We´re alive!!!!!! Matt and I survived the Inca Trail, and we will proudly hang out certificates on the fridge with pride. (at least I will.) The few days we spent in Cusco before the trek we were bombarded with what Matt lovingly refers to as piranhas--people trying to sell you everything. Strangely, there were girls on every corner offering massages. It all made sense why as we were hiking up a beastly hill on day two of our incan adventure. We were both envisioning going back to Cusco and getting a massage. Which is exactly what I did today! And it only cost me 15 soles--about 5 us dollars! Matt chickened out last minute. I even offered to pay. So he sat in the lobby while I enjoyed a 60-minute full body massage.
Getting back to the hike: I dont think either of us had any real expectations, but I didn´t realize quite how hard it would be. There were 14 people in our group--europeans, australians, and two other americans. We had two tour guides and 20 porters. When they first told us we had 20 porters we wondered why so many. Then when we showed up to the first rest spot for lunch, and saw the set up, it made sense. There was a lunch tent, tables with table clothes, buckets with water for washing hands, chairs, and a three course meal. That continued for 3 days, except added to that at night were 7 two-person tents. We´d see little porters running up these mountains carrying HUGE packs weighing 25 kilos each; one porter even had a huge carton of eggs strapped to the top of his load. It´s quite a sight.
Our tour guide kept telling us that the first day was easy, and flat. It was the most messed up interpretation of ¨flat¨I´d ever seen. It was basically all up hill, but a gradual incline. We all told him the first night that he was a liar, so from then on he´d tell us it was ¨inca flat¨ which meant uphill. The second day was one big long mountain. Envision Chichen Itza with all of its stairs going streight up, then multiply that by about 6 hours. PAINFUL! They told us to use a technique of zig-zagging up the trail, which was only about 4 feet wide. It makes it easier, but you feel like drunkard the whole time. When we reached the top, the summit was at 4000 meters i think. We sat up there freezing to death (putting on all the clothes in our backpacks) watching other hikers reach the top. We´d cheer for them, and they´d respond with a scowl on their face, cursing. It was not a fun part of the hike. After I´d rested up there for a few minutes, I almost wanted to cry out of joy that the long up-hill was over.
Unfortunately, it was followed by another type of Hell: downhill. Think of hiking DOWN chichen Itza for 2 hours. It doesn´t take your breath away quite like hiking up, but it makes your joints hurt. That was the only part where I beat Matt. He just kept saying, wow I definitely inherited Dad´s ankles!
The next day was pretty similar. Instead of being easy, like the guides led us to believe, it was ¨inca flat¨and we did lots of up and down hill. We wanted to collapse by the end of day 3. We´d get to the campsite, and I would crawl into the tent and just lay there and do nothing for a few hours until dinner.
The food was amazing. Soup. Several main courses--orange chicken, shark, lasagna, pizza, chinese rice, etc. Desserts. On the last day, the cook even made a huge cake. One of the lunches they served us Jello. The british all claimed it was ¨jelly¨, the american sang the ¨j-e-l-l-o¨jingle, and the french all were afraid at this new dish they´d never seen before. Matt ended up eating the 3 bowls that they wouldn´t touch, and he practically flew up the mountain after all of that sugar.
One funny thing about Matt: he´s 100% dad´s son. He wouldnt talk the entire trip, until he got side by side with all this little peruvian porters. They were all practically best friends by the end. I found him in the tent one night learning quechua (the native language), and when we were introducing ourselves, he said, ¨i´m single. so if any of you have sisters or daughters, i´m available.¨ They responded, ¨do you have any sisters for us?¨ so everyone looked at me and laughed, even though I´d already mentioned i was getting married in a month. Then he said he had 3 other sisters, and that Amie even mentioned that she wanted a peruvian man for a souvenier. So one of our tourguides called Matt ¨cunado¨(brother in law) for the entire trek. He also hiked with one porter for several hours, which means very fast hiking. You´ll have to see the picture he took. The last night as we were eating, Matt was coughing. One of the porters said, ´¨you´re sick. hmm, what can we give you to heal you...¨ they discussed amongst themselves and decided on a solution. After we´d gotten into our tents, we heard a yell from outside: ¨mateo, ¨¿donde estas?¨ There was a porter outside our tent with an entire cup of fried garlic for him to eat, to cure him. It was pretty funny. He was pretty well cared for on the trip.
Here´s the end of the story. We woke up at 3:45 on the fourth day to hike to machu picchu. It´s a 2 hour hike--¨inca flat¨. That meant some stairs so steep you´re using your hands to get you up. We were in the jungle, hiking through a cloud. We couldn´t see anything. And then we arrived. You know the classic post'card shot of Machu picchu? We were there, and couldn´t see a thing. We sat for about 30 minutes, slightly depressed at all the hiking and the anticlimatic outcome.
Luckily, about 2 hours later, then sun came up, and the cloud lifted. We got a tour, and then walked around, in a lot of pain after all the previous hiking.
That´s our hike story. Not much on the actual ruins themselves, but maybe i´ll write more later. We´re glad to be alive. I thoroughly enjoyed my massage today. Next, we´re headed to Puno to see Lake Titicaca.
And congratulations on Andrew!
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