Return to Cusco

--- Archive files ---

Home > Treks > Inca Trail > Day 6 > 6.8
<< Previous | Next >>

Return to Cusco

LUIS led us to the train station, where we climbed into a rather colonial looking train carriage. We took our seats in the silver grey cabin. There were large windows on either side of us and more windows along the top of the carriage. I had only ever seen windows along the roof of a carriage before, and that was on the bus I took to Milford Sound back in New Zealand a few years ago. The bus had the windows along the roof as the mountains we passed were so high and steep that you had to look directly up. It was the same case here.

The train pulled out from the station to commence a very slow journey following the Urubamba River upstream towards Ollantaytambo. We passed through spectacular country as we followed the bottom of the gorge past the river. The forest was thick, but in most places it was clear enough to see the precipitous bluffs rising kilometres high into the sky above us. We passed through numerous tunnels. The terrain here was incredibly rough. No wonder they had built the trail to Machu Picchu over the three mountain passes.

Amy was sitting next to me, but quickly fell asleep. She had done by far the biggest hike in her life which much later in Facebook Chat she would tell me it had nearly killed her. As she slept, Derek reached over and grabbed her small yellow camera sitting on the table in front of her. She had used for most of her happy snap shots during the trip saving the SLR for scenery. Derek took several shots of her sleeping. We then took a bet to see how many days it would take for her to discover those shots.

Like me, Amy had two cameras. The little yellow camera was used for happy snaps, and the SLR was used for the good shots. This was good risk management because if either camera was lost, stolen or damaged (as the big SLR very nearly could have been when she dropped it at the top of Machu Picchu), then she would still have her photos from the other camera.

Once the fun was over, Derek pulled his trademark hat over his face and slumped over to sleep whilst Avani continued sipping on her coke. Everyone in our group was exhausted after the four day hike. With everyone snoozing, I looked out the window at the amazing view – nice to now see the scenery passing us without having to walk.

The cliffs were actually too steep to get much of a view, not to mention the forest we were passing through and frequent tunnels. We passed a rather crude train station where a few people had some produce to load onto a freight train. Goodness knows where they came from. When we did cross a precipitous stream, I could see the mountaintops now enshrouded in misty cloud.

The valley suddenly widened and I saw the precipitous needle like peaks surrounding the valley cocooned in mist. We crossed over the top of a small lake stained almost black with tannin. This was quickly followed by a very small area of Incan terraces covering about an acre. Shortly afterwards the cabin attendant came and gave each of us all a small box of dry nuts.

Then the cloud suddenly cleared and I could see the glaciers near the top of Mount Veronica. The white snow highlighted against the black rock. Vertical needle peaks surrounded the ice in all sides. Then the cloud suddenly enveloped the tops again before clearing once more.

At this stage the forest suddenly gave way to barren grassland. We were surrounded by snow covered mountains rising over three kilometres above us to five or six kilometres above sea level. Shortly afterwards I saw the large ruin of Pallacta which we had seen on the first day from the hill we had climbed. It looked a lot different from down here. It didn’t have anywhere near the grandeur that we had seen from the top. The people who had taken the train in both directions had no idea of the amazing ruins we had seen from the trail. They had not had the chance to experience the journey as the Inca had experienced it.

A few minutes later we passed the swingbridge marking the start of the trail. From here the train continued for another ten minutes following a similar route we had done in the van up to the start of the trail until reaching Ollantaytambo. There was a funny sign on the window telling us not to put any part of our bodies out the window. It read “No sacar la cazeba ni brazos por las ventanas – Not remove the head or arms through the windows”. That could easily have been interpreted as “do not use the windows to decapitate yourself”. Decapitation certainly wasn’t on my agenda.

Looking out, I could now see the jagged peaks and glacial fields so enormously high that it seemed the entire Earth curved upwards rather than downwards as you would expect in a spherical world. It seemed the world here was inside out, perhaps like a super cavern seen in a journey to the centre of the Earth. The misty clouds were clearing, but still rising in the craggy gullies like a hellish smoke.

The sun was setting and the sky was quickly darkening as the train slowed to arrive at the Ollantaytambo station. Here we left the train as the sky grew dark. We walked a short distance through the very crowded street to the main market area I had been through several times. There were numerous hawkers with hand written signs on pieces of paper advertising their hostels and tour groups in the hope of getting their rooms filled tonight – no doubt at extortionate prices.

We called into the tiny supermarket and bought some junk food for the bus ride back to Cuzco. It was a bit tragic after having eaten so well on the trail only to resort to junk food and laziness. No doubt that would be a bit of a shock to our bodies.

It was totally dark by the time we left the shop. There was no chance now of photographing the amazing scenery on the way back to Cuzco.

We climbed onto the large bus. Some of the others had alcoholic beverages which they were pouring out into glasses and giving to each other. I had coke – dreadful stuff, but this was the land of the coca plant, and I had even seen one today, so why not? In hindsight though I should have bought the local Inca Cola as it was much nicer and produced locally.

The driver climbed into the bus and started driving us along the road in the total darkness. We started partying rather noisily.

When we reached the town at the bottom of the valley just before the long climb towards the highlands, we stopped. Luis pulled out a coke bottle and spoke into it as if it were a microphone telling us that we had to change buses here. Perhaps another group back in Ollantaytambo needed the big bus more than we did.

We walked thirty metres up the road to the large minivan and climbed on board, carrying all our stuff with us. Once settled into the much more cramped conditions, we started the long climb up the hill out of the Sacred Valley heading back towards Cuzco. We spent most of the way back singing silly songs totally out of tune and out of time and doing Mexican waves. Such was the jovial atmosphere of having successfully completed the Inca trail.

View all photos...