Arequipa was our first stop in Peru. We opted to skip Puno and the floating reed islands of Lake Titicaca because we kept hearing it wasn't worth the visit. So, we took an overnight bus directly from Copacabana, Bolivia to the city of Arequipa at the base of active Misti Volcano. We enjoyed spending a couple of nights there, touring the beautifully restored old city and sampling all the local fare. Arequipa was also the jumping off point for a trek we arranged to do in order to condition ourselves for Machu Picchu. We have done loads of hiking throughout our travels, but over the past month, we have spent way too much time in buses and cars, so we were feeling pretty out of shape and unprepared for our five days of trekking ahead!
So, from Arequipa, we caught at 3am bus to Cabanaconde--a town at the edge of Colca Canyon. The ride took us nearly seven hours, and when we arrived, we were warned it was a bit late to start the six hour trek down to the bottom of the canyon where we would stay the night. True to form, we ignored the warnings and started the steep descent into the second deepest canyon in the world. Colca Canyon is said to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon!
Although we had to race against the clock to reach the bottom before the sun set and the rains came, the journey was worth it. The path was lined with bouquets of wildflowers in vibrant yellow, purple, red and orange tones--offering an intoxicating scent the entire way down. Waterfalls cascaded down cliffs along the opposite side of the valley, and the distant rush of water from the river cutting its way through the floor of the canyon made for an enchanting soundtrack. Overhead, magnificent condors twirled and dove theatrically along the rim of the canyon.
By the time we reached the lodges in Sangalle Oasis, the sun had long since dipped below the mountain peaks above and the last light was being enveloped by the night. At face value, our lodge looked very nice; the property was covered in lush tropical greens, and a refreshing pool and waterfall made for an idyllic setting to rest our aching legs and feet. Then, we were shown to our room. The floor was made of dirt and stones, as were the walls. The ceiling was made of grasses and you could gaze out at the stars through massive gaps between the ceiling and the walls. When we returned from our dinner of instant mashed potatoes and rice, we flipped on the light and watched hundreds of pillbugs scurry for cover from the walls and floor. That night I slept in my silk sleep sack and covered myself from head to toe so no bugs could crawl into my ears and nose. By the grace of God, there were no bed bugs, and we woke the next morning without a single bug on us. Even so, we were eager to get out of there as quickly as possible, so, we woke at 5am to begin our 1100 meter ascent up and out of the canyon.
We hiked for the first 30 minutes by the light of our headlamps, but as the sun got closer to peeking over the mountains towering above, a soft morning glow lit the path. Graciously, the sun did not hit our section of the valley until the last 20 minutes of our grueling 2.5 hike out of the canyon via a seemingly endless collection of switchbacks and boulder stairways. We reached the top by 8am and were pretty proud of our accomplishment. The celebration was short lived as we hurried back into town to catch the first bus back to Arequipa. We needed to catch the 9am bus because the next bus would arrive too late for us to catch our night bus to Cusco. If you haven't picked up on the trend yet, we have taken a LOT of buses...especially night buses. The sleep isn't great on the buses, and the food is even worse, but it saves time and money by sleeping while you're moving, so it's an unavoidable reality of backpacking through South America.
We ended up arriving in Cusco about four days too early. Our thought was that we would do the Amazon tour from Cusco during our days leading up to our Inca Trail excursion. Obviously, I didn't do enough research to follow through with that plan...which is pretty much par for the course these days. The first half of our travels I had flights booked before we even left the states. I would always have a hostel booked before we arrived in a city and had a general idea of what we were going to see and do once we arrived. Now days, we book buses no more than a day out and flights no more than a week out; we show up to cities with no place to say, and not a clue what to do. It all works out in the end, so I guess it's not such a bad thing to wing it. Anyways, we arrived in Cusco and learned that the Amazon trip would be too long and too expensive to fit in before our hike, so that had to be nixed. Instead, we slowed down our pace and enjoyed multiple days exploring Cusco and the surrounding area. The lull in travel also afforded us the time to catch up on the blog (woohoo!!!), update resumes, write cover letters and start applying to jobs. Sounds pretty boring, but the elephant is in the room and he's getting bigger and bigger as each day passes, so it felt pretty good to start getting things in order for our return to reality!
Besides our mountain of paperwork, we rented scooters for a day and took a 215km loop through the Sacred Valley visiting an assortment of Incan ruins. It was a stunning ride...up until the sun set, the temperature dropped significantly and we still had a chilling, hour long return journey through the dark mountains and back into Cusco!!
Finally, the day of our Inca Trail hike arrived! We hadn't booked any travel plans for the second half of our travels, but the Inca Trail required booking back in December while we were housesitting in Abu Dhabi. The entire schedule of our travels was based on being in Cusco for our Machu Picchu hike, and it was finally here!! Although we were hiking during high season, we were lucky enough to end up in a group with only six of us. Other groups were hiking with 16-20 people, so we were happy to be experiencing the trail with less of a crowd. Because most backpackers don't plan their travel months in advance, we found the Inca Trail to be filled with older travelers or people who planned a two week vacation far in advance. Most of our fellow backpackers opted to do the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu because the number of passes per day is not limited like they are for the Inca Trail. For this reason, we ended up hiking with a pair of middle aged brothers and a couple around my parents' age. It was a nice change in conversation, since most of our conversations over the past 8 months have gone like this:
Where are you from?
How long have you been traveling?
Where are you visiting?
What did you do before you up and quit your job to travel?
What advice do you have for the next places I am going to travel to?
The conversation gets pretty old after awhile.
Full disclosure, I'm a bit embarrassed about our hiking experience to Machu Picchu. Don't get me wrong--I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do this epic trek, and the views were stunning each and every day. We were just SO pampered. Let me paint the picture for you. Each day, 500 passes to the Inca Trail are issued so that no more than 500 people can start the trail on each day. Of those 500 passes, only 200 go to actual tourists. The rest are all porters, chefs and guides! For our group of 6, we were assigned 10 porters, 2 chefs and a guide (and Blair and I didn't even hire an extra porter to carry our bags like most people do)! Seeing as we felt ashamed to have hired a porter to carry some of our stuff during our 12-day Everest Base Camp trek, this was just horrifying to us. The entire group of porters and chefs, dubbed the Red Army, would carry 25kg bags full of tents and equipment up ahead of us and have the entire camp set up before we arrived at the end of the day. This included a dining tent complete with linen covered table and chairs. We then proceeded to eat a 4-course gourmet meal. The following day, we would pack up our bags and head out to hike while the team took down camp, packed it in their bags and then proceed to pass us on the trail to set up lunch in this same dining tent further along the way. This was not camping--it was GLAMping! Sadly, this is the only way you can do the trail--they don't allow hikers to enter the trail without being part of one of these tour companies. Regardless of my embarrassment about the experience, Llama Paths did a fantastic job and I would definitely recommend their services to anyone thinking about doing the trail! Plus, the silver lining is that we helped to create jobs for more locals, and with a company that really takes care of their employees.
As far as the hiking itself, the first day was a pretty short and easy day, although very hot since we were still low in the valley. Along the way, we visited the Llactapata and Wayllabamba ruins. The second day was a long, 10-hour day complete with a climb over Dead Woman's Pass at 4250 meters, followed by a second 4000 meter peak that we had to summit before heading down to the campsite. I'm just glad we got that over with on the second day! The third day was the most beautiful, as it took us through the lush green cloud forest that entombs Machu Picchu. Along the way, we stopped to explore the Phuyupatamarca ruins. The hike ended at our camp sitting on a bluff that overlooked a stunning mountain range, glacier and was situated next to the breathtaking Winay Huayna ruins. We sat in awe as the sun set and the full moon rose overhead illuminating the camp in a soft white glow.
The fourth day was Machu Picchu day, so we woke at 3am to wait at the gate to the park. They say in the marketing materials that you get up so early so you can be to the Sun Gate in time for the sunrise. In reality, they wake you up and make you sit at the gate in the cold darkness for two hours so that the porters can tear down camp and hike to Aguas Caliente by 5am where catch the train back to Ollantaytambo. Once the gate opened, we hiked for an hour before reaching the Sun Gate--the first opportunity to view Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, the clouds were so thick that you couldn't see the ruins or any of the mountain peaks that surround the site. We started our trek down into the ruins with our fingers crossed that the clouds would clear as the day progressed.
Luckily, once we hiked below the clouds, we were rewarded with stunning views of the ruins and the surrounding peaks with mystical clouds rolling through the valleys!
We climbed the extra peak, Huayna (Wayna) Picchu, that winds through the cloud forest up steep Incan steps and into a series of buildings near the top. The top also offers spectacular views of the Machu Picchu site below, so we were excited when the clouds started to clear enough to get a look at the beautiful 360-degree panoramas!
The remainder of the day was spent exploring every inch of the Machu Picchu ruins. It rained on and off throughout the day, but never hard enough to ruin the experience. Although there were thousands of tourists visiting that day, this is one iconic site that lives up to the hype. The complexity of the construction is similar to an iceberg--for how massive and impressive the ruins are to the naked eye, the foundation and irrigation works below the surface dwarf what shows above the surface. The engineering feats that the Incans accomplished were ingenious for their time!
We stayed in the town of Aguas Caliente at the foot of Machu Picchu for a night so that we could spend a day hiking up Putucusi, a peak on the opposite side of the valley and overlooking the Machu Picchu park. Once we arrived at the trail head, we discovered that I had planned this trek off of outdated information. The first thirty feet of ladder leading up the cliff had been removed to deter hikers from continuing on because the trail was in such disrepair. This technique worked for most hikers, but Blair opted to ignore the warnings and use the rope hanging down to climb the thirty feet up to the ladder above. So, I got to sit at the bottom for an hour and a half while he climb the mountain. I tried to make it up as well, but my scrawny arms wouldn't allow it!
From the top of Putucusi, Blair looked down on Machu Picchu and the switchback road leading up the mountainside.
We departed Cusco en-route to Lima once we returned from Machu Picchu. We again took an overnight bus and enjoyed two days in Lima. We had heard many negative things about the city, so we didn't expect to have much fun, but we were pleasantly surprised upon arrival. The young and trendy Miraflores neighborhood was close to the coast and had a great selection of delicious restaurants. We also had beautiful weather for enjoying the boardwalk along the ocean cliffside.
On our second day, we toured the city center where all the historical buildings dwell.
From Lima, we started on a long, arduous journey overland up to the border of Ecuador, across the border and up to Quito. We had miscalculated just how massive of journeys these legs were by bus, so we took back to back buses, stayed one day in Quito, Ecuador, took another bus over the border into Colombia and then another bus up to Cali, Ecuador. When all was said and done, we had spend 54 of the last 80 on buses and had missed all of Ecuador except for the city of Quito. It was a bit disappointing that timing didn't work out better, but we would certainly like to return and do Ecuador right at some point! What we saw of the country was beautiful, and since it is relatively small, it's pretty easy to experience a huge variety of landscapes in short distances!
