This is all about my great Inca Trail journey to one of the New 7 World Wonders!
It's long but well worth the read
The Inca Trail is the 49 kilometers
(a little over 30 miles) climb to Machu Picchu. Here are some little facts:
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It starts at
kilometer 82 (that's how far it is from Cuzco)
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You climb 4
mountains in 4 days
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You top out at 13,829ft on day 2
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It’s still
considered the jungle so it’s very humid – you even get to experience cold humidity.
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Most people
don’t carry their backpacks – you hire chaskeys
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Chaskey’s are
the ‘runners’ they are the ones that carry your stuff (if you hire them to do so) but their also carrying all the tents and food
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Machu Picchu
was re-discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911
·
The Inca Trail
was re-discovered in 1930s or 40s because when the Spanish invaded Cuzco they
Incas did all they could to destroy the path to Machu Pichhu so they could
never find the city.
·
They only let
500 people on the trial daily (300 chaskey’s and 200 tourists)
o
We had to book
this back in January to secure our spot
People on the Hike: (from left to right)
Kate – From London and is
an anesthesiologist and major trauma consultant for the British Navy (if only I
could of let my parents know of the great doctors that were on this trip with
me before we started!)
Lauren – From Canada and
teaches 4th grade at JFK with me
Kerri – From Michigan and
teaches 2nd grade at JFK with me
Me - From Minnesota! Just encase yall forgot
Patrick – From Australia
and is a doctor too!
Jason – From London, Kate’s
bf. They were climbing to celebrate Kate’s 40th birthday
Day 1 – Easy Day
14km 6 hours of hiking
The day started at 4:45am
when the chaskey’s came to pick us up at the hostel. We got on a bus and rode
to kilometer 82 to start the hike. I was so excited that I couldn’t even sleep
on the bus ride there. We got to the place where we were going to start and the
nerves were running high! It was just unreal to think I was going to do this
and then the thoughts of will you finish play in but you’re so excited – it was
AWESOME.
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| First half of day 1 - when we still think this is AWESOME and not so hard |
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| Daisy's are my FAVORITE!! |
We started out that morning
and we walked on just a little incline for awhile and we were all thinking
it’s not so bad, this is awesome… AND then came the first mountainous hills. It’s
a lot of work to be walking up them with your 16kilo backpack! We learned a lot
about the Inca Trail and how it was only discovered in the 30s or 40s because the Inca's destroyed the trail when the Spanish invaded because they did not want them to find and destroy their most sacred place - which we know now as Machu Picchu.
We stopped for lunch and let me tell you - we ate SO good on this trip. I still can't believe the food we had while hiking! We always had soup and then many options for the main course. At this first day we all learned a valuable lesson ... you are still climbing mountains so it's not best to stuff your face with all the delicious food, just eat enough to keep you going! After lunch the hard work or day 1 began. We started doing some serious inclines. It was crazy how fast you were out of breath but when you stopped your body could also recover very quickly. I was pacing with Kerri and our goal was to go for 10mins rest and keep going. Every 4 minutes Kerri would ask if it was time to stop yet - time goes SO SLOW when your climbing mountains!
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| No pasa nada - we were just climbing these! |
After a serious reality check of what we had gotten ourselves into we made it through day 1! I think all of us girls were surprised at how much harder it had gotten and how much work this was really going to be. We reached camp right about 5ish that night. When we got there this was all set up for us. We had happy hour (don't get excited it was tea and popcorn) and later dinner. It started to rain that night and this is when I truly got to experience cold humidity. It's weird because you're cold but nothing really dries. Which means that all your hiking stuff that you've been sweating in all day stays wet and smells so good.
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| The dog bowls outside were for us to wash our face and hands in hot water each night after hiking |
We had hard core sleeping bags to keep us warm at night. They told us that we should wear a t-shirt and shorts to bed, but I was worried about how cold it was, so I went to bed in my thermo shirt and sweat pants. BAD IDEA - another quick lesson I learned. If they say the sleeping bag will keep you warm, trust the people that do this for a living. I was sweating in my sleep, therefore getting wet and then becoming cold. Good lesson learned for the next time I go camping - like maybe in another 5 or 10 years.
Day 2 – Challenge Day (understatement)
12km 7 hours of hiking
We all knew this was going to be the hardest day, but I thought physically it would be hard, I had no idea how hard it was also going to be mentally. We started out the morning by meeting all of our WONDERFUL chaskeys! Words cannot explain how AWESOME these men are! They are carrying about 60lbs of stuff on their back and the RUN the trail - because they have to always get there before us to set up and cook, but they always leave after us to clean up and take down. You are hiking and someone will yell "Chaskey" and you scoot over to the edge and they literally run by with all of the stuff on their backs... oh did I mention that most of them are wearing SANDALS!!
The day started great! I was still on a high of finishing day 1 and being impressed with my endurance. We climbed the 2 mountain and I was still feeling great! Turns out I am pretty good at going UP mountains! It was just an amazing feeling to get up to Dead Woman's Pass that day - it tops out at 13,829 feet.
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| Halfway up to dead women's pass. Directly above the green hat is where we are climbing to - right in between those two formations - the one on the right was referred to as the boob. |
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| Made it up to Dead Woman's Pass! |
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| Feeling so good about life right now! |
AND then comes my weakest part... going DOWN the mountain. Turns out I really suck at this part! Up until this point my fear of heights wasn't stopping me ... it wasn't even really slowing me down! But make me go down a mountain and all I can think about is plummeting to my death by taking one wrong landing and twisting my ankle or blowing out my knee. I was the last one in our group to finish coming down. IT SUCKED! But, at lunch I was telling myself it's all about self conquering and you can't be good at everything. Just take your time, put one foot in front of the other and you'll eventually always get down the mountain.
At least I was trying to have fun at this point - living out my dream of being part of a giant musical ... meaning I was singing to myself the whole way down. I made up some pretty awesome songs about not slipping and falling to my death, the sun being hot, you know the usual things you would hear in a musical at that moment.
I finally made it to where we were going to have lunch that day and it was a good feeling. We had another AMAZING lunch and then the clouds started to roll in. It was crazy because we were at cloud level all of a sudden we were in the clouds. Our tour guide Eddy assured us it wasn't going to rain... HE WAS SO WRONG!
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| Before |
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| After - same location. It's just going to pass through - it won't rain! |
We had just packed up when the flash of lighting was so bright and the thunder cracked so loud it vibrated your body! We waited it out for and hour and half but then we had to go. I had prepared the best I could by putting some of my clothes in bags in my backpack so when my bag got wet at least I'd have some dry clothes. With my rain jacket and pancho on we made our way to conquer the second mountain of day 2.
You know what happens when it rains for almost 2 hours in the mountains... it has to come down that mountain. Did I mention it also hailed! We were literally climbing up streams to get to the top. But its was not that big of a deal because 1) My mom bought me the best hiking boots - they were water proof! B) We were going up - remember I'm good at going up!
Then the worst part of the day came! We had to go down. Almost immediately I lost the group because now, not only did I have to go down, but everything was wet, icy and about 100x more scary! At one point I was pretty sure I had wondered off the Inca Trail and accidentally found a creek that I was walking in, all I could think of was that I was about to come up to a waterfall that would push me to my death down this second mountain of the day. At this point I knew I had 3 options:
I could start crying
OR
I could turn around and see if I could find someone who knew where to go
OR
OR
I could keep going and keep praying I wouldn't die
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| So happy at this point! See all that hail?! |
I kept going. It took me a long time to get down, but I did it. Let's just say I was not a happy camper any more! The group decided to go up to this cool lookout point... these are the stairs they expected me to climb up. Just to make sure look at how steep these stairs are and did you notice just the plummeting cliff to the right? I WAS DONE FOR THE DAY AT THIS POINT!
I told them to enjoy the view up there! This is what I was feeling about Day 2 at this point:
After they came down we had 20 more minutes until we reached camp. Once we got to camp I told everyone that I would be in my tent for a 10 minute time-out and they shouldn't talk to me. I did my best to put my anger besides me and continue on this great adventure.
This was Saturday night... according to my G-ma Hafner Lent is over after church on Saturday. This year I had given up chocolate. So after a long hard day I figured I'd play with grandma's rules and reward myself with a Snikers bar... after 40 days of no chocolate it tasted SO GOOD!
Day 3 – Unforgettable Day
16km 6 hours of hiking
Today was all about putting the defeating Day 2 behind you and enjoying the rest of the hike. This is us ready to dominate Day 3!
It was cool because for most of the day we were above the clouds - beautiful would be and understatement! This day was a little hard for me because for the first time on the hike we were very out in the open - meaning you could see how high we were for most of the time. For a girl who is very fearful of heights it was another challenging day. For most of the hike I kept looking at the ground and the people's shoes in front of me, never letting my eyes wander towards the cliff side.
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| High above the clouds |
We stopped at this cool ruins site after climbing the 3rd mountain and we had another learning session. It was at this point that I had to make a decision to let all the negative and fearful energy out so I could enjoy the last part of the is trip. As I sat there contemplating my feelings I had to remind myself about what I had already accomplished so far. I had climbed 3 mountains, I had survived the hardest day and I was so outside my comfort zone on this whole trip - BUT I WAS DOING IT! It was time to let go of my negativity and enjoy this last part. So that's what I did!
Thank goodness we stopped so I could figure that out ;)
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| Decision place |
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| Getting closer! |
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| The cool tunnel the Inca's built |
As the sun came out it was warming up fast! You really feel all 4 seasons in one day on this hike! Finally right before lunch we saw it... Machu Picchu! This is actually the name of the mountain. The city is just called that because of the mountain name. It was so cool to see how close we were getting!
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| It's right there! |
One last stop at some ruins before were were done hiking for the day. We hung out here for a bit, it was cool to relax and take it all in. That is the Amazon River down there. See how brave I was getting close to the edge?
After we made it to camp we had the afternoon to hang out. When we got there I was really hot and in desperate need of a shower. So I took an ice cold shower! It was so much colder than I thought it would be but so worth it! Before dinner we hiked over to some more ruins and had another great learning session. 80% of the bodies found at Machu Picchu were women - they think it was where they sun princesses were brought to be worshiped. This is a view from the rainbow room (it's not a gay pride thing) they loved the rainbow because they saw it as a sign of beauty from the Sun God.
Another dream was about to come true. On the trail we had encountered wild llamas and it was my dream to hug one. I tried - but usually they would run away. So I wanted to try again, but it ran away. All of a sudden the girls told me to slowly turn around and put my left arm out - there was finally a llama that wanted a hug!
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| Dream conquered! |
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| I was so afraid he was going to spit in my eye! |
We went back had dinner and it had to be an early night because we had a 3:30am wake up call for the last leg of the trial!
Day 4 – Unique Day
7km 2 hours of hiking
We woke up early so the chaskeys could make us breakfast and take down our tents because they had a 5am train to catch. We got in line and waited until they opened up the last part of the trail at 5am!
This part was crazy because it's just starting to get light out at this point so we had to use our headlamps for the first little bit. Everyone is so excited to get to the Sun Gate that you are literally sprinting on this narrow trail for the next 1.5 hours. The last part you do before you walk into the Sun Gate is called the Gringo Killer - it's 50 super steep stairs. Don't worry... I dominated those stairs!
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| Gringo Killer - not for this gringo! |
After 4 days of hiking, camping, peeing in a hole, feeling every emotion possible, experiencing every weather element possible we finally walked into the Sun Gate and we got to see this! WE HAD MADE IT!!
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| It's there in the background! |
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| So proud of myself for making it alive and without any injuries! |
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| The coolest group EVER to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu |
On the way to the city we stopped at this final guard spot. They said if you could make a tower with the stones you would be granted a wish. Here is my tower - I'll keep you posted to if my wish comes true!
The city was AMAZING! I think I had perma-grin all day because I could not believe I had just hiked for 4 days over 4 mountains! It was a great feeling of accomplishment!
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| Our tour guide, Eddy |
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| The Inca's bathroom |
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| This was also how we had to go to the bathroom... if they would have told me that I may not have gone. I'm not good at this! |
After this day we were so tired... it had been a long 4 days! We toured Machu Picchu until 11:30 and then we got on the bus to head to Augas Clientes, a town were we stayed the night. We hit up the hot springs and it felt so good after a long journey!
This was a once in a lifetime experience! I would highly recommend it. It's pretty cool to think about how I checked my princess status and accomplished this trip that was so outside my comfort zone. If you ever want to do this I'd be down to go again... only this time I'll be taking the train to the lost city - I'll leave the trail to you!
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| Next blog I'll fill you in on my couple days in Cuzco! |
