Day 3 and The Prize

Day 3 of our trek entailed a long steep climb up through even more narrow and lush paths.  It was incredible to see the farming that was taking place on the very steep sides of these remote mountains.  It was lush and beautiful, but I don`t have too many photos because I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other, due to some digestive challenges (courtesy of unrefrigerated yogurt).  Bianca looked at me in the morning and said that I looked pretty pale, and we both started laughing.  I knew it was coming. Who the hell invited Montezuma to Peru?!!  What made it particularly enjoyable was that we were in the middle of nowhere, allowing me to truly become one with nature if you know what I mean.  Luckily, being an athlete has prepared me well for this.  Still not fun, though.  After the meds kicked in I started to enjoy it more.  Look at how lush this is! These little trails wrapped around the mountains alongside the cliffs.

We hiked and hiked and then came across some old ruins on the trail.  This trek to Machu Picchu was very different from the “traditional Inca Trail trek.”  This route was just discovered in 2005 and offers travelers a much more strenuous, diverse route to The Prize.  Plus we were the only travelers en route.  Loved it.

Here`s our guide explaining these small ruins to the group.

We continued on and the views got better and better.  You can actually make out the side of Machu Picchu from the mountain behind us, although difficult to make out in the photo.  We got excited; we would get there within another 6 hours. 

Crossing bridges and resting our tired feet in the cold river (ice bath!) was rejuvenating. 

 

We arrived at a train station and had the option of taking it or continuing to walk another couple hours to Aguas Calientes, the “base town” for Machu Picchu, and our destination for the night.  We chose to walk and were rewarded with magical views and a gorgeous river that accompanied us the entire time. And yeah, I was hitting up my Middle Eastern roots with the head-dress by that point in the day.   

We met at 4:30am the next day, our last day of the trek, to head up the mountain to THE PRIZE… what we had been trekking for 3 days to see.  Well well worth it!

We climbed up to the top for the best view. We turned around to see this.  The ruins of Machu Picchu were coming through the mist.  Magical! 

If you look closely, you`ll see the alpacas (or are they llamas??) in the background. 

 

It started to clear up and the views got better.

The Incan version of the porcelain god!

No chunky monkey Incas!

The Incas used terraces for their agricultural activities, and to prevent landslides.  I can`t begin to get into everything we learned, but they were very advanced people when it came to their engineering and strategic placement of every rock. 

After a few hours at MP, our group decided to hike up Wayna Picchu, the large mountain behind MP.  This was it:

We were told it would take at least 45-60 minutes to climb, so of course we had to PR.  It was very steep and a tough workout, and we were rewarded with sweet views of MP from the top.

And the pic of our amazing group at the top.

Bianca and I decided to walk the road back down into town. We were absolutely trashed after it all, and somehow missed the shortcut and extended what was supposed to be a 30min walk into a 90min session of bitching and moaning the entire time.  We were starving and started scanning our surroundings for anything edible.  We would die if left to live from the land, that`s for sure.   We both agreed that it felt like Mile 22 of an Ironman at that point. My decision to only bring trail running shoes instead of proper hiking boots was not the best one. My ankle had rolled and was swollen and screaming, and I can`t believe it, but the shoes are worn out already!  Anyway, we met up with 4 workers returning back into town, and they got as much of a kick out of us as we enjoyed their company.

It was a most amazing 4day trip, and a very unique alternative to the traditional Inca trek.   We are now in Puno, and will start our excursion to Lake Titicaca tomorrow, with a traditional homestay on one of the islands.  Probably won`t have an update until Saturday. If they don`t have running water, I`m doubting I can get online.  

Thanks for checking in!