T’s Birthday Hike to Machu Picchu!

March 5 - We were originally scheduled to hike The Inca Trail all the way to Machu Picchu from March 6-March 9. Every year, I like to travel somewhere if I can for my birthday, and since this year we are traveling full time, I wanted to choose something especially memorable, but also challenging. Since I'm turning 30, I want to ensure my 30's can stand up to my 20's. 

Peru's rainiest months are January and February, so the earliest you can safely hike The Inca Trail is early March. Late February was particularly rainy this year, and it caused landslides, one of which completely covered part of the trail, making it impassible. The government wisely chose to deny entry to all groups on the trail. Fortunately, as we learned, there are over 20,000 miles of Inca Trail from all the way up in Ecuador down to Chile. Guiding Peru, the company we were doing this through, promptly contacted me to see if we had any flexibility in changing our dates. Since they had to rebook everyone, we would have a higher chance of getting both permits into Machu Picchu and to climb the mountain overlooking it, Wayna Pikchu, if we could change it. We were able to push it forward one day to begin on the 5th. 

Originally the plan was to hike all day and camp every night until we arrived at Machu Picchu. The new plan was a bit of an upgrade, though not quite as challenging. We would still go on hikes every day but not for as long, and we would get to stay with a local for the first night then in a hotel every night.

Today we woke up around 8:00, ate breakfast, packed our bags, and were picked up by 9:15. Our group was much smaller than anticipated, but we prefer smaller tours so we were happy about it. It was just us and a Norweigan couple who also changed their dates, our guide, driver, and two porters. We drove about an hour and a half to the start of our new trail, Huchuy Qosqo Trek. The scenic drive took us across multiple mountains and farms. We even had to wait for sheep to pass a few times. 

The trek still proved to be challenging. During the initial ascent, a part of the trail was about the width of my foot and consisted of loose gravel. The dropoff would've been deadly, and I thought to myself "maybe I won't see 30" as I cautiously made my way across it. The rest of the trek wasn't nearly as dangerous. The views were absolutely stunning. It seemed like each turn we rounded we were in someplace even more beautiful. It was easy to see why the area is considered sacred. 

The peaks and valleys were dramatic with defined ridges, lush with green grass and speckled with bright yellow wildflowers. After about an hour and a half of hiking, we made it to the official start of the trail, marked by a large, ancient stone Incan doorway, which symbolized we were entering a sacred place. We had hiked up and down and around mountains and now we found ourselves in a canyon with stonier cliffs on each side and a river running through the middle. After making our way through the canyon, we walked straight up for another 45 minutes or so to a lookout point over a town in the valley well below us, and ate lunch. The mountains were green again and the flowers were back.

After lunch we continued for another two hours or so until we made it to one of many ancient cities in the area. We passed through the gatekeeper's room, which was still intact except for the roof, walked down a hill to a large field. From the field, we could see a few different terraces with many buildings constructed with interlocking reddish stone. Our guide explained the history of the area, we walked around for a few minutes, then hiked for another 15 or 20 minutes to our homestay. 

While we were rounding our final corner, we looked back at the ruins, and only then did we realize just how impressive the terraces and constructions were from far away. When you're in the area or approaching from the other side, you can't see how many gridlike terraces there are and the scale of them. After admiring it, we continued up the mountain, though some gardens, and then to the property. Gardens were everywhere, small white stone buildings were scattered around, and we were greeted by our hostess, Irena, who blew a sheep's horn as a welcome to us all while we entered her property and she escorted us into the main house.

We sat around the kitchen table and drank mint tea while Irena prepared corn on the cob with fresh cheese. Coming from Nebraska, we thought we knew a thing or two about corn on the cob, but we discovered Peru has been doing it right this whole time. Their corn kernels are about 3 times the size of ours, and because of that, nothing gets stuck in your teeth! We ate our snack and an affectionate orange and white Tabby cat accompanied us. 

After we ate the corn, we had about 2 hours to wander around the property before dinner. We were shown to our rooms to put our stuff away. The other couple and G and I had our own little one-room huts, a white stone house-shaped structure with a thatched roof and dirt floor, decorations on the walls and a colorful comforter on the bed. We relaxed for a while; G was so moved by the beauty and simplicity of the place that he wrote this short poem:

To be fully alive and find in the world all that is secret and beautiful.

Secret only because it must be sought out by those willing to dare and risk danger and pain.

For those, this beauty opens itself fully and grants life, momentously, terrifyingly sweet.

So precious for it cannot be captured.

A hidden kingdom within the toils of life.

A world that only exists for the curious wandering soul that drinks fully all the marvels of each passing moment. 

After G wrote this, we wandered around, found the cows, a pig, and pet the cat again, then went back to the main house. Dinner was quinoa soup, rice, chicken, and vegetables. We all chatted for a while after dinner then retired early because we had an early morning ahead of us and a new decade waiting for me.

March 6 - Whenever we know we need to wake up early, one or both of us will wake up earlier than needed. This morning was no different. Around 5:30, I was awakened by a half-asleep G who sweetly wished me "happy birthday" then drifted back off to sleep. We woke an hour later, packed our bags, and met the rest of the group in the kitchen for a breakfast of veggie omelets, roasted corn, coffee, tea, and toast. After we finished breakfast, Irena escorted us out and blew the sheep horn again to wish us luck on our travels. 

What goes up must come down. Today was all downhill. After about 2 hours, and G's toenail hanging on after he stubbed it pretty badly, we made it back down to the valley where the van and some bikes were waiting for us. There was a small field of orange coneflowers filled with a dozen or more florescent green hummingbirds flitting around. We all ate a snack, put on a safety vest, helmet, and biked away on the dirt road. The path was adjacent to the river with the mountains on each side. G and I biked for about 45 minutes where we all stopped at a small town. We could either continue biking for another hour and a half or stay in the van. Since we didn't pack cooler clothes to change into in our day pack, G and I opted to chill in the van. 

After the bike ride, we drove to an Andean bar in the middle of nowhere to try a local specialty, corn beer. After playing a game of trying to throw coins into a small metal frog's mouth (only our bus driver succeeded) we went into the bar area that had large clay pots on one side of the room, a table on the other, and the back wall had a boiling pot and a guinea pig house next to it, full of over a dozen guinea pigs running around awaiting their fate. We learned how to make the beer. Soak the corn until it sprouts, boil it for about 40 minutes, then strain it and leave it for 30 hours. We tried the regular corn beer and the strawberry-infused. I let everyone know it was my birthday. We clinked glasses and drank a little more corn beer. It wasn't bad. 

Then we drove about 15 minutes to a restaurant for a buffet lunch. After eating, we drove a couple of hours to our next small town we were going to stay in. It was still only the afternoon so we had a little while 'til dinner. Since we hadn't showered in a few days, we seized that opportunity. We did a little laundry, I did a pushup circuit workout, and eventually, it was dinner time. At dinner, it was just us and the Norweigan couple. We ate a delightful meal prepared by the hotel. I had a salad, trout, risotto, and vegetables, and a type of cream cannoli for dessert, and G ate potato soup, beet ravioli stuffed with mushrooms, and chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, we and our new friends ventured out to the small town square and had a couple birthday drinks, walked around town, then went back to the hotel. It was a lovely way to end my 30th birthday.

March 7 - With our new trek schedule, we didn't have to leave until 10:00, so G and I slept in until 9:00, packed, ate breakfast, then headed out with the group. Our porters left us after our bigger hike. We drove for about 45 minutes up the mountains up to some other ruins. We climbed a large hill to the empty, unkempt, deserted ruins. Our guide explained that Machu Picchu is the best-taken care of ruins, but there are old cities everywhere, and the one we were at was likely built even before the Incan rule. We wandered around the old city, which took up a big portion of the hillside, and we appreciated that we were the only group there. We were going to go back to the van then drive to another path, but the van was gone, so our guide had to improvise. 

He said we'd need to make it up to a wide path on the side of the mountain, take it around, then down to the van. However, he was unfamiliar with this area, and that's not what happened. We stumbled through a farm, walked through bushes (realizing today wasn't a good day to wear shorts), and eventually found the road, but it didn't take us where we thought it would. We did, however, gain a new hiker, a farm dog. We ended up spending a few hours hiking through other farms. At one point, we lost the group and had to wait for the guide to come back because we weren't sure which way they went since we hadn't been staying on a path the whole time. Once we met up again we had a stop a couple other times for our guide to try to figure out where to go. Eventually, we found a very, very tall, overgrown, Inca stairwell, that had probably around 1,000 stairs. Our driver managed to find us and was waiting at the bottom of the hill. After we descended the stairs, we made our way to the van and said goodbye to the dog who had stuck with us through it all. 

We drove back to the town where we ate lunch then were dropped off at the train station, where we would board a train destined for Machu Picchu. While waiting, we listened to an extremely talented local musician play a pan flute and recorder to some music in the background. 

The train took about 2 hours to get to Machu Picchu. About halfway through we could easily see the elevation drop by the thick jungle that appeared. Once we arrived, we checked in to our hotel then met with our guide for dinner. We set plans to leave the hotel at 7:00 the next morning and went back to the hotel for the night. 

March 8 - The time had come to finally visit the one, the only, Machu Picchu. We awoke at 6:00, packed, ate breakfast quickly, then met our guide in the lobby and left after leaving our packs with the hotel luggage room. We walked down to the bus station where we waited in line for about 20 minutes. Then we took a bus about 30 minutes straight up to the world wonder. Until this point, we had not seen Machu Picchu. It's truly a hidden gem in the mountains.

The government has done an excellent job regulating the number of visitors to prevent overcrowding. Only a certain number of people are allowed in every two hours. Our tour began at 8:00. We checked in, and raced about 5-10 minutes to one of the best viewpoints, and since we were some of the first ones there, the views were spectacular. Situated on the middle of a mountain, surrounded by other mountains, some with glaciers on top, were the remnants of the historic city of Machu Picchu. We understood what our guide had meant when he said it was the best-taken care of. We took some photos then toured through the ruins, taking in everything as we went. It does live up to its hype.

Since we also had tickets to climb Wayna Pikchu, we needed to exit the site, then re-enter with our other tickets. We had to be at the mountain by 11:00 and we ended our tour late so we raced through the site to be there by 10:45. The way up only took about 40 minutes but the elevation climb was intense. Toward the top, it was more or less a ladder and requires strength and coordination. The views were incredible. I didn't think Machu Picchu would look so small from the top of that mountain, it didn't seem like it was that far away from below. But, we could see the entire site and all the mountains surrounding it and the river below. After taking in the views and spending some time at the top with our Norweigan friends, we rushed to descend and then exit the site again because we needed to catch our train by 2:30, and G and I still had our packs at the hotel.

We played "sneaking", as dubbed by one of our Norweigan friends, AKA: sneaking by as many people as possible, and I've got to say, we did pass dozens of tourists and probably took the bus much earlier than we otherwise would have. During our bus ride, the clouds began to roll in. We were very lucky with the weather. The entire night before it had rained, and once we left, it rained again.

We made it to the train station on time, ate some snacks, and boarded the train. G and I passed out for the majority of the ride back. When we arrived back at the small town, we were surprised to see our guide. He was supposed to leave on an earlier train, but it had been cancelled. So, he walked with us to the van and rode with us on the hour and a half ride back to Cusco where we were dropped off away from our hostel. G and I were a little frustrated when our guide said "it's around the corner" but wouldn't tell us which one. We found it without issues though. The papa rellena stand was in the same spot, so, of course, we had to eat one. This time an egg was in the middle, which was really good.

We weren't ready to say goodbye to our new friends so we agreed to get dinner together at an Indian restaurant. We had a lovely time eating great food and talking for a while. Then it was time to say goodbye. Hopefully we will see them when we go to Norway. G and I walked back to our hostel and went to sleep early.

-T