Day 1: Acclimations and Introductions
We woke up at 3 am on Friday to be at the bus by 4:15. We met the couple that would be hiking the trail with us. They were from Austria, and their names were Petra and Matias. We picked up the porters on the way to Ollantaytambo, and drove to the entrance of the Camino Inka (Inka Trail). At the check-in point, we learned that it was Petra's 28th birthday! With our passports stamped, and the weather going back and forth between rainy and sunny, we began our trek on the Inka Trail. The environment changes drastically along the entire trail. The majority of the beginning was open fields and beautiful views of the mountains, and the next moment we could be trekking through jungle-like conditions. We got our first stop where we were treated to an amazing lunch: chicken ceviche, trout, avocado and tomato, rice, and potatos. We definitely weren't expecting such amazing food. It began to downpour, but we powered on through the small villages along the Inka Trail. We hiked through the jungle until we got to our campsite where we were greeted with a round of applause from our porters. They had our tent ready and greeted us with bowls of water and soup to clean up from the long day. We had a beautiful view of the mountains from our campsite. Next we had tea time, then dinner: chicken, potatoes, rice, veggies, and hot cocoa. At the end of dinner, the cook, Sebastian, surprised Petra with a peach birthday pie. It was the absolute sweetest, and the pie was delicious. We shared it with the porters, and they were extremely grateful. They sang Happy Birthday with us to Petra, and then we collapsed in the tent around 8. It was a long day, but perfect.
When we had our orientation, we were told that day 2 of the Inka Trail was going to be the toughest. They weren't wrong. Day 2 proved to be grueling, but one of the most rewarding. We were up at 5:20 in the morning and back on the trail by 6:30. Throughout the majority of the morning, we trekked through the jungle with beautiful sights all around. The sun shone through vines and trees, and gorgeous flowers lined the trail. My favorite were the fuschias. We met some people along the trail from all over the world: Australia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and England. After trekking through the jungle, we came to the check-in point where I was able to buy some coca toffee to help with the altitude sickness. Bob and I had gone ahead of our tour guide, (Eddie) Petra, and Matias. We could see the highest peak of the trail (Dead Woman's Pass), and that was our next destination. It's called Dead Woman's Pass because of the natural formation of the mountain. At the check point, we saw llamas! I was excited. We started back up the trail, and it was 1.5 - 2 hours of hiking straight up. We would walk for 5 - 10 minutes, then have to stop because of the very little oxygen. We got to the top of the peak, and again was greeted with a round of applause from our porters. Eddie wasn't too far behind. It began to rain, so we started downhill. Now, having short legs and being short on the Inka Trail definitely is no fun. There were large stones that were hard to walk down, and my knees began to hurt. But going downhill was very peaceful. Other than my feet pounding against the stones, the only sounds you heard was the rushing of the waterfalls, the chirping of the birds, croaking of frogs, and the buzzing of insects. The sights were just as peaceful as the sounds. The clouds moved and swirled against the mountains, and the various flowers peeked through the grasses. We reached the checkpoint for lunch, and the valley in front of us was enveloped by clouds. It was beautiful. After lunch, we made our way back uphill to another peak, where it began to rain again. On our way down from the peak, we found a cave where other hikers were waiting. They were part of the "Green Team" (Alpaca Expeditions). There is a great competition between the groups, and we were part of the Llama Path Red Army. When the rain subsided, we made our way downhill again as members of the "green team." We bumped into some beautiful Inka ruins that may have been a watch tower. We took some great pictures, then trekked through the jungle once more to our beautiful campsite. It was a long and miserable day, but turned out to be absolutely gorgeous.
Day 3 was all downhill, and was to be the shortest day. Therefore, we were able to sleep in just a bit. Breakfast was alongside beautiful views of the mountains and Salkentrey Peak. We went up the mountain a bit and the rest of the way was mainly all jungle. There were gorgeous caves, bamboo, flowers and vines all along the trail. For the most part, Bob was always way ahead of me, and Eddie, Petra, and Matias were behind me. There were times where I was completely alone. I would stop and listen to the sounds, and just hear silence. You could hear the roaring of the waterfalls all around, the insects buzzing, and all around it was simply peaceful. Unfortunately, the stairs down the mountain never seemed to end. My knees began to scream at me. What was amazing was that even though the stairs were extremely steep, the porters with their packs weighing 25 kg would come flying down the mountain. I caught up with Bob and we made our way to Inkapata, a ruin that was mainly used for farming and agricultural purposes. With the valley open and the Urubamaba River raging below us, we lazed in the sun waiting for the others. The tip of Machu Picchu mountain was just to our left and was enveloped in clouds. We headed down the mountain to our campsite and was done hiking for the day around 1:30. We were able to catch up on sleep, relax, or walk around. It started to downpour, but that didn't stop us from exploring another Inka ruin nearby called Win˜aywayna. In the Quechua language, it means "Forever Young." Archaeologists named it this because of the Forever Young flower that sprouts around the terraces. Eddie called this site "Machu Picchu Junior" because it was a little village with a temple, agricultural terraces, and an urban center. I didn't bring my camera because it was raining, but it was absolutely gorgeous. We had our final tea time because the porters were not coming with us to Machu Picchu the next day. Sebastian had made us an amazing farewell cake, and we thanked the porters for everything they had done for us. It was very touching, and without the porters, the trip would not have been the same. We went to bed early because we had to be up at 3 am to get to the next checkpoint early.
The porters knocked on our tent at 3 am, we shoveled down our breakfast, bid farewell to our amazing porters, and were at the entrance gate for the rest of the Inka Trail at 4:15. We were the second group out of many to get to the gate. The earlier you got there, the better chance you had of seeing the sun rise at the Sun Gate about 45 minutes more down the trail. However, the weather wasn't looking too promising. We could no longer see the mountains and valleys; only a wall of fog. The gate opened at 5:30, and it was a race to the Sun Gate. Bob and I were maybe the 7th and 8th people there. The Sun Gate is also where you get the first glimpses of Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, all we saw was the wall of fog and clouds. When the rest of the group caught up, we walked about 25 minutes downhill to "Postcard Rock," where you would get the quintessential picture of the ruins and the mountain. Again, we were face-to-face with the fog. We walked down to the entrance gate of Machu Picchu, and I was able to use an actual toilet! Along the trail, we were literally using holes in the ground. Never pleasant. Eddie surprised us with Llama Path shirts that we wore for a bit, and the sun began to peek through the mountains. We began our guided tour, and the clouds FINALLY broke up. We were able to see more of the ruins as well as Huayna Picchu Mountain, the main mountain in Machu Picchu. The thing that I learned that I loved the most was the Inkan idea of Huaynacultura: the idea that everything is connected to PachaMama (Mother Earth). For example: the rainbow is a sign of fertility because it connects the spiritual world in the heavens to the earth, making everything grow. We climbed up and down more stairs (they never end!) to various ruins, such as the Temple of Wind, the quarry, the botanical gardens, the Temple of the Sundial, the Inkan Bridge, and the Temple of the Condor (one of the most important animals in Peruvian culture). The main activity in Machu Picchu was agricultural, and only 45% of the town is actually shown to visitors. The rest of the 55% remain below, near the river and hidden in the jungle. We finally were able to take pictures at "Postcard Rock," then we continued to explore more of the ruins. When we were done exploring, we took a bus down to the town of Aguas Calientes, and met Eddie, Petra, and Matias for one final lunch. We bid farewell to the group, hopped on our train, and headed back to Cusco.