Inca Trail Day 1: The Warmup day

When Brad and I first tossed around the idea of our next vacation we had talked about Spain or England/Paris, but Brexit had just happened and then it seemed Paris was getting hit with lots of terrorist attacks, so we thought maybe we'd skip Europe.  After seeing pictures of Machu Picchu from when Brad and his parents went after his mission, I had always wanted Brad to take me there someday.  So when I brought it up with Brad I asked him, "what was something you wanted to do on your mission, but couldn't."  He said he wanted to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  I didn't know you could hike to Machu Picchu.  I thought you just took a train like he did with his parents.

While there are now different treks to take (I was leaning towards a 2-day hike, but Brad wanted to do the classic Inca Trail, which is 4 days), the Inca Trail is by far the most famous.  It is the most famous trek in South America and is rated to be in the top 5 treks in the world! The Inca Trail is the path that the Incan's took to get to Machu Picchu from neighboring villages and much of the trail consists of original Incan construction.  It is 26 miles of beautiful mountain scenery, the lush cloud-forest, jungle, and of course the stunning mix of Inca paving stones, ruins, and rock tunnels.  All leading up to the final destination: Machu Picchu, the mysterious "Lost City of the Inca's."

I agreed, so we hurried and booked our tour before it got sold out.  It is required to have a guide on the Incan Trail so we went with a really highly rated group.  Typically you need to book your tour about 6 months in advance because it sells out quickly.  They only allow a certain number of people on the trail a day (500, but only 200 of those are the tourists the rest are guides and porters), so with a limited number of people you have to act quick.  We bought our tickets around Christmas time (5 months in advance) and the first date we asked for was already sold out, but that, fortunately, worked to our advantage because I later found out that we would have missed Tanner's preschool graduation.  With tickets bought our vacation was real!  So I started to research what we would need for our hike, and quickly learned how difficult this hike really is.

Everyone said that the hike was doable, just really hard.  So I started training.  I already was doing yoga and going on runs, but I started to do more weight training, as well as the stair climber at Brad's work because this hike has a lot of steps.  I had never done anything like this before (a 4day hike) and didn't know what to expect or how my body would take it, but I started to feel pretty good about it.  Then just a few days before our trip I read an article about someone who after the first day of their hike turned around because it was too difficult, and I got nervous.

Once we were in Peru, people who we met on our tours and the city and sacred valley tour guides who used to be guides on the Inca Trail, all told me I could do it.  So I started to feel better about it again. (I think I forgot to mention this but our city tour guide said he stopped doing the Inca Trail on his 300th!! time.  His knees couldn't take it anymore)

After our sacred valley tour, the night before we were to start the Inca Trail, we had an Inca Trail meeting with our group.  The meeting was to inform us of the hike, pick up our duffle bags to pack for the porters (had to meet a certain weight requirement), meet our group and our tour guide.  At the meeting, our tour guide did not mince words.  To me, he basically said that I was going to die during this hike.  Brad must have been at a completely different meeting then me because to him our guide said that this was going to be the greatest experience of his life and Brad was super excited whereas I was freaking out.

Here is the map of our hike.  The yellow line shows where we camped each night, and the green lines on the bottom show how long we hiked and how far.

May 1.  The day of our hike the bus picked us up at our hotel at 3:45 in the morning.  We rode the bus for 3 hours until we reached the start of the Inca Trail.  I think almost everyone slept the whole way there!

Here we are getting our bags weighed and ready to go.   

Here are the porters.  Porters carry all the tents, food, kitchen supplies, and one poor soul even carried our porta potty.  We were able to pack a duffle bag for them to carry as well.  This includes stuff that we'd need throughout the 4 days, but not necessarily on the trek.  Like our sleeping bag, bathroom toiletries, and our extra clothes.  These porters are amazing!

Before we officially started our hike they served us breakfast.

Our group. I was really hoping that we'd have a cool group, and we did!  Everyone was so awesome and most of us came from all over the USA, two girls from Australia, and a German.  Most of our group was young (in our 20's and 30's) and then 4 people in their 50's.

Trying to get a picture under the start of the Inca Trail sign, but the porters were already on the go!

Here they are getting their bags weighed (the Inca Trail officials are strict about how much the porters can carry)

Our guide Jose. Before we officially got started he had to give us the rules of the trail.

and yes, laugh at me all you want with my hat, but with my cancer history, you swallow your pride to be safe rather than sorry.

This is where they check your ticket and your passport before they'll let you in on the trail.

and we're off!

I was so surprised at all the animals along the trail!  I later found out that the reason for all the donkey's and horses was for the people in the villages. Yes, there were villages along the Inca Trail!  I was so surprised. We only saw the animals on just this first day.  The rest of our trek we only saw birds and butterflies.    

the train that takes everyone else to Machu Picchu.

a cemetery along the trail.

This little village we passed. 

While going through one village, the villagers would not let the porters go through.  They were protesting the fact that the villagers wanted jobs from these companies.  The villagers eventually let them in. Our guide said he had never seen anything like that before.

Cute little boys playing with poggs.  That game was big when I was in elementary and I think my mom still has our pogg collection.

Llactapata

We saw some beautiful historical sites.  Jose (our guide) made it a point that they were archeological sites and not ruins.  Not sure why, but if one of us would say ruins he would always correct us.

This site was discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1912 a short time after he discovered Machu Picchu (I'll talk more on him later), but didn't investigate the historical site thoroughly, and these were then rediscovered in 2003.  This place was an important rest stop on the way to Machu Picchu and was an astrological observatory and temple.

Just breathtaking!

Salkantay Glacier!  This is another popular trek to do.  Many people who were not able to get permits to hike the Inca Trail, do this hike as another option as it is not regulated like the Inca.

Resting for snack time

Horses on an island.  A strange beauty.

Patallaqta

An Incan agricultural complex.  So cool looking!

It was impossible to not stop frequently to take pictures of the beautiful scenery.  Really every turn was breathtaking.

Irrigation like this all throughout the trail.  So cool.

Lunch time!  Now this is the way to trek!  Have someone cook you all three meals, set up your tents and then take them down.  It was awesome.  Not to mention each meal was a 3 or 4-course meal!  We ate so well!  Each meal started with soup, it also had lots of meat, lots of different potatoes dishes.  Did you know that in Peru they have over 4,000 different types of potatoes? And then at dinner, we had dessert. Jose joked "you were thinking to loose weight on this trek?"

So up until this point, we were hiking on a trail to reach the original Inca trail.  This is why the path was just a dirt trail vs. an Incan trail.  This is also where it started to get harder.

Some random donkey just staring at us along the trail!

these bridges didn't look like they could carry us, but they did.  A little scary to walk across!

sunset.

Our campsite for the night.  We hiked 8.7 miles, about 6.5 hours, and 3300 meters above sea level.

I was surprised how cold it got so fast!  Really throughout the whole trek one minute your cold, then hot, then a little chilly.  I definitely know why they say to dress in layers! 

After dinner, everyone just went to bed and it was only 9 o'clock.   After waking up at 3 am, a long day of being on a bus, hiking, the hot sun, plus we needed a good nights sleep anyway because the next day was the dreaded day: the hard day.  This was the day that I was most worried about.  With a wake up at 5, and a 12 hour hike day.  Not to mention we were hiking over 2 passes.  It was going to be a long and tiring day.