Inca Trail

Yes, we are still alive...can't believe it's been so long since I blogged, but since the Inca Trail adventure, we've been pretty busy and I haven't had much down time to get online and blog.  Anyway, we had a really great trekking experience, even though it was difficult at times.  The company we used was awesome & we stayed the night at their private camp at Km.82 the night before we started hiking and this really set the tone for the rest of the trip. 

It all began with a briefing at the Ecoinka office in Cusco the night before we left for the private camp.  We met our guide, and found out we were the only two people in our group (we signed up for a group rate), but that was okay with us.  Our guide, Richar, was very kind and informative, and spoke Quechua (local dialect, Inca language), Spanish, and English.  He was really cool and we ended up speaking Spanglish with him throughout the trek--very fun!

We were picked up from our hotel in Cusco, transported in a van to their private camp (about 2 hours from Cusco), and then were given tea and snacks as we were welcomed to the camp.  The camp has hot showers, a sauna, clean bathrooms, a kitchen, eating area, and a camping area (tents under reed-type coverings).  We didn't bring our towels though and since we were camping, it just didn't feel right taking a hot shower and going to the sauna, so we skipped those...

We were served a delicious dinner at camp that night and met our porters & and cook for the trek.  They were all very sweet and quick to serve us.  They served us a large and delicious breakfast the next morning (after bringing us hot tea to our tent in the morning).  We headed out shortly after, leaving the porters to organize the equipment.  We also paid for an extra porter to carry our things (1 porter for the both of us) and it was totally worth it!! 

Richar guided us along the trail and taught us about the Incas and the surrounding area.  He always checked in with us that everything was okay (pace, backpack weight, etc.).  I also had a bit of a head cold and he reminded us to take our time and checked in with me to make sure my breathing was fine--very caring!

Each day, bowls of hot water were brought to our tent to wash up a bit, and cups of hot tea too.  The meals were always so filling and excellent.  We were served breakfast, given a snack (piece of fruit, chocolate, granola bar) to take with us hiking, then served lunch after hiking, tea time (tea, coffee, crackers, cookies, sometimes popcorn) about 2 hours before dinner, then a big dinner at camp.  I can't say enough about how great and fresh the food was!  We were amazed at every meal.  Lunch & dinner usually consisted of a soup (with bread) and then a main dish.  It was almost surreal sitting in among the mountains in the middle of nowhere, eating at a table with dishes, silverware, and real food, not just camp food, made from our private chef.  Frank said he felt like an old explorer in Africa because we had our little dining tent set up for all our meals with a table and such.  This was really nice considering the long, hard days of hiking.

We usually didn't stay up too late since we got up early to hike, but one night we stayed up a little past dinner playing cards and telling stories with our guide.  It was a really neat experience.  He knows English, but still has some issues, so we talked a lot about languages and then shared our experience in Nicaragua with him.  I still had some pictures on my camera from Nicaragua and he was really excited to see those too.

On the last day, we woke up at 3:30am to get to the checkpoint to wait in line.  Not so much fun waiting in line for an hour, but everybody has to do it and if you want to make it to the Sun Gate to see the sunrise and see Machu Picchu not filled with thousands of people, it's totally worth it.  We still had a big breakfast that morning (french toast!) and made it to near the front of the line around 4:30am and waited for the gate to open at 5:30am.  

I somehow had a ton of energy and practically hit the trail running--I think it was adrenaline and the excitement of knowing that it was our last day of hiking and we would finally see Machu Picchu.  rank wasn't feeling too hot, but was still able to keep up--this was the first time on the trail that I was going faster than him.  

We hiked to the Sun Gate and the fogged cleared so we could see Machu Picchu from above--so gorgeous!  Of course we took tons of pictures, which will soon be appearing on the internet...  We finally got down to Machu Picchu around 8:30am and after a few minutes of rest, our guide gave us a very thorough tour of Machu Picchu (about 2 hours).  It was super cool to finally be there and see everything.  We walked around in amazement and took more pictures.  Unfortunately, there are a ton of stairs throughout the whole site.  Seriously Incas?!  ;)  

Our train wasn't leaving until the late afternoon, but we were so exhausted that we just decided to take the bus with our guide down to Aguas Calientes (where our bag was safely waiting for us in a restaurant with a connection to the company). He was just going to wait for us there while we had extra time to explore, but we were ready to just pass out. 

After getting down to Aguas Calientes, we strolled around a bit, but then decided to go hang out in the bus terminal since we didn't have anything else to do and didn't want to pay a million dollars (not really) at all the touristy restaurants.  We spent about 5 hour in the station, waiting for our train, but there was a nice long bench for us to stretch out on--Frank took a nap--and there were (free) clean bathrooms!  We played cards to kill time, and then finally got on our train, which was nicer than we expected, considering some of the other cheap trains that we saw and our tickets were included in our overall trek package.  Unfortunately though, our seats were not together.  Not sure how that happened, but that was kind of a bummer since the ride was 3 1/2 hours long...Oh well.

We got into Poroy, which is near Cusco--currently there is no station actually in Cusco--and we were picked up by our tour company and dropped off at our hotel.  Since we didn't get back til about 9:30pm, we pretty much went straight to bed.  I thought I would have wanted a shower after 4 days of sweaty mountain hiking, but sleep overruled that.  

Overall, it was an amazing experience and I was happy to use the company we chose (EcoInka/Aventours).  From the very beginning, the staff was very helpful with information about the trek, and we were able to pay securely though Paypal. 

One bummer: one of the sleeping pads we rented from the company wouldn't stay inflated (it had a few pinholes), but it didn't ruin our trip.  And, when I wrote to the company telling them about our awesome experience with the minor issue, they refunded me for the sleeping pad rental.  I was surprised that they just sent me a refund right away, but also impressed by their professionalism.

Anyway, we survived the Inca Trail!  It was one of the hardest things I've done, but I'm glad I did it.