Under Pressure... in Machu Picchu, Peru

After a couple of weeks in Ecuador and the north of Peru, we finally arrived in the southerneastern city of Cusco where we had the company of two of our best friends from Spain to look forward to - as well as 3,200 metres of altitude. As the four of us got ready to begin the four day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu - arguably the most famous trek in the world, I couldn't help feeling as though the last nine months of travelling had been leading up to this final challenge. This was a hike that would combine the cold of New Zealand’s Mt Tongariro, the steps of China’s Zhangjiajie, the gorgeous greens of Colombia’s Amazon Rainforest and the high altitude of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano… and I admit I’d been dreading it since we left London back in January.

With a relatively easy walk of 12km on the first day, briskly walking along “Peruvian flat” terrain, meaning a gentle ascent, we reached the first campsite by early evening, and enjoyed a brief sense of achievement before contemplating the difficulty that awaited us the next day. And with a 5.30am wake up call, it all began too soon.

High altitude affects humans in a number of ways. At almost 4,000 metres, the low humidity and decreased air pressure causes the body to lose water resulting in dehydration. The lungs struggle to fill with oxygen, and the body resorts to hyperventilation as a means of breathing during simple activity. The heart rate increases and the brain tells the muscles to move slower as a means of conserving energy. And it’s under these conditions, on day two of the trek, that you have to ascend over 1,000 metres of altitude to reach the top of the aptly named mountain Dead Woman’s Pass.

After three hours of walking uphill, we hit the steepest, most difficult part of the trek. As I tried to advance, albeit at a slow pace, the icy glare of the mountains bore down on me like a dead weight, while the local porters rushed past me as if the bulging sacks on their backs were filled with small engines instead of tents and four days’ worth of food. My movement became slow and sluggish until I had to stop altogether to catch my breath. I desperately searched my backpack for water before searching my soul for sentiments of self-encouragement, receiving nothing but negativity in their absence. I dragged myself a few steps further before repeating this sorry sequence. It didn’t matter that hundreds of other trekkers were moving in the same direction as me, with the same destination as me; my only companion now was my mind. I still don’t know how it got me to the top of a mountain with 4,215 metres of altitude.

Two hours later I was finishing the 3km descent from Dead Woman’s Pass to the campsite, the last part of day two. But, unlike our tough experiences hiking down Mt Tongariro and Mt Cotopaxi, the end of the day didn’t come with hope of a hot shower, but rather, promised a very, very cold night in a tent.

As with any good hike, there is always a pay off, and the third day was ours - despite the 15km we had to walk. We wandered through the cloud forest where we were welcomed by the green of the trees, their dew-soaked branches outstretched like old friends greeting us after months apart. The lush tree ferns and small orchids accompanied us for the rest of the day, eventually leading us to the impressive ruins of Puyupatamarca, known as “city above clouds”, a teaser of what we were to see the next day.

At 4.30 am the next morning we awoke to a dull murmur as everyone prepared for the final day of the trek; hundreds of head torches filled the cold, black campsite, like glow-worms in the night. We were just 5km away from our final destination: the ancient Inca town of Machu Picchu, thought to have been built for Pachacuti, the ninth Inca King, over 500 years ago. We walked in single file towards the ruins; this time the altitude, the steps and the cold no longer an issue - we were too close to care. Because we were about to see this:

As everyone in our group celebrated the end of the four day trail, the nerves inside me were starting to build up. Because stood before us was the 800m high mountain that the four of us had decided to climb: the magnificent Huayna Picchu. The pressure was on.

Looking up at the dangerous precipices that formed the edge of the narrow, steep staircase to the peak, I made a pact with myself to descend if vertigo took its hold. But the four of us had come too far to turn around and we managed to reach the top in 45 minutes. We could finally celebrate and bask in our own pride… just as soon as we got back down.

With the finale well and truly over, my body started to relax and reflect. It was true that the last nine months of demanding activity, a dress rehearsal for this 46km walk, had made the last four days less difficult, but the experience of the Inca Trail could never have been as tough as I had built it up to be in my mind. The climbing and constant walking wasn’t easy, but the fear of failure was the hardest thing I'd had to overcome. And as we opened the first of a few hard-earned bottles of beer I realised that sometimes you just need to take away the pressure you put on yourself for things to work out.

Guess what I found out in Machu Picchu?

1. Machu Picchu was built at the height of the Inca Empire around 1450 but abandoned just over a century later in 1572 after the Spanish arrival in Peru. Why it was abandoned is still a mystery. 2. Hiram Bingham was the North American explorer who stumbled upon the ruins of Machu Picchu, when searching for the lost city of Vilcabamba. Only locals and a handful of missionaries and engineers had known of the site's existence before Bingham made them world famous. 3. The names of the ruins are literal descriptions given by Bingham in the Quechua language. Machu Picchu means "Old Mountain", while Huayna Picchu means “Young Peak” - even though it is 800 feet higher than Machu Picchu town.