Inca Trail

There is so much to say about our 4 day journey on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The first and foremost thing to say is - WE LOVED IT!!! It was incredibly challenging and rewarding. Far better than any marathon or cycle century I have done. We really lucked out with our group and tour guide though. In the end, no one wanted to leave.

Here is just a brief bit about the journey:

day one - 15 km
we were picked up at our hotel at 4:20 am, then took a 2.5 hour bus ride to km 82 of the trail. the whole trail from cusco to machu picchu is about 123 km. our portion was 41 km (about 26 miles. . .yeah, another marathon under my belt!) we started walking after a brief yummy breakfast. the first portion was very nice. gradual up and downs. then, we encountered a steep, yet short uphill climb. at the top, there was an andean family living there. it´s really incredible how people can live. i am so spoiled. anyway, at this point, one couple (in their late 30´s) decided to stop. the woman had breathing troubles, and according to our guide, erick, it was only going to get worse. another woman was struggling more, but decided to keep going. stubborn i guess.


then, we hiked and hiked until lunch. i guess we were a bit slow (we had to wait a lot for that woman) because as soon as we ate, we were out of there. the good thing at this point is that we got a porter to carry our bag. the best decision ever. it was 85 usd, but totally worth it in the end. all we carried were our camelback day packs.


after lunch, we climbed up 700 meters to our first camping site. Before i go on, the night before the hike, we had a briefing with our guide who said ´my friends, this is the inca trail.´then, he showed us a drawn outline of the hills. it looked like this:


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holy crap is what I thought. luckily, we hiked up almost half of the first pass on the first day. if not, we would have had to hike 1200 meters up in one day! that´s like over 3600 feet. And if you don´t know already, we are already at a super high elevation. Cusco is at about 10,000 feet above sea level. Basically, we were mountain climbing, not just hiking.

day two - 13 km.
before day two could even begin - I woke up in the middle of the night with major indigestion and stomach cramps. i knew that the cha cha chas were coming. I tossed and turned all night. we were woken up around 5:45 am and i was shivering. i felt sick and weak and could not think of hiking another mile - never mind the 8 miles we had to do that day. Plus, the first 500 meters was all uphill. I tried to eat - but had no appetite. luckily, our guide, Erick, gave me a pill to stop the cha cha chas that had arrived. i also bought some gatorade from a local there - and i think that is what saved me. erick took a look at me and said that i would be fine - just weak and slow. hey, i´m kinda used to that, so what the heck? i was going to do it.

I have to say, this was the hardest physical thing i have done - ever! 3 marathon, 2 centuries, a black belt test - none of it compared to trying to walk 13 km up and down hills with little food in your stomach, no energy, dizziness and the constant need to fart. i kept telling myself -´don´t fart, don´t fart´ as i knew it would not be pretty. (okay, that was a bit of TMI there - but honestly, i could have been a lot more graphic. . .)

The best part of the day, though, was that kieran stayed with me the entire time (ahh, how nice :-) and so did our guide Erick. it was like we had our own personal tour guide. the rest of the group wasn´t too far ahead, but Erick made sure we were okay. he was just so awesome like that!

There was an optional hike to some ruins right before our camp, but I decided to skip it. Kieran went and told me it was a bunch of rocks ;-) I rolled into camp around 3:30 pm and passed out! I was able to eat some dinner - and was starting to feel better. thank god because there was no way i was doing that again the next day. that night, it poured at our campsite - so much so that it woke us up. i didn´t care though - i woke up without stomach pains and knew the worse was behind me (no pun intended!)

day 3 - 9 km
This day was going to be a breeze. I woke up feeling like a million times better and the terrain that day was not going to be as hard. 150 meters uphill, then 1000 meters down (3000 steps!) to lunch, which was also our last campsite. It was a beautiful day - I could actually enjoy the terrain. The trail is made up of 2 major parts - the restored trail and the actual original trail laid out over 600 years ago. We learned that the trail was 'opened' back up in 1979 by the peruvian government who restored the parts overrun by vegetation. after lunch on day 2, the trail we hiked on was the actual inca trail. it was actually nicer in parts as the incline and declines were not so severe. there were still a million stairs, but not as bad. more narrow though. anyway, it was nice to really enjoy it on this day.

we got into camp (winay wanya) around 11:45 am, grabbed our 4 soles (about $1.75) and headed for the showers! we were the 2nd group to arrive it was so nice to get clean. then, we ate lunch around 1 pm, grabbed more soles and headed up to the bar! it was so much fun. there was music to sing to (sheryl crow´s 1st album played over and over and over again - but we did not care!) we missed the 3 pm hike that erick was giving, but when he got back around 5 pm, he had the porters bring down our popcorn (from the 4 pm tea we also missed!) and we got drunk with them in the bar. we ate dinner around 7 pm and seriously, it was a rowdy crowd! i have to say, it didn´t look like any other group was having not even one tenth of the fun we had. we lucked out, seriously!

after dinner, the porters sang us a song 'Sexy Woman' and we all danced with them. kieran has it on video and i will put it up here when i returned. they all had super pachamama hands! tough buggers, i tell you. the porters carry about 50 lbs each and practically run you over on the trail. the average height is about 5 feet tall and they can´t weigh more then 120 lbs. toughest people i have ever seen.

we all passed out around 9 pm as we had a 3:45 am wake up call. tomorrow: machu picchu.

day 4 - 4 km
We were all so excited to get going this day. only 4 km (about 2.5 miles) until machu picchu. we were the 2nd group at the check point that opened up at 5:30 am. we got there around 4:50. by 5:30, the line up the trail was about 50 meters back! this day, i have to say, was the most stressful when it came to hiking. we had been ahead of most of the groups up until this point (most camp where we had lunch on days 1+2), so all of a sudden, they were all behind us.

We got to the sun gate, where you could see machu picchu on a clear day. it was fogged over, so we just kept hiking. in just a few minutes though, erick told us to run as we were going to be the FIRST group into Machu Picchu that day! Our group had formed such a bond that we became a super competitive force at this point. there was this one british group that were always on our heels - and we beat them to the end! it was the closest thing to the amazing race in my life!

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I will write more later - we are leaving Cusco today (Tuesday) instead of thursday. the elevation is kicking our behinds. i will finish up my machu picchu experience later. in the meantime - plan your own journey here. it is hard, but SOOOOOOOO worth it! you can check out our tour company at http://www.enigmaperu.com/

cheers, monica + kieran