Inca Trail Day 4 - Machu Picchu

Day 4 started WAY early. We had to get up, get packed and finish breakfast in time for the porters to pack up and make it down to meet their early train. We also had to get in line to start the trail. Machu was gone when I came out of my tent, but he came back around as we were getting our stuff together to go. He wondered around and visited other people some. I assumed he would stick around the camp sites and wait for the next groups to come so he could get some tasty food. 

After finishing eating and packing, we went to the waiting point at the beginning of the trail. We had roughly an hour to wait. What do you do at this point - before 5am, on the side of a mountain, in the dark? Well, if you're with Dave, you have a dance party, of course! The dance party lead to the limbo with walking sticks, the limbo with walking sticks turned into one of our Peru Treks family members nearly falling off the mountain, but no worries, she caught herself with her arms! Way to go! At that point, everyone calmed down a bit and just waited. It was almost time to leave anyway.

We walked to the first checkpoint, where we saw our good buddy Machu again! 

 It's blurry, but we were saying goodbye to Machu

We hiked along for a bit.

 I love the mountains

 I would really like to retire somewhere with a view like this

We hiked until we got to a point where the climb was so steep, it was just easier to climb with your hands than use hiking poles. Guess who came along to join us for this part? Yep, it was Machu again! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this part. It was pretty cool!

Eventually, we made it to the Sun Gate

Our very first view of Machu Picchu!

 So much hard work paid off! We kept each other strong when we needed it most. Babe, I'm SO glad we were able to do this epic journey together!

Look who found us again!

 Peru Treks family! Say Sexy Llama!

 Continuing on to Machu Picchu

 Getting closer!

 So close!

 Dave and Theresa

 So amazing!

 These are what the stones looked like before they became part of Machu Picchu! It's so crazy that humans were able to start with this...

 and get to this, without modern technology!

 My person! :-D

Leaving Machu Picchu 

We left to go meet our group in Aguas Calientes for lunch. We presented our guides with our tip and thanks and we got some great news that one of our couples had gotten engaged earlier that day! Congrats Morten and Sandra!!! (top right in picture below). We enjoyed a much deserved beer and pisco sour as well!

Last time all together as a family!!! We truly had an amazing group of people! We had people from all over the world and I really enjoyed hearing about their stories during our journey together! I wish you all the very best and I hope our paths cross again someday!

After lunch, we were able to leave our bags at the restaurant while we explored Aguas Calientes for a couple hours. 

We found a bar that had a great happy hour special on Pisco Sours. After we ordered a round, we realized why they were so cheap and we left. Next, we found a place that served a good selection of craft beers, so we went there and people watched.

And we saw this!

We went on to the train station and waited for our train while we got some food. Guess who we found again?!?

Saying goodbye to Machu...for real this time!

We took the train (I think an hour and a half or so), then took a bus for a few hours to get back to Cusco. 

Funny story now, but definitely not at the time - I don't usually sleep well in vehicles, but I was finally starting to fall asleep on the bus ride, when our daypack fell out of the overhead compartment, straight onto my head! It wouldn't have been so bad the camera hadn't been in it. That HURT! It hit me hard enough to put a little gash in the side of my head. I was able to get the bleeding to stop without too much trouble, but it was no fun.

FINALLY, we made it back to our hostel. It took us a while to get checked in again (we were just here a few days ago, do you really need to make ANOTHER copy of my passport and have me fill out the same exact paper I just completed?) and get our bags. We get  up to our room and start to get our stuff out to get showers when Dave knocks on our door. They said they have cancelled his reservation since he "missed" his checkin time. Josh made our reservations together - our checkin  time was 11:00pm - it was 10:45pm. Luckily, I thought to print all of this information out and Josh was able to take it downstairs and get it taken care of. I finally make it to the shower and start my first HOT shower since Tuesday night. The water goes out just after I wet my hair (at least I've washed my stinky feet at this point). I try the other faucets and other showers - nothing. I'm livid at this point. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm dirty. All I want to do is take a hot shower, get a quick bite to eat and SLEEP. Josh went downstairs to check and the water is off in the whole building. I take yet another Wet Ones shower and get dressed so we can go find some food. At this point, it's after midnight, so that's easier said than done. We finally find a place and get some food. It was nothing to write home about, but it was food. Josh was feeling horrible (he gets car sick pretty easy and even Dramamine can only do so much on the swaying train ride we had), so we made our way back to our hostel. We find out the water is still not working. We contemplated leaving and trying to find another place to stay for the night, but we weren't sure how far the water issue went and we were both just too exhausted to deal with finding a room after 1:00am. We cleaned up the best we could and just crashed. We didn't sleep great. There were fireworks at all hours of the night and into the morning, even after daylight. So weird and very unwelcome when I was trying to sleep. Turns out there was some type of parade and festival the next day. 

Inca Trail Day 3 - It's the Journey, NOT the Destination - The Most Beautiful Day

Before we even started the trail, our guide, Edwin reminded us that the trial is very difficult. We could have opted to take a train to visit Machu Picchu. We could have done a 2 day hike to get to Machu Picchu. At any rate, we didn't HAVE to hike 4 days to get to Machu Picchu, we chose to. He told us when it gets hard, to remember it's journey, not the destination. He is SO right. Machu Picchu is amazing and it would have still been enjoyable even if we had taken the train, but I'm really glad we didn't! Day 3 was absolutely beautiful! We saw several remains and walked through jungle. We got an amazing view of the Sacred Valley. It is SO different from the dessert looking areas we walked through on day 1 and the crazy ascent we had on day 2. Unfortunately, we don't have as many pictures from day 3 as I would like. It rained on us for quite a bit and it even haled a little. Luckily, we bought good rain jackets before the trip and we each had a rain fly for our backpack, so nothing got wet.

We woke up early, got packed up and had breakfast. Josh was still feeling pretty awful. Bad headache, nauseous and no appetite. One of our friends we made on our trip wasn't feeling well either, and he mentioned hiring a porter on this day to take some of his things. Josh and I decided to split it with him. Even though we brought our own, lightweight sleeping bags and pads, the weight and bulk still adds up, so this definitely helped us with day 3!

Day 3 is the longest day. We did about 9 hours of hiking and there were a LOT of stairs, but it was up and down, not ALL up then ALL down. Either way, I was concerned with how my knee would do since it was still sore from the day before, so I borrowed a knee brace from Dave. Between the brace and an Ibuprofen, I was fine. There was a big of Inca Flat as well, so it wasn't nearly as hard as day 2!

 We were pretty much in the clouds. Crazy!

 The first remains we saw for the day

 Cloud forest!

 The climb here was much more gradual than what we had on day 2, but those stones were SO uneven. They make the bricks on NC State's campus look completely level, for sure!

 Remains at a distance

 Different remains

 Exploring

 Entering the jungle!

 These are our friends from Texas - Mariam and Adnan.

Hubby and I, just before walking through our second tunnel of the day! So cool!

Glad I'm not scared of heights!

Sacred Valley - this picture will never do this view justice. I was ready to stop here. :-)

 Step steps - but SO close to camp!

 Those are the steps we just came down!

 Dave is scared of heights - this wasn't his favorite part of the trail, but he did great!

 I wish I could have this view every day. Even though my legs are much more comfortable right now and I enjoy breathing lots of oxygen - I miss this.

These are the remains with the steep steps once we got closer to our camp site.

We mosied around and took lots of pictures, so we got to camp a little late. Our sleeping bags were waiting for us when we got there, so we set up for bedtime and got everything packed that we possibly could. Then we got ready for dinner. This was our last night, so all of our porters came in after dinner. We thanked them, our cook and our waiter and we presented them with our tip and our thanks. Our chef made us a cake along with dinner this night! Yay!

We also had a dog friend join us for dinner. We thought he was just hanging around for food (we had a cat hang around for food a few nights before, but if you know me, you know I wasn't nearly as excited as I was for the dog). The dog ended up sticking around. He wanted to come sleep in our tents, but we didn't let him. He spent a portion of the night sleeping between our tent and Dave and Theresa's tent. I decided if he was going to hang out past dinner and sleep by us, we should name him. :-) I chose Machu. I didn't realize how fitting the name would be!

We had to get up at 3:30 the next morning, so I needed to fall asleep ASAP. Even though I was anxious, it didn't take too long once things got quiet. This was actually the best night of sleep I got on the trail. Once I fell asleep, I didn't wake up again until I started hearing people move around, probably a little before 3:00. Woohoo!

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.