Emily in Argentina: Epic South American Adventure I: Cusco/Inka Trail to Machu Picchu

We’re back from our South American adventure and I have lots to tell (obviously), so I have decided to break this large amount of information into a few posts so as not to overwhelm you/myself. I’m also attempting to take advantage of my last few days in Buenos Aires, but I will try to go into detail since we saw some really cool stuff…

Our trip started out in typical fashion with something going wrong within the first hour; luckily, having been here for over five months at the time and having slept very little, we were not phased in the least when our cab to the airport broke down and the driver told us to simply walk toward the airport and find a bus stop. We decided in our fatigued and now somewhat rushed stupor that the safer bet would be hitch-hiking, so we found a car that was stopped on the shoulder a little up the road, explained our situation, and the nice man drove us the last five minutes to the airport. We thanked him profusely, gave him about half of what the original cab fare would have been despite how short the trip was, and made our flight to Lima. We changed some money into the Peruvian currency of soles then had a connection to Cusco, where we found out that the talk of altitude is NOT a joke. The uphill walk to our hostel was something like playing a soccer game after not having run for a few weeks, dizzy, with a headache. The hostel was very nice though, and the guy who ran it helped us find somewhere to get Ben a new camera since his had been stolen from his apartment the week before along with his roommate Steve’s computer. This more or less turned out for the better though, since the one he bought would have cost about a hundred dollars more in the States and he had a brand new camera for our trip. The first night was spent doing nothing more than that and drinking lots of coca leaf tea (helps with the altitude) as well as enjoying the best sushi we had ever had in our lives. Not exactly traditional Peruvian cuisine, but still. The next day we saw some Inka ruins outside of Cusco, stopping to buy alpaca sweaters, blankets, and hats on they way and, naturally, taking too many pictures also. We arranged the last details with the Inka Trail guide company we used, and, yet again, and to troubleshoot since we couldn’t bring our huge backpacks on the trail. Luckily, our observation that Peruvians are very kind and helpful was once again proved correct as the woman who organized our trip and our guide both let us borrow their own, personal small backpacks the morning we left. It was nice that we were forced to pack light as well, since we obviously had to carry everything with us for four days. We had the good fortune of being the only two signed up for this particular version of the trail, so we had a private tour for the four days which worked out really well.

The following day, we left our big backpacks at the hostel and the company picked us up in a car to drive us up to where we would start biking on the first day of the trail. We saw the Inkas’ sacred valley in Ollantaytambo, as well as various other small towns on the way that still observe the Inka tradition of trading goods instead of using currency. The morning we spent biking mostly downhill on pavement through light but cold rain and fog, which thankfully cleared as the day warmed up and the temperature increased as the altitude decreased. The equipment was excellent; the car was comfortable, the bikes were in good condition and had eight gears for changing inclination, and we stayed in nice hostels throughout the trip. We also had great food wherever we stopped, and it was included in the tour so we didn’t have to make very many decisions. After a nice warm lunch (we had milanesa, which is basically fried, breaded beef or chicken, with rice and potatoes) after freezing all morning, we continued our descent but this time through the jungle on an unpaved road that shook our bikes quite a bit because of the huge rocks on the path. We were also covered in mud by the end of the day, which was fun. We arrived at our hostel pretty early in the afternoon, which left a few hours for a nap before dinner of Peruvian lomo saltado (a beef stir fry dish with rice and potatoes) then bed again.

The second day we started the hiking part of the trip after an excellent breakfast of a banana wrapped in a pancake with chocolate on it, walking first along the road then merging with the original Inka Trail. We made stops at small towns along the way, even seeing a monkey and a porcupine that greet hikers at one of them. We also painted our faces with the color from pepper found on the trail like the Inka’s did since they believed the red color represented strength. This was good because I definitely needed as much strength as possible to keep up with Juan, our guide, and Ben seeing as the one hikes for a living and lives at this altitude and the other is 6’3” and is the president of the BC Club Soccer Team… I almost died a few times. Luckily, we ate spaghetti for lunch then got to lie in some hammocks for a while and rest up. We hiked the rest of the way to some thermal baths, which apparently have medicinal purposes of some sort. We were too lazy to get in them, though, and eventually we continued on to our really nice hostel to shower and nap before dinner. We had filets of alpaca and locally grown avocados stuffed with peas and carrots, as well as trying the beer of Cusco called Cusqueña after pouring some on the floor as an offering to the Pachamama (Mother Earth). It was easily the best dinner up until that point other than the sushi.

The third day we got to sleep past 5:30 or 6 for once since we took a car to Hidroeléctrica, where we explored the surrounding jungle and ate some really good soup and fish for lunch. Juan shared some of his immense knowledge of the Inkas and their way of life, which was really interesting. We then walked for a about three hours along the train tracks toward Aguas Calientes, where we stayed the night before finally climbing to Machu Picchu. Walking on the tracks required a lot of concentration and kind of hurt, but the river they followed was pretty and the ultimate goal of Machu Picchu obviously made it worth it. We also stopped for passion fruit from the jungle, which was delicious and well-timed. Our hostel was once again quite nice, and we had a great view out our window of the river that ran down from the mountains that we had walked along all afternoon. We carbo-loaded with spaghetti again and I had stuffed avocado again as well as a chocolate covered pancake for dessert. We went to bed nice and early so we could survive our 3am wake up to climb up the rest of the mountain.

The ridiculously early alarm was surprisingly easy for us since we had accustomed ourselves to going to bed at 8 or 9 at night to wake up at 5 or 6 every day, and we were leaving by 4 o’clock to go straight up for about an hour and a half The stairs were pretty tall and I was quite tired, again, trying to keep up but the cool weather and lack of sun made it much more bearable. Making it to the top while the sun was rising and in time to get tickets for Huayna Picchu was absolutely worth the wake up. Only a certain amount of people can climb this taller mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu each day, and for that reason we had to get there early and wait in line from about 5:30 until 6am. Juan gave us a two hour tour of the ruins, explaining the purpose of various rooms and city in general. He mentioned a lot about the architecture, such as the fact that all the doors and windows are trapezoidal to prevent damage from seismic activity, and double-jamb doors signified the room of someone of importance to the Inka community. Not only was he incredibly knowledgeable, but he was also kind and fun to be around so we were sad to part ways with him after he was finished. We had gotten 10am tickets for Huayna Picchu, so we took a few trillion more pictures while we waited to go climb. I then had the pleasure of another hour of stairs straight up, which was again entirely worth it to see Machu Picchu from above and decipher the condor shape of the city. The view of the surrounding mountains was astounding and I have some really good pictures from up there. We came back down slowly since it was so steep, ate our packed lunch, and then headed to la Puente de los Inka (Inka Bridge) and la Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate), which were the entry points to the city. We caught a bus down to Aguas Calientes, then ate a well-deserved dinner of lots of pizza and another Cuzqueña beer (it was good). We took a two hour train then another hour and a half cab ride back to Cusco and, sufficiently exhausted, moved to a different hostel for the night since ours was full.

So that was Cusco/Inka Trail bit, probably the longest and most intense (sorry it was long…). I’ll write about the rest later. Enjoy the pictures!

Fun Fact: Many Peruvians (60% maybe? I can never remember those things) and also Bolivians speak Quechua as a first language and learn Spanish in school. The words Machu Picchu, for example, are Quechua, as are many other names of places and things in the region formerly inhabited by the Inkas.