Machu Picchu (More Pictures to Come When the Internet Isn't So Slow)

One of the Seven Wonders: Machu Picchu

How did I come to the decision to take a five day trek to Machu Picchu instead of taking the train... Well I honestly cannot remember, and in the week leading up to the trek, I began to ask myself that question repeatedly.

Tracey and I decided that we were conned into the trip by Walli; we couldn't possibly say no to a 75 year old woman who made it sound like a walk in the park. However, hiking 35 miles in high altitude is no walk in the park.

After sleeping on the cold floor in the Lima airport and getting my credit card eaten by an ATM machine, we arrived in Cusco early Saturday morning. Once you start walking, you notice the altitude difference because there is less oxygen in the air and you become short of breath immediately. We all took high altitude pills to prevent altitude sickness and I think that helped a lot.

We rented a really nice apartment within walking distance of the main plaza. The first order of business was showering and napping. After becoming real humans again, we headed to the grocery store to get some food and we ended up stumbling upon a local market. I could have stayed there all day, just shopping; everything was so cheap and interesting.

Next we explored the main square, Plaza de Armas. Cusco is a very cute and clean city, I really liked it. After even more shopping, we had dinner at Numa Raymi complete with real Pisco Sours.

Everything we read on the internet said you should take it easy your first two days in high altitude to let your body adjust. So after dinner we were all exhausted and called it a night.

The next day we went back to the plaza to get some pictures in the daytime and to visit our trek office to finalize the details of our adventure. We had lunch on a terrace with the perfect view of the plaza followed by a walking tour of the city given by our trek guide, Nico. By the end of the walking tour I was tired of walking and wondering how I was every going to survive the next five days of hiking.

We went to super delicious and fancy restaurant for dinner called Cicciolina. It was a restaurant that was so fancy, they placed fresh napkins on the table to cover our mess before dessert. We were all fat and happy afterwards, but Walli wouldn't let us take a cab, we had to walk back to our apartment. Then we got all packed for the Salkantay trek. Side note: Salkantay means “The savage one...”

Day 1

Usually the trek starts at 4AM, but one of the girls in our group lost her luggage during transit and it was supposed to be delivered at 7AM to the Cusco airport. So we delayed our start to go to the airport so she could pick up her stuff, but it wasn't delivered so everyone had to lend her things so she could go on the trek. Since we left Cusco way later than usual, they actually just drove us to our first campsite in Soraypampa. It was a beautiful three hour drive through the mountains; although a little frightening when we were going around sharp turns right on the edge of the mountain. When we got the the site, our tents were already set up and lunch was being served. We were the only ones camping in the surrounding area, which was very nice. We had a crew of four: our guide, Nico; our cook, Luis; the assistant, Primo (not sure of his actual name, but that was the nickname he was given); and our horse boy, Christian. Walli and myself are vegetarians and therefore the whole group had to eat vegetarian all week. Luckily, Luis was such a great cook. It was amazing what he could whip up in the middle of nowhere.

Our "Family"- Primo, Tracey, Walli, Nico, me, Luis, Lane, and Christina

Camp #1

After lunch, we took a three hour hike to a glacier lake, Lake Humantay. This was my favorite part of the whole trip. The views were unbelievable.

Tracey and I ready to go 

Happy Cow

Lake Humantay

Our Group

Couple Selfie

Later we had a nap time and then dinner (we even had a bottle of wine!) and off to bed early in preparation for the hardest section the next day.

Day 2

The second day was by far the most difficult, but has the best views. It was a four hour hike to summit the mountain. Even though it got more difficult to breathe as we climbed higher, I enjoyed the ascent much better than the descent. We made it all the way to 4,600 m (15,100 ft)!

Beginning of a Long Day

Full of Energy

Chewing on Coco Leaves - Yuck

Slowly Losing Layers - Still Trekking

Brrrrr

As soon as we got to the top it started snowing! So we didn't stick around long to rest and enjoy the accomplishment, which was alright with me because I really noticed how it was more difficult to breathe. Unfortunately, the snow turned into rain and you couldn't see any of the amazing views that you knew were just hiding behind the clouds. We walked down two and a half hours before we finally made it to our lunch spot. At that point, I was done hiking. It was cold and rainy and you couldn't see anything!

View of our Descent...

Lunch helped a little, but then it was another 4 hours downhill to our campsite. The rain finally stopped, but the trail was so muddy; I was thankful I had walking sticks, but it was still not easy. The last hour my knees were hurting so bad, I just wanted to stop walking. I was so thankful when we finally made it to our campsite. This one was a compound where everyone was camping. When I sat (fell) down into our tent, I almost cried because of the pain in my lower legs and feet. Going downhill was way harder than uphill and I hadn't had any training of downhill.

We had another good meal, popped some Vitamin I, drank some wine and slept very well.

Day 3

We couldn't take the normal trek trail through the jungle because of landslides that had occurred due to the heavy rains so we walked along a road for four hours to our lunch spot. It wasn't too fascinating or too bad until the last hour when my knees began to ache again. It was really painful. 

But a nice surprised awaited us at lunch, Luis had baked a birthday cake for Tracey over a fire! So we sang and celebrated, it was fun. 

Thankfully we didn't have to walk anymore that day. Instead, we took a van to the hot springs in Santa Theresa where we would camp for the night. We soaked in the hot springs, had dinner, and soaked in the hot springs some more. It felt soooooo good on my legs. My calves were extremely tight and they hurt so bad, but the warm water helped a lot.

In the Hot Spring

Day 4

The group split up on this day. Walli and Christina walked to the lunch spot, Tracey took a van (she dislocated her knee the day before), and Lane and I decided to go zip lining. I had never been zip lining before, but I had always wanted to try. When we got to the first line, I was pretty nervous, but it was still worth it to have a break from walking; and it turned out to be really fun! We went across five zip lines and finished with a suspension bridge. The bridge was not fun. There were a few young men who thought it was funny to shake the whole bridge and jump up and down and I did not enjoy that. 

After that little detour we took a van to the lunch spot and met up with “the family.” For the afternoon, we split into two groups, Walli and Christina walked to Aguas Calinetes and the rest of us took the train (Lane and I are just such great friends that we couldn't let Tracey go by herself). When we got to the small town, we checked into our hotel and took a real shower! After cleaning up and turning into real humans again, we went out for pizza, beers, and really bad karaoke. It was so great to sleep in a bed that night.

Day 5

We woke up at 4AM on Friday to catch a bus to Machu Picchu. When we got the the bus station there was already a long line of people ready to go. But it wasn't a Venezuelan line, they transport thousands of people to Machu Picchu daily so it was efficient and we got to the park in no time. The morning clouds were still burning away when we got in, but it was still incredible to see the whole city on the top of the mountain. Nico gave us a tour and history of the Incas. The more I learned about them, the more I was impressed. Only about 500 people lived at Machu Picchu and only over a 100 year span, but the work they did is amazing. At 10 AM, we had tickets to hike to Huayna Picchu. Again, I had booked this for us, without realizing that it meant that we were going to hike the high peak behind Machu Picchu that was 45 minutes of straight stairs. But we made it to the top and from there you could see the whole ruins. After coming back down, Lane and I went too see the Inca Bridge while the others took the bus back to town. The bridge wasn't anything too exciting, but it really illustrated how dangerous some of the Incan trails were; they were extremely narrow and right on the edge of a cliff. We got back to town around 3PM and were so ready to sit down and eat. Then we wasted time drinking and eating and playing Jenga until our train left at 10PM. I passed out on the two hour train ride and then on the two hour van ride and then when we got back to the apartment, I was exhausted.

Saturday we slept in! It was much needed after our trekking adventure. Then we went to a late brunch in the main plaza for the last time and said our goodbyes to our guide. Then back to our apartment to pack and send Lane off to the airport :(

That night, Walli was really sick. Somehow she had gotten double pink eye and a horrible cough. So Tracey and I went out to get her medicine and pick up some food. The only bad thing about staying in the non-tourist area, is that not one single restaurant would take a credit card. And since we were leaving the next morning, we didn't want to take out more local currency. So we went home tired and grumpy. The landlord saw us on the way back and insisted he could help somehow. I am telling you, Peruvians are the nicest people ever. First, he exchanged money with us, then he called to order us pizza, and then he even delivered the pizza to us.

I was sad to leave the next day. I will definitely visit Peru again. It is a gorgeous country with such kind people. Not to mention, they speak beautiful Spanish that even I was able to understand.