Trekking Machu Picchu

AU takes Machu Picchu

Trying to explain this trip to people after it was over felt somewhat impossible. 4 days of hiking and camping in the Peruvian jungle was unlike anything I had experienced or expected it would be. There’s no way I can convey how extraordinary this trek was, but hopefully these pictures will give you a glimpse into one of the best weeks of my life.

DAY 1

Our first day on the trail was relatively relaxed – it was pretty flat with only a few uphill sections to get us acclimated to hiking with our packs and again, the altitude. Our guides wanted to get a sense of our group’s pace, so for most of the morning/ afternoon we walked along at a pretty slow and steady pace.

The first ruins we saw along the trail

The group was composed of 15 hikers, 2 guides, 2 cooks, and 18 porters. A word about the porters – these are incredible humans.  They carried everything except for our clothes and sleeping bags and still outpaced us daily on the trail. They would wake up before us, cook breakfast, serve us, clean up after us, tear down camp, pass us on the trial, and then have lunch/dinner/ our campsite set up and ready by the time we got there. I don’t think any of us could convey or emphasize our gratitude enough to these people – they were unbelievable.

The group and porters

Our campsite the first evening was really nice – complete with soft grass and moderate temperatures. The sun set by about 5:30 or so and it was dark by 6:30, so once we had settled into our campsite it was pretty much dinner and bed by 8. Each morning, though, when we were woken up at around 5 AM (with cocoa leaf tea brought to our tent by the porters – again, incredible people), the sun was already up and bright.

Campsite night 1

DAY 2

The second day of the trail can really just be described as stairs and uphill, with some stairs and downhill at the end. It was pretty tough – we climbed over the first of 3 peaks that we would pass during our hike, reaching our highest altitude of 13, 776 ft. It was a long day (we had not one but two breakfasts), but eventually we made it to the top! The weather changed from sunny to rainy to just surrounded by clouds several times over the course of the hour or so we spent at the top, but the views and satisfaction of what we had accomplished were certainly worth the cold.

Day 2 didn't look so bad at the beginning

What most of day 2 really was

Views from the peak

Mixed emotions about the peak

That afternoon, we had another two hour walk downhill – mostly stairs – to our second campsite of the trip which was arranged in a terraced set-up. Since we were at the highest altitude of our trip, it was the coldest night we faced. However, our tour guides made us a nice warm drink before we headed to bed that helped take the edge off the cold. It was also a beautifully clear night and the stars were unbelievable. 

Campsite night 2 - peep the waterfall behind us

DAY 3

Our third day on the trail was hands down my favorite day of hiking during our trek. Though it was also the longest day distance-wise, after we passed the second two peaks the trail was relatively flat making for a nice trail walk. Our lunch spot had a beautiful lookout over several valleys, and we made a few llama friends along the way. We were also able to wander through several sets of Incan ruins, and got a sneak peek at what Machu Picchu would be like the following day. We were all amazed that the ruins were so well preserved after so many years – it was difficult to imagine that they are dated back to the 16^th century!

One of several ruins sites we encountered during the day

Hiking views

Cheesin' with Darcy

Cheesin' with the llamas

Really impressive ruins close to our campsite

Lots of steep stairs

DAY 4

On our final day of the trek, we woke up bright and early (2:45 am!) to get in line at the final check point before Machu Picchu. Every morning on the hike after we left our campsite we would pass through a small check point where they stamped our papers, however on the last day, from the checkpoint to the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu, it’s a literal race of who can get there first between the 200-300 campers waiting in line. Though we were first in line, we were not prepared for the 5 km sprint from the checkpoint to the Sun Gate. As our guides took off running and we kept up as best we could with our backpacks, I genuinely felt as if every run I had ever done in my life was in preparation for this moment.

Line to sprint to the sun gate!

Sun coming up over Machu Picchu!

Though arguably one of the most high-pressure situations I've ever been in (this sounds dramatic but you weren’t there I’m serious), our group was the first to make it up to the sun gate so we had some nice time to sit and enjoy watching the sun come up over Machu Picchu. After this, we had about an hour long walk down to the ruins themselves where we spent the morning wandering around one of the wonders of the world.

The biggest surprise for me was just the sheer size of the ruins themselves. I know this applies to pretty much everything but there is absolutely no way a picture could convey how big and stunning Machu Picchu is. It is an entire city built into a hill with one half used for agriculture and the other used for living and public spaces. The ruins were also packed – in high season they see about 6,000 visitors a day – and it was very clear who had hiked 4 days to get there and who had taken the train up for the day. There isn’t much that I have to say other than that it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, and the week was an experience unlike any other.

Our hiking group at the ruins

Llamas everywhere!

Needless to say, coming back to finals and presentations was a little rough, however somehow we all survived the end of the semester and just like that our time in Chile was about over. In the next week or so I hope to put up one more post talking about some end of the semester travels as well as a few final reflections on my first semester abroad, but also, to all of those that have been following these posts and keeping up with me over the last 5 months, thank you!! These posts have been a welcome and enjoyable outlet for my English throughout a Spanish filled semester, and I hope they have been a nice glimpse for you into some of the most wonderful experiences I have been lucky enough to have. 

Tired but happy

Cusco, Peru & Rainbow Mountain

Views from our hike to Rainbow Mountain, Peru

              Apologies for the silence on this page in the last month or so – between our trip to Peru, finals, and some end of the semester travels, I’ve been too busy experiencing new things to catch up on writing about them. So, the good and bad news: bad – yesterday I officially departed from Chile after nearly 5 months in such a wonderful country and I will miss it very very much (more to come in a separate post); good – I have had all sorts of travel and airport time to catch up on my writing *and* I am coming home to family and friends – can’t wait to see so many of you and catch up!

              This will be the first of two posts about our recent trip to Peru (the next one will include our hike to Machu Picchu) but here I just want to talk about the incredible city of Cusco and our “warm-up” hike day. For a little background: back in mid-August, 5 other friends and I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a week-long trip to Peru 5 days after our San Pedro trip and right in the middle of our final projects and exams at school. Needless to say, academically it wasn’t our smartest idea however educationally (notice the difference here) going to Peru was one of the best decisions we have made all semester.

              Before taking off on our Machu Picchu trek, the company we organized the trip through required that we arrive to Cusco two days before the start of the hike to acclimate to Peru’s altitude. Cusco, Peru is located at 11,150 ft. and is literally situated in the middle of the mountains. We were dropped off in the main downtown plaza where, according to research we’d done before, people passed out on average every hour due to the altitude. Thankfully none of us fainted, however we were all lightheaded and breathing a little heavier than we should have been after walking up the little hill to our hostel.  

We stayed in the historic district of the city, complete with beautiful white and blue adobe buildings and brown brick and wooden structures giving the city plenty of charm. First of all, much like our time in Argentina, Peruvian Spanish is pristine in comparison to Chilean Spanish so we enjoyed being able to easily understand everyone during our stay. The downtown district is pretty touristy, however the city itself is huge. During our first afternoon in the city we walked around to get a feel for the town and local culture, taking it pretty easy as we could feel our bodies having to adjust to the altitude.

Cusco from above

Cusco's main plaza

Typical historic district architecture

Cusco, Peru

Our second day in Peru, my friend Michael and I decided to trek to a place called Rainbow Mountain about three and a half hours outside of Cusco. Unfortunately for them, we couldn’t convince anyone else to come with us, mostly due to the fact that we had to leave at 3:30 AM (but had a 3 hour bus ride to sleep more) and it basically turned our 4-day hiking trip into 5, but they missed out because the views from the hike were unreal.

Views from the start of our hike

The hike started at about 14,200 ft. and neither of us could say that we had really adjusted to the altitude yet, so that was certainly our biggest challenge throughout the day. Luckily, the views were incredible and there were plenty of alpacas to keep us company, so we managed. Here is a sample of our views on the way up:

            The last part of the hike was certainly the most challenging as the peak that we climbed to was at 16, 520 ft. and neither of us had hiked at that altitude before. For about the last 200 feet climbing up, we would literally count out 30 steps walking, stop to breathe for a minute or two, and then do another 30 because our bodies just didn’t have enough oxygen to go further all at once. My head was spinning and I was certainly feeling the nauseous effects of altitude sickness (Michael had taken 3 altitude sickness pills at this point in time), but nonetheless we made it to the top and immediately forgot how oxygen-deprived and sick we felt because we were looking out on these views:

First glacier I'd ever seen!

            Needless to say, the day was a challenge but well worth the slight oxygen deprivation that accompanied it. We were also both much more prepared altitude-wise for our Machu Picchu trek than the rest of our group, so I would call it a success. This hike also happened to be on the same day as Thanksgiving in the U.S., so we met up with the rest of our friends for dinner and found a local Peruvian restaurant in Cusco and did Thanksgiving expat style – complete with llama and alpaca (sorry, but they were really good).

Alpaca for dinner

Machu Picchu post to follow! J

San Pedro de Atacama

For the last of our school-sponsored trips, we traveled to San Pedro de Atacama. Here is the description my guidebook provides: "Devil dusters zoom wantonly through sun-scorched Norte Grande with its undulating curves of rock and stone, Andean lagoons, snow-capped volcanoes, salt flats and sensuously perforated coastline." I figured I'd throw that in because if that doesn't paint a picture in your head I'm not sure what will. Located in the northern desert region of Chile, San Pedro is home to the most arid desert in the world, and contains the most diverse landscape I have ever seen. It's almost like some crazy combination of New Mexico desert, White Sands National Park, Yellowstone National Park, salt flats, and the Andes mountain range with 15,000 ft. high peaks/ volcanoes and massive lagoons. We had the most incredible week.

San Pedro de Atacama is a rural town that almost resembles Santa Fe but is smaller, just as touristy, and covered with adobe and turquoise. We were able to enjoy some of the town's nicer restaurants as part of our program, but we also enjoyed a local 1 kilo empanada (don't worry, it was shared - see below).

Church in the San Pedro Plaza

San Pedro's Main Street

This was very real

One of the first things we were able to do upon our arrival to San Pedro was ride horses, something I hadn't done in at least 10 years. A group of 7 of us went out with two local guides and wandered around the remote desert on horseback for a couple of hours. It was nothing short of pure beauty and raw fun combined with the experience of riding a horse through a landscape that that can only be described as breathtaking.

My horse, Caramelo, was easily the sweetest and most enjoyable horse to ride (my friends would probably disagree but that's just because they didn't get to ride him). We first rode out past the limits of the small town:

Stables

then rode through an open desert space where we were able to see for miles

then rode up over a large sand dune

and wandered a little more before finally heading back.

To begin our first full day, we to ventured a small rural town outside of San Pedro called Toconao. It was fairly quiet because we arrived first thing in the morning, but we were still able to wander around and see the rustic village. The adobe structures and use of turquoise in both Toconao and San Pedro made me feel like I was at home in the desert.

"Last tree in the desert"

Next we ventured up 15,000 feet into the Andes for incredible views of a couple of the region's largest volcanoes and the beautiful lagoons that rest at their base. Along the way, we also got to see some wild vicuñas, which is basically the Chilean version of alpacas (unfortunately they were too sneaky for us to grab pictures).

During our time in San Pedro we also ventured to the "Parque Nacional los Flamencos" where we were fortunate enough to see lots of wild flamingos and beautiful salt flats.

Flamingos in the distance

Desert colors

Salt flats

During our other full day we visited another region of salt flats where the ground looks like it's covered in a layer of snow. The water here was incredible as well - vibrant blue that seemed too perfect to be real.

Later in the morning, we went to a nearby lake that has a salt content resembling that of the dead sea. We spent a nice hour floating around on our backs - a really unique feeling unlike anything else. You really couldn't try to keep yourself upright in the lake, the water was too buoyant and our feet floated up out of our control.

Floating in Chile's Dead Sea

Our last big site to visit was to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), a place I can really only describe as what I assume Mars must look like. This place was not real. The rock formations were something out of a sci-fi movie and covered with salt in many parts, giving the idea of another light snow dusting. We were also able to watch the sunset here, and I could not be more honest when I say it felt like an out of this world experience.

Overall, I think San Pedro de Atacama is my favorite place I have seen so far in Chile. Though the general landscape is desert, the diversity of the region is unbelievable and I was continually enchanted by each location we visited. There is no doubt in my mind that I will travel back there someday.