Inka Trail, Peru

From Bogota we took a late flight into Lima and headed to our hostel towards the city center. I wouldn't recommend staying in this area.. it’s crowded, noisy, dirty. There was this lovely little park across from our hostel, but other than that, the historical district of Lima is one that you should avoid if you don't have a lot of time in this city. 

We went out for drinks one night in the Barronco area, which is about a 20 minute cab ride from our place. Pisco sours are very popular in Peru, we had several. This was taken at a very cool bar, The Ayahuasca bar, which is an old house filled with little rooms decorated in bohemian art and hallways lined with colorful bottles. 

This bar had the best passion fruit pisco sours. Delicious and deadly. 

I was exited to hear that Lima had beaches, but the excitement quickly turned to disgust when we hit up one of the beach’s in Barrano. It was the most crowded beach I’ve been too, the entire beach was PACKED! Entire families were camping out there for the day, beach blankets covered the sand, screaming kids ran everywhere (my nightmare).. I couldn’t see the water with all the umbrellas. 

As soon as we got back to the hostel, we called our airlines and moved our flight to Cusco so that we would leave the next morning. 

Off to Cuzco!

Cusco was a nice change from the crowded city. We stayed in the “tourist area”, near Plaza de Armes. Luckily, we found a couple great vegetarian restaurants. The Greenpoint restaurant was one of my favorite vegan restaurants that I’ve been too- the food is mind-blowing. We ate there at least 10 times. 

There was a chocolate museum with some amazing hot coco; homemade chocolate, milk, cayenne pepper, and honey. Delish.

We decided to explore the countryside a bit and took a side trip to Pisac, a tiny village an hour outside of Cusco. It had beautiful ruins and a nice artisanal market. 

Hiked around the outskirts of town, prepping for the Inka Trail. 

The coco leaf is everywhere in Peru. The plant has many different uses, but the most widely known is the alkaloid in the leaf that is used for cocaine. Mainly people either chew the leaf like tobacco or put it in tea. I personally get more of a buzz drinking a strong cup of coffee, but chewing coco leafs helped me deal with the altitude- especially when I was climbing. 

Coca powder is sold at almost every tourist shop. 

After a few days around the Cusco area, we headed to Ollyantantambo, another tiny town about 2 hours from Cusco. This was the starting point of the Inka trail. 

The countryside

We spent the afternoon hiking around several ruins, prepping our bodies for the 4 day Inka trek. High altitudes, low oxygen, uphill climbing … exited but nervous. 

"Oh hey Jazz!"

Cobblestone streets and tiny wooden doors... for tiny little Inkas. 

That night we went back to our hostel, curled up on the couch, and watched a good ole' American movie ... with gato sleeping on my lap. 

Day 1 of the Inka trail. We took a bus to the start of the trail, got our passports stamped, credentials checked, and we met our group. 

We chose Peru Treks, who has a very good reputation of being one of the best tour companies for the Inka trek. They are known to treat their porters fairly (porter mistreatment is unfortunately still common among certain tour companies). Also the food was really good, healthy, and delicious. Jasmine and I were among 16 trekkers, 19 porters, and 2 guides. 

We chose not to get a porter- we carried our bags the entire trek. Tough ladies. 

Day 1 was not to hard, a couple uphill climbs, but nothing too bad. After the 5 hour hike we set up camp. There were several farms that we passed along the way and stayed on the property of one of the farmers. 

Day 2 we were woken up at 5:30AM. “Buenos Dias senoritas!”, one the porters said to us as he handed us a hot cup of coca leaf tea. 

We had a giant breakfast and headed off to what was supposed to be the toughest day of the trek. 8 hours, all uphill. The mid-point would be the highest point of the mountain range- 14,000 feet. The hike up was really tough. There were points I had a hard time breathing from the altitude. Lots of yoga breaths. 

"Embrace the uphill"

We finally made it to camp around 4PM. After a huge dinner, we sat around and got to know our porters. Both hikers and porters went around and introduced themselves. Most of the porters were from towns around Cusco, between the ages of 20-30, and had at least 3 kids. The hikers were from all over the world; Sweden, Ireland, Argentina, England, Scotland, and the US. 

We went to bed around 7PM. Part of my sleeping bag got wet from the rain.. I slept about 2 hours. 

...but it was all worth it to wake up to this in the morning. 

Day 3 we were woken up again with hot coca tea. That day we hiked 10 hours- some uphill climbing but mostly it was “Inka flats” (steady up and down hills). The sunrise that morning was surreal. The morning dew made the trees sparkle as the sun was coming up over the mountains. Clouds were below us, it felt like we were on a different planet above the skies. Just surreal. 

Jazz and I were the 2nd group to arrive to base camp. Lunch above the clouds. 

We had our last dinner together and got to bed early. 

Day 4 we woke up at 3:30AM and headed to Machu Picchu, only a 3 hour hike. 

"Almost there, we made it!"

Passing a few ruins on the way

"Step aside llama" 

We finally arrived to Machu Picchu, the visibility was bad and there were already hoards of tourists pouring into the gates. 

The next day we climbed Huayna Picchu, the mountain pictured below. 

The groups of tourists really took away from the experience of Machu Picchu. Especially coming off of an amazing 4 day trek through gorgeous mountain ranges. Being alone in nature (at times it was just Jasmine and I hiking along the trail with no one in sight) and surrounding myself with pure beauty was something I enjoyed most about this experience. Machu Picchu was pretty, but I hated the fact that it was so exploited and populated with people. 

The journey was way better than the destination. 

We stayed the night in Aguas Clients, a tiny town just below Machu Picchu. It was extremely touristy and over-priced. The town is known for its hot springs, but I was told that they are not worth the visit. 

The next morning we hiked for a couple hours then took the train back to Ollytantambo, then a bus to Cusco. We ate at The Greenpoint again and drank an entire box of wine (yes, a box - we’re classy).

"The best views come after the hardest climbs". 

Hiking the Inka Trail was an incredible journey.