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| The church overlooking the main square in Cusco |
From the moment we landed in the city of Cusco, buried deep in the Andean Mountains at 3400m in Altitude (that's about 11, 200 ft for my American friends), I knew I was going to love it. It's a picturesque little town that was formerly the epicentre of the Inca Empire but it is also the jumping off point for tonnes of amazing adventure activities and Mountain trekking - most famously the 4 day/ 3night Inca Trail trek to the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu which is essentially what we came to do. I had high expectations for Cusco since we had many recommendations to go there but the amazing scenery, incredible people and learning about the culture of the Andean totally blew me away.
We arrived in Cusco a few days before our Inca trail trek to acclimatize to the altitude and since we had a few free days we decided to take a tour of the Sacred Valley which is a good intro to type of hiking we would be doing, provided some amazing photo ops and would serve as a little intro to the Inca history and Andean mountain culture.
Sacred Valley:
Our day started with a 5am wake up call to be ready when the tour company picked us up at 6am. After some bumpy terrain and a few bus changes we finally started the tour around 7:30am headed to our first stop of the day only to realized that we had been put on a Spanish only tour (although we had been told there would be English guides). At the first pit stop we quickly rectified the situation and the tour company transferred us to another group that had an English speaking guide - Eddie from SAS travel who turned out to be an amazing leader for the day. It was on this tour that Eddie first introduced us to some of the ancient Inca culture, that is still hugely a part of the culture of the present day Andean Mountain Peruvian people. The things that stuck out to me were their beliefs and ultimate respect for Paccha Mama (which is the Quechua - the language of the Inca's and modern day Andean Mountain communities - word for Mother Earth). Eddie also introduced us to the 3 key values and 3 key rules of the Inca culture.
Values: Love, Work and Teach
Rules: Don't be lazy, Don't Steal and Don't lie
Seems pretty simple and timeless to me.
The entire day lasted about 12 hours (Cusco -> Pisac -> Urubamba -> Ollanytaytambo -> Chinchero -> Cusco) and included to many highlights to mention but here are some of the best photo's from the day:
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| After making our first hike of the day in Urubamba |
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| Little Girl in Peruvian clothes at Pisaq market |
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| Temple of the Sun in Ollanytaytambo |
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| Sunsetting in Chinchero |
After the Sacred Valley we had 1 day of rest before we started on the Inca Trail
Inca Trail
Day 1: Day 1 included another 5am wake up call to be ready for the 6am pick up. After a few hours of some more very bumpy driving we arrived at the launching spot where the groups and their porters get organized to start the trek. We were a group of 7 climbers which meant we had 8 porters and 1 cook to carry all of our supplies for the 4 days (well really there was 5 in our group and 2 in another but we were sharing the same food, supplies and porters). I was absolutely blown away as I watched our team of porters getting ready. The group ranged anywhere from 19 years old to 55 years old (no joke) and each of them carried 35 - 40 Kg on their backs THE ENTIRE WAY! One guy even had a full propane tank strapped to his back just with blankets and rope. After seeing that I figured I shouldn't complain about the small (maybe 5 kg) day pack that I needed to carry for myself.
Over the course of the trek I was really interested to hear more about how the porters lived. A lot of the porters are either from the local mountain communities or are farmers from a few hours away that come to work as porters for the rain seasons while farming is slow to make extra money for their families. I asked our guide how many times a month on average these guys do the 4 days trek and most of them do 6-7 times per month!! If you do that math on that it means they they are on the trail 24-28 days a month with almost zero time to see their families. I get cranky if i have to work late on a Friday!
After all the organizing, meeting our group (which was us 4 plus a guy from Holland named Bjorn who our guide lovingly named BJ cause Bjorn was too hard) and our first brief from our guide Victor we set out to start hiking. Day one was the "easy day" ....only 11km of slight up and downhill.
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| The team just starting the trail |
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| Setting up camp for the first night |
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| Day 1 - already exhausted |
We knew that day 2 was supposed to be the hard day.....but I really don't think any of us had any idea what we were really in for! The day started again at 5am with a gently tent shake from the porters and tent side coco tea service before having breakfast and then hitting the trail around 615am. The route for day 2 included our first summit of the trail call dead women's pass and then don't call it that for nothing - over 6 hours we did a vertical hike of 6km ascending over 1100m make it to the summit which was around 4200m (for those of you who can't picture it ...that basically means REALLY STEEP). I am pretty sure at some point during this ascend each one of us cursed the fact that we decided to hike 4 days vs. take the train...... but the rush of adrenaline and accomplishment that you get when you hit that top is pretty indescribable. We were literally standing on the peak of one of the Andean mountains, well above the clouds. After just a few quick minutes at the top mostly spend bundling up, as it gets REAL cold REAL fast at the top, and taking a few pics we started to descend. Yup.... that's right, hiking on day 2 is still not over. After making the summit we had to do another 3km straight down on these ridiculously steep stone stairs to make it to camp for the night.
Once we arrived at camp we all pretty much took a team nap before emerging from our tents for Tea time (usually involving tea and a snack of popcorn) and then had our amazing dinner for the night. I am still amazed at the meals we got along the way - each dinner included 3 courses (soup, mains, dessert). I mean really I have no idea how the team of porters did it!
After dinner and our nightly briefing on the schedule for the next day we hit our tents at our trek bed time - 8:30pm. Although this night was particularly cool because it was a totally clear sky so the stars were out in full force. I had literally NEVER seen a sky like this before, its an image that I will remember forever
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| Group shot after we all reached the top |
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| bundled up at the top of Dead Woman`s Pass |
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| SO HAPPY we are done Dead Woman`s Pass |
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| Night sky over our camp |
Another 5am wake up call (tent side cocoa tea service and all) and then hit the trail. All I can say about day 3 is STAIRS STAIRS STAIRS.....nothing but 15km, 9hrs, of trekking up and down old Inca stairs..... if I never see stairs again it is too soon! We finally reached camp for the night around 5pm and our guide Victor took us over to see is favorite of the Inca ruins which you typically don't see on the trail called to Wiñay Wayna (Quechua for Forever Young). Victor was a pretty spiritual guy and he taught us some amazing things about the ancient and current culture along the way but thing that stood out the most for me was the cultural value of Reciprocity which means all people help each other, or give and take (i.e when you take from mother earth you also give back, or when you neighbor helps you, you also help them.
After dinner on day three we also said goodbyes and thank-you's to our amazing porters, who had to literally RUN down the mountain in the morning to catch a 530am train after serving us our 4am breakfast. Even though pretty much none of us spoke Spanish (other than the guides obviously) and most of the porters actually spoke Quechau we were able to give a couple of thank you speeches back and forth
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| The beautiful mountain vistas never ended |
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| The end of our Cocoa tea ceremony |
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| overlooking the terraces at Winay Wayna |
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| Our last night with the team - the porters baked a cake! |
Day 4:
Day 4 meant it was time for the main event.... and more importantly it was almost the end of hiking! It started with a 3am wake up call so that we could be on the road by 430 to make it through the check-point in time to make a run for the Sun Gate before sunrise. The sun gate is where you get your first view of Machu Picchu and the sunrise there is supposed to be a non-miss. People were literally running on the trail (which still included many many rock stairs, mud and even the leftovers of a landslide just one week earlier). Finally after crawling on our hands and knees to get up the Gringo stairs we made to the top of the sun gate and the feeling was pretty unreal. First off the view is absolutely incredible, but it is also the moment I realized we had really just accomplished our goal of making it through the Inca trail. After many many photo ops we started on the last bit of the train (about another 2 hours of hiking down more stairs) to actually get into Macchu Pichu. We spent a few hours actually touring the ruins (very slowly since we were all exhausted) and just taking it all in.
Overall the experience for me was incredible and i would recommend it to anyone who plans to visit Peru.
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| sun rising as we all rush for the sungate |
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| Team photo as we finally make it to Mach Picchu |
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| apparently were sponsored by lululemon! |
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| getting my passport stamped proving I made it! |
1. BUNDLE UP: the changes in temperature are fast and dramatic.... I'm talking shorts and T one second to Tuque, scarfs, jackets and pretty much every item of clothing you have the next
2. It's hard - try to be in shape: It didn't help us that we were all coming off the Xmas season filled with nothing but eating
3. Bring lots of Toilet Paper: ....... you definitely don't want to be stuck without it (luckily for us we did not encounter this fate
4. Go with an open mind: Learn about the people and their history, marvel at the scenery and just generally embrace the experience. You will not be disappointed
Now what did we do after all that hiking you may ask....... we hopped on our first overnight to get to Titicaca Lake in Copacabana, Bolivia for some serious CHILLLLLLLLLLLLLL time.
OOO_Talia
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