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Published: December 14th 2008
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Photo 1
The whole gang in the beggining!!! So words will not do any of this hike justice but i'll do my best to give you a summary of the trip....
Day1...bright and early we met up and jumped on a bus for about 3 hours to the km82...where the trail starts. We had porters to carry our tents and food and supplies. I carried my back pack which weighed more or less 6-10lbs with my clothes and other personal items. This day we camped at about 3000meters above sea level and walked about 8.7miles. Our chef, Julio, was amazing. The food was sooooo good, I don't think I lost any weight even though I was walking so much!!! Our group was about 16people, a mix of people from the states, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. We had 2 guides as well, Eddy and Dal...well those are nicknames cause I have not a clue as to how to spell their real names haha. We had 22 porters carrying everything, I did my best with remembering their names but it was a struggle!!! All of them are indigenous and speak quechua some didn't speak spanish at all...but most of them speak both.
Day2...What many consider to be
Photo 2
some pretty flowers...they make hummingbirds drunk and humans sleep the hardest day....I had struggled a lot on day one...I think a mix of the altitude and extra weights and since I knew this day would be the hardest I hired a porter (Bellerio) to carry my pack. This day we hiked upto 4200meters to a place called dead womans pass. This day was only about 7.5miles because it was almost all uphill.....VERY up hill. At some points I was dragging myself up purely by my arms with my walking stick (thanks Uncle Larry and Aunt Krysten!) because my legs were so fatigued from the intense walking.
Day3...Another difficult day for it's length and over 3000 steps down...and that was just a short stint of the day. I had Bellerio carry my bag again this day because the stairs down are very tricky and steap and I could barely keep my balance as it was. Some people hiked it in tennis shoes which if I had done would have surely sprained my ankle...my hiking boots served me well! This day was lower with our camp at 2700 meters. We walked about 10miles this day. This was the final night and there is a little dining hall and kiosko there
Photo 3
some ruins along the way where we hung out at night (this was our late night...we went to bed at 11:30...compared to the around 8 all the other nights!). So we did some salsa dancing briefly and then played some cards, pretty chill.
Day 4...The short day :-) we woke up at 4am to head to Manchu Picchu!!! We hauled butt to get there fast we walked about 4miles to Manchu Picchu...and we walked those four miles FAST. I carried my own bag this day :-) Once we got there we had a tour around the beautiful ruins. Then 2 of the guys and I headed up Huayna Picchu...its the mountain behind the city. They said to allow an hour to climb up it but me and the guys managed in 30min cause we're tough!!! haha It was VERY VERY steep...this was another point I feared for my life...on average about 14 people a year die climbing this mountain because if you fall...you're dead. There was one point of about 100 "stairs" that was so steep it was basically a ladder that we climbed on all fours...but there was really no way to grip it and there were a couple of times I could
Photo 4
YUMMY FOOD!!!! feel my grip slipping that I got a little nervous...but once again all is well that ends well and we made it to the top and it was an AMAZING view. After that we all went back to a hotel to have lunch and shower and hang out for a little while around the city of Aguas Calientes before jumping on the train back to Cusco.
The trip was amazing...it physically tested me more than I ever imagined it would. It's the rainy season (hence all the rain in my previous entry) but God blessed me on this trip and the weather was PERFECT not too hot not too cold...nice and sunny!!!! Well the nights were really cold but that's what sleeping bags and that extra blanket I brought along was for :-) I had some really interesting talks with my guides (they are both Inca too) about each of our native practices...the symbols the herbs...those different things. I hung out with the porters at the camp and got to practice my spanish and really connect with some great people. Photos and words cannot truely show how amazing this trip really was. I have never pushed myself so hard
Photo 5
THE BLUE ARMY!!!! OUR PORTERS!!! or felt so accomplished as I did at the end of this trek.
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