The Long Way Around, Up, and Down…..
The majestic Incan Empire lasted for hundreds of years, peacefully assimilating other groups into their vast territory. This was the largest Empire in the pre Colombian Americas and was subsequently conquered by the Spanish who brought diseases and weapons over that these people had never seen before.
The Spanish were able to conquer most of the empire and destroy many of the sacred sites, however one of them remained that was hidden up in the highlands of Peru, and that was Machu Picchu.
I decided to do the Inca Trail hike because of my love for hiking, and also because my love for learning about Native American tribes. I wanted to follow the trail that they did to see how hard it was for them to go through this vast territory and mountains.
I could of just taken a train up from Cusco to Agua Calientes, but what would be the fun in that? I wanted to see it all.
I spent a few days in Cusco to acclimate myself to the air so I would not get altitude sickness. What ended up happening is I acclimated myself to Cusco and the Alcohol in the Hostel….

 

I ended up meeting the group I was with and on our way to start the trek we stopped at other Incan sites along the way, a village where the natives still make beautiful scarves, and just beautiful scenery….

The town we stayed at the night before was Ollantaytambo. Take it this was New Years eve, so we could not have a big night out as we had to start hiking in the morning. A few of us managed to get some drinks in as we went to bed early and prepared heavily for the next four day hike up into the unknown…

In the coming days, pictures are worth a thousand words…
Day 1 was a moderate hike through some beautiful territory and some great food. We stopped near a small village that night in which they served CHICHA (fermented alcoholic corn). We would have to look for a red flag at a house and when we saw this flag, we knew that their batch was ready.

Day 2 is known as the proverbial Day from Hell. We had to make it up to Dead Womans Pass (see pics) then back down again. Most of the entire journey was straight uphill, with people getting sick, porters passing us all the way up, and locals laughing at us. Once you get up to Dead Womans Pass, then it is straight down to the camp. This is the night that where it started raining and the rain lasted approximately 36 hours straight…..

Day 3 we woke up to rain, we hiked for a bit and more rain. Then finally we stopped for lunch and more rain. We stopped to take a rest and more rain. We made it to our destination and more rain. This was the single hardest day of the trip as it never stopped raining. Couple that with the cold, and it was miserable. Almost all of our stuff was wet. Batteries were running out on cameras and we still had not got to our final destination.

Day 4 finally hit as we woke up at 4 in the morning to start our final trek into the fabled city of Machu Picchu. On the way we encountered huge monkey steps that were difficult to climb up. As we finally reached our destination at the Sun Gate to gaze upon this magnificent city….THERE WAS CLOUDS!!!! Luckily for us when we got down, the clouds subsided for a bit and we were able to go and check out a lot of the structures and take a small tour.  Then it started to rain AGAIN!!!!

We then went down to Agua Calientes and had some food, as well as beers. We then made our way back to Cusco with the group and had a fun night out including Ground Hog and drinks at a small night club…..

I really loved going to Machu Picchu. Obviously the pictures do not do it justice but it was really an awe inspiring trek and destination. Would I do it again? Yes, I would do this again a billion times…..Just not during the rainy season!!!!!