The Trek to Machu Picchu

When we decided to stay in Ecuador for a third year, one of the top reasons for doing so was so that we could visit more of our top travel destinations in South America, number one being Peru. Peru is at the top of the list of countries to visit in South America and it seriously has so much to offer. It has the only capital city in South America that sits on the beach, the driest desert in the world, a huge section of the Andes mountains, and of course, Machu Picchu. We were so excited to visit all of these wonderful places, and even more excited as we planned to do the whole thing with one of our favorite people, Emily. After a wonderful summer of time well spent with family, we traveled back to Ecuador for a day to drop off our stuff, grab everything we needed for Peru, and we were off to Lima! 

We found Emily in the immigration line in the Lima airport, as she was continuing an incredible summer of travel throughout Central America. We only had one night to spend in the capital city of Lima, so after dropping everything off in our hostel we headed out to get some soles, the local currency, and headed to a restaurant to try some of the world famous Peruvian cuisine. While we were walking, Nolan noticed a bunch of people in a local park, and we decided to check it out. Lucky for us, we stumbled upon a very special park in Lima that had two claims to fame! One, the park was absolutely full of cats! Apparently the city had introduced the cats many years back to keep the rats at bay, and the cats had fully taken over. They had lots of little cat hotels all around the park, it was very cute. Second, this park had a huge selection of local street food, one of which was one that I wanted to try the most! If you are looking for a new Netflix recommendation,

there are a few different series called Street Food that are based off of different areas of the world. In the Street Food: Latin America series there is an episode about Peru, and one of the foods they focus on is a type of sweet potato donut drowned in warm honey called picarones. And this park had the exact street food cart from the episode! I was so excited to be starting off our Peru trip with famous local donuts, it was thrilling. They were so warm and delicious. I wish I could eat them every day. 

After our dessert, we headed off to dinner. Lima is very well known for its seafood offerings because it is on the coast and has a huge Japanese influence. Their most famous food is ceviche, but not like the ceviche that is found in Mexico or California. Ceviche in Peru is huge pieces of fish marinated in lime and herbs. The fish is barely cooked from the acid in the lime, so it is soft, buttery, and full of delicious flavor. The restaurant we had found had a huge variety of ceviche and other types of local seafood. To kick off our trip, we ordered the seafood tower so that we could try as many things as possible. There were four varieties of ceviche, some clams, scallops, and more. Everything that we tried was so delicious and fresh. We couldn’t wait to keep eating in this country.  

The next morning, Emily and I took a stroll around the cat park (the picarones were sadly gone) before hopping in an Uber to the bus station. This was the moment that we found out that the traffic in Lima is constantly stopped. While we felt like we had more than enough time to get there, we ended up arriving at the bus station 6 minutes before our bus was scheduled to leave. While stressful, we did make it onto the very comfortable bus for a 4 hour ride to the small town of Paracas. Compared to the Ecuadorian buses, with their overly loud and violent movies, standing room taking up the aisle, and vendors hopping on and off, the Peruvian buses with their reclining seats and plenty of personal space felt like luxury. 

I truly had no idea what scenery to expect from this bus ride along the coast, but what we found was sand, sand, and more sand. The dunes on both sides of the highway were massive and rolled on forever. As we approached our destination, the town of Paracas, it got really windy and whipped the sky into a massive sandstorm outside of our windows. We arrived at the bus station only a few minutes later, and it was a little nerve wracking to be getting out of the bus so close to a sandstorm, but once we started walking down the main street, we could see that the town was cute and felt very safe. Our hostel was right on the beach and we immediately went out looking for a happy hour snack and drink. 

One of the most common offerings on the coast is a plate separated in two to four parts with their most famous seafood snacks. The one that we found had four sections: ceviche, coastal

rice, breaded and fried fish, and a causa- which is basically two layers of mashed potatoes with seafood and cream cheese  in the middle. It was so wonderful to share and try these different kinds of seafood. We also had our first Pisco Sours of the trip, the national drink of Peru. It is a drink made with pisco, a Peruvian white brandy, sour mix, and egg whites, so it is delicious and frothy on the top! It was just the first of many pisco sours to be had over the next week. Sitting with Nolan and Emily, having delicious food and overlooking the ocean, it felt so wonderful to have our Thailand squad back together and traveling around a new part of South America. For the rest of the night we played games, ate more ceviche and coastal rice, had more pisco sours, and ended the night with karaoke hosted by our hostel. Nolan and I had fun with the karaoke classic “Don’t Go Breaking my Heart” and Nolan performed a rousing rendition of “All Star” by Smash Mouth. 

We were told the best thing to do in Paracas was explore the nearby national park. Paracas is at the Northern tip of the driest desert in the world. There were a few different ways to explore the park, we could go on a tour, rent dune buggies, or rent motorbikes. As Nolan, Emily, and I had so many amazing memories motorbiking around Thailand together, motorbikes were really the only option we considered. We rented two motorbikes, one for Nolan and I to share, and one for Emily, and we headed into the park. 

We were immediately shocked by the otherworldly landscape. I haven’t really been to many deserts, but this one is jaw-droppingly beautiful. The red sand dunes rose up all around us the

deeper we got into the park. There were no plants or animals to be seen. The road was a little bit rough, and we felt like we were motorbiking on Mars. It was such a treat to be in the familiar position of riding on the back of Nolan’s bike, with Emily in the rear view mirror, but this time in a strange and stunning landscape. I felt like the luckiest gal in the world. 

About 10 minutes in there was a little stopping spot with a sign, so we decided to take a break and look around. The sign informed us that this giant desert was underwater a few million years ago, so if we looked closely enough we could find fossils of the shelled sea creatures who used to live there. We started searching the sand and pretty quickly found tons of fossilized shells sticking out of the ground. We were taken aback by the unexpected beauty of this desert, full of mountainous dunes and tiny shell fossils. As we continued onwards, we still had no idea what was waiting ahead. 

After another 10 minutes through the desert, we followed a sign leading to our first real stop of the trip, and were stunned to find one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The desert dropped off into huge cliffs and then sloped down into a deep blue ocean with gigantic waves smashing against the shore. Tracking the landscape as it morphed from dune into ocean was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. We stood watching the ocean, feeling so lucky to have found this place, and shocked that it wasn’t more famous! In my opinion, this needs to be on

everyone’s Peru bucket list, because it was incredible. After leaving this first stop, we continued on to many many more beaches along the coast line. One of our favorites from the day was Playa Roja which had stunning dark red sand. There was also one area with a few restaurants right on the beach. Although a bit overpriced and not the most delicious food we had on the trip, it was a wonderful stop on our tour around the peninsula. After lunch, I decided to drive Nolan and I for the rest of the day, and there is truly nothing like the feeling of motorbiking along the coast line. It was so nostalgic and happy to be driving around on a bike again. We returned to the town after a few hours of our adventure, as Emily’s bike was running out of gas and we didn’t want to get stranded in the desert. We made it just as her fuel gauge hit empty, and we couldn’t have been more happy about the wonderful day. 

We went to a restaurant in town for dinner where we got more ceviche, more coastal rice, and some clams that were roasted with parmesan on top. They were rich and savory and I could have eaten a million more of them. 

Anyone who knows Emily and I know that we are always happiest when we are together on a boat, so we were very excited for our morning excursion. We knew that we were going out to an island to try and catch sight of some sea lions and penguins, but didn’t know that there was a detour to see a local Nazca line. If you’ve never heard of them, the Nazca lines are one of the most strange and famous sights of Peru that you can normally only see by plane. They are pre-Incan lines in the desert that form large and geometric or detailed shapes. No one really knows how they were created or why, with guesses ranging from ancient civilizations to aliens. The most famous

Nazca lines are even farther into the Peruvian desert, but we were surprised to find out that there was one right here in Paracas that you can see by boat! Our boat guide told us that no one really knows what it was supposed to depict, but it could be a gate, a trident, or a kind of local tree. We were first confused as to how a shape in the sand could last for thousands of years, but our guide explained that because this desert had emerged from the ocean, the sand was filled to

the brim with very hard salt. While the dunes look like they may be ever changing, they are actually quite stagnant because of how hard the salt is. This was also one of the reasons that it was the driest desert in the world, with less than half an inch of rain every year! After admiring the huge and impressive Nazca line, we headed out to some islands. Along the ride we saw a few sea lions, and upon arriving got a glimpse of some penguins and their babies! These islands were filled with massive caves that our boat driver expertly led us into the mouth of, even with huge waves crashing around us. There were thousands of birds circling overhead, as these islands are famous for the literal tons of bird poop that an agency in Peru actually collects as a natural fertilizer for crops in other areas of the country. Along with the penguins, we saw Peruvian Boobies, a cousin to the Blue Footed Booby that we saw in the Galapagos back in Ecuador! 

After departing from our boat, we headed back to our hostel to grab our things and Nolan, and then headed back to the bus station. Our 4 hour bus unfortunately turned into a 5 hour bus that led to a bit of a mad dash through Lima traffic to make it to the airport for our flight to Cusco. 

I know that I just spent the whole first part of this raving about how amazing the beach and desert were, and they were amazing. The ceviche, the motorbikes, the Nazca lines, all of it was stunning. However, the real meat of this trip was the time we were going to spend in the mountains. Obviously, the most important thing to do in all of Peru is visit Machu Picchu. There is a train that you can take to get there, but anyone who has traveled in this part of Peru, like many of our friends from Ecuador have, knows that hiking there is part of what makes the experience so magical. In early June, Emily and I had spent countless hours working on the plan for this part of the trip. Since we were going in the high season of trekking tourism, we had to know how many miles we would be hiking per day and what towns we would arrive at to stay in. While you can bring things to camp along the route, we were most definitely planning on staying in hostels that provide hot meals, showers, and comfy warm beds. We knew we needed to do a bit of exploring of Cusco on our one day before the trek, but most importantly, it was time to do the last preparations of everything we would need for the four day trek. 

We woke up and headed straight to the information desk at our hostel to learn more about the buses that would take us to the start of the trek, and about where to find trekking poles to rent (a necessity for long walks like this one). After going out and renting our poles, we returned to our hostel where a walking tour of the city was due to start. We headed out to the main plaza with our

tour guide and other hostel residents. We learned that Cusco was once the capital of the Inca empire. When the Spanish came in the 1500s, the Inca empire was expansive, with great cities and roads stretching from Ecuador to Chile, and from the coast over the mountains and down into the jungle. All of these roads intersected in Cusco. The main plaza was originally lined with 14 Incan temples, one for each of the rulers throughout their time. Unfortunately, the Spanish destroyed it all, and replaced them with Catholic churches. In different parts of the city, you can still see the impressive Incan walls that the Spanish city was built on top of. In some places, one wall can be identified as an Incan wall because it has no mortar and is expertly pieced together. This allows for earthquakes to pass, something that happens often, without the walls cracking and falling apart. Then, across the tiny road you can see the Spanish walls of small stones held together with mortar and cracking along the way. It is so clear in these places how skilled the Incas were at constructing with stone, something we were just scraping the surface of in Cusco. 

After our walking tour we headed into the San Blas neighborhood. This neighborhood is up a steep hill, and the (slightly) larger roads all turn into walking paths that twist and turn around

Incan stone buildings. We stopped for lunch at an amazing little spot where I decided to try my first Alpaca steak. It was a little well-done and chewy, but tasted like a mix of beef and pork and came with a delectable side of gnocchi in a rich cream sauce. We then headed to a local market where we bought snacks for our trek. We had heard from our friends that they basically survived off of cheese throughout the trek, so after finding a stand that had many different varieties, the short Quechua lady let us try all that she had before we settled on two types. She handed over two large blocks of cheese, and we immediately decided that they had to live in Nolan’s backpack for the entire trek (they probably weighed 5 pounds). We also picked up mixed bags of nuts, a few chocolate bars, and my uniquely personal favorite trail snack, a giant loaf of bread. 

Feeling good about our purchases for the trek, we headed back to our hostel to get our bags together for the next morning (we all packed quite a bit more for Peru than we were planning on taking on the trek, but the lovely people at our hostel had no problem holding on to our other belongings while we were gone). Since we would be carrying everything on our backs, we had to stick to the bare minimum. This meant: underwear and socks for every day, a thermal layer, two hiking shirts, one pair of hiking pants, a jacket, a pair of “clean” comfy clothes that were only to be worn at the hostels after showering each night, and hats, gloves, basic toiletries, and snacks. We had a yummy last dinner and, lucky for us, there was a tiny little restaurant that served fresh picarones right next to our hostel! The nicest lady worked there and let us try three different types, each with their own flavor of honey, for only 10 soles (a little more than $2). After our sweet treat, we headed back to our rooms for an early bedtime.

We awoke eager and ready to head to an area of town that had collectivos to the start point. A collectivo is basically a large van that has a specific destination, but doesn’t have a specific leaving time. You just need to show up, hop in the van, and wait until it is completely full of people, at which point it will go. Lucky for us, we hopped into a van that only had four open seats, and only needed to wait for one more person before we were off to Mollepata, where we needed to get a ride to the beginning of the trek. The drive was about 3 hours, and it was so beautiful to wind our way down into the jungle, seeing views of skyscraping volcanoes, and then back up the other side of the valley. Once arriving in Mollepata, we hopped in another colectivo to Soraypampa. From where we were dropped off, we just had a 20 minute walk to our first hostel. 

This hostel was very simple. We each had a bunk in a dorm room (something Nolan and I usually avoid by booking private rooms in hostels), and everything was an extra charge. 18 soles for dinner, 18 soles for breakfast, 8 soles for a sandwich, 5 soles for a towel, but wait, you could shower for free (as long as you were fine with it being freezing cold, if not it would be another 5 soles for them to turn on the hot water). It was not our favorite place, but we had arrived early so that we could make the close hike to a nearby lake. After paying all of the extra fees that we needed to survive at this hostel, we started the short but very steep climb up to the lake. 

At this point, we were working hard on trying to acclimatize. We knew that the first real day of the hike we were going to hike up a pass over 15,000 feet. While this is something we do often while volcano climbing in Ecuador, all three of us had just come from a summer spent on the beach. We knew that climbing up to this lake would not only help with our sleep for the night, but it would also help with our acclimatization process for hiking over the pass the next day. We took it very slow and took deep and long breaths, trying to get our lungs used to the thin mountain air. 

This was also the first trial run on my new Garmin watch, a hefty purchase that I had gotten over the summer that would allow us to see our exact location by satellite GPS on my phone. While we knew the trail would be fairly well marked, this gave us an extra sense of security so that we would always know exactly where to go. After about an hour and half and a little over 2 miles (walking uphill at 12,000 feet is HARD) we made it to the beautiful Humantay Lake. This was one of those picture perfect turquoise lakes surrounded by snow covered peaks that gets me so excited about the hard work it takes to get there. We enjoyed our surroundings for a while, proud of what we had done but nervous for the day ahead. We arrived back at our hostel, took a freezing cold shower, and met in the main room for dinner. We had an amazing conversation with an Argentian couple who have spent the last 5 years traveling the world together. It is always so much fun to meet people like this in hostels, share a meal, and swap travel stories about time spent abroad. We went to bed early, knowing that we had a huge day of walking tomorrow, just the start of a 3 day walk to Machu Picchu. 

On day one of the trek, we woke up nervous. We knew that today would most likely be the hardest of any of the days, and we were already feeling sore from our short hike to the lake the day before. We got ready and packed up our bags before the 5:30 am breakfast was served. It was hard to fully eat while feeling nervous, but we choked down what we could and finished our preparations to leave. The trail started right outside the doors of our hostel and we set out. While it was pretty cold out, we almost immediately had to take off a layer since the incline at this altitude could really get the heart beating. There were lots of groups of people and even more

groups of donkeys all along the trail (many people choose to send their belongings on the backs of donkeys instead of carrying them on the first day). We walked for about an hour before taking a short break where we could see peaks of the gorgeous Mount Salkantay. When planning this trip, we were very excited to find out that August is the high season because it has the best weather and therefore, the best views. However, as we reached the steeper section of the trail, a set of switchbacks that they call the “Gringo Killer,” it started to lightly rain. For the next two hours, it was raining off and on which was hard to manage with our layers. We moved slowly, knowing that this would be the hardest part and not wanting to risk feeling any signs of altitude sickness. The steps were slow, and it slowly got colder and colder as we made our way higher into the clouds. After the end of a very steep bit, it even started to snow. By this point, we could see the top, and were desperate to get there and to the other side. During these long stretches of uphill, it has always been easier for Nolan and I to separate to our paces, put our heads down, and find a steady rhythm to keep climbing. It can actually be harder and take more energy to move faster and then take a lot of breaks, so we slowly and quietly kept ascending. When we finally reached the top, we were excited to get a few peaks of the close and daunting Mount Salkantay. It was quite windy at the top and it was still slightly snowing, with clouds drifting past quickly above us that completely blocked the view of Salkantay! We asked a local guide near us if this kind of weather was normal for August, and he responded “eso es loco.”

While we wished we could have seen more of the mountain, we felt proud to have made it. We wanted to stay at the top for longer, but knew we had to get off of the mountain in weather like that, and started our long descent. The first two hours of this descent were pretty foggy and gloomy. There wasn’t much to see, and we desperately wanted to get out of the cold. We eventually decided to take a break to eat the sandwiches we had bought the day before, and then continued on. This whole section became fairly monotonous, and our legs were already starting to feel tight from our earlier ascent. We eventually made it down to a very small town where we found a bench to lie on and a small stand selling an essential Coca Cola. We lied around for a while trying to stretch out sore limbs, knowing we still had a few hours left to go. 

After this stop, the trail almost immediately got more interesting. At this point, we started descending into the jungle. It was absolutely insane to have gone from a snowy high mountain pass, to taking off all of the layers to just a t-shirt and throwing on bug spray as we could hear the jungle around us come alive. This warmth and new landscape pushed us onward for another few hours. Eventually, after hiking for 10 hours straight, it just seemed impossible that we were still walking. I was following our location on the trail on my map, and it always seemed like we were

almost there. Just another hour. Wait no, another hour. Another 45 minutes. Even though walking downhill at first seemed like such a relief from the steep and high altitude section we had hiked earlier, the pounding down on our joints with our heavy backpacks started to feel painful. My shoulders were killing me, and my thighs felt like jelly. When we felt like we had to be there, we finally saw a town across the valley that we thought might be where our hostel was, but from our map it looked like it was closer and more to our left. We couldn’t see this town, and it seemed impossible that a town would just appear out of nowhere. But, lucky for us, the town appeared to our left as we turned a final bend and we couldn’t have been more grateful. We asked some locals where our hostel was and they told us the way. As we arrived, a literal angel appeared in front of us. The owner of the hostel's name was Manuel, and he immediately came out to greet us. While some hostel owners feel the need to explain every element of their locale, He had us wait just a minute before showing us to our private room that had three twin beds. He told us that the shower had hot water, took our orders for dinner that would be served in about an hour, and left us to relax. 

It is incredible how easily your view of luxury can change after a day of walking with all of your things on your back. This hostel was like an oasis. While it was a small room with three twin beds, the rock tiled shower was warm and had a view of the mountains. The beds were soft with thick blankets on them. We stretched, snacked on our cheese and bread, showered, and relaxed. When it was eventually time for dinner, we hobbled downstairs on our very very sore legs, before meeting another wonderful couple, this time from Portugal, to converse with over dinner. Manuel brought us an absolutely delicious pumpkin soup, followed by a main course of rice with chicken (soy protein for Nolan) and lots of hot tea. Then Manuel gave us a long and detailed description of where we would be headed on the trek the next day. He was the sweetest man, and we felt so taken care of after our long day. We had walked for 14 miles, and 10 hours. It was time for bed. 

We slept deeply but not long enough, and that first step out of bed was far worse than I could’ve imagined. My calves were so tight that I could barely stand at first. The sun was just coming up over the mountains as we got dressed in the same clothes as the day before. Emily and I almost fell down the stairs for breakfast, and while we were waiting for everything to be ready, we stretched in the dining room that had gorgeous views of the mountains around us. We started listing off all the things that hurt worst, for me, my shoulders and hips from my backpack, and my calves. After a tasty breakfast and picking up some avocado sandwiches for our lunch, we waved goodbye to Manuel and the beautiful oasis we had called home for the night. 

While this day had no 15,000 foot passes, it was going to be a long trek. There were two different ways to do the second and third day. One way to do it is to make the second day a short one, with about 6 miles of descent and then stopping in a town for the afternoon and night to recover. Then, the third day you would need to walk up over a mountain that takes about 3 hours to get to the top, then descend all the way back down, and then walk 6 miles along the flat railroad to get to the town. The other way to do it is to walk down to the town, then up the 3 hour mountain, and then stay at a hostel at the top. June Emily and Jessica thought to themselves, I bet we can make it all the way there with no problem, and then have an easy last day! Thanks June Emily and Jessica. We knew we had a very long day ahead of us. 

The section of the trail that we trekked this morning was gorgeous. We followed a river for miles and miles, surrounded by dense jungle. It was so nice outside, with clear blue skies in all directions (conditions that would have been very nice the day before). We took a small break a few hours in to have a snack and enjoy the view of the river before continuing down closer to it.

We eventually came across some passion fruit plantations where we stopped for another short break so that Emily could enjoy a fresh passion fruit juice. We kept walking toward a section that had a few scary parts on the sides of cliffs. The trail was narrow and we had to walk single file. We had to cross over a few waterfalls that were beautiful, although Emily may have taken a small stumble into one of them (she was all good except for a bit of welt on her knee). 

Eventually this section of downhill became more tiresome, with the same aches and pains of the day before starting to kick in from pounding downhill. Around noon we arrived at the biggest town we had seen in awhile, called La Playa. This town was so fun to walk through, with kids running around and chickens everywhere. There were many restaurants and shops, a school and a soccer field. It was so much fun to see this little snippet of local life! After the town we had about a 30 minute walk along the road, and even though there were stunning views all around, there is something that is just defeating about walking on a road and being constantly passed by cars! Eventually we reached the spot where we had anticipated taking a longer break, right at the bottom of the hill. We found a small store that had a few tables behind it. We took out all of our snacks, and bought another midday Coca Cola. We added hearty slices of cheese to our avocado sandwiches and rested our legs. Unfortunately, the jungle had brought an added challenge: bugs. While we had gotten very used to the presence of mosquitos in Thailand, the bugs in South America were something new entirely. We had first run into these bugs in a city in Ecuador called Mindo, where they not-so-affectionately picked up the name Mindo Bugs (I think they are actually called sand flies, but we only call them Mindo bugs). They are tiny, but they bite hard and take a huge chunk of skin with them, usually leaving you bleeding. And they itch unlike anything that I have ever felt, for days to weeks. In Mindo, one of my favorite places because it is warm and you can wear shorts, you should never wear shorts because these bugs jump off the ground to attack your legs. But, unfortunately for everyone, in Peru they can fly. All of us thought we were safe with our hiking boots, long socks, and pants, but no. They would fly us and get our arms, and we were all covered in bites. We spent this break eating, then applying a very good amount of itchy cream on the areas we had already got gotten, and bug spray anywhere that was exposed to the air  (even though these terrors are known to just ignore the bug spray and bite you anyway). After about an hour break, we worked some movement back into our already stiff legs and headed up the hill. 

At this point, I was honestly excited to start walking uphill again. While I knew it would take more energy, my joints and back hurt so badly from walking downhill all day. We were all also excited for this section because it was on the old Inca road. We were walking up Inca constructed steps and on the same road they used for large parts of this uphill. It felt good to get the heart beating again, and while it was hard, it was nowhere near as hard as walking uphill at closer to 15,000 feet. The views of this area were beautiful, with flocks of green parrots flying around. The first two hours went well, but as the last one came around, we were just excited to get to the top. When we finally did make it, we walked out to a view of one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. The mountains were stunning, scraping into the sky all around us, and dead center was one side of Machu Picchu.

While it looked like a section of off colored rock from this angle, it was amazing to see that we were getting so close. At this point, we thought our hostel was right around the corner, but when we found one that we thought was our hostel, they told us that ours was actually another 20 minutes down the hill. At this point it was already 5 pm, and we wanted to make it so badly A) so that we could stop walking and B) so that we would make it there before the sunset. But, about 20 minutes down we came to the Llactapata ruins. 

While we had seen bits of the Incan stairs and roadway all afternoon, these were the first full buildings of ruins we had seen, and we were there all alone. The walls were expertly sculpted so that they fit together perfectly, along with the classic Incan doorway that was slightly less wide

along the top so that a stone could cover the doorway. There was irrigation running through the middle of the site as well. It was amazing to see these ruins, and to stand inside something so very similar to how it was in Inca times, but we were ready to find our bed so we continued on. After another grueling 10 minutes down the hill, we arrived at our beautiful hostel. The view from our room was stunning, with mountains rolling in all directions and, once again, Machu Picchu was front and center. Out of all our travels, we struggled to remember a view as good as the one we had there. We enjoyed watching the sunset while stretching and then taking another therapeutic, hot shower. They called us up for dinner, and although I would say we are normally not very impatient, the 20 minutes late dinner service felt like an eternity. After a satiating meal and more hot tea, and this time, hot chocolate, we headed back down for another long sleep. We had hiked for 20 miles, and 11 hours. We knew that the next day would be the shortest one yet, so we slept in until 6:15, which felt like one of life’s greatest luxuries. 

After another hostel breakfast, we set out for our last day. All we had to do was walk down the hill for about 2 hours, and then six miles along the railroad section. The downhill was beautiful, and knowing we had tons of time we took many breaks along the way. Then we set off down the railroad. Our friends who had done this hike previously had told us that this section was brutal, only because it was so monotonous. So, before starting, we all threw in our headphones and turned on some audio books, which made the whole thing fairly enjoyable. I was initially worried about the concept of hiking next to the tracks because, you know, what if a train came? But once

it eventually came, we realized that it was moving so slowly that there was no reason to worry. We made one last stop for some very tasty empanadas just about an hour away from the town. As we got even closer, we became more and more excited as the first peaks of Machu Picchu came into view. While it was impossible to see the central part of the city, we could see terraced farming coming down off the sides of the area. This really wowed me. I remember learning about Inca terraced farming when I was in Elementary school, and now seeing it in front of me, I realized just how impressive of a feat it was to allow growing crops on the side of a steep mountain. 

Walking into Aguas Calientes, the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu, felt like walking into a fairytale. The town was spanning a river that was cradled in between sheer cliffs all around us. The river ran rapidly through the town with the train running right along it. Many people had told us some not so nice things about this small city that we immediately felt like were poor representations of the place (something that would be contested in the next day). We found our hostel and celebrated the end of our trek in the best way we knew how, showering and laying in bed for many hours. 

We eventually pulled ourselves out of the bed to go buy our bus tickets up to Machu Picchu for the next day, and then headed to a local brewery situated right on the river. We got a few beers, and appetizers and said cheers to our trek. In total, it was 47 miles of hiking over the three main days of the trek. While it was harder than we expected it to be, it was an amazing adventure with some of my favorite people. We decided on Italian for dinner, thinking it would be big and filling.

Here, I got my second and way more delicious alpaca steak, while Nolan and Emily had some tasty wood fired pizzas. We eagerly made our way back to our hostel, thinking about a long and comforting night of sleep. Unfortunately, this town has no access by road, only by hiking and train, which means that everything to run this major tourist town came in on train. So trains came all night long, right next to our rooms. Sleep was hard and the night felt like it went on forever, before our alarms rang early signaling our day to visit the sacred site of Machu Picchu. 

Even on little sleep, we were so excited to head up the mountain to see our second Wonder of the World. We got up early, put on the same clothes we had been wearing for 5 days, and got in line for the buses up the steep incline to Machu Picchu (there is a trail where you can walk 1,800 steps up to the site, but we thought we had gone far enough on foot by that point). As we neared the top, we started seeing little peaks of the ancient city, adding to our eagerness and excitement. When we arrived at the top, we started looking for a guide for our trip (although a little bit pricey, we decided that for what potentially may be our only visit to Machu Picchu in our lives, it would be nice to learn more about it!). Ciro appeared out of nowhere, and with his big smile and tons of energy, he seemed like the perfect fit. We entered through the gates and began climbing up the steps of the agricultural center of the city, as the picture I had seen my entire life started to take form.

Past the hillside of terraced farming where we first stood, the city of Machu Picchu stretched out in front of us, with houses lined in perfectly symmetrical rows around the edges of the mountain ridge. The grassy center of the city was surrounded by temples, and behind it all rose the sheer cliffs of Huayna Picchu. It was far more expansive than pictures make it look, and those photos could not live up to the in person majesty of the ruins. Ciro gave us a few moments to take in the beauty of the city, before turning from guide to photographer and taking numerous pictures from all of the angles he could conceive. Then, he took us to a shaded area and told us the story of Machu Picchu’s history. Here is the short version:

Machu Picchu was a citadel for the emperor of the Incan Empire. Although the Empire was based in Cusco, this was one of many other cities that the emperor would visit. When the Spanish came to take over Peru, the Incas in Cusco fled to other cities, Machu Picchu likely being one of them. However, the Incas made sure to never lead the Spanish to this city, and it was therefore abandoned and left behind to the jungle. Over the next 400 years, the surrounding jungle slowly took over the mountain, making it much harder to find. In 1901, a local Peruvian man named Agustin Lizarraga found the city. He didn’t share the information with many people, only a few of his friends who eventually moved into some buildings on the outskirts of the city. Then, in 1911, Hiram Bingham came and found the city for a second time, with the friends of Lizarraga still living in and below the site. He took many photos, and then shared the information with the rest of the world. This gave him the title of “discoverer” of Machu Picchu, even though there were people clearly living there already who knew of its whereabouts. Bingham eventually returned to Yale University, taking with him every artifact he had found from the site, never to be returned. From that point on, Peruvians worked to restore the buildings, remove the jungle that had taken over so much of it, and then eventually open it to the public. 

Learning this history and seeing many of the pictures that Bingham took on his first trip to Machu Picchu and then turning to see it now gave us a much better understanding of what this place has been through. After taking many more photos from the famous spot, we headed down to the main entrance of the city. The main gate beautifully framed the cliffs of Huayna Picchu, which of course called for another mini photo shoot. 

As we started to wind our way through the city, we felt so good about our decision to spend our time with Ciro. Here are some of the most insightful things that we learned:

• All of the major gateways at Machu Picchu have two carved out stones to either side with a cylinder still intact in the middle. Then, over the top of the door frame, is a stone carved

• loop. These were used with rope to hold a wooden door over the entrance. 

• Many of the bigger houses that were given to the nobles of the Empire were two story buildings. The top of the walls had been carved to leave ledges where they would then place a wooden beam and floor. Because the houses were built on such steep hills, the second floor would be accessed from outside on a higher point on the hill. 

• There were windows on all of the houses that faced the steep cliffs. Ciro told us to stick our heads out the windows, and we instantly felt a cool breeze coming up the side of the mountain. With roofs on the houses, this would have created natural air conditioning. They also would have had covers for the windows for the cold, high altitude nights. 

• There were irrigation canals everywhere! Every house, walkway, temple, and staircase had

space for the water to run through the city, all leading out to the agricultural terraces. These terraces, though, had the coolest irrigation system of all! Each one had a thick layer of topsoil, and then sand, rocks, and larger rocks. Because of this, when it rained, the water would fall through the soil, watering the crops, and then down through each layer to the next one, ensuring that the water could be used as much as possible to keep the land fertile. 

• The most important temple in Machu Picchu is called the Temple of the Sun, and it is the only building with a curved wall. There are many windows in the structure, but two that are the most important. On both the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice, the rising sun will shine directly through one of these two windows, and shine light into the center of the temple. This temple was so important because it is where they would worship the sun god,

• Inti (the most important local festival of the year in Peru is in honor of Inti, and is called Inti Raymi. Because of the vastness of the Incan Empire, we actually celebrated Inti Raymi this year on the Summer Solstice with a local family in Ecuador!). 

• Lastly, and I think the most interesting thing that we learned from Ciro, was that Machu Picchu was not finished being constructed when they had to flee from the Spanish. There were stones that were in the middle of being carved or moved, that were just left there when they needed to go. There are small stones wedged in between giant rocks that were aiding the builders in pushing these stones. While Machu Picchu is a marvel to look at, it's unbelievable to think that the Incas were not even yet satisfied, and still had more planned for this incredible place.

After three hours of walking around this marvel of stone engineering, it was time for us to make our exit. Ciro told us at this point that we looked quite tired, which (after the three days of walking and little sleep) was true! Before leaving, we took 10 more minutes to sit on the steps and try to capture as much of the site as possible. It was truly greater than I could have imagined. The Incas were incredibly talented stone workers who took science and engineering very seriously. The work that the Spanish did to erase this society from the world is a true tragedy, as there was surely so much more to learn from these people and all they knew about the natural world. 

After arriving back in Aguas Calientes, we had a two hour train ride to the town of Ollantaytambo, and it was so relaxing to be sitting on a moving vehicle to arrive in our next location instead of walking there on our own two feet. While we had spent the morning looking at some of the most impressive Inca ruins, our train ride showed us that there were actually Inca ruins everywhere! Many hillsides were carved with the same terraced farming system that we had seen at Machu Picchu, and houses that mimicked the ones we had visited that morning popped up around the countryside. 

Ollantaytambo is another very important Incan site, this one shrouded in much less mystery. This town was a military base for the Inca’s, and was the one site where the Inca were able to defeat the Spanish in battle. We spent the night relaxing in the cute restaurants of the town, and then the next morning walked around the town before heading up to a few more Incan ruins. This town is also special because it is the only town in Peru that still maintains the Incan buildings and streets as a part of the town. Similar to what we had seen in Machu Picchu, there were irrigation canals built into almost every street, with water rushing around the town. The walls were beautiful, and this time, full of life! It was amazing to walk into an old Incan building and find a fancy coffee shop or restaurant. The ruins themselves were also fascinating. The ones that we walked to where the Incan storehouses, where they would store their food that they had farmed. It was an amazing hike up the hills to see this Incan city, alive and bustling. We headed back to Cusco midday, excited to return to the same hostel we had been in before, and our suitcases full of clothes (our hiking clothes were really starting to feel gross).

We emerged from that hostel feeling like new people, immediately went to eat more picarones (yum) and then to get one of the best earned massages of my life. After our life altering massages, we grabbed a few beers at a local brewery, and then ended up at a restaurant that served Andean raclette (the French melted cheese machines but with Andean cheese). After a lot of cheese and some wine, we went back to our hostels for an early night, and flew home to Quito the next day.

This trip to Peru seriously wowed us. After living in Ecuador for two years, and visiting Brazil and Colombia, we could see why Peru was so famous. It had a lot of the same charm and culture of Ecuador, but with such a diverse landscape, comprehensive history, and facility for tourism, we can see why it is a favorite among many. The ceviche of the coast, the Incan ruins, the mystery of the Nazca lines in the desert, the snow covered mountains, the beaches, and the charm of Cusco kept us commenting about how if we could change one thing about our trip to Peru, we would just want more time. And, getting to do the whole thing with the love of my life and my best friend, I am one lucky gal.