Walking too fast was never going to be a problem - but the air in the Andes was. There simply isn't enough of it. And this was only the end of the first day, attempting the 'new, easy' Inca trail.
Ever since the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu was discovered and dug out of dense jungle by American archaeologist Hiram Bingham in 1911, tourists from Europe and North America have been walking through the Andes to see it. Over the years it has almost become a pilgrimage for historians, hippies, New Agers, druids and people like me, who imagine that they would like a spot of adventure.
But such has been the strain on the original, higher track that the Peruvian government has opened a new one. Overshadowed by the looming Mount Veronica on one side, it weaves through the Sacred Valley, closely following the river Urubamba, which roars through a pink basalt and granite gorge, 650ft below.
Our group of six undertook to walk about 26 miles in three days, which may not sound very strenuous, but picture the trail as a pyramid, with stone steps going up and coming down over 12 miles on each side, and that is how it felt. The Incas were tiny, barrel-chested people, with enormously strong knees and ankles. They came down from their original home by Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world, and founded a mighty empire. Unfortunately, in doing this, they created so many enemies that they decided for safety to build all their fortified homes at the top of giant stone stairways.
This was an extremely good defensive strategy. I for one would never have bothered to think about attacking them. But every year about 20,000 fit, energetic souls try to follow the original trail, through the Sacred Valley, to Machu Picchu. These supercharged tourists cover about 35 miles at 16,000ft. There are even some showoffs, 'Inca runners', who do the whole trail, the equivalent of climbing Ben Nevis, in four hours.
As I huffed and puffed up each slope, I couldn't help marvelling at the quality of the ancient granite paths I was walking on, many with neat edging stones, put there long before the Spanish discovered the New World. ... more

Tracing the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Often top of the list in magazine articles of the "places you must see before you die" is the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.

The ruins in are sometimes the only reason foreign tourists step foot in in their lifetime.
But with more than 300,000 visitors a year, its popularity has rocketed in the past decade, and there are now fears among some geologists that the precarious mountain top site could experience a major landslide.
Situated at the highest point of the eastern Andes at the end of the Inca trail, this archaeological wonder has a tough job retaining its charm against such a tourist onslaught. So is it still worth a visit?
Reaching Machu Picchu need not be difficult. If a four day hike across the Inca trail doesn't appeal, a train journey through spectacular scenery from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (the closest town to the site) will put you within a 20-minute coach journey and 10-minute walk to the site.
For those short of time and breath, and suffering from the fallout of New Year celebrations in Cusco, Km104 is an ideal starting point from which to jump off the train and start a hike.
Several guide books suggest the journey from Km104 takes two days and one night. A good pair of hiking boots, a few bottles of yellow Inca Kola and a pipe playing guide helped us cover it easily in a day.
After leaving the train and crossing a river we pass through a checkpoint (picking up a Machu Picchu passport stamp) to briefly pause at the Inca ruins of Chachabamba before beginning our ascent.
The first part is a little arduous and it is a good few hours before we even set foot on to the Inca trail proper. But orchids, butterflies and a refreshing waterfall accompany us at various points and the view battles with the hike to steal your breath away on several occasions.
Within two to three hours we reach the ruins of Winay Wayna and break for lunch at a trekkers' hotel. For those with time this is a convenient, popular spot to spend the night before leaving pre-dawn to catch sunrise over Machu Picchu.
The distance from Winay Wayna to Intipunku (the Gateway of the Sun) is just over an hour and covers part of the Inca trail. It provides panoramic Andean views of sub-tropical mountains bursting with trees which all resemble broccoli heads from a distance.
A shaft of sunlight slicing through a mountain ridge brings us to Intipunku, the site which offers the first unhindered view of Machu Picchu.
Exhaustion is replaced by exhilaration at this point, as within 30 minutes of a relatively downhill stretch we reach the caretaker's hut, which offers the best vantage point, one that has kept Peruvian postcard sellers smiling for almost a century. ... more