Macchu Picchu and The Inca Trail

Macchu Picchu and The Inca Trail

There really isn't much to say about the hike other than to say it was pretty darn challenging, the second day especially. On that day, you hike from 3000 meters to 4200 meters of elevation in a few hours, and then back down 700 meters on the other side. Competition and popularity has significantly over-increased the standards of the trail tours. We had a table, tent, and chairs set up at every snack stop and camp site. All the equipment they brought for us took a total of 7 people to support our 5 person tour. Some tour groups had 2 porters for every hiker, but those were the companies that carried your backpack for you and carried a Port-a-John so you didn't have to use the icky public toilets on the trail (which were actually nicer than almost every other toilet we saw in Peru, wusses!) 4 days of hiking brought us to Machu Picchu. We were greeted by hundreds of other people who took the 4 hour train ride and the bus up the mountain, It was packed. And this day was lighter than usual because protests in Cuzco only allowed empty trains to leave the city to pick up the remaining people in Aguas Calientes. The crowds didn't really distract from the awe of Machu Picchu, though. Our guide tookw us around the site and then we had a few hours on our own. Ellie and I climbed to the top of Wayna Picchu, the big peak right beside the site. It was almost like climbing a ladder for many parts, and after 4 days of difficult hiking, we were struggling to make it up. We finally made it to the ruins a t the top and began our hunt for a geocache stashed somewhere near the ruins. We also encountered a very domesticated beggar bird that would get right up next to you hoping you had some chicharonnes. We made the journey back down and found the others. We opted not to take the extortionate bus to Aguas Calientes and hiked all the way down the mountain. We had a bit more excitement trying to get on the train. They sent all the trains out at the same time and it was madness trying to get on one. Tourists were screaming and pushing and fighting because the seat assignments were invalid. They misjudged the amount of people with tickets and had to seat many people on the floor of the trains. This wouldn't have been a big deal for the backpacker trains but our company put us in the deluxe class and people were quite fussy at the beginning. After we started moving, everyone relaxed and it was actually a pretty pleasant journey. The train couldn't go all the way to Cuzco, so we were picked up by the company in Ollantaytambo about 2.5 hours away from Cuzco. That was yet another dose of aggressive tourist madness, all the buses were crammed onto the tiny streets and all were fighting to get out onto the highway with their passengers. We had another day to tour Cuzco so we went to a museum and did some shopping. There was a bit of confusion the next day with our flight to Lima. They boarded us then unloaded us because of bad wind in Cuzco, for a while we were pretty concerned about missing our next days flights home, but after a few hours they rushed us back on the plane and off we went. We spent the day in Lima hunting for souvenirs and had a nice dinner and watched War of the Worlds at a seaside shopping area. Then we came home in the morning, long flights, long layovers, but we made it.

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