Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Months ago, we decided that we had to see Machu Picchu, one of the Seven World Wonders, and began planning our trip to South America. We had no other set plans except to see this magical place in person and set the goal to plan the trip and to make it a reality.

This last weekend spent in the Andes Mountains was perfect in every way. Not only did we accomplish our goal, but we met some wonderful people along the way and learned more about the fascinating Incan culture. In total, the trip lasted four days and three nights.

Last Saturday, October 22nd, we headed out early from Cusco to head to the Inca Trail. Our tour company, SAS Travel, picked us up from our hostel around 5:00am and we set off on a bus with our group of 16. With our group were our two tour guides, Javier and Oscar. We had no idea what to expect, but were all excited to reach our destination, Machu Picchu.

The bus ride took approximately three and a half hours stopping for breakfast along the way. We arrived at Kilometer 82, the entrance to the Inca Trail, and registered with our passports and tickets at the first control gate. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were surrounded by the Andes Mountains, the perfect start to the trek!

Kilometer 82

The first day we hiked for approximately 10 hours, mostly uphill, to our first campsite. Being rainy season, we were all thankful for the beautiful weather and were in high spirits. We passed a few communities and said ¨Hola¨ to all the passing locals. The people who live in the Andes Mountains are allowed to use donkeys and horses to transport their goods so we saw many of them on the first day. That being said, you had to be very careful where you walked because the animals used the trail as their private bathroom too!

Javier was our main tour guide - he stopped along the way to teach us about the local plants, ruins, and communities. He was very passionate about ¨Pachamama¨ or ¨Mother Earth¨ and explained to us how the Incan´s lives were focused around Pachamama and was also the main source for their religion. We came across a cactus plant and Javier took some white parasites off of it. After squishing them in his hand, he showed us the dark red color that they produce. Incan´s and current Andean people use these parasites to dye their wool, for lipstick, and for many other purposes as well. He squished a few more and began spreading the dark red across our cheeks, our warrior paint for the first day! It was a bit strange smearing parasite guts across our faces, but at the same time a great experience because where else in the world would we do this?

Warrior Paint

Warrior Paint

 



















We continued on for about an hour to a beautiful Incan ruin site that sat at the base of a mountain and was mainly used for growing crops. There, we were able to take photos before sitting in a semi circle around Javier. Overlooking a huge valley, Javier gave us another Incan lesson about why they chose this location, what the site was used for, etc. It felt as if we were in the most surreal classrom ever in the Andes Mountains. After some hydrating, we got our packs on and started the uphill trek again.

Incan Ruins in the Valley Below

We stopped for lunch before continuing the trek - we had four more hours to go. We continued climbing and the trail began to change from a dry, dusty surrounding to a cloud forest feel. All of a sudden, there were lush plants and trees, rivers, and wildlife everywhere. Towards the end of the day, the thunder and clouds began rolling in and before we knew it, it was pouring rain! Luckily, we were within five minutes of our campsite and were able to get to our tents before becoming completely  soaked.

Whenever you arrive at a campsite, you are welcomed by the porters and your tent that has already been set up. We were assigned the tent O2 for the trip which was equipped with a rain fly and all! We quickly got settled in, changed out of our wet clothes and did our best to dry some things off. A porter brought us hot water to wash our faces, which felt great! Soon after, Javier started yelling, ¨Popcorn, cookies, tea!¨ so we quickly put our boots back on and went to the dining tent. Now, we´ve had a lot of popcorn in our lives but for some reason this was the BEST popcorn ever! Warm, salty and a bit buttery too. We all sat around the table eating popcorn and drinking warm tea while the heavy rain continued outside. 

Dinner was served at 7:00pm every night and all were delicious! A soup always came out first followed by some type of potatoe or rice, meat stew and many other local Peruvian dishes. We definitely did not go hungry during the trip; the Chef and the Porters did a great job preparing the meals in such difficult conditions.

That night, the rain let off before we went to bed. The next morning, we were woken up at 5:00am by Oscar saying, ¨Good morning, how are you feeling?¨, and were given some hot Coca Tea to help with the altitude. The second day is known to be the most difficult lasting ten hours and hiking two mountain passes - you are either going straight up or straight down the entire day.

Meeting Our Wonderful Porters on the 2nd Day

That morning was fairly foggy and cold as we climbed higher into the mountains. We had all heard about the difficult ¨Dead Woman´s Pass¨ and were anxious to get our first glimpse of it. After arriving at a rest area, Javier pointed up to show us where we were heading. A steep trail led you to the top of the pass before we would descend back into a valley. We loaded up on Snickers, took a deep breath, put our packs on, and started the ascent step by step to the top.

The climb up was difficult but do-able at a steady pace and we eventually made it to the top with an elevation of 13,781 ft. We all gathered for a group picture, before heading directly down the other side into the valley below.

Dead Woman´s Pass

We stopped for lunch at the bottom of the valley - at this spot, most groups usually camp but our guide suggested that we continue on for another four hours or so to make it to a campsite with greater views and to also shorten our trek for the third day. Unfortunately, at this point, our camera lens got jammed so we were unable to take anymore pictures for most of the afternoon. The rest of the day consisted of one more mountain pass, a beautiful mysterious ruin, and some jungle like trekking.

Arriving at our second campsite, I tossed the camera onto our backpacks dissapointed that it had jammed during our Inca Trail trip. To our surprise, that little bump to the camera opened up the lens so we were back in action taking pictures! That evening, we had some more popcorn, a great dinner and a celebratory drink, made with fruit and cinnamon infused tea, for finishing the most difficult day on the Inca Trail. Our guides told some great stories and we all had a fun evening together before heading to bed around 8:00pm.

On the third day, we woke up early again around 5:30am to our Coca Tea and great views of the snow capped mountains in the distance. The third day was only a half day of hiking, which we had all been looking forward to. We had a large breakfast, packed our packs and headed out to start the day. 

 Morning View from Our Second Campsite

That day we walked through the cloud forest and a few caves. All the hillsides were covered with lush plants, bamboo, and moss. The trail was mostly downhill on the original Inca Trail with extremely steep steps most of the way. At times, we felt that going up would have been easier than going down because it takes a lot more concentration and our legs were exhausted at that point. But, we took it one step at a time and slowly made our way down the mountain. The day was mostly overcast, which felt great while hiking. We passed through two Incan Ruins that day taking some time to explore each one. 

Arriving at our campsite around noon, the sun came out and we all were able to change into shorts and sandals. We got situated in our tents before eating another great lunch together. Nearby were some more ruins, which we decided to go check out. The ruins were perched on a hill overlooking a valley and the Urubamba River. We explored for about an hour before heading back to the campsite. Here, we were able to take showers for 5 Soles, which most of us took advantage of! The shower felt great followed by a nice siesta before waking for our final dinner on the Inca Trail. To our surprise, Ronald presented us with a homemade cake that they had been cooking all day. It was so impressive that they were able to make the cake in the mountains. We saved plenty to share with the Porters as well. 

Celebration Cake!

That night, we gathered with our 22 Porters and 2 Guides to give thanks to each other and to provide them with their well deserved tips. It was such a special night with speeches given in Spanish and the indigenous language of Quechua.

 The Whole Group

It was hard sleeping that night knowing that the next day we would be at Machu Picchu! However, the morning came soon enough at 3:30am. The early wake up was to ensure that we were one of the first groups at the control gates that open at 5:30am. We ate a quick breakfast, put our headlamps on, and started down the trail to the control gates where we waited for a little over one hour. 

  Ready for Machu Picchu!

After passing through the gates, the sun began to rise and we could see the perfectly blue skies and sun shining! We were so fortunate to have this great weather on the day of Machu Picchu. We climbed for approximately one hour through the Gringo Killer steps and up to the Sun Gate where we got our first glimpse of the breathtaking Machu Picchu.

We took many pictures before continuing the forty minute descent to Machu Picchu. In total, we were at the site for a little over four hours and were thankful to get there early before the swarm of other tourists arriving by buses. Javier gave us a two hour tour of the site which was so interesting - the Incan´s had a purpose for everything that they did, which always revolved around Pachamama. Machu Picchu is more amazing than words can describe so here´s a picture to sum up the day...

Machu Picchu

From Machu Picchu, we took the bus back to Aguas Calientes. After our last lunch together as a group and quite a few beers, we boarded our train back to Ollantaytambo before catching our bus back to Cusco. Those four days were absolutely perfect and we could not have asked for a better group, guides, or experience! Thank you to SAS Travel for making the trip so special for us.

We are now back in Cusco and will be here until tomorrow evening before catching a bus to Bolivia. We will most likely spend a few weeks in Bolivia before heading south to Argentina.

Also, to those who have asked  about commenting on the blog, we think that the problem has been fixed and the comments should be working now.

All the best!

 

Sacred Valley & Mark´s 25th Birthday!

When we first booked our Inca Trail tickets to Machu Picchu for October 22nd, we thought, is two weeks too long to be in the Cusco area? We have now been in Cusco for almost two weeks and know the answer...absolutely not! We are still surprised daily with new restaurants, markets, adventures, and the amazing people in both Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Who knows...we may be returning sooner  to the Sacred Valley than ever expected!

Over the last week, we have spent most of our time in the Sacred Valley which is located approximately 1 hour from Cusco. Last Tuesday, we decided to take a 1-day Sacred Valley tour with a local company, Peru Agency. It was a great preview to what would come and a beautiful day to spend walking around the ruins in Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. With the tour, we were able to learn more about the history of the towns and the ruins. The ruins are breathtaking and very impressive when you think about how they were made thousands of years ago. Plus, our tour guide, Raphael, was great! We went with a small group of 9 which was much less than the expected group of 25.  Mark and I enjoyed lunch solo at an Urubamba restaurant while the rest of the group was taken to a much nicer buffet...We still aren´t quite sure what happened there, but we were just thankful that they came back to get us! The tour took all day and was a wonderful way to get to know the Sacred Valley roads and to even see where we would be spending Mark´s Birthday.

 Entering the Sacred Valley

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in Cusco wandering the streets and preparing for our weekend trip to Urubamba and Ollantaytambo (Sacred Valley). We found the BEST wood-fired pizza at a restaurant called Pachapapa in the San Blas neighborhood. We also enjoyed some great carne empanadas and cold beer near the Plaza de Armas.  We even had a chance to try out the local drink, Pisco Sour while we played a few games of Spite and Malice. As you can tell, those two days were mostly focused around food, drinks, and cards, but they were relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time.

We woke up early Friday morning to start our trip to Urubamba to celebrate Mark´s 25th Birthday. We packed our backpacks up and headed to la Calle de Pavitos where you can catch vans easily to the Sacred Valley for only 10 soles.

Van ride to Urubamba

The van ride was fast and easy with a fun driver who blasted the local Peruvian music. He dropped us off right at the entrance to Willka Tika and from there we walked down a gravel road to the resort. We were so excited to be there and immediately were given herbal tea and veggie sandwiches. The sandwiches were delicious made with homemade bread and vegetables from the Willka Tika´s gardens. After lunch, they took us to our room which was absolutely beautiful with a king-sized bed, hot shower, and a cabin feel to it. Don´t get us wrong, we love our hostel but to be at the resort with hot showers and water pressure was definitely a nice change!

We spent the afternoon exploring the Chakra Gardens and reading books under the sun. The owner of Willka Tika spent years creating the gardens which all have special significance and ceremonial purposes as well. We felt like we were in the movie ¨The Secret Garden¨ because of all the gardens and hidden paths.

Dinner was served at 6:30pm in the main area; Mark and I headed there early to get a bottle of wine to celebrate his birthday. We found a great Malbec wine from Argentina, which we both really enjoyed. Dinner was three courses and included a quinoa curry soup, homemade pesto pasta with a fresh tomato sauce, garden salad and a cake dessert. A birthday dinner to remember!

Birthday Boy and his vino!

That evening, we were lucky enough to experience the Solar Baths that are heated throughout the day and fragranced by fresh herbs and flowers. It was such an amazing feeling to be in the Sacred Valley of Peru, under the stars, in a hot bath filled with flowers and herbs. Thank you again to Shari and Greg for such a wonderful evening!

The next day we set off to Ollantaytambo for the next two nights. We hailed down a small motor taxi who took us to the local bus station where we found a van who would take us to Ollantaytambo for 1.30 soles. The trip is only 25 minutes, but the van stops many times to cram in more people along the way! Without a map of Ollantaytambo, we had some difficulties finding our hostel but the locals were helpful and we finally made it to the family run hostel, Hospedaje de Portadas.

Motor Taxi to the Bus Station

We got settled into our room and walked out to the hostel´s courtyard. Immediately, the owner started to speak to us in Spanish asking if we wanted to hike the mountain across the street. We said, ¨Si!¨and before we knew it he was leading us across the street into someone´s yard where he pointed to a trail. The climb up was fairly steep and took us to the ruins that we had seen earlier that week during the Sacred Valley tour. From the top, we had a great view of the Ollantaytambo ruins and the city. Well worth the hike!

View from the hike - Ollantaytambo Ruins and the city

We had lunch at the Heart´s Cafe, which is a British owned non-profit cafe that gives all of their proceeds to the local Andean communities to help feed the children along with many other things. We ended up eating there three times for two reasons: the delicious food and the important cause! We got to know many of the volunteers there and hear their inspiring stories. Ollantaytambo has many great volunteer opportunities, which is reason to return in itself!

That evening, we watched a local volleyball game while enjoying dinner. Every night, the city sets up a volleyball court in the middle of the Plaza de Armas. There are designated teams that play, some even seemed to be sponsored by local companies. It´s a great way to bring the community together and everyone seems to be there from the small children to the elders. We spent quite a few hours watching the game, eating dinner and talking with the locals.

The next day, we set off to the Moray Ruins located almost 2 hours away via taxi. Our driver took us through some crazy gravel roads that headed straight up the mountains. His name was Enrique, and we practiced our Spanish with him throughout the day. We had a lot of questions for him about the area and he had a lot of questions for us about the States. The ruins were great and it was interesting to see how they farmed back then, but we would have to say that the highlight of the day was talking with Enrique. He even went out of his way to take us to a small town where they serve the best Chicha, corn beer. We went to a local woman´s house and she showed us how she prepares Chicha, dries corn, and where she raises the Guinea Pigs (Cuy). Two younger kids were there as well and we were able to learn their names, ages, and about their local school. Small things like that is what makes the trip so special!

 Moray Ruins

Ollantaytambo was a great city to walk around and to meet people from all walks of life. We met a nice young couple who sell the most amazing paintings, but unfortunately are a bit out of our price range this time around. They just appreciated us taking the time to look at their art and for spending time talking to them. We met a volunteer who is from Woodinville, WA while eating breakfast at the Heart´s Cafe - such a small world! Overall, our weekend to the Sacred Valley was spectacular and Mark´s Birthday was perfect.

We are back in Cusco until we leave for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu on Saturday. We are looking forward to the hike and planning our next adventure!

Cusco, Peru

It´s been a few days since we last updated the blog so we will try our best to catch you all up on what we´ve been up to since leaving Lima.

We left Lima on October 5th around 5:30pm on the Cruz del Sur bus headed to Cusco. The bus was everything that we had hoped for - comfy recliners, great TV´s and pretty tasty food! We watched a few movies and had dinner before trying to fall asleep that night. Sleeping was a bit difficult due to the absolutely crazy driving of the bus driver; we were swerving around corners and lights kept flashing warning us that he was going way above the speed limit. Needless to say, it was not a very restful night. We woke up bright and early stopped on the highway in the middle of the Andes. Looking out the window, we noticed one of our rear tires was laying on the road surrounded by the crew. Unfortunately, at this point we were feeling the altitude sickness setting in too. Eventually, we got back on the road and drove for another 3 hours or so before stopping in a small town, Abancay, in the middle of the Andes. At this point, they asked us all to get off the bus because a new bus was coming to get us. To our surprise, when we exited the bus we noticed that the back tire was completely missing! Apparently, they drove those 3 hours with a missing rear tire. We laughed a bit but then thought Holy Shit! That probably wasn´t the safest way to partially cross the Andes. But, the most important thing is that we made it safely to Cusco after 24 hours worth of bus rides.The Andes Mountains is a truly special area that we will forever remember.

Cusco has been absolutely amazing so far! We are staying at the Flying Dog Hostel which is located nearby the main square, Plaza de Armas. Our room is colorful and even has a balcony overlooking the street, Choquechaca. We´ve spent the last few days roaming the city checking out many plazas, markets and the nearby ruins, Saqsaywaman (pronounced Sexy Woman).

On our first evening here we were fairly exhausted so we got settled in and went to a nearby restaurant, Nuna Raymi. We had the set menu which consisted of an appetizer, entree and dessert. We both really enjoyed this Peruvian cuisine and it only cost us 16 soles each, not bad!

The second day here we ventured out to the Plaza de Armas which is very beautiful and surrounded by cathedrals and shops. We even found a huge market nearby that sold everything from bull frogs to coca leaves. Mark got yelled at by a Peruvian woman for taking a picture of the bull frogs; she even sent her son out to yell/bark at him! It was pretty funny, but we were also pretty freaked out.We apologized and ran away as fast as we could. Now we know, do not take pictures of bull frogs!

After the market, we stopped by a ancient cathedral in the Plaza. A nice man gave us a tour and we ended up getting an amazing view of the Plaza de Armas from there.

Dinner was spent at a restaurant on our street called Jack´s Cafe. Hot sandwiches and soups are their specialties and they were delicious! We even had leftovers for the next day which is always great when your on a budget.

We had a fairly relaxing day yesterday visiting the local Chocolate Museum and watching a colorful parade. This month is known for it´s celebration of dance, music, and art which we have been very lucky to experience! At a local market, we bought Alpaca sweaters (to stay warm) and journals.

We bought bracelets from this local woman and her baby Alpaca, Jessica.

Today has been one of the most memorable days as we climbed up to Saqsaywaman and to a lookout on top of one of the mountains. We were amazed by the ruins and spent a good amount of time up there exploring and taking pictures. Pictures to come!

All in all, Cusco has been absolutely great. The people have been more than friendly and you could easily spend weeks exploring the streets and nearby mountains. We are off now to grab a late lunch and then off to the Mushroom Pub with our new friends, Chris and Jackie. We hope all is well at home and will be sure to blog again soon!

We made it to Lima, Peru!

After two flights and a crazy car ride, we made it to Lima! We arrived at the airport around 10:25pm and made it to our hostel a bit after midnight. The hostel staff at Flying Dog greeted us and took us to our room where we managed to fall asleep despite of all the city noise. We woke up fairly well rested and took off downstairs to have breakfast at a nearby cafe. Nothing fancy, just some toast and one egg! But the coffee here is delicious like we remember it being in Europe. After breakfast, we decided to wander around the city for a bit making our way down to Larco Mar. The area has a beautiful view of the water and all of the amazing surrounding cliffs so we spent quite a bit of time down there taking in the view and walking through the shops/restaurants.

We made the executive decision to leave Lima a day early; the city is interesting but we are ready to be in the country near Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. We are heading out tomorrow evening for our 18 hour bus ride to Cusco via Cruz del Sur.

Now, we are off to find a local restaurant where we can enjoy some food and vino!