So, this is it, one of the things I've been looking forward to most: the four-day hike to see Machu Picchu. As tickets for the "original" inca trail sell out months in advance, I decided to go for the inca jungle trail. This trek combines mountain biking with hiking through the jungle - a much more agreeable climate than the high mountain route the other trek uses :-)
So we started off at 6 am and drove straight to the pass at Abra Malaga at about 4300m. From there, we cycled down the mostly paved road to about 2000m of altitude. Especially the first part was cold and rainy, and sometimes we had to go straight through clouds. When we stopped to enjoy the view of a valley, it was alternately completely covered in clouds, or partly visible like in this picture:
The rain stopped during the second part of the bike ride, but we weren't yet finished getting wet... As we found out, there were many mountain streams running across the street like this:
And, of course, we had to cross the streams to get to our destination. In the end, all of our hiking boots were completely soaked through. If only they had told us to wear flip flops for the second part!
After lunch, we only had a short uphill hike (in wet boots) left to reach the family farm we would spend the night at. The main source of income for people in this area is coffee. We passed one farm that was in the middle of a coffee harvest. What they do is they collect the coffee fruits off the bushes and gather them in a big tank:
There they remove the peel from the fruits and wash the remaining seeds - the coffee beans. These are then laid out in a courtyard to let them dry for three days. In this courtyard, there are about 20 kilos of beans:
After drying, they can be sold to a company who does classification, roasting and grinding. One kilo of dried coffee beans goes for about 4 Soles - a little more than 1 euro.
Another source of income are dried coca leaves. The price is controlled by the state, so that the contents of one coca field, about 12 to 13 kilos, can be sold for 70 Soles. That is 20 euros per coca field, which can be harvested every four months. If you consider these numbers, it is no small wonder that narco-trafficking is booming.
On a more positive note, the lush jungle landscape was fantastic again. These pink flowers, for example, are all over the place:
So we started off at 6 am and drove straight to the pass at Abra Malaga at about 4300m. From there, we cycled down the mostly paved road to about 2000m of altitude. Especially the first part was cold and rainy, and sometimes we had to go straight through clouds. When we stopped to enjoy the view of a valley, it was alternately completely covered in clouds, or partly visible like in this picture:
The rain stopped during the second part of the bike ride, but we weren't yet finished getting wet... As we found out, there were many mountain streams running across the street like this:
And, of course, we had to cross the streams to get to our destination. In the end, all of our hiking boots were completely soaked through. If only they had told us to wear flip flops for the second part!
After lunch, we only had a short uphill hike (in wet boots) left to reach the family farm we would spend the night at. The main source of income for people in this area is coffee. We passed one farm that was in the middle of a coffee harvest. What they do is they collect the coffee fruits off the bushes and gather them in a big tank:
There they remove the peel from the fruits and wash the remaining seeds - the coffee beans. These are then laid out in a courtyard to let them dry for three days. In this courtyard, there are about 20 kilos of beans:
After drying, they can be sold to a company who does classification, roasting and grinding. One kilo of dried coffee beans goes for about 4 Soles - a little more than 1 euro.
Another source of income are dried coca leaves. The price is controlled by the state, so that the contents of one coca field, about 12 to 13 kilos, can be sold for 70 Soles. That is 20 euros per coca field, which can be harvested every four months. If you consider these numbers, it is no small wonder that narco-trafficking is booming.
On a more positive note, the lush jungle landscape was fantastic again. These pink flowers, for example, are all over the place:
