El Camino Inca

Steeper than it looks, I promise.

Steps on steps on thousands of steps, following 26 miles in the footsteps of the ancient Andean peoples all of the way to Machu Picchu. As a girl who very badly needed a solid nature fix, it was the best thing I could have possibly done.  Four solid days of hiking and camping in the Andes was good for the body AND the soul.

We began our voyage in the town of Ollantaytambo where the tourist portion of the Inca Trail begins. With a few coca leaves in our cheeks and more in our backpacks, we were ready to go. The first of the four days was rather uneventful – we passed by some ruins and walked along a beautiful river, but we knew that the real challenge would be day 2, in which we would have to hike uphill all day to summit the first mountain pass, at a grand total of 13,776 feet in elevation.

The one notable activity from day one is our introduction to our eleven incredible porters who were accompanying us on the trail. Something that I was unclear about before we got on the trail is just how much support we would have. For the eleven of us on the trip, there were eleven porters plus a cook and two guides. Every day they would race ahead of us with their backpacks weighing up to 88 pounds and get to camp early so that they could set everything up. And by “everything” I don’t just mean tents. For every meal (including tea time, because what would we have done without that?) we sat in a high roofed tent furnished with stools and tables with a table cloth and metal cutlery. The farthest thing from rustic.For lunch, we had soup, the main course, and tea. For dinner, we had soup, the main course, and dessert. In the morning, we would be woken up with hot cups of coca tea delivered right to our tents. To be honest, it was moderately obscene. I didn’t go into the Inca Trail expecting to be waited on hand and foot. I expected to be hiking, camping, sitting on the ground, eating rice and beans out of a cup, and feeling at least mildly self-sufficient. Instead, we essentially had servants. As a person who’s used to going camping and doing everything on her own, it took a bit of getting used to, to say the least.

Beautiful picture taken of our porters by a professional
photographer in our group.

But the bottom line is that these men need jobs. They live in the small poorer towns surrounding Cusco and will come to the Inca Trail for a month at a time, doing the trip over and over and over again so that they can save up enough money to go home and farm their land. They don’t get paid much, but they’re all so happy and positive individuals that you’d never know they spend their days catering to every ridiculous need that the tourists might have. But the truth is that the Inca Trail wouldn’t be feasible if it weren’t for the assistance of these incredible gentleman; For a lot of people, they make the journey possible. So here’s a shout out to those crazy men and their massive calf muscles.

Day two began with uphill, persisted with uphill, and ended with uphill. When you talk to people who have done the Inca Trail, they always warn you about all of the stairs on the second day. They weren’t lying. I swear I haven’t seen that many stairs in all of my life put together. Up and up we went, through the cloud forest and eventually reaching the alpine tundra. From there we were able to finally glimpse the mountain pass that we would eventually be conquering – not the most encouraging sight I’ve ever seen in my life.

But onward we plunged, up towards the clouds. Though the top kept getting visibly closer and closer, it never seemed to be more encouraging. I had probably 500 feet of steps left and was just
about to take yet another breather when I heard a porter coming up behind me. Usually they’re going way faster than you could ever go and so it’s best to get out of the way, but as I stepped to the left to let him pass I heard him say something that I didn’t quite catch…

Me -- “Como?” (what?)

Porter – “Ven conmigo, amiga! Si se puede, no necesitas descansar!” (Come with me, friend! It can be done, you don’t need to rest!)

Me – (deciding it would be best to not whine to the guy with the 80lb backpack) “uhhh… okay!”  

View from the top of the highest pass!

And so we walked together the last 500 feet with me barely being able to breath, and him encouraging me every step of the way. Every time I started to look up at the steps ahead of me and get discouraged again, he would touch my arm or tell me I could do it, I would take one look at his monstrous backpack and remind myself that I had absolutely no right to be exhausted, and with his help I managed to make it the rest of the way to the top without pausing. At the summit of the pass he gave me a huge smile, shook my hand, and continued on his way. An absolute inspiration.

After my new friend left me there on the summit of highest pass on the Inca trail, I took a look around and was blown away. It suddenly hit me – I was in the Andes. And yeah, I know, old news. But for the last three months that I had been actually living in the mountains, it never hit me like it did right then. I looked around me at the incredible, dramatic landscape, and I seriously could have cried tears of joy I was so overwhelmed by it all. Between the endorphins from hiking all day, the fresh air hitting my lungs, and the incredible landscape that was unfolding before my eyes, I could hardly believe it. The Andes Mountains, the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu, all of these things that I had been hearing about my entire life, and I was actually there experiencing it. I literally have no idea what I did to get this lucky. No freaking clue.

A little while later when I had come down from my oxygen deprivation fueled Ande Mountain high, I dug into my backpack and pulled out my reward: oreos. So damn delicious.

First view of Machu Picchu from the SunGate!!!

Day 3 was longer, but with many many less steps. We got to see some more cool ruins along the way, but the really exciting part didn’t come along until about 1 or 2am the next morning when we were awakened by the biggest storm I have ever witnessed. And yeah, I know I’m prone to superlatives, but seriously this stuff was not messing around. The thunder was so heavy and the lightning was so vivid that it felt like our tent was being accosted by our own personal storm.

A mere hour and a half later, at 3:30am, we were awakened to begin the final leg of our trek. We forced open our eyes, shoved all of our belongings in our packs, and hiked down to the checkpoint where… we sat in the dark for an hour and a half until the checkpoint opened so we could race up the final hill towards the sun gate.

When the checkpoint finally opened its doors and we were allowed through, we began the final push up to the top of the pass where we would be able to see Machu Picchu for the very first time. The following 45 minutes was a mad dash to the top – all of us sweating balls but far too impatient to stop and take off our several layers of jackets. We walked along cliffs, passing people as we went, until we scaled one final staircase to emerge at the top of the sungate, where we were able to see Machu Picchu for the first time.

So here is my recommendation to you: if you want to see Machu Picchu, hike the Inca Trail. There’s nothing quite like hiking towards something for four days along a path that was quite literally built by the Incas. And there I finally was. After hearing about it, reading about it, and seeing pictures of it, I was actually standing there looking at it with my own two eyes. And it didn’t disappoint.

Entirely inspiring 65 year old couple from Holland who
I met along the trail. Always hiking with the biggest
smiles on their faces. 

For me the most amazing thing about Machu Picchu is what it’s surrounded by. It sits on the saddle between two enormous and steep mountains, circled by the Urubamba River thousands of feet below. The mountains surrounding it are impossibly steep and treacherous looking, making it impossible to not wonder who the hell came up with the brilliant idea to build a city on the top of one of these monstrous things. Those Incas seriously did not shy away from a challenge.

Once we had soaked in our triumphant moment at the sungate, we continued the rest of the way down the mountain to enter the ruins of Machu Picchu. Now, I won’t bore you with whatever random theories our guide came up with, but if you’re ever looking for something to do, check out the PBS documentary on the site. The thing is that even though we’ll never really know what the Incas were thinking or why they did the things they did, this doesn’t stop people from theorizing and making stuff up until the day they die. So while I’ve heard quite a few different stories about this stuff, the most seemingly genuine information I’ve received was from that documentary: check it out, it’s cool shit.

The next four hours or so were spent wandering around, taking the obligatory 726,389 pictures, and having our minds blown over and over again as we contemplated what this incredible place must have been like.

Once we felt that we had explored and soaked it all in as much as we could, we decided to head down the mountain into the town called Aguas Calientes that is located directly below Machu Picchu in order to enjoy some good food and the hot springs. We found a restaurant, paid way too much for some food (Aguas Calientes is by far the ritziest place I’ve so far encountered in Peru) and decided to adventure our way to the hot springs. At this point it was only Dalton, his girlfriend Caitlin, and me because everyone else had supposedly heard that the hot springs were nasty, but we figured they couldn’t be that bad so we decided to check them out.

Famous carving in the ruins -- shaped to mirror the
mountains behind it.

After asking no less than five different Peruvians where the hot springs were, we wound our way to the front gate where we were able to see a picture of the springs… “hmmm” we wondered aloud to each other, “those do actually look a bit grungy.” But hey, we were there, and it was only going to cost us 10 soles each (about $3), so what the heck, right?

We hiked up the river and entered the area with all of the pools to encounter the brownest, most unappealing water you can possibly imagine. But being the conditioned Peruvians that we are, there was no way we were about to waste 10 soles, so we all hopped in. Based on how much my bug bites stung as soon as I stepped in, it probably wasn’t the best idea in the world, but I’m alive and around to tell the tale soo…. Oh well!

We tried out a few different pools: one where there was a guy who was either sleeping or masturbating, one where there was a little girl who liked to throw dirt water into Dalton’s face, and one that wasn’t even warm, and then we decided to cut our losses and call it a day.

We left the hot springs, bought some candy, and wandered into the main square laughing at what a classic Peruvian adventure it all was. And that’s when it hit me.

Our team!

It’s obviously true that I’ll miss a lot of things about Peru. I’ll miss the people, the ancientness of it all, and even some of the food. But what I’m really going to miss most is the messed up adventures like we had that afternoon at the hot springs. I’m going to miss having something completely out of the blue and unpredictable happen to me every single day. I’m going to miss walking by a random guy peeing in the street yelling “it’s a free life, baby!” or walking into the main plaza to find people performing traditional dances to celebrate yet another saint, or sitting down at the kitchen table and taking a huge bite into what I thought was squash, but what actually turned out to be little pieces of cow ligament.

I’m going to miss being surprised every day.

As much as I’m absolutely ecstatic to be finally going home after a whole year away, leaving this place is going to be devastating. I’ve fallen in love with the chaos of it all. I’ve fallen in love with the fact that even though I’ve lived here for nearly four months, every day is completely unpredictable. I’ve fallen in love with the people, the culture, and the family that I’ve discovered here. Leaving here is not going to be an easy feat.

But how lucky am I, that I’m able to have so many people and places sharing a part of my heart? I couldn’t have asked for a better host family here. I have a mom who would do anything for me, host siblings to make fun of me, and a little host nephew to humor me. I’ve met travelers who have inspired me to believe that traveling the world is not beyond my grasp, and I’ve made friends here who have helped me through a little bit of everything: good and bad.

The sadness that I’m feeling now because of my impending departure from this truly life-altering experience is tempered by my gratitude for the amazing people that I’ve encountered. Because that’s what it comes down to, really. The sum of the experiences that I’ve had down here in South America has been incredible, but they’d mean close to nothing without all of the human connections that I made along the way. From the travelers I’ve encountered, to the friends in my program who have been through so much with me, to the host family that has been there every step of the way. The experiences that I’ve had with, and often because of, these people are what I’m going to carry with me moving forward.

And since in about 12 minutes it’ll officially be Thanksgiving, thank you. Thanks to each and every person who I’ve encountered along my way, because whether you were the porter who helped me to the top of the pass, the painter who needed my help with his English homework, or the travelers that I’ve connected with along the way, you have absolutely shaped my experience here. I could even honestly say that you were the ones who created my experience here.

So this year, for Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the random life events that have brought me here and allowed me to meet the stellar personalities that I’ve encountered in the last several months. You’ve taught me that it’s not really the places that you see, or the things that you conquer, that make an experience memorable. Instead, it’s the human connections that you forge along the way.

Gracias por todo,

Hannah

Also if you're looking for a thought provoker, check this video out! (it's short, I promise)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb-OYmHVchQ&feature=share