Cambiar Tú Vida: La aventura de mi vida

Cusco City

The plaza!

Watching the fog clear and the sun shine over the ancient hidden beautiful city of Machu Picchu was absolutely breathtaking! The anticipation built up over waiting an hour, after running up the final hill, after waking up at 3:30 am that morning, not to mention the three full days of walking before it, all was worth it! I'm ready to go back and do it again this week!

Sooo much stuff!

So we arrived in Cusco, Nov 1st in the afternoon to the Augustinian Padres house in Cusco. Where somehow, information was lost and no one had any idea who we were or why we were there, or that we wanted to stay there. But, luckily it all worked out, they welcomed us, gave us rooms, food, and great company for the weekend! Oh wait though, back up, first there was getting to the airport in Piura. Getting off the bus, there was a man behind me that kept bumping into me but more than the usual impatient Peruvian, so I didn't trust him, kept looking back at him, checking my backpack to make sure everything seemed zipped still. When then we go to get in the taxi and he's still super close to me, I set my big bag in the taxi then look back at the guy again right when I see him grab my wallet out of my backpack. Unlike the first time I got robbed in this country, I was not about to let another Peruvian get away with it. I instantly ran and grabbed him, putting him in a headlock, I yelled at him to give it back, grabbing my wallet from him, I let him go unharmed. Anyway, on Saturday the 2nd, one of my bestest friends from college, Courtney, arrived to Cusco to spend the week with us. That weekend, we explored, celebrated Day of the Dead mass in the cemetery, shopped, visited the beautiful cathedral, and enjoyed delicious food in my new favorite city in the world.

Hiking at altitude!

Monday the 4th starting at 4:30 am we started in a bus to the start of the Inca Trail for our four day hike at 2600 meters above sea level. After a freezing weekend we were greeted by the sun, with random rain sprinkles, and an overall easy day of hiking lasting until about 5:30 that afternoon. That night at 3000m, it poured the entire night, but the food was delicious and we started to get to know the group. Our group consisted of 16 trekkers, a couple from London, another one from Columbia, another from the USA, another from Sweden (and her sister), a couple from New Zealand, and a girl from Bulgaria. We had two guides and 21 porters along for the hike. The porters were amazing, not only did they carry all the food, tents, cooking supplies and half the peoples 20 kilo bags, they ran ahead of us to cook, set up, and make sure we were comfortable when we got to them at lunch and then again at dinner. They were all from outside the Cusco city walls, most had families to care for and doing this hike four times a month was good extra money for them. We sadly did not have a lot of interaction with them and being one of six that spoke spanish in the group they weren't use to the trekkers making conversation with them. However, our company, Peru Treks, emphasized several times that they take good care of their porters, we saw them eat at least something, and they slept in our eating tent, not in the hole in the ground bathrooms where we witnessed other posters sleeping. Overall, super humans these porters!

Our family, porters and all!

So many crazy stairs!

Day two was the hardest day, we began our up hill climb of 1200m to an altitude of 4200m. Dead Women's Pass was suppose to take us four and half hours, but Courtney and I impressed our guides and porters by doing it in two hours and fifty minutes. But, then we had to hike back down 600m of steep steep steep stone steps in the pouring rain. These were just a little bit slippery but we still made it down first at 2pm. Rested ate, and tried to survive the coldest night in the rain!

Terraces from a far!

Day three was my favorite day, but the longest. Day three included the last two smaller passes, several archeological cities along the way, beautiful waterfalls, and just the most amazing views of the mountains towering over us! We walked from 6:30 to 6:30 that day, down crazy "Gringo killer stairs," through the Andie rainforest, ending up at camp at 2700m. That night we had our final dinner as a group, met all the porters, and started mentally preparing for the final day at Machu Picchu.

Cusco cathedral

The next morning we woke up at 3:30 am, waited in line for the gate to open, then ran up the final large hill in 50 minutes to beat all the other groups to the sungate! After waiting an hour for the fog to clear we got the most enchanting view of Machu Picchu down below us! We slowly hiked down to the city, stopping to take lots of pictures and take in where we were. We then had the day to walk around, and get to know the city built on the side of a mountain. With only 40 percent of the city visible above land the other 60% is what has held city in place all these years through all the rain, earthquakes and time, The Inca's were amazing architects, engineers, astronomers, and agriculturalists. They made a run off system, irrigation canals, and thousands of terraces that worked like today's green houses. The Inca's had a population of 8 million people in the Cusco area before the Spaniards came and took over in the 16th century. By the time it hit 1 o'clock we were worn out and ready to head down to lunch in Aguas Caliente. This city was of course very touristy but super cute, we spent the afternoon shopping and walking around, before we took the train and bus back into Cusco.

The group waiting for the clouds to move!

Friday we went back to the Augustinian School to watch activities day, took a short walking tour, and a panoramic double decker bus tour. That night we went out with the awesome couple from the US, she's an Air Force pilot and just a huge ball of energy! They were super fun. Saturday I had to say goodbye to Courtney then we went and hung out with our tour guides from the trek. They won the local tourism soccer league so they were celebrating. We flew out early the next morning.