The Inca Trail, Part I

I can't believe I actually did it...I left my husband and son (for the first time) for nearly a week, flew to Cusco with my new dear friend, Mesha Smith, and the two of us spent four days hiking in the Andes Mountains! What an adventure we had. Let me see if I can unpack it a little to share...


Day 1: Cusco. We met at the airport at 4am to catch our 5:40 flight. Full of adrenaline, I couldn't sleep on the plane and instead watched the sunrise over cloudy skies with snow-capped mountains peaking above. We arrived to find the early morning temperature a chilly 40 degrees. A woman met us at the airport, took us to our hostal (Amaru II) in San Blas, and briefed us for the day's events. After sleeping for the morning, we walked around the city a bit before meeting our trail guide at the hostal, who gave us the low-down on the hike. Then we joined a big group to tour the city. After seeing the Cathedral, we visited the Dominican monestary that was built on top of the Incan Temple of the Sun - this is where Mesha started not feeling well, and the rest of the day was pretty miserable for her. We visited the ruins above the city, Sacsayhuaman, and when we returned in the evening, Mesha went to rest in the hostal, while I ran some errands - buying water purifying tablets, ponchos, snacks, and communicating with my family. When I returned to the hostal, Mesha still wasn't feeling well, so we went to bed early.


Day 2: The Hike Begins. We woke at 5am - to get our last hot shower for a few days, pack up our things, and enjoy a lovely breakfast before being collected by another guide around 6:30. (I gave Mesha a "magic pill" to help her feel better and sure enough, it did the trick - she did great throughout the trip. ) We boarded a charter bus, went around the city collecting more hikers from their hostals, and we were on our way for an hour and a half ride through the Sacred Valley. Again, I was so full of adrenaline, I couldn't rest - I was too captured by the lush green hills, mountains, and tiny adobe towns we were driving through. We stopped briefly in Ollantaytambo to buy our walking sticks and a snack before continuing on in the bus to kilometer 82. There, we passed through the checkpoint around 10:30 am, crossed the Urubamba River, and began our 9km trek for the day. It was perfectly clear and sunny as we followed the river, in the spring desert valley with tall rocky mountains on either side. Mesha is from New Mexico and said it reminded her of home. Throughout our trip, our guide, Elisabeth, was wonderful at explaining the Quechua culture, the history of the Incas, and the wildlife we were amongst. We enjoyed a "tuna" snack, which is the round fruit of the cactus - very sweet and juicy. Our porters had raced ahead of us as we were taking in the landscape and tour explanations, and had lunch waiting for us - asparagus soup and a tasty red meat with rice and french fries, all enjoyed in the comfort of our own dinner tent with covered table, stools, and place settings! We were all surprised by such treatment! This is where we started to get to know our group a little better. There were 13 of us; five from Argentina, four from the Netherlands, one from Switzerland, one from England, and us, the two American-Peruvian girls. Now, I can't imagine doing the trip without them. We just had so much fun together, learning each others' cultures, languages, and accents. After lunch, we continued our hike and saw a few Inca ruins before arriving to camp, again all set-up for us before we got there. We enjoyed "coffee hour," with tea, hot chocolate, popcorn, and cookies and just hung out together as we waited for dinner which was vegetable soup and aji de gallina - my favorite Peruvian dish! Dinner was followed by our briefing for the next day - the hardest day. We went to bed early under the star-studded sky, all snuggled up in our tents.