PERU: The first few days...

I don't even know where to begin with this one! It was such an amazing trip and we saw so much!
We left for Peru on Friday at woke up at 3:30am to make our 6am flight. It was rough. Once we arrived in Cucso we immediately knew we were in a different place. It's so funny to see how different the countries in South America can be. They are pretty close in distance, but so different. One of the best things was that the people of Peru speak MUCH better Spanish so we could understand people!!! I've gotten pretty good at understanding Chilean Spanish, but it honestly just felt so good to not feel like an idiot and to be able to easily understand things. This is because they speak much slower than Chileans and say complete words.

So we arrived on Friday and had the weekend to see a bit of Cusco and get adjusted to the altitude, which I was definitely feeling on the first day. We were all a little weak and wobbly, but after having quite a few cups of cocoa tea and just taking it slow we started to adjust.

On Saturday we took a tour of the Sacred Valley and it was amazing. A little background on Cusco.... it was the Capital of the Incan Empire and was taken over by the Spanish in the 1500's. It's an amazing city because there are gorgeous green mountains everywhere and Incan ruins all around the city and in the city as well. Then the Spanish came and while they destroyed a lot of things, they did keep some intact, but also brought a European feeling to the city with a lot of the plazas, tiny streets and churches.

The Sacred Valley consists of about 3 towns and lots of rich valleys and areas that were big on farming villages in Cusco. We saw some really amazing stuff and it was a perfect little warm-up for Machu Picchu.

Views of the valley from the craft markets at Pisac.

Jess, Me, Elisabeth and Allison overlooking the Sacred Valley.

Views from Incan ruins

Incan's were big farmers and there argicultural terraces everywhere.

Looking out from the ruins on to the town of Ollantaytambo

Playing in the ruins

On Sunday we spent the day exploring the city and resting before the big hike! We also had our pre-hike meeting where the group had everything wrong that we ordered and told us that our extra porter could only take 2 kilos more when we were planning on 7..... after a small panic we got everything worked out and were good to go!


We woke up at 3:00am to arrive at 4am for our group pick up spot and we were the first ones there ready to go! We took a bus ride to the starting point and had a great little buffet breakfast at this amazing open air restaurant (the first of many good meals on this trip). Then another hour on a bumpy bus and we were ready to start the Inca Trail at 8,923ft.

The first part was super easy, flat and nice with some shade. We had 15 people in our group, 2 guides and 9 of the 15 people were part of our group from Chile. That day were hiked 12 km. It was really easy up until we got to lunch. There was a small incline, but not bad at all. After a few hours we got to our lunch tent and it was amazing! Our group had 23 porters and they set up a huge tent for meals with tables and chairs. We were all just expecting something simple and then they brought out this:

Appetizer: guacamole and chips
Drinks: juice, water and tea
1st course: Quinoa soup
2nd course: A buffet of rice, veggies, chicken in some sauce

It was insane! We knew we had picked a good company, but we were not expecting this kind of service and food! It was insane and got better and better every meal. We also knew then that we would not be loosing any weight on this treking adventure!

4am ready to go!

Our group at the start of the trail.

The nice flat part of the trail that did not last for very long.

So after lunch we were off again and this time it was uphill to our campsite. That was when I realized a) I should have worked out before this trip and b) all of that acclaimating I did in Colorado to higher altitudes did not stick with me. It was getting harder to go uphill especially with our giant packs. We made it in pretty good timing and arrived at our campsite for the night (at 9,8452 ft) with our tents all set up and an annoucement that happy hour would be in 20 minutes. (this was just popcorn and cookies, no drinks)

I also realized that day that my crazy sister had worn off on me (she has a fear of not having enough water) because I was told that I would probably only need a liter off water for the whole day, but I knew better. I filled up my 3 liter camelbak in the morning and then again at lunch..... in total that day I think I drink about 4.5 liters of water.

After another amazing meal we were in bed by 8:30 and praying it wouldn't rain tomorrow because we were waking up at 4am to start the hardest day.

Sitting down for dinner on the first night.

Views from the tent

Me, Bri and Jess at our campsite on the first night

DAY 2: "The difficult day"

We woke up bright and early the next day, slightly rested (it was freezing and the sleeping mats did not help much), and ready to go after a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs and fruit salad! On day two we were going for 16km in total and reaching 13,779ft at Dead Woman's Pass (great name right?) before lunch. This was known as the toughest day, and it definitely was, but it wasn't horrible! The first part of the day was steep and very hard especially first thing in the morning. I was definitely not in the front of the group.....

Then at half way point we had a snack and got ready for the last 2 hours to the pass. It was actually less steep, but so much harder to breathe because of the high altitude, but....................
WE MADE IT! It was worth it, the views were amazing.
To celebrate lots of jumping photos were taken....

Views from the top of Dead Woman's Pass

Celebratory high 5 with Tia Bri!

Jumping pic at Dead Woman's Pass with all of the girls

The whole VE gang at the top

After a nice rest at the top we head down for 2 hours (on original Incan stairs) to get to our lunch spot for the day. It was a nice change of pace, but it was a little hard on the knees. Little did I know this was nothing compared to "the day of 3,000 stairs". It was also our first encounter with the rain (we went a week before the closed for rainy season so this was to be expected), which meant it was time to bust out the ponchos!

Jess, Elisabeth, Allison and I in our sweet ponchos

We were also getting a bit tired and silly..... and then we realized we looked like turtles in our packs and ponchos and thus came the need for this gem of a photo....


"The hunch back of Machu Pichhu"

At the bottom of the steps we had a quick lunch and then it was back uphill for another 2 hours to some ruins and our next campsite. We really did have an amazing guide who was so nice and knowlegable of everything in the area so we definitely had an hour or two of Incan education everyday, which really made us appreciate everything even more.

Incan Ruins

Jess, Elisabeth and I

Allison and I leaving the ruins

It was here that we also entered the "Cloud Jungle" and we were basically surrounded by clouds that kept coming and going and sometimes we were so high up that we were in low hanging clouds. It was just cool..... a cloud jungle. Doesn't that sound cool?

Anyway, a short hike from the ruins and we were at our campsite for another amazing meal and a cake!! They baked a cake in the mountains without energry...... over a fire.... and it was pretty good. It was a birthday cake for our friend Sebastian who turned 19 on the first day of the trek!

Once again we were in bed by 8:30pm. This time we were a lot higher up and since I was freezing the night before I literally wore every piece of clean clothing I had to bed and all of my jackets and two hats. I was not cold that night, but I surprisingly wasn't hot either!

We were half way there! It was so amazing so far and our excitement for the big ending with Machu Picchu was getting bigger everyday!