After months of forecast and over a year of dreaming about it, I lastly got on a bus from Arequipa to go to Cusco to slog the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. My colleague Milana from Los Angeles, who I worn to slog and mtn. tandem with, and Karen, her longtime colleague, were gathering me in Cusco. We were imaginary to be there a join of years early so they could acclimatize but Milana's departure from Lima was cancelled so she inwards about noon the day before our tour happening. I had aleager met Karen the day before and we had gotten to know each other a bit as we did some sightseeing and hiking together near Cusco.
When Milana inwards, we went to eat at a remnantsaurant just off the court and she had ceviche to eat, it is raw fish marinated in jade juice. moreover the ceviche or the require of time to acclimatize to the 11,000 base height in Cusco, or both, got her off to a bad jerk. She woke up sick the next morning for the jerk of our four day trek. We had signed up for a group tour, pregnant up to 12 people, so we were delighted when the tiny bus selected us up in that morning to find only two other people on the tour! An almost personal tour for the group charge. It didn't look like such a small group by the time we added a heat and eight porters to our guide, Carlos, making a entire of 15 people. However most of the time we were trekking it was just the six of us, the porters were moreover packing up camp behind us or rushing on upfront to get eager for us. The rite was great but personally the morning tea in our marquees when they woke us, the dining marquee for all three meals (though it felt certainly good at banquet time due to the cold) and the imagine menu, etc. was something I would have given up for a cheaper charge. They definitely don't subscribe to the mega light hiking idea with a cast iron range and 20 lb. LP gas cistern!
One of the equipment that shocked me on the first day was to see people actually living along the trail, and riding bicycles back and cheekys. On the minute morning there were women and children with burros untaken up the trail to set up stands to help breakfast, advertise toffee, munchies, bottled water and even Gatorade! By the morning, that was all behind us as we headed up to finished female's approve at 13,770 feet, the maximum cape on the trail. The scenery had untouched from thriving torrent reforemnants in the morning to bare vegetation and rocks by the license, along with being greatly cooler. When we bunged early in the morning at our camp for the dusk, I couldn't just sit and remain for banquet, I went on upfront to the next license, exploring section trails along the way. reliable clouds past the height ruined my hopes for a spectacular dusk but it was an enjoyable time well.
On day three we got into the high jungle, thousands of more steps, and actually into some of the earliest ruins. Also a lookingly endexcluding selection of orchids and other flora. One thing we didn't see was any violent animals, just a few birds. It also looked like the beyond we went, the more tourists there were. The first day we barely saw anybody moreover, so I'm not steady where they all came from. By that dusk we were back in civilization, with the choice of a remnantsaurant, hot shower and cold beer, which many were enjoying.
The ending morning we were up early to be the first ones on the trail, eager to get cinema of Machu Picchu before there were any people there. They actually opened the checkcape a few summary early and we were happening off in the sinister, on the last join of hours of the trail, inward at Machu Picchu just after sunrise. For me, one of the highlights of the jaunt was hiking up Huayna Picchu, the high acme behind the ruins in all the rank Machu Picchu cinema. There was a superb trail, steep and rough, up to the acme, where the views were marvelous! I saw a excluding worn trail untaken down the backsection and followed that a behavior but lastly had to direct around to encounter the others and hear the bus into Aquas Calientes. Only when I got back to the checkcape at the jerk of the trail did I find out that it was a sphere trail and I could have unceasing on around the mountain. There was no time to drench in the hot springs, as we got to Aquas Calientes a bit belated and then found out that we had to dump early to saunter to the ttorrent that would take us back to Cusco, because of the avalanche that had roofed the tracks on the bank of urban. A ending shock was that dusk when the ttorrent bunged a join of hours before Cusco and the conductor said that was the end of the annoy. We never did find out why but broken up having to take a taxi the remnants of the way to Cusco, fortunately inward with no harms.
The jaunt was great, Machu Picchu was unbelievable and something that cinema can't do integrity to. Never the excluding, I did take about 400 photos, wearisome to capture the grander to revive belatedr. I am looking cheeky to redirecting to the district to slog from Cusco to Choquequirao, sometimes called the sister city to Machu Picchu, and then on to Machu Picchu. This slog is greatly excluding everyday and allows for exploring on your own.
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