The Trail (The End)

We finally reached the campsite minutes before the sunset. All I wanted to do was sleep. But I couldn't. My husband had hypothermia and spent most of the night trembling. Our guide helped a lot. He had special clothing and some medicine, but I was still worried and stayed partially awake.

The next morning, everybody was ready for the walk. My husband had sprained his ankle because he had the wrong type of shoe, but was still able to continue. I was in perfect conditions except that I had no energy to walk. Just like the day before. What was wrong with me?

The first part of the trail went mostly upwards. It was 24 to 36 inches wide and had abrupt abysms. I wanted to take pictures but I was so clumsy that my husband thought that if I tried to take a picture near the border I was going to fall down the cliff. I did fall to the ground a few times. At least I was able to take pictures of the ruins along the trail.

The next day we had the option of waking up at dawn to get to see the first rays of sun pass through the Sun Gate and light up Machu Picchu. The sky was cloudy and the guide decided to let us sleep a little more because it was not worth it. I, personally, didn't care much about the sunrise at that moment. Now I regret it, because it was my only chance to see it!

The walk on this day, the fourth one, was not that bad. I was already feeling anxious to reach our destination. We saw more ruins, a great diversity of flowers and wild orchids, colorful stones and a beautiful sky. It was amazing.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, we crossed the Sun Gate and saw for the first time Machu Picchu.

I cried.

The Trail (three)

Well, there were clearly two ways out: to continue hiking to the campsite or to go back. Both walking. Of course, I chose to continue. At a speed of 5 feet per minute and the with the encouraging words of my dear husband (who was getting more upset as I was getting slower) I made it to the top! Please read carefully. It says 4215 m.s.n.m. which is approximately 13000 feet above sea level. At that altitude, one gets transfigured in pictures. (I had not taken a bath in 2 days and was extremely exhausted!)

The next step was to go down. That sounds easy, right?

It began to rain, again. I had to walk down the steps like Cinderella, holding both ends of the raincoat because I was constantly stepping on it. It is very hard to keep equilibrium and enjoy the scenery at the same time. Every step was formed by differently shaped and sized stones and in between steps the distance was also variable. We had to keep an eye on the ground constantly.

Do you see the little houses in the middle of the picture? That's the campsite. On the right, the trail. The little diagonal line below the cloud was the trail for next day. That was not encouraging!

The Trail (two)

The path at the beginning of the Inka Trail is wide and easy. We didn't have to carry all of our clothes with us, just what we were to wear during the day. The weather early in the morning was very cold but as soon as we started walking the sun began to rise. I like to dress with layers because I always get cold faster than regular people (i.e. I wear sweaters at work during summer - in Miami). Since I am so cold all the time, my husband didn't believe me when I said that we had to bring sweaters and a winter jacket, and hiking shoes. The weather was so nice during the first day of hike, I completely forgot about it. At least I convinced him to get a hat.

There are ruins along the whole trail, most of them down the valley or up in the mountains. When we finally reached the campsite at the end of the day I was extremely tired, but with a nice rest I thought that I would be able to enjoy the rest of the trail with such nice paths and weather. Ha!

The second day was very foggy. And rainy. We had to put our heavy and long (at least for me) rain coats most of the day. Inside the rain coat, either it was too hot or too cold. But the scenery was completely worth it. The easy path turned out to be increasingly thin and steep as we went on. Stones were more frequent along the path, too. They had different colors and textures, one was able to identify unfinished marble or granite or other types of stones. A waterfall run beside us most of the time and vegetation was diverse and colorful. We were walking through the cloud forest.

The trail goes up and down, around the mountains. This time, there was no "around the mountain" but "through the top of the mountain". Soon our lungs seemed to not be getting enough air.

At this point - not even halfway to the top of the mountain - my legs were not able to continue. I was very lucky to have my husband with me otherwise I would probably still be there by myself. And it was only the second day.

The temperature began to drop suddenly. We were behind our group and we were in trouble. My husband was getting too cold. I couldn't find the strengh to walk. There was no way out.

The Trail (one)

(Not a Wordless Wednesday, but a Pugless Wednesday)

I can proudly say that this year, at 33 years old, I accomplished one of the biggest (and long delayed) dreams of my life. Long delayed because I wanted to do this since I was in college, which would have made a lot more sense because I was younger and stronger... anyway, I also wanted to go to this place with someone special, so I did with my husband last March (Coco is special too but he couldn't come).


It was a little embarassing to say "I am from Perú" following by "No, I have never been in Machu Picchu". Specially when the person asking me is not from Perú and had been in Machu Picchu.

I have always been very good at high altitudes. My husband had lived in Miami his whole life, but he has been in my country twice before, and had done well in the mountains. Cusco is approximately 3399 m.s.n.m. (11151,44 feet above sea level). You can sit on a bench or a step in the main square of the city and watch people walk by you of as many countries as you can remember. All sorts of languages, most of them I had never heard before. The city never sleeps. I do sleep early, so I probably had missed most of the fun, specially because it was St. Patrick's day and there was a big party in the Irish Pub. Definately this is a place I want to go back to, next time with no previous arrangements for city tours.

We visited the most common archeological sites near Cusco and in the Sacred Valley. One of the most interesting places for me, was the alpaca farm. They not only breed llamas, alpacas and vicuñas, but also complete the whole process of producing textiles using typical ancient methods for dyeing and knitting, with patterns that have been inherited from Inca times. They have a show room with very high quality textiles, sweaters, suits, etc. and a part of the proceedings benefit the community, since they are able to get a profit from their artistic work. The prices are high compared to other artisan markets but the quality is notably high, too. Compared to the U.S. and Canada, prices are reasonably cheap. I wish I had bought more stuff, but we did the trip on a budget.









Another favorite was the village of Chincheros, in the Sacred Valley. The pictures speak for themselves.





After two days getting used to the climate and the altitude in Cusco, we got to prepare our backpacks to start the 4 days 3 nights hiking towards Machu Picchu.

We were told that it was going to be sunny, rainy, hot, extremely hot, cold and extremely cold, all in one day. Was that possible?