Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

I have just finished hiking the Inca Trail, which is a 4 day/3 night trek through the Andes to see the magnificent Machu Picchu. Unsurprisingly, it was the most tremendous experience - I never thought I would be able to drag myself up a 4200m mountain, and the views of Machu Picchu surrounded by all these gorgeous mountains were unforgettable.

Even more unforgettable were the enormous efforts of the porters and cooks who helped us along the way. I dont normally advertise here, but I wanted to applaud SAS Travel for the wonderful work they do with their porters. In our group of 18 tourists, we had an unbelievable 20 general porters, 3 chefs, and 3 guides all working for us, and SAS were undoubtedly one of the better operators on the trail. Porters are expected to carry up to 20kg of weight, running up the mountain to get ahead of the tourists, so that they are able to set up camp, cook, and basically serve us once we arrive at the summit each day. I felt a bit disgusted with myself for hiring what was effectively a set of human pack horses, but at least SAS go way beyond the porters´code, and provide them with decent clothing, shoes, and health insurance - many of the other porters we saw on the trail were barely wearing sandals. Please, if you are going to set off on the Inca Trail yourselves, check their policies towards their porters.

To celebrate our set of wonderful porters, here is some of the delicious and amazing food they were able to whip up for us in the middle of a mountain. Each breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we were treated to a 3 course meal, including delights such as a shredded chicken stew (sorry for the dark pictures, they were taken in a tent!):


Avocado salad:


And various other courses to stuff ourselves with, including corn and cheese, rice, and tomato and cucumber salads:

And a final plea - if you are going on these trails where people are already carrying ridiculous amounts of weight, do not be fussy and pretend you have food allergies just so you can have more choice at dinner (just like someone on my team), meaning that the porters have to carry even more and work even harder. The selfishness really angered me.

Anyway, I promised some of Team Loving It that I would share some non-food photos - here is Machu Picchu in all glory!


The mountain in the background is Wayna Picchu, a steep climb where they only take 400 visitors a day. I clambered up on my hands and feet to get the following amazing view: