Machu Picchu, Peru

“You’re at Machu Picchu and you’re cryiiing!” announced Valentine when we arrived to a very foggy, desolate looking Machu Picchu. The man had a good sense of humor and he’d said exactly what I was feeling on the inside. It’s foggy… and it’s raining… and I can’t see anything. NOOooooooo. Don’t cry, don’t be disappointed, don’t cry!

We flew 10,000km and hiked 60km over four days up to 4600m to see the crown jewel looking like the scene from an ancient horror film.Maybe it will get better, I thought… and it would for a bit, but it also got worse and it did rain quite a bit. That’s life.Valentine took us on a tour around the grounds and explained more about Inca culture and traditions and how they think people lived in the compound.It’s an incredibly amazing place. You can only wonder how the Incas really lived here.Kay was pretty much unperturbed by the rain and cover. He was just really amazed by how monumental this place is.We took a few more photos with the group before it was time to hike our special package of the trip up to Huayna Picchu.
Below was part of the “condor” in the compound with the beak at the bottom center and the rock “wings” flying up to the side. Trying to figure out how they did what they did with the stone was mind boggling.Even though it was a little dreary, it actually added to the mystic surrounding the mystery of the Incas and what really happened to them and how they really lived. Nobody really knows.The sure knew how to pick a location for their holy site though!Group photo time and then Valentine and Filio bid us goodbye.From there, we actually didn’t have unlimited time to hike to Huayna Picchu, come back and take the classic tourist picture in Machu Picchu and then catch the bus down to Aguas Calientes so we could get the right train home. And we couldn’t miss any of it because we had a plane to catch the next day!The trail up and down from Huayna Picchu is listed as “dangerous” and they actually make you sign in and out of a guide book to let the park know if you made it back alive, no shit.

I thought it was a little over the top because the trail is not worse than a Swiss alpine pass next to steep drops and basically everything was stairs… so it really wasn’t that bad.After hiking up to 4600m, hiking up 2720m at Huayna Picchu was a piece of cake. While people beside us huffed and puffed and talked about going into cardiac arrest, we kept a brisk pace upwards.

From above, you really do get to see an incredible view of Machu Picchu and you can appreciate the shape of the condor much better.After waiting for the clouds to clear a little, it started raining on the way down. They actually do trick you a little, because the nice, big steps are on the way up, and the tiny narrow, your-foot-barely-fits-on-them steps were what we had with the rain on the way down.

To be fair, even without hiking sticks, which are banned, you can go down pretty fast with some sturdy hiking boots… but we were passing people obviously terrified of heights who could barely take a step downward.After trying to wait for the rain to pass for 20-30 minutes, we just gave up and headed to the classic postcard location.The rain and clouds were pretty badass.It wasn’t how I pictured seeing Machu Picchu and these photos have been edited quite a bit, but it was still impossible to deny the wonder and awe of such a sacred site even in the rain and fog.I got the “dark, moody Machu Picchu”, which I guess I deserve. 😛Kay and I didn’t want to go, but we had to get in line for the buses to take us back to town to catch the train, which would be an experience in itself.We snapped a few more photos, including some mandatory selfies, before heading back down.That’s it, Machu Picchu was in the books!With our biggest ticket crossed off our bucket list, it was time to start the journey home, if only so I could get on a plane to Hong Kong for work. 🙂

Alpaca Expeditions  was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.

More from our trip to Peru:

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu Day 4

Day four of the trek was our last day that Filio would wake us with our coca tea at our tent. Kay jammed on his clothes and practically ran out of the tent to see if the sun was coming up yet. He was really excited to see this view.

I on the other hand, took my sweet time putting my clothes on and properly waking myself up and rolling up my tent things before I came out with my big camera. No stress, the sun was still rising!Kay still enjoying his coca tea.The view was pretty spectacular and the photos don’t really do it justice. We were waiting for the sun to rise high enough to just hit the peak of Machu Picchu in the valley below.Behind the campsite we could still see bits of mountains we’d left behind.I have to say, not just for the photos at sunset and sunrise, but we were really lucky that it never was raining while we were at the campgrounds on our whole trail. Even though we were often walking in rain, it wasn’t an issue when it came to relaxing or going to bed. Thank you, mother nature!This view was almost as amazing as Salkantay on the first day.Around 7am we got on the road on the way down to the hydro power station on the way to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.Signs that we were getting closer, the excitement in the group rose! By this point, we were also having a really nice time talking with everyone in the group. It was a great mix of people and Kay and I both really enjoyed our walking partners.Once we got to the tracks we started walking along them, which admittedly was not really as fun as the rest of the trail. This part was a little boring, but it happens as soon as you get close to the tracks to Aguas Calientes.We also had to watch out a bit for cars and trains at the last point. We had enjoyed almost our entire three days of trekking as the only trekking group in the area, so it was kind of weird to be around people again.We arrived in town mid-day and were checked into a hotel for the night before we were given the afternoon off to explore town and visit the local hot springs.Kay and I ended up being the only ones who thought that soaking in natural hot springs sounded like a great way to soothe our poor muscles after four days of hiking. We also both got a full body massage in town before dinner and it was… heaaaven. I think I forgot which country I was in.It doesn’t look it from these pictures, but the weather was actually really sunny and warm and gorgeous in Aguas Calientes. We crossed our fingers that it would stay like this tomorrow for the big trip to Machu Picchu!

For dinner, we had a farewell dinner in a restaurant with Alpaca Expeditions. Our porters and chef would be going home from here and only our two guides, Valentine and Filio, would be taking us on to Machu Picchu the next day.

We made sure to order Pisco Sours for the table!After dinner we all walked back to the hotel for an early night because like many others, we planned on taking the first bus up to Machu Picchu in the morning.Up next, the grand finale!

Alpaca Expeditions  was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.

More from our trip to Peru:

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu Day 3

On the second morning in tents, Filio woke us again with hot coca tea and water to wash. The river hadn’t come up and eaten us during the night and it was time to pack up and head on.

Today we were all required to pack our own sleeping bags and mats with us because we would be taking minimal porters with us to hike up to Llactapata inka site and back down. This is when everyone was jealous of my and Kay’s roomy backpacks. Now with the rain covers on, they looked much less pathetic.One of the Dutch offered us powdered coffee at breakfast because for some reason, Alpaca Expeditions only offered decaf, much to the horror of the Dutch. 🙂 Remembering my headaches in Puno, I gladly took some coffee, but only one cup because I was afraid of the effects of caffeine on my stomach on the trail.

Everyone was looking forward to this day because we would visit a coffee plantation and try some fresh local coffee later.After a couple hours’ hike, with a little more rain, we landed at a “real Starbucks” as they said, where we learned about how coffee beans are harvested, shelled, and roasted over a hot fire in local kitchens.It was hard not to notice the kitchen was full of guinea pigs, which our guide explained that many families keep guinea pigs in the kitchen where it is warm and then they eat them from time to time.They were sooo cute and made this adorable, very odd squeaking noise for food when we fed them. There’s a video further down in case you want to hear. 🙂I only felt moderately guilty for having eaten one of these little guys in Puno.Our coffee was roasted and then it was time to taste it, and boy was it good!We liked the coffee so much we bought two bags to bring back home. This is another reason why having a big bag was useful. We of course put it in Kay’s pack. 😉Afterward we started climbing UP again, which I wasn’t really ready for. The longest Kay and I ever hike is two days back and forth, so my legs were definitely protesting and didn’t understand why I kept forcing them to do hard work in this altitude.Finally we reached the top of Llactapata, where we had just a little way to go. I was pretty pooped out.From here we only had a couple porters carrying our things on their backs, as well as our chef who was with us for the whole journey.This campsite is rarely used by others because it’s a bit out of the way, it’s not really “on the way” to Machu Picchu, but it offers undisturbed views of Machu Picchu from a distance, so we arrived early to watch the sun set and to get up early to see the sun rise the next morning.Along the way on this trail were also some Inca ruins of what could have been prayer sites pointed towards Machu Picchu.

This was also where we started noticing these awful little black bugs biting us… and it didn’t seem to matter HOW much bug spray with DEET we put on, they loved to bite me and the bites would bleed and look awful. They didn’t bother me too much at first and I thought I’d be fine if I didn’t itch them, but holy hell they itched like a mother the next week while I was in Hong Kong! I nearly tore my skin off scratching and writing this three months later, I still can see marks from the bugs on my legs. We set up for our last night of camping and enjoyed our usual popcorn and tea snack before watching the sun set.Dinner was in a room right on the ledge, with views over Machu Picchu. Pretty amazing backdrop. 🙂Below in the center, you can start to see the light hit Machu Picchu. I needed to zoom in to see it better, but it was magnificent from faraway and a totally different view of Machu Picchu that many people don’t get to see.Seeing the preview for the last day just made us even more excited. We were all praying the rain would hold off by then. I mean, look at it!Can you believe that people used to live there?? Incredible!As the sun set, we settled into dinner and more stories from Valentine.I got some special food just for my gluten free diet with this meal, including more cassava.Tomorrow we would start our walk down to Aguas Calientes, but first… we’d get up for the sunrise!

 

Up next, day four!

Alpaca Expeditions  was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.

More from our trip to Peru:

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu Day 2

Each day on the trail, our guide Filio (who I always thought his name sounded like “Fihlo” or “son” in Portuguese) would wake us gently in the morning with a hot cup of coca tea in our tents. Luxury!

He would then leave some warm water bins outside the tent so that we could wash up a little before breakfast. I could even wash my face if I desired.It was pretty cold in the morning while we packed up and headed to breakfast. Kay was in his element as you can see. 🙂The hike on the second day from Huayracmachay to Rayampata was downhill and pretty easy going. I was even at the lead of most of the hike since downward hiking is my thing. 🙂
Mid-morning, we stopped at a local house with Valentine to take a rest so he could show us this funny Peruvian frog game.Below is a video showing how you toss the gold coins and try and get them in the holes or the frog’s mouth for points. Valentine was amazing and he beat all of us! I don’t think I even managed to score a point.For lunch we enjoyed some more delicacies by the hand of our chef. Working with local food and food portered along the route, he was very creative for camp food!Also more soup, which we really appreciated because it was mostly raining this day. It was actually pouring all during lunch.And the main course, which was again fantastic. I get hungry just looking at the photos again. Lots of potatoes and cassava.From our lunch spot at Colpapampa, we hiked a bit further than planned to around Lucmabamba.Here we hiked through a little village and camped at the outskirts. Below is the sign for the local school zone.We arrived at campsite number two a little earlier than the day before. The grounds even had two showers, one lukewarm and one cold. I passed on showering, but ended up putting a lot of bug spray on that night to ward off the mosquitoes.From there we enjoyed a nice sunset with some very pretty colors in the sky.While people were showing before dinner, many also decided to dry out some of their clothes that had gotten wet during the day either from rain, sweat, or both.Here Valentine told us another funny story about the river rising during one of his camping trips. During the night, the river rose swiftly and was making a fast, rushing sound. The locals started getting alarmed that a dam would break and flood the area within minutes, so they started to pack up and head to safety.

Valentine was nervous about the water and his trekkers, so he tried to wake them. For the most part, everyone rolled over and took forever getting up, but two girls were immediately dressed and running for the hills with their flashlights as the rest of the crew was still fumbling around for clothes and shoes. They ended up waiting up on a hill together for nothing, because as it turned out, the dam had not broken and the water was just fuller from the extra rain, but when the locals start running for the hills, you know you have to be worried!I went to bed later that night so nervous about the river that I had nightmares about it rushing up and carrying our tents away. I had even prepared my things so that if I needed to rush out in the night, it would have been possible. I did not sleep very well that night. 😛Dinner was tasty as usual. This time it was chicken legs and some kind of potato wedges. We ate until we stuffed ourselves silly and then Valentine told us lots of stories about the history of Peru, political leaders, local traditions… also crazy things like local female punching match traditions. Valentine liked to use the word, “Crazy” a lot in his descriptions about his culture. 🙂 That’s OK, we like crazy!

Up next, day three!

Alpaca Expeditions  was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.

More from our trip to Peru:

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu Day 1

There is no way I could fit our five day trek to Machu Picchu into one post, so I’m breaking it up by days.

I’ll start by saying that Machu Picchu was the entire reason why we went to Peru, but having booked flights in July finally, we were disappointed to learn that the actual “official Inca Trail” permits were already sold out for November. At first I was sad because the Inca Trail was all I’d dreamed about, but we hadn’t realized they have only 200 permits a day that go like hot cakes.

We decided to book a five day guided trekking tour with Alpaca Expeditions and now, knowing Kay and myself and asking our guide about how it is on the Inca Trail compared to ours, I’m confident that we enjoyed our often completely private trek from Salkantay to Machu Picchu way more than we would have enjoyed the crowded Inca Trail.

As the first pickup in our group of 11 hikers, Kay and I woke up at 4am on November 1 for a 4:10am pickup. After picking up the other 9 hikers, the van drove 3.5 hours to Soraypampa where we got out for breakfast before the first part of our trek.I’m not gonna lie folks, I was struggling with some pretty awful lady days, having nearly blacked out a couple times the day before and suffered stomach problems. The thought of trekking for five days without bathrooms was kind of terrifying. Also, considering the bad timing of my blessing of womanhood, I had dragged Kay all around Cusco the night before stocking up on pads and tampons to brace for the call of nature in the wild.

So, that said, I was feeling a little “ehh” the first day, especially when it started drizzling after breakfast. I’m not nearly as happy-go-lucky as Kay is when it comes to weather and the idea of trekking for fives days in the rain with my period sounded pretty horrible, to be honest.I braced myself that this was going to be awesome somehow, or that I would survive at the very least. I was pretty low mentally, that this was how I was experiencing my way to Machu Picchu: period from Hell, freezing rain, stomach issues.Below you can see that Kay and I came prepared. I had the rain gear, including rain pants and Gortex boots, although I really wish I had bought waterproof warm gloves. I didn’t want to get mine soaked, but it was pretty cold. And I was in quite a lot of lady pain. Gah. You can see it on my face!

Around this time, Kay asked me how I was doing and I replied cheerfully that it was 10am and I’d peed on my hands twice, so I’m doing fantastic. Positivity folks!The guides were pretty easy going and we were only hiking for an hour or so from Soraypampa before we made our first stop at Soyrococha to talk about the area and take a couple group photos. As we walked closer Salkantay pass, the weather started opening up a bit and you could begin to see the shadow of something great beyond.Kay was pretty excited by what we could see and so was I. We hoped it would open up even more!As the minutes passed, the weather started opening up more and more and Kay was beside himself with excitement.Even I with my sour disposition was thinking this trail will be alright. “I will make it!” I thought.I took several more pictures before we started the hour hike from  Soyrococha to Salkantay Pass.Bonus part of guides are that they can take photos of you, even if you don’t necessarily want photos of yourself. 😉 I had burned my nose in Cusco and the whole thing was peeling for the second time in less than a week. It was not pretty, but who needs pretty on a trail with all this nature taking the show?The next part of the hike to the pass was the hardest part of the entire trek. We were hiking up to 4600m, even higher than in Puno, and the guides were readily anticipating altitude sickness from us.

I have to say, at Alpaca Expeditions, they take altitude sickness very seriously. I am pretty slow going up in general, plus taking photos slowed me down, and I noticed that the guide trailing at the end asked me quite frequently, “How’re you doing sister?”At first, I mistook this for him being concerned that I was falling behind the group. I kept replying, “I’m fine!” because although my lungs were protesting from being up so high and going upward, I knew my little engine could do it if I went at my own pace. Left right, left right, left right. Up, up, up.

I noticed him asking others, “How’re you doing brother?” and later at dinner in the evening, I realized that the guides had been meticulously checking in on us to make sure we weren’t experiencing any of the life-threatening symptoms of altitude sickness that can lead to death.

Our guide told us the sobering story of one couple where the woman felt sick and couldn’t go on on her own, so the guide mistakenly put her on a donkey to go up the rest of the way. He didn’t realize that she was experiencing symptoms of pulmonary and cerebral edema until the middle of the night when her boyfriend woke the guide frantically for help.

There is no cell signal past the Salkantay pass, so one of the porters ran for hours back up and down the pass until he reached signal on his phone. They called in a helicopter from Cusco to fly the woman out, but when it finally reached the camp site, she had been dead for several hours. Her boyfriend had been planning to propose to her at the end of the trek at Machu Picchu, which might have been part of his and the guide’s reason to push her to keep going, but it had awful, heartbreaking consequences.Mountains are beautiful and breathtaking to behold, but you need a certain respect for the harsh and unpredictable conditions they hold. While altitude sickness only affected a few of our group with headaches, it’s extremely important to take it seriously.

Some of our group knew that don’t fare well with it, so they took anti-altitude sickness medication beforehand, with the only downside being very increased urination, which is always fun without bathrooms around. 😉At this point, Kay and I were so smiley and happy. We agreed that what we saw in the photos below just made the entire tour worth it, no matter what happens next. Our guide Valentine told us that often folks pass by here and the mountain is completely covered, so they just have to show pictures back at the tour center of how it looks.

We were very lucky!Overjoyed!This view is not to be seen from the Inca Trail and I’m SO happy we got to take this in. It was one of the best parts of the trip.Here you can see what the donkeys and porters for the group looked like passing us on the trek. These weren’t the ones for our group, but it’s a similar view of how they got our things up the mountain.Alpaca Expeditions gives you a duffel bag to put things like your sleeping bag and things you will only need at night. Everything else you carry in your day pack. Kay’s and my daypack both looked ridiculously oversized compared to everyone else’s, but the extra size would come in handy a little later on the trail.I could stare at this mountain for days.Finally at the top, we took some celebratory photos together and with the group.Kay was having a baller time and was not nearly as winded as I was. Below you can see he even climbed up a higher stretch with the ultrathon runners we had in our group. I politely declined. 😉Overall, we were a nice group. Five Americans, four Dutch, Kay, and me. We were all pretty sporty and fit and kept a nice pace together, even with me a little slow on the way up. 🙂On the other side of the pass, the crew set up lunch for us in a tent and even set up a portable toilet. I was really impressed and couldn’t wait to use it. This was only the first day, but you definitely start getting excited about toilets and running water on a trip like this. 😀

I had asked about my gluten problem the night before in the briefing and they said it should be fine. I asked about everything I ate and never got sick the whole time on the trek. Below we started out with some hot soup.
Look how happy my boy is! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see him enjoying himself so much.Our chef was pretty awesome. Every meal had tons of variety and tons of food. I had made it known at breakfast that I was celiac so sometimes I needed more of certain foods when the others contained gluten and everyone was accommodating to “let Katie eat all the fruits”.At lunch we had fried fish, cucumbers and tomatoes, olives and below you can see Peruvian corn with cheese in the middle and ceviche to the left.They also had rice and toasted crunchy corn. It was delicious!After lunch, we all got a chance to use the bathroom. Before and after eating, everyone had the chance to wash their hands with soap and water. Considering that I had peed on mine, I was really appreciative of this, even though Kay had disinfectant with him too.After lunch we hiked a couple hours down to Huayracmachay where we set up camp for the night. We were actually pretty lucky the entire trail that it was never raining when we set up or tore down camp. I was very thankful for this!

We set up camp before it got dark and then met for the cocktail hour. Kay and I are used to setting up camp quickly, so we got things sorted so that we’d be ready to peel off our clothes at night and crawl into our sleeping bags.

Behind us, the view to Salkantay was already closing up again.Inside the basic shelter where the cook was set up, the guides set up a funny burning (kerosin?) lamp above Kay’s head. We told the guys to be careful getting up so they wouldn’t light their heads on fire. 🙂We had a pre-dinner cocktail hour with hot tea and the best, saltiest tasting popcorn you ever did desire on the trail. Afterward it was time for dinner.More rice and veggies for dinner as well as chicken. I was impressed overall how much meat we enjoyed on the trip. It was quite rare if at all on our homestay in Amantaní Island, so I felt like a spoiled tourist.If that wasn’t enough, our chef outdid himself by flambeing bananas with pisco for dessert. Looks a little perverted, but tasted wonderful!After dinner we all made our way to the bathroom, which was a real toilet with running water. HOORAY! We brushed our teeth and then went to sleep.

Up next, day two!

Alpaca Expeditions  was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.

More from our trip to Peru: