Inca Trail, Peru, May 2008

After the Galapagos Islands and a quick stop in Quito, we headed to Lima, Peru. The capital of Peru bears no rain despite its coastal location. We visited a ruin site called 'Huaca Pucllanna' and took a city bus tour where we saw colonial architecture design throughout the city. An hour flight the next day took us to Cusco where many would board a train to Machu Picchu. As we got acclimatized to the high elevation, we tasted our first guinea pig.

Day 0 of our Inca hike happened to be my birthday. After visiting Pisac ruin, John and Menna surprised me with a traditional milk cake during lunch. We spent the night at Ollantaytambo where we walked around the village and handed out pens to the kids. They were very appreciative.

Day 1 - We woke up early to head to Km82 where we entered the checkpoint into the park and porters luggages are being weighed. Coca leaves chewing began. First day hike was rather easy and mostly flat. Ironically, just right before we arrived at campsite, someone was selling chica on the side. Of course we weren't going to miss that. We ended the night drinking beer sold by a little girl at the campsite.

Day 2 - It is a notorious tough day with an elevation change of 1100 meters upward and 350 meters downward with a 30% grade. The dead woman pass summit was steep to hike up to and cold and completely fogged in once we got there. Once we got to the top, we could not resist a good shot of Pisco to warm our soul. After about 2 hours of straight downhill, our knees were quite shocked and we could hardly walk to the toilet from the tent. Unlike the first night, this campsite is shared among all tour groups and therefore, it was quite crowded.

Day 3 - After a day of exhaustion, the last thing we wanted was hiking more uphill and we got more uphill to hike. : <>
When we paid our 5 soles to take that shower at the campsite, though the water wasn't really that hot nor abundant, it felt like a million dollar. That night, a rain storm came through, providing us a nice lullaby to sleep with.

Day 4 - We began the day at 3:45am as the first group to arrive at the checkpoint to start our 45 minutes hike to the sun gate. The feeling of being one of the first people arriving at the sun gate with a great view of Machu Picchu was surreal. It was a good time to reflect on the life of the Incas. The city is completely surrounded by much taller mountains, providing a perfect protection from invaders. Terraces of farming developed along the hillside. The buildings were seismically sound with boulders to hold down the rooftop. When we looked around from beautiful lawn of the city, we couldn't help but to imagine what life must have been like 500 years ago.