Inca Trail Day 2 - Dead Woman's Pass - The HARD Day

We were told up front that day 2 was the hardest day of the trail. We would climb about 1,200 meters  (close to 4,000 ft) in approximately 6 hours, then descend for 2 hours straight. I knew the elevation was no joke, but I was mostly worried about the steps and how my legs would take it. 6 hours of up = a lot of uneven steps! Since I struggled with the "easy" day, Josh ended up carrying a good 5 lbs or so of my stuff. So sweet!

Getting ready to head out for day 2 bright and early!

 We were rewarded with amazing views early on!

 We saw horses grazing

 The sun was coming up strong, but it never got as hot as it did on day 1!

 Porters on their playground. They took those steps like they were nothing! These guys were absolutely insane. They're ninja angels that carry the tents and all the supplies our chef needed to cook us amazing meals. These are not actually our porters, they belong to another group. Ours had bright yellow pack covers. At any rate, they're all amazing, VERY hardworking people! I made sure the company we chose treated their porters well (not all of them do!) and after having them with us for 4 days, I'm incredibly glad I did! 

The beginning of many...many...many steps. We were both feeling pretty crappy by this point. I couldn't seem to get enough water or oxygen. Even taking the tiniest of steps, I still couldn't catch my breath. We had a snack a little before this and we split a Clif bar. It was too heavy, so Josh was feeling bad from that and a horrible headache. Add in the not being able to breathe well thing and he felt pretty awful. 

A very welcome break.

 Slowly but surely, making our way up up up!

 Llama!

Taking in the views!

This is leading up to Dead Woman's Pass and those steps are killer! Quick break for a breather and a picture to celebrate coming up the steps behind us. 

 But not for too long, because there was still a lot of up to go!

 The end of up (for day 2 at least) is in sight!

Such a beautiful view! 

 We made it!!! The view was amazing, but we didn't stick around long to take many pictures. The pressure in our heads at this point was crazy. We did not feel very well and we were ready to descend!!! 

 Coca leaves! They really do work wonders for the effects of altitude sickness. I'm probably fine if I never taste them again, but I was very thankful for them on day 2! We chewed them constantly on the way up! I don't know how we would have made it through day 2 without coca leaves and Gu packs (these things are amazing for when you can't handle a heavy snack but you need some energy. We tried the Strawberry Banana (delish), Chocolate Outrage (delish - tastes like chocolate cake icing), Salted Caramel (delish), Jet Blackberry (meh) and Tri-Berry (meh). Dave tried the Vanilla Bean and he said it was delish. The concept sounds not so great - think GoGurt - but they were life savers.)

 Now we go down. AND we can breathe better already!

 And down some more. This actually wasn't too bad. Some people hate the down because it's tough on the knees. It was tough, but not as bad as I expected (I expected to have to sit and take LOTS of breaks. We only took 1 or 2). What hurt me the most at this point was my feet. I have good hiking boots, but these rocks are all uneven and jagged. After walking on them for hours and hours, it really starts to get to your feet.

 Still more down. This is when my left knee actually did start to bother me. My big toes were also killing me by this point. They ended up feeling numb by the end of the last day and they still haven't permanently recovered.

This is our view from our tent on night 2. I didn't realize the background was washed out at this point. It's unfortunate, because there's a whole mountain back there. 

We got to camp relatively early and had a late lunch. I'm very grateful it was planned this way, because I don't know if I could have finished if I had eaten a full lunch on the trail that day.

I skipped the pre-dinner nap on night 2. I wanted to make sure I got a good sleep in. There was a shower at this camp site, but it was FRIGID. I was still thankful for it though! After a long day of hiking and sweating, even a freezing cold shower is better than a Wet Ones shower. After showering, we had tea, crackers and popcorn. I was already hungry again even after having a late lunch, so I was thankful for this. Josh was still feeling awful, so he didn't eat much. 

After our tea time, we unpacked our sleeping bags and got all set up for the night. We took out our things for the morning so we could get ready quickly and went to eat dinner. Josh was still not feeling well, so he only ate a little bit (I'm not used to him only eating a little bit and I knew he hadn't eaten much all day, so I was a little worried. We had the longest day of all ahead of us and I really wanted him to have enough energy!) We went to bed pretty much right after dinner. This camp site didn't have dogs around and I could hear running water from the stream, so I thought I was going to sleep like a champ! Nope, I sure didn't. This is what happened instead...

We were on a bit of a slope and I kept sliding down. I would wake up and my feet would be touching the bottom of the tent, so I would scoot back up...that happened a bunch of times. I also kept hearing it rain. I was really hoping it wouldn't rain on us all day on day 3, but every time I woke up, it sounded like it was raining harder. I also thought about the lock that was on our suitcase back at the hostel. What did I do with the key?!? If we can't find the key, we can't shower when we get back because that's where our toiletries are! That's where our laptop is and if we can't access our laptop, we can't check into our flight! Our cell phones are in there! If we don't have them, we can't call John and let him know we've landed and he can come pick us up! We could always break the lock, but we don't have a sledge hammer! 

Yes, these are the things that are going through my mind when I've been hiking all day and I REALLY need to sleep because I have to get up in a few hours and hike all day tomorrow. Sidenote - I did bring Melatonin to help me sleep in case something like this happened, but you're supposed to avoid sleep aids if you're experiencing altitude sickness and I still wasn't feeling great, so I decided that wasn't a good idea.

Inca Trail - Day 1 - Inca Flat - The "Easy" Day

When we first started planning our South America trip nearly 2 years ago, the Inca Trail was something we might do during our 3ish weeks in Ecuador and Peru. At some point, it turned in to the one thing we HAD to do. Eventually, it was the primary focus of our trip. We planned the dates of our trip around what dates we could get passes on the Inca Trail. After buying our house, moving and Josh switching jobs, we cut the length of the trip in half and only went to Peru. Turns out, that was about the perfect length for the trip. We missed Bailey and we were very ready to sleep in our own very comfy bed after 3 nights of camping in the Andes!

So, on to the action. Our tour group was Peru Treks and they were amazing! On the first day of the trail, we were picked up from our hostel at about 4:30am. Ronald walked from the main square to our hostel and walked with us back to the main square to meet our bus. We took the bus to a small town near Machu Picchu to stop for breakfast and to pick up anything anyone may have forgotten. This was a quick stop, then we made our way to the starting point. 

 It's getting real! Hubby adjusting my straps for me. 

Views are amazing already!

 Donkey photo-op!

 Our Peru Treks family!

Passports are stamped...it's go time!

We were told by our guides, Edwin and Ronald, that day 1 was the easy day. The "flat" day. There is no such thing as flat on the Inca Trail. We learned quickly that Inca Flat more along the lines of what we would consider the foothills of the mountains in NC. 

What's he looking at?!?

 SO beautiful!

 Dave & Theresa

 Cactus flowers!
For the first day and a half of the trail, there are families who actually live there. I couldn't help but wonder how it must be to grow up on the Inca Trail!

 We saw a lady herding her goats up the mountain

 Kids playing at our first break.

 Taking a very welcome break. I was much more tired at this point than I thought I would be.

 Any time I got tired and questioned why we were doing this, there were views like this to remind me!

 Some of the first remains we saw. Our guide, Edwin, made sure we understood the difference between remains and ruins. We saw all remains. They are not ruins because they were not destroyed...the Spanish never found these places.

SO pretty!

After lunch...I was tired, I was lightheaded and I was definitely questioning how I was going to finish the trail if day 1 was the easy day. I was NOT where I wanted to be mentally, that's for sure! Luckily, I have an amazing husband who is my rock. He kept me motivated for sure!

"Home" on our first night.

So, summary of day 1. It was hot. Sunny. Dry. All of the above. It is not easy, it's just easier than the other days (except the last). I am used to flat land. Where I live, the elevation is 434 ft above sea level. That is NOTHING compared to what we were experiencing here. I am used to humidity and lots of it. No matter how much I drank on the entire trail, I was thirsty. I drank a full 3L of water (in addition to the tea I had at lunch, breakfast and dinner) on day 1 and I still did not feel quite hydrated enough.


It was dusty. Look at how dirty my legs were from all the dust!


Another lesson I learned. Just because North American bugs don't care about your blood, doesn't mean South American bugs won't care for it. I used 30% deet insect repellent and I still had lots of bites. This particular bite didn't itch or hurt...not for several days at least.

After getting cleaned up and changed, I only meant to lay down for a few minutes, but I ended up taking a nap before dinner. Dinner was delicious by the way! All our meals were great! We had several different types of soups for lunch and dinner each day and they were all great! I don't remember what we had specifically each day now, but we had causas, mushroom ceviche, quinoa, fish, meat rolls, chaufa, SO much good food! After dinner, I was ready to crash early. We were getting up before 6 and day 2 is the hardest day, so I wanted to rest well!

So much for that. We saw so many dogs throughout the day. They were all so nice, quiet and well behaved when we saw them. They barked all night...

Off to the Andes!

Early Monday afternoon, we made our way to Cusco. We had to be there 2 days before departing for the Inca Trail to pay our trek deposit and to start acclimating to the altitude. The flight was short and sweet. Our "snack" on the flight was actually a little ham sandwich and a muffin. Much more than I'm used to for such a short flight! 

Our first views of the Andes! Absolutely stunning!

On the way in to Cusco, Josh and I each took a Sorojchi pill to help with altitude sickness...just in case. I had read a lot about what to do. Don't work yourself too much, hydrate, no coffee or alcohol, etc. We got checked into our hotel and went to pay for our Inca Trail balance. We walked because it wasn't very far and it just made sense. We had a short information session where we were told mostly stuff I had already read online. What we should pack, etc. This was the first time we had been given the details of each day. Roughly how far we would hike, where our camp sites would be, etc.

By the time we finished up, we were starving, so Josh took us to a place he had found. It was a nicer place with a tapas-like menu.

This was our appetizer. Mini causas. They were topped with trout, shrimp, octopus and cuy (guinea pig). They were all very tasty. 

 This was our first taste of alpaca! This was split between 3 of us, so we obviously didn't get much. It was all very delicious though! It had a texture similar to pork and beef combined and a similar flavor, but a little gamey.

 This was the other amazing ceviche we got! It's made with Red Snapper. This was Theresa's dinner, but she was nice enough to let us try it.

 Dave, Josh and I were still a little hungry, so we decided to snag some more food on the street. This lady was grilling kabobs of Alpaca, beef hearts and some other stuff that I don't even remember. I was only feeling a little adventurous, so I went for the alpaca. It was SO good! This was about a tenth of the price of the alpaca we had in the fancy restaurant. Don't worry, it's not that we spent THAT much in the restaurant, it's just that this was SO cheap. For less than 2 dollar menu items, I got a whole kabob of alpaca and half a potato. How awesome is that?!? Yea, I do miss Peru.

We were all feeling quite tired by this point, so we continued on to our hostel. We sat in the little courtyard and drank a cup of coca tea while we made plans for the following day. We retired pretty early. I think we were all quite tired and Josh and I had headaches.

Me with the hubs!

 Our hostel courtyard. It was a really nice place to hang out.

 Random sign we saw on a wall in our hostel.

When we checked in, I noticed that there was a sign for free earplugs. I thought, "Oh, that's nice!" when I should have thought, "Hmmm, I wonder why they're free?". Yea, it was loud. As tired as I was, I did not sleep well. The walls were very thin and we were on the same floor as the kitchen/bar. Needless to say, we heard people at all hours of the night.

We got up early to visit the plaza before it got crowded with so many people and for the guys to take some pictures. I could have kept sleeping, but I decided to get up an join. I did not feel well. I was tired, had a headache, had some vertigo going on. This is when I really realized that altitude sickness is real. I mean, I knew it was. I had read all about it. I just didn't think I would get it at all. I did and it sucked. We went from 5,080 ft. in Lima to 10,800 ft. in Cusco in a matter of like 2 hours. I wonder if we had taken the 18 hour bus ride and had a more gradual change in elevation, would we have had an easier time adjusting?

Yes - Altitude sickness, I know you are real now. 

 A rare - empty - view of Plaza de Armas. So nice and quiet!

 Another view.

I just love the columns and the stone on the walls!

This is a more typical view of the plaza, in terms of the crowd.

We went back to the room and napped for a bit, then we got up to go shopping at the market! 

Fresh fruit juice from the market! If I remember correctly, it was orange and passion fruit! YUM!

We got chicken noodle soup from the market for lunch and we shopped for some souvenirs. This is where I loaded up on some alpaca scarves and my awesome baby alpaca hat! I can't wait to rock it this winter, it's so warm! 

Our last night in Cusco, before we left for the trail, we decided we wanted to try Cuy. We looked online for a good place to try and we found KusiKuy. I'm not going to lie, while we were walking there, I was starting to question it. It was in a not so nice looking area quite far from the main square. We finally got to the corner it was supposed to be on and this was it. 

Nothing looked like a restaurant front. See the light shining up the steep steps? THAT is KusiKuy.

 AMAZING tamales at KusiKuy

Our roasted cuy (guinea pig) - he was quite tasty!

 After dinner, we made our way back to our room to get all packed up. We were getting picked up at 4:30 the next morning, so we had planned to get to bed before 9. That didn't happen. It was 11 before we got to bed...