Conquering the Inka Trail
Week 2 of our southern hemisphere adventure largely focused on conquering the Inca Trail. Now the Inca Trail can't really be compared to any major hike like Everest or even Cotopaxi and probably isn't that much different than a few hours of the stairmaster, but if you haven't really camped before than a 4 day hike at 13,000 ft of elevation should at least give you credit for a few days at the gym. What actually proved most vital was not our altitude sickness meds or the squad of professional porters carrying our food and tents (feel free to mock us thoroughly for these though) but a hand full of amazing little white pills of Cipro. How anyone ever traveled without this wonder drug we don't know and don't really want to either.
Peru: Cusco
After popping our first altitude sickness pills in Huacachina, we boarded our Cruz de Sol bus for the 16 hour winding trek up into the Andes mountains to the town of Cusco. Overall, the overnight bus turned out to be quite comfy with big relaxing chairs, multiple snacks, free bingo, and all the Spanish dubbed movies you could hope for. Unfortunately our bus driver must have played a bit too much Gran Turismo in his free time as he seemed to think taking hairpin turns at 60mph in a double decker bus was appropriate. Every few minutes as we'd round another turn, one of us would get thrown into the others lap. While this impeded our ability to sleep we felt even worse for some of the solo backpackers who likely got a bit more familiar with the locals than they expected. And if you are thinking, hey maybe that isn't such a bad way to meet someone, just think of the last person you sat next to on a Greyhound bus and decide if a few hours spooning them would make for a good time
Upon arriving in Cusco in the morning, we dropped our bags off at Eco Packers hostel and decided to explore the city. Cusco, which was the heart of the ancient Inca Empire back in the day, was quite beautiful with large open plazas, old historic churches and ancient stone stairways. After wandering the streets and alleyways for a few hours we found a small local fair complete with rigged carni-games and fresh guinea pig meat. We were successfully duped into trying a coin toss game and promptly failed on 12 of 13 attempts. With this devastating loss of about 40 US cents we decided we had enough and moved on.
After a day of exploration we found a small restaurant with rooftop seating and enjoyed a dinner of alpaca steak and peruvian chicken soup. As it turns out, eating exotic meats that are not well cooked when your immune system has been hampered by lack of sleep and adjustment to a high altitude, is not the best idea we have had. Without going into great detail on this one, let´s just say that Nate spent all of the day in bed and we were quite thankful to have our own private bathroom in our hostel.
After an exceptionally rough half hour at 11pm in the evening, it was starting to look unlikely that we would be making the 4am wake-up call the next morning to embark on our hike of the Inca Trail. Given that the Inca trail spots sell out months in advance and we probably weren´t coming back to Peru any time soon this was a bit distressing. However, what we did not fully appreciate was the true power of modern day pharmaceuticals. Within 5 hours of popping the first Cipro pill, Nate was feeling very much improved and we decided to head out on our trek as planned. Besides, having shelled out quite a bit on traveler´s insurance we knew we were covered for emergency medical evacuations so what was the harm in trying?
Inca Trail: Day 1
The first day of the Inca Trail hike was actually quite relaxed. We met our team of 14 fellow back-packers along with an extended team of 21 porters and chefs who would did the real work of carrying food and tents and setting up camp every night. The rest of us only had only to manage with our small day packs and hiking gear. Our back-packing team included 3 Swedes, 3 Americans and 8 Australians and Brits. We thought we´d be the creepy old couple in a group of young college grads but actually we were pretty much in the middle in terms of age and only slightly above average in creepiness.
The first part of the hike was quite flat. We hiked along the Sacred Valley river and gradually wound our way into the mountains. We took frequent breaks (and naps) as we adjusted to the higher altitude and prepared for the upward climb.
During our trek we had the benefit of chatting with our local tour guides and practicing our Spanish. We quickly learned the word ¨gradas¨ which means steps. We would soon discover that there were mucho, mucho gradas on the Inca trail. There are also quite a few llamas. The locals use the llamas to carry goods up and down the trail to sell to us gringos that are on the hike. At one point Nate decided to ask a passing llama, in spanish, if he was tired from carrying so much stuff up the hills. Apparently Nate mispronounced the word for tired and, instead asked the llama if he was married. Our guide found this extremely funny of course.
At the end of the day we retired to our tents and got some much needed sleep in peparation for our 1000 meter hike up Dead Woman´s pass the next day.
Inca Trail: Day 2 & 3
With Nate mostly recovered from the bout of alpaca induced sickness, we began the longest day of our hike full of energy and enthusiasm. Rather than trail at the back of the back, we found ourselves right up front following not far behind the much faster porters.... granted each porter was also carrying about 50 pounds of gear on his back but we will ignore that point for now. After a good 2-3 hours of hiking we made it to the highest point of the overall climb some 4,200 meters above sea level.
After enjoying a few brief moments of glory complementing ourselves on being the first ones to the top, we quickly got brought down a peg as we made our way back down the mountain. As it turns out, Sarena´s knees make her about as fast down a mountain as an 80 year old grandmother. In fact, there were two or three elderly women who got stuck behind us on the way down and gave us some irritated looks when they finally passed us on the few wider sections.
Aside from our overall gimpy decent, we did get to explore some pretty outstanding ruins along the way. Our guides gave us a good history for each of the core locations and its role in the overall Inca empire. Which sites were used for agriculture, which were temples and how the overall trail was used by Inca nobility to reach the Machupichu site.
Inca Trail: Day 4- Machu Picchu
We awoke on our final day at 3am so that we could be one of the first people in line for the site the next morning. When we first heard the wake up time we thought it was crazy. However after three days basically going to bed when it gets dark at 8, waking up at 3am wasn't so hard. After an hour and a half of hiking we made it to Machu Picchu and spent the next few hours exploring the ruins. While not the most impressive ruins ever (our favorite is probably still Tikal in Guatemala), the combination of ruins and mountaintop view of the surrounding valleys was pretty outstanding. As a final side adventure, we decided to hike up the adjacent peak of Wayna Picchu which we had purchased in advance. After hiking for 4 days we figured this last 1 hour climb would be cake. When we saw a line of elderly tourists coming back we scoffed a bit when they made a few side comments about it being a bit rough. Our previous run in with the speedy grannies should have made us more weary. While we made it through in one piece we are kind of shocked there weren't some big ass warning signs all over the place, especially given that a tourist fell to their death on the hike a few years back. There were many places on the hike where the Inca steps were so steep and narrow that it was closer to climbing a ladder than a stairwell. When we got to the top it started to pour rain so our hike back down had the added challenge of navigating stupidly steep stone steps that were now wonderfully slippery. Overall the experience was actually quite fun, kind of like doing a crazy wet obstacle course. However, given some of the more amply sized individuals we saw in line, we are guessing not everyone would have this same appreciation.
Once done with our hike we made our way to Agua Caliente, a cute town at the base of the mountain before catching a train to Olytaitambo on our way to our hotel Tambo del Inka in Urubamba. We chose the hotel so that we could explore the Sacred Valley, but who were we kidding? We ended up taking really long showers and sleeping in. It was glorious.
Week 2 of our southern hemisphere adventure largely focused on conquering the Inca Trail. Now the Inca Trail can't really be compared to any major hike like Everest or even Cotopaxi and probably isn't that much different than a few hours of the stairmaster, but if you haven't really camped before than a 4 day hike at 13,000 ft of elevation should at least give you credit for a few days at the gym. What actually proved most vital was not our altitude sickness meds or the squad of professional porters carrying our food and tents (feel free to mock us thoroughly for these though) but a hand full of amazing little white pills of Cipro. How anyone ever traveled without this wonder drug we don't know and don't really want to either.
Peru: Cusco
After popping our first altitude sickness pills in Huacachina, we boarded our Cruz de Sol bus for the 16 hour winding trek up into the Andes mountains to the town of Cusco. Overall, the overnight bus turned out to be quite comfy with big relaxing chairs, multiple snacks, free bingo, and all the Spanish dubbed movies you could hope for. Unfortunately our bus driver must have played a bit too much Gran Turismo in his free time as he seemed to think taking hairpin turns at 60mph in a double decker bus was appropriate. Every few minutes as we'd round another turn, one of us would get thrown into the others lap. While this impeded our ability to sleep we felt even worse for some of the solo backpackers who likely got a bit more familiar with the locals than they expected. And if you are thinking, hey maybe that isn't such a bad way to meet someone, just think of the last person you sat next to on a Greyhound bus and decide if a few hours spooning them would make for a good time
Upon arriving in Cusco in the morning, we dropped our bags off at Eco Packers hostel and decided to explore the city. Cusco, which was the heart of the ancient Inca Empire back in the day, was quite beautiful with large open plazas, old historic churches and ancient stone stairways. After wandering the streets and alleyways for a few hours we found a small local fair complete with rigged carni-games and fresh guinea pig meat. We were successfully duped into trying a coin toss game and promptly failed on 12 of 13 attempts. With this devastating loss of about 40 US cents we decided we had enough and moved on.
After an exceptionally rough half hour at 11pm in the evening, it was starting to look unlikely that we would be making the 4am wake-up call the next morning to embark on our hike of the Inca Trail. Given that the Inca trail spots sell out months in advance and we probably weren´t coming back to Peru any time soon this was a bit distressing. However, what we did not fully appreciate was the true power of modern day pharmaceuticals. Within 5 hours of popping the first Cipro pill, Nate was feeling very much improved and we decided to head out on our trek as planned. Besides, having shelled out quite a bit on traveler´s insurance we knew we were covered for emergency medical evacuations so what was the harm in trying?
Inca Trail: Day 1
The first day of the Inca Trail hike was actually quite relaxed. We met our team of 14 fellow back-packers along with an extended team of 21 porters and chefs who would did the real work of carrying food and tents and setting up camp every night. The rest of us only had only to manage with our small day packs and hiking gear. Our back-packing team included 3 Swedes, 3 Americans and 8 Australians and Brits. We thought we´d be the creepy old couple in a group of young college grads but actually we were pretty much in the middle in terms of age and only slightly above average in creepiness.
At the end of the day we retired to our tents and got some much needed sleep in peparation for our 1000 meter hike up Dead Woman´s pass the next day.
Inca Trail: Day 2 & 3
With Nate mostly recovered from the bout of alpaca induced sickness, we began the longest day of our hike full of energy and enthusiasm. Rather than trail at the back of the back, we found ourselves right up front following not far behind the much faster porters.... granted each porter was also carrying about 50 pounds of gear on his back but we will ignore that point for now. After a good 2-3 hours of hiking we made it to the highest point of the overall climb some 4,200 meters above sea level.
After enjoying a few brief moments of glory complementing ourselves on being the first ones to the top, we quickly got brought down a peg as we made our way back down the mountain. As it turns out, Sarena´s knees make her about as fast down a mountain as an 80 year old grandmother. In fact, there were two or three elderly women who got stuck behind us on the way down and gave us some irritated looks when they finally passed us on the few wider sections.
Aside from our overall gimpy decent, we did get to explore some pretty outstanding ruins along the way. Our guides gave us a good history for each of the core locations and its role in the overall Inca empire. Which sites were used for agriculture, which were temples and how the overall trail was used by Inca nobility to reach the Machupichu site.
Inca Trail: Day 4- Machu Picchu
We awoke on our final day at 3am so that we could be one of the first people in line for the site the next morning. When we first heard the wake up time we thought it was crazy. However after three days basically going to bed when it gets dark at 8, waking up at 3am wasn't so hard. After an hour and a half of hiking we made it to Machu Picchu and spent the next few hours exploring the ruins. While not the most impressive ruins ever (our favorite is probably still Tikal in Guatemala), the combination of ruins and mountaintop view of the surrounding valleys was pretty outstanding. As a final side adventure, we decided to hike up the adjacent peak of Wayna Picchu which we had purchased in advance. After hiking for 4 days we figured this last 1 hour climb would be cake. When we saw a line of elderly tourists coming back we scoffed a bit when they made a few side comments about it being a bit rough. Our previous run in with the speedy grannies should have made us more weary. While we made it through in one piece we are kind of shocked there weren't some big ass warning signs all over the place, especially given that a tourist fell to their death on the hike a few years back. There were many places on the hike where the Inca steps were so steep and narrow that it was closer to climbing a ladder than a stairwell. When we got to the top it started to pour rain so our hike back down had the added challenge of navigating stupidly steep stone steps that were now wonderfully slippery. Overall the experience was actually quite fun, kind of like doing a crazy wet obstacle course. However, given some of the more amply sized individuals we saw in line, we are guessing not everyone would have this same appreciation.
Once done with our hike we made our way to Agua Caliente, a cute town at the base of the mountain before catching a train to Olytaitambo on our way to our hotel Tambo del Inka in Urubamba. We chose the hotel so that we could explore the Sacred Valley, but who were we kidding? We ended up taking really long showers and sleeping in. It was glorious.
Taking really long showers and sleeping in sounds like my description of a typical weekend. Alpaca steak sounds pretty gamey, but I would imagine it tastes like goat. Mmm goat.
ReplyDelete