This trip was five years on the making. Right after my Choquequirao trip, I moved to Montreal and always wanting to go back to the place where Robert Lee(American Archeologist) insists the Incas came to regroup during the conquest. Back in 2001, the Choquequirao trip took us through valleys, mountain tops, abandoned mines and ruins. One place stuck in my head and that was the Inca trail Vilcabamba- Machu Picchu. When I read that part of this network was been restored, I gathered information, a new pair of hiking boots and hired a guide, two mules and went for it.
The excursion took us to reach the Salcantay glacier and down the coffee-growing valley of Versailles. Great name for a place with wild thermal-water pools fit for kings. The Inca trail was only restored a part of the way, but remains of it are still being used as life-stock and commerce trading roads. Legend says that when the Incas retreated into the jungle, these networks of trails they had build with chiseled rocks, were turned over so to make for an impossible pursuit. This is referred to as Castigo Inca, the Inca Punishment.
Once we arrived to Santa Teresa, I was surprised to see that the one booming town had again reached it glory past. Here is where the big coffee farmers brought their crops to be shipped by train. The railways that were washed away back in 1997, gave way to a highway and a bridge that communicated the Cities of Cusco and Quillabamba to the Machu-Picchu station. I am sad to report that Santa Teresa is isolated once again, and the bridge was washed away by the mighty Urubamba River.
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