Cusco to Machu Picchu.

Day 1

Rice bag locked and loaded with necessities, we met the group in the reception and took off for a much anticipated adventure. Instantly the scenery changed from houses on the hills to crazy looking agriculture overlooking the Andes. The roads twisted and turned like a zoom zoom Mazda commercial, except more extreme. The colors of the mountains were pure green and looked like god molded these shapes with clay. The altitude we were at meant grass could grow all the way up the mountains and a vital sign nature was looking good. The steeper the mountain the harder the Inca’s would work to plant agriculture or help prevent flooding’s in their town. The steeper the peak, the smaller the cut in land they would dig. This small flat spots on the mountains would spiral all the way up to the top and looked like something from Dr. Seuss. These small cuts would capture running water so when monsoon rains came; it wouldn’t all rush down to the small villages. They were pure genius and hundreds of years in the making.

As we climbed up the mountains more and more random rivers would pop out. At one point you could see 10 small rivers rushing down the mountains racing towards the Amazon. Truly unreal. Up above the green mountains you could see larger mountains soaring over, exposing snow and bright white glaciers. Below this shear terror was dark shadows contrasting an unknown world. I felt like I was on a quest with Frodo to save the world and we haven’t even left the car yet.

A few hours in we reached the peak. We were in the middle of a cloud and freezing. What I forgot to mention is we were going to ride bikes down this mountain. We geared up with elbow pads, racing helmets and we jetted off. Single file lines we took these roads by storm. Only thing you needed to worry about was the breaks on the bike. Only time you would peddle was if you wanted to go faster. The scenery was similar to what I explained earlier except we were riding the bikes on the other side. All of the mountain water would flood over the roads on each section. This meant riding as fast as you can through this river. Each time I would try and save my Nike’s by lifting up my legs to the sky but always backfired and just got my whole body wet. This awesome ride took us down 2000 meters from freezing to the jungle.

Right when we thought the adventure was over a road construction block stopped us. One lady holding a stop sign and that was it. Our group was here first and soon realized the block wouldn’t be open for us until 6 pm. It was 1 pm. Before you knew it, car after car pilled up. Then before you knew it a large protest of locals started to complain to this worker. Few minutes later some boss came up with a hard hat on and explained that we couldn’t get through. At this point there’s about 60 locals pissed and a bunch of bike rider gringos playing hacky sack in the road. The locals asked us to help strike so we all joined in chanted shenanigans. It broke me back to college I must say. Finally a construction truck pulls and wants to get out. Only problem we are blocking them…and chanting “let us through”. I almost got Arve to lie down in front of the truck but he refused. What a pussy Arve, come on. The boss gave in and we won the protest. We all cheered and got in the car as fast as we could. Good thing, cause who knows what a bunch of tourist would have done if we couldn’t have gotten through…most likely just practice our Spanish and join some Peruvian flute band…But who knows! It could have gotten out of control with us!

Once again we thought the day was over. We got some great Peruvian lunch and the guide said we had about one hour of walking up hill in the jungle to where our rooms were. Best part is one of the girls in the group has never been camping, nonetheless hiked through a trail. I grabbed my rice bag and turned it into a backpack by putting my arms through the straps. Not the most comfortable but the most efficient. We climbed up winding through random villages and stopping often to try random fruit I’ve never seen and familiar ones like Passion Fruit trees. My favorite was all of the chili plants that were scattered around. The plants were very small and packed with a punch when you bite the tips. My mom would have loved this.

We reached the top to this local house where we were staying that night. One room had about 10 beds in it and felt like summer camp. We had a super fun group so this was an ideal situation. We changed and headed back downstairs for some much needed dinner.

Day 2

Woke up to monsoon rains flooding the campsite! Got ready with my garbage bag holding my rice bag and my newly bought shitty poncho that looked like it had rain in it already. Grabbed breakfast and bought a bag of coco leafs. Its exactly what you think it is but you grab a handful of leafs and put it in your mouth like a chew. Every once and a while you chew on it and before you know it your wired and ready to hike a mountain. Every local has a bag of this energy. Since I was a local I also had a larger bag of this power.

The trek began and we all headed out. Today was a “long” day of trekking the Inca trail. The hike to me was considered an average hike; to some others it was kind of difficult. Nonetheless, the scenery was outstanding. It overlooked an Amazon like river that was rushing rapids from start to finish. The color of the river was muddy red and something you wouldn’t want to jump into unless you wanted to commit suicide. As we hiked up and down random stairs we would stop constantly to take photos. If you were afraid of hikes, this trail is not for you. One wrong step and you fall a thousand feet into that river. One of the stops consisted of our guide giving us a history class lesson for about a half our. All information I had no idea about the Inca’s and truly amazing what they have done over the past thousands of years. The most thrilling part is how they just recently discovered the exact Inca trail we were hiking. In 2000, a flood came and wiped out all of the villages. The only way for transportation was hiking over the mountains. The Inca’s remembered there great ancestors built a trail through the mountain. This was the trail we were on! What I also didn’t know is the Inca trail branches from Ecuador to Chile. Crazy Incas!

This was the halfway point for the day and our guide asked everyone if they wanted to go the easy way or the hard way. We opted out for the easy way. He said the easy way had a railroad like cart that would cross over the river. We all agreed.

As we hiked down towards the river we hiked across a bridge and soon saw this massive cable cart that was high in the sky. The guide pointed to it and said there was the cart! We hiked back up this trail that brought us the entrance of cable cart. The cart was about 6 feet x 4 feet wide and had a pulley system built in so whoever was on the other side could pull you across while you hold on to your shorts. Luckily there was a random worker that was posted up. The first group was Matilda and Emilia. Our guide pulled them back and pushed them as hard as he could over this large 3 or 500 ft drop. They disappeared into the abyss! Next thing you knew, they were across in about a minute. Next up was Chad and I. I was pretty exited about this but Chad mentioned he was afraid of heights. I told our guide to push us as hard as he could and got another person to help push. We launched out, both laughing but also holding onto the railings because this cart wasn’t just moving forward but a little sideways. You look down and see the crazy red rapids rushing and think about falling into it. Soon enough the cart slows down at halfway point and all of a sudden you start to get pulled by the other worker. That slight jolt wasn’t very pleasant.

We all made it safe and sound! Exhausted we kept walking towards this large modern town. A town I don’t remember but was surrounded by the Andes. Our group got together and headed out for dinner. After dinner the guide bought Tequila shots for everyone and congratulated us for day 2. Supposedly this was a party town. Half of the group wanted to rage that night while me, Arve, Chad and the Norwegians decided to hang out on the roof and play Yatzi. That night we all bonded and was one of the funniest nights I’ve had on my trip.

Day 3

Zip line tour! Wahoo. We jumped in the vans and they took us to this zip-lining extravaganza down the hill. Half the group looked like they were dying from there hangover and then there was us 100% and ready to rock. Usually it’s the opposite but for these types of treks that doesn’t happen. We got dropped off and got harnessed up and a slight briefing before we hiked up the jungle to start the zip line. Each person got this weird leather hand break that you put on the cable when you go to fast, while the other hand just hangs out. This day consisted of 6 zips down the mountain. None of which were scary, just fun. Each zip you change up your moves. One of them was hanging upside down like a monkey. You lean back before you go and cross you legs so you head is looking at the ground. Then the guide pushes you. The next one was “superman” pose where you get linked up with the guide and you just extend you body like your flying. This was awesome.

After our zip-lining we started to hike once more towards Machu Picchu. We found the notorious railroad and followed it up the hill. We were on the backside of Machu Picchu so you couldn’t see any of the ruins except a few agriculture farms. We followed this trail about 10 or 15 kilometers and ended up in the main town where people stay at before Machu Picchu. I have no Internet right now and can’t look up the name. This town was one of my favorites. They built the entire town around these crazy large rapids. Small bridges scattered across the whole town so you could easily walk across and the train that came right through the town. The town had amazing coffee and food stores filled with tourist mentally preparing themselves for the one and only. That night we ate dinner and had a short briefing for Machu Picchu. We were at the bottom and had two options to get to the top: walk up 2000 large stone stairs straight up the mountain or take a bus. Either way, you had to wake up very early. Since this was the case we got boxed breakfast lunches and said to meet at the entrance at 6 am. No later. The girls opted out for the bus and the guys opted out for waking up at 3:30 am to get some coffee and hike this son of a bitch.

Day 4

3:30 came around and we grabbed our food, coffee and headed to the bottom entrance that opens at 5 am sharp. Our main goal was to beat everyone up top who took the bus. The guide said the average person takes one hour to climb and some can do it faster. Right when the gates opened each tourist started to climb as fast as they could to the top. Before you knew it, people were huffing and puffing. There were lots of complaining and some serious pussies. Our group separated pretty fast. This was mainly because other groups would be going slow and hard to pass them. Chad took the lead and bypassed everyone, while I was playing catch up from some British kids who were dragging me down. Finally let loose and got ahead of everyone. Huffing and puffing stormed up this mountain. This experience was quite surreal because I’ve wanted to go here for so long. The trek up was by myself and felt like I was hiking up with Incas thousands of years ago. The beginning of the trek was dark so headlamps were necessary. As I got closer and closer up, the sharp cone like mountains exposed themselves with thick mystical clouds moving in and out of them. This time I truly felt like I was in Lord of the Rings and was saving the world. I didn’t stop once on this trek and felt like I was going to die when I made it up top. My hole body was covered in cold sweat and the only other person up top was Chad. We both made it up top in 30 minutes and beat all of the Machu Picchu workers who had to be there at 5:30 for work. We beat everyone else by at least 15 minutes. Soon enough, right at 6 the tourist bus showed up and the line to Machu Picchu began. This journey up the stairs was crazy enough and we still haven’t gone inside or climbed the mountains inside the ruins.

Group got together and we entered Machu Picchu. Four days in and our goal is finally being reached and moments away. We entered some cobblestone gate and boom; Machu Picchu was starring at all of us. At this point, the whole ruins were covered with fog and the main stuff you couldn’t see.  We were the first group in and saw the shear power of these ruins. Our guide sat us down and started to talk history of how they built this thing. Though, no one actually knows how they built it, they have some assumptions that they spread to us to educate some ideas. While the lesson was going on the fog was moving fast and minutes later the whole valley was exposed! Moments later it disappeared again. We walked around the whole place and got all the main details from our guide. Our guide was truly a guide and knew his stuff about the Incas and really believed in the cause. Two hours in the guide ended. We applauded him and thanked him for everyone.

The rest of the day was up to us to explore. There were two mountains to climb. One was Machu Picchu and the other was Whapicchu (spelling wrong). Whapicchu was the most common one and had the most picturesque view of the ruins while Machu Picchu mountain was high up in the mountains and another 2 hour hike straight up. When we signed up for the trek Whapicchu was already full so we opted for Machu Picchu. We ate lunch and decided to hike this mountain…again. Never to this day thought it would be harder than the morning climb but it was. I would say 6000 stairs up this mountain. We counted 30 people who signed in when we checked in. At least 20 of them turned around as we were hiking and said it wasn’t work it because they couldn’t see anything. This was true because we were hiking in a cloud and no visibility was found. The discouragement from these lazy people didn’t keep us from climbing up the top. Though it took longer, we made it up. The pictures show cloud but we made it!

Arve, Chad and I hung out up top for a few hours, hopefully waiting for the clouds to pass. There was a huge flag up top that we all tagged our names into. Every once and a while the clouds would move and an opening to the city and large rapids could be seen. This was all cool but Machu Picchu was in the other direction. In the meantime, Arve made a time capsule for his family. He ran around trying to find a place to hide it for when he comes back with his siblings. He ended up digging a whole and placing rocks over some secret spot. Watch out Arve, I know where you hid it!

Finally the clouds opened up and we snapped a few photos and made our way back down the mountain. The closer we got the better visibility of the ruins we got. By the time we got there, it was sunny and could see everything!

Unreal experience and something words and photos don’t even come close to capturing. I took so many photos my camera died and had to snap photos in my mind. The day was exhausting and my whole crew decided to head back down to town to wait for our train ride back to Cusco…which left at 9:30 pm.

Hung out in town for the rest of the day drinking coffee and playing yatzi. This was a whole new group of friends that seemed like were best friends after this trip. Once again, a trip I will never forget and can’t wait to go back with my brother to show him the shear beauty of Peru.