"Action Women"

For the past four days we have been out hiking in the wilderness of Peru on the Inca Trail. Although we are happy to be back to civilization, complete with hot showers and bathrooms with toilet paper (and toilets, for that matter), we had an amazing time. Unfortunately, immediately after our last post Jess started to get altitude sickness (or a parasite from the water) and could not eat anything the day prior to leaving for the trek and the 4 days hiking through the mountains. As you can imagine, it was quite a feat for Jess to complete the hike as it is a difficult trek regardless.

The first day we were picked up at our hostel and taken by bus to the start of the Inca Trail (about 2 hours from Cusco). We met our tour guide, Puma, and the rest of our group (termed our "family" by Puma), both of which turned out to be great company and a lot of laughs throughout the 4 days. The first day was the least demanding on the body, but it gave us an idea of what the following days would be like. We got our first glimpse of Inca ruins, which seemed pretty cool at the time, but was nothing compared to the sights we saw on the following days. The second day was really difficult (12km straight up a steep mountain) and a couple of times I thought that I would have to throw Jess on my back and carry her decrepit body up the hill. On this day our tour guide gave us our signature names, Jess being "Baby" and mine being "Amandita." It was also confirmed that we were "action women," whatever that means. Once we reached the highest point for the day (about 4,250m), Puma led us in this sort of ceremony to make wishes and sacrifices to mother earth and things of that sort. Although it was hard to be "spiritual" after climbing all day, it was interesting to take part in something that Puma clearly believed in with such vigor. We then descended for about 2 hours down the same steep hill in the opposite direction until we made it to camp for the night.

Amongst many other things, one of the craziest parts of the whole hike was watching the porters work. They literally carry everything that we would have needed throughout the 4 days and then some...tents, food, our clothes, pots, pans, a refrigerator (!), etc. Seeing that we moved as slow as molasses with only about 10lbs on our backs, it was truly amazing to see these 5 foot nothing guys sprint past you with about 40lbs worth of stuff on their backs. They always arrived at our lunch and camping spots hours before us. That meant that when we got there we were always greeted with a roaring applause and a gourmet meal (literally all 3 meals and our afternoon tea was probably some of the best food I have had since we left home...sorry Jess). One of the porters was 65 years old! Here is a picture of some of the guys running past us.

We were told the third day would be the most enjoyable and the fourth the most rewarding (the day we would descend on Machu Picchu). This was a pretty accurate description, as the terrain on the third day was a bit easier to hike and really beautiful. We ran through the jungle, stood on tops of mountains, walked through clouds...all things that cannot be described with words or captured fully with pictures. Luckily, that night we were able to pay 5 soles for a shower and felt somewhat clean for the first time since we left. This all became pointless the following day when we woke up at 3:45am to be the first ones at the gate of the trail to begin our final 2 hour hike to Machu Picchu. We were the second group to be allowed in and literally ran all the way there in order to be some of the first to get a glimpse of the site. The fog covered the view for most of the hike, but about a half hour before we were to arrive, the clouds cleared and, as corny as it sounds, we were all pretty stunned with the view. After walking around Machu Picchu for awhile, we had the option of hiking up yet another mountain to get a better view of the site from above. Reluctantly, I joined some others in this quest and dragged myself up the mountain (Jess was too sick). Forty-five minutes later we made it to the top and the view was crazy. Unlike the rest of the hiking we had done, I actually thought at some points that I was going to tumble off of a rock to my death (funny in retrospect, I suppose). If you check out our pictures, you can see that the top of the mountain consisted of a bunch of rocks on which we had to balance ourselves to get some pictures of Machu Picchu (the pictures don't do the place justice). It was so cool to sit high above the site and look at the mountains in the distance that we just spent 4 days climbing. It definitely made all the hard work worth it. In the picture below you can see the hill (or mountain, whatever..) that I climbed to get a better view. More pictures are in the "Our Photos" link.


As of right now we are back in Cusco and we are headed to Lima, yet again, tomorrow morning. We are spending a couple days there until we fly to Quito, Ecuador on friday. Hopefully Jess's illness can be accounted to the altitude and it will clear up once we get to lower ground in Lima....she is withering away to nothing!

Pictures should be up soon so check 'em out! Thanks for reading!