El Camino Inca

Hola todos! I survived!! Yes, I did hike 29 miles up and down steep mountains for 4 straight days....and I loved every second of it. For those of you who don't know...the Incan Trail is a 29 mile long trail with huge stairs up and down steep hills that leads from Kilometer 82 in Ollaytantambo (I think) all the way to Machu Pichu. We left for the hike on Saturday and made it to Machu Pichu on Tuesday! On Wednesday we walked around Machu Pichu...aka one of the seven wonders of the world. Pretty awesome. So here is how it went down.

DAY 1

We began the hike at kilometer 82 and judging by the first hill, we thought the rest would be pretty tough. We hiked for about 5 hours that day and finally made it to our campsite. On the way we stopped a few times, but Chrissy and I were jamming out to our Ipods and were beasting. Speaking of "beasting", we taught Rafo some English phrases (beasting being one of them) and it was so funny. We saw so many amazing mountains and cool views on the way! The most amazing thing about this day was the stars...the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my lifeeeee! Well one of them...the other one comes later in the trip! We all stared at the stars and then had dinner and went to bed...overall it was a great day :) 

DAY 2

Today there was the option of paying the porters to carry our packs. I wanted to save money and also wanted to prove to myself that I could carry my own bag on the day most notorious for being the hardest, so I did not buy a porter! We started the hike and after the first 6 minutes everyone was huffing and puffing. I somehow got in beast mode and was killing the uphills. We took a few breaks and then we were in the second hardest part of the day....hiking uphill through the forest. It was like a jungle and the stairs were so steep! We had been hiking up literally since 6:45am and it SUCKED, but for some reason I was in XC mode and was killing the trail. We took a break for about 45 mins after the forest and then hiked the last bit of the hill to "Dead Woman's Pass." Dead Womans Pass is the highest point on the Incan trail. After our break, we hiked up the hardest part of the mountain. It was about an hour and a half of straight uphill on dirt and rock with no shade....and GUESS WHAT....I came in first of anyone in the whole 40 person group who had on a pack. I was first with a pack and second overall. I even beat all of the guys....it was so fiunny. Making it to Dead Woman's pass gave me such a feeling of accomplishment. I have never done anything so physically challenging in my LIFE. We hiked uphill for 7 straight hours and we made it. After that we went back down hill for 1.5 hours and we were at camp! This day was the most difficult, but also the most rewarding.

DAY 3

Hmmm.... so there is not much to say about this day..other than the most beautiful view that I have ever seen (remember, I told you the other beautiful view came later in the hike). The actual hiking was not that bad, some uphilll, but mostly downhill and flat ground. The most important thing about this day was the campsite! We were literally on top of the world. There was a wall of fluffy white clouds underneath of us, barely covering the huge mountains across. We took pictures and then played some soccer against the porters. I was playing soccer in a cloud...pretty much the coolest thing ever. I was beasting all of the guys in soccer too, it was great :) Anyway, so after soccer we watched the sunset then looked at the stars....this time we were even closer to them...so close you could almost reach out and touch them it felt like. We could see the milky way and in the distance there was a storm cloud with lightning. SO AMAZING. I will never forget the view of that place...unebelievable.

DAY 4

Last day...YESSS. Ok so, I was not this happy on the actual last day of the hike. I was actually pretty grumpy and annoyed. For one thing, people were starting to get on my nerves, I didnt sleep much because of the cold, and I had not gone to the bathroom in 4 days because the toilets were literally a small hole in the ground. Needless to say you did not want to mess with me. That morning though, we woke up and saw the sunrise over the mountains....so cool :) We hiked downhill all day long and did riddles which made the time pass faster. When we finally got to Machu Pichu we were SOOOO HAPPYYY! We did it! We finally made it there. The last uphill was literally like an 85 degree angle....I was pretty much rock climbing. We took pictures and then went back to the hotel in Aguas Calientes! 

WE MADE IT! :)

So that is the basic summary of my hike! It was wonderful :) It was literally the best experience EVER. I reccommend that everyone does this at some point in their life. Some more random things that happened...THe cooks made me meals "sin leche" (without milk) and one time forgot and I almost ate something with cheese in it...SCARY! The guides, David and Mario were awesomeeeee! Every time we left Mario said "vamos a la playa!" which was so funny. We played games and sang songs and all bonded on this hike...I love everyone here and I am so in love with PERUUUU! :)