Success and Struggle on the Inca Trail

We did it. We hiked all 44 km ( 26 miles) of the Inca Trail to make it to Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was absolutely stunning and I could not have finished the hike without my husband. But we will get into that…

Day 1
All emotions were firing Monday morning as we waited in the hostel for our bus that would take us to the beginning of the trail. I was nervous about the trail, angry that it was pouring rain, excited to get started, and unsure of the terrain ahead. We had a few hour bus ride to get to our starting point that was cut in half by a short visit to a breakfast spot where we were able to grab a few ham and cheese empanadas.

Once we arrived at the start of the trail everyone pilled out of the bus and started getting their gear together. Once we were all ready we just had to make it past the checkpoint with our passports in hand and we were off!

 

The hike started off fairly easy going with a slight incline uphill but nothing new. However, right away the landscape was breathtaking. The rushing river on our right and lush green mountains as far as you could see.

We stopped at an Inca site along the way with a beautiful view down to another site and rice terraces. Our mid-day break was greeted with a lunch fit for a king. We started off with guacamole and chips, a bowl of soup, and family style dishes of trout, rice, potato wedges , veggie salad and choclo, which is Inca corn that was covered in cheese. It was so scrumptious. I was absolutely amazed at what food can be prepared in the middle of a mountain.

After lunch was finished, we continued on to our first campsite for the night. The hiking wasn’t very strenuous for the first day but my adrenaline was also pumping pretty high from excitement which may have helped me push through. We also met a few friends along the way.

When we arrived for the night at our first camp site the view was absolutely stunning. We were situated right in the middle of a valley with mountains surrounding us on every side. Although we arrived to camp fairly early we were still exhausted from the “easy” first day. We were more than ready to just call it a night early, but we were so glad we held out until after dinner because it definitely did not disappoint. I believe we had some kind of pasta dish, potoaotes, chicken wings, and salad. I wish I could recall every detail but I think my body was working so hard during the day to push me through the miles that it took away from a bit of my mental capacity 😂. I believe this is also true because of all the conversations I had with our guides during our trek and asking them “Como se dice” or “how do you say” in Spanish. I was unable to retain almost all of the new words and phrases I learned. I guess I will have to stick to learning Spanish when my body isn’t undergoing a radical physical challenge. Anyways, back to day one, the dinner in the dimly lit tent and conversation was enough to put my mind and body at ease to sleep well for the next big day ahead of us.

Day 2
The second morning we had a prompt wake up call at 5:30 am with the porters knocking on our tents and handing us a nice hot cup of coca tea. By the way if I haven’t mentioned yet, the porters were definitely the backbone of our trip. For the group of 14 of us, we had I believe 14 porters who carried everything up the mountains for us. This included personal items from each hiker, a huge tent they set up for each meal for us, individual tents for sleeping in, food, cooking pots and pans, medical supplies and anything else we may need. (Of course myself, my husband, and my brother-in-law all opted to carry the entire weight of our own bags rather than using a porter because we are stubborn and didn’t want to pay the extra fee- but that is another story).  Most of the porter bags were bigger than me and we were told could hold up to 50 pounds each. Not only were these porters total warriors by carrying this much weight, but they would also at times run by us on the mountain making us feel completely inadequate. But I guess that’s how in shape you get doing this day after day and living at a higher altitude.

 

Anyways, our 5:30 am wake up call was followed by nothing less than an outstanding breakfast that consisted of tea, coffee, toast and jelly, omlets and some kind of cake bread that was delicious; the perfect way to start a super strenuous day.

After breakfast we finished packing up and headed out to our accent of Dead Woman’s Pass that sits at 13,780 ft. We started the morning at around 9,000 something feet so that meant climbing almost 5,000 feet to reach the top, which was no small feat. This is when my super husband came to my rescue. For the first part of the climb I was still doing good, getting out of breath easily with the altitude, but just taking it one step at a time.

 

 

(Side discloser)

(About 2 months before our hike I had found out that I had two torn tendons in my left ankle. Although I had been in pain and trying to rest and heal my ankle as much as possibly before hiking, my stubbornness won and I was determined that I could still complete the hike)

So far, my ankle had held up pretty good,
but climbing so many stairs started to put more strain on the right side of my body, making up for my weak left ankle, and my right hip was definately feeling it. I pushed as far as I could but at about 3/4 of the way up I broke down. My hip was screaming in pain and my ankle getting worse with every step. With my stubborn attitude this was just a breaking point and I would cry, get over it and push forward, but without even asking, my husband stepped in and took my backpack from me taking a considerable amount of weight off my hip and ankle. Not only was my husband now carrying his own backpack full of gear, but now he also had my bag strapped to the front of his chest making it even harder for him to climb and also to even see the stairs; my hero.

After taking another few minutes to compose myself, I was now lighter and able to keep pushing to the top. After what seemed like never ending stairs, we finally made it to the top of Dead Woman’s Pass. I was so elated I could have cried. Also with one last push of energy, I was able to climb to the top of a little sacred hill at the pass and leave my small stone that I had carried up the mountain as a offering to the Inca gods that we were able to make a wish with. The air was thin at the top, but the views were breathtaking.

Since the rest of our group had already made it to Dead Woman’s Pass before us, there was no time to rest and we had to start descending the mountain right away in order to make it to camp on time. With storm clouds rolling in, we started the joint-crushing 2000 foot descent down. Some of the stairs were incredible steep and the unevenness of the stones made it so that I had to watch every little step I took in order not to step wrong on my ankle.

With each twist and turn of the mountain, I found myself hoping that we would see signs of our campsite but it felt like forever. As hard as the climb up the mountain was, going down is always harder for me. It’s harder on my hips, my knees, and my ankles; trying to carefully calculate every step and trying not to slip on the wet rocks from the rain slowly falling .
After two hours of climbing down the rocky mountain stairs we finally made it to our home for the night. Although we were an hour late behind everyone else, we made it, my super human husband and I. Thankfully we were just in time to catch the first course of our lunch meal, which we were starving for after sacrificing all of our energy to the mountain.

After lunch we were told that dinner would be in another 2 hours which seemed like way too much food at once but at the same time we had spent a good amount of energy during the day with our hike.

We were able to lay down in the tent for a little bit to recharge before our dinner . Every muscle ached and my ankle was throbbing. When it was time to get up for dinner, my joints felt so stiff and sore that I had a hard time getting up out of the tent. I felt like a baby new born deer who was just trying to figure out how to use her legs to walk for the very first time. My stomach was a bit upset either from the intense altitude change throughout the day or from something I ate earlier, so I didn’t eat much at dinner time. A few bites of noodles was about all I could stomach down.

After dinner everyone was prey exhausted and ready to retire for the night to rest up for the next long stretch of hiking. I will save you the horrific details, but my stomach was not good to me that night. Now imagine how horrible it feels to have stomach problems in the comfort and privacy of your own home, and now times that horrible feeling by 100 because you are sharing a hole in the ground bathroom with at least 100 other people. Not to mention the fact that when I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, ghost stories from the dinner table danced in my head as I stepped out of my tent in the darkness and made the walk to the bathroom. Although the lonely walk outside in the cold air was a little spine tingling, the bright stars that danced on top of the mountains were breathtaking. Even with the bit of cloud coverage, the night sky was still bright with stars. If it wouldn’t have been so cold outside, I would have loved to curl up under the stars for a bit but I also knew that my body needed all the rest it could get for the long day ahead.

Day 3
Again we awoke to the porters making their daily rounds at the tents knocking and delivering fresh coca tea to wake us up in the morning. Surprisingly, when I got out of the tent this time my legs felt rested and my ankle felt limber and ready to go. Our breakfast was nothing short of fantastic with pancakes drizzled in Carmel, omelets, toast, coffee and tea. The hardy breakfast was just what I needed to get me ready for the day.

As we packed up camp, Ron and I got started a few minutes earlier with one of the porters. As we started to make our climb up to our second summit, my body was feeling good and full of energy. I even started the day carrying my own backpack again giving my husband a rest from taking on my responsibilities.

 

As we made our way up, we were stopped at a lookout point with a guide on the trail who would not let us pass because of an “emergency” on the trail. It only took us all a few minutes to figure out what kind of emergency that was, knowing fully well that there are few to no places to relieve yourself on the trail when you are climbing on the side of a mountain. At first I felt sorry for the poor soul having an “emergency” on trail, but then I felt relief knowing that with my stomach problems this could also be a real possibility for me during the day.

Once the emergency was clear we were able to continue on our way upward. “Aribba, aribba , siempre”, translated meaning, “up, up, forever”. This was our motto for the last two days. Fortunately on this day, going up seemed relatively quick. It was almost as if the last few days had already built up my stamina and strength to be able to power through the uphill portions. All was going well until all of a sudden my stomach turned against me and it was my time for my mountain “emergency”. I will spare you the details, but it is not the best thing in the world when you have stomach problems on the side of the mountain and your guide has to “shut down” the trail for you to be able to have some kind of privacy. So sorry Inca gods and trail family.🤦🏼‍♀️

Come to find out later, that this is more common that not on the trail, whether it is altitude sickness that affects the digestive system or the food, I was not the only one.
Even more devastating than my trail side emergency was walking about 5 more minutes down the trail to discover that we were only minutes away from our lunch site and at least some kind of private hole in the ground bathroom.

Moving on from my mortifying hiking moment, the good new was that of course our lunch stop was just gorgeous. All of our group sat on a rock face at the top of our summit while our guide educated us on more of the Inca civilization and ruins. An adorable alpaca also decided to join us for a bit.

Once lunch was ready we all snuggled into our cozy lunch tent for another fantastic meal. This time we had rice, some kind of fish and potato dish, chicken stuffed with what looked like a hot dog but tasted amazing, and vegetables. Even though lunch tasted amazing, I was still unable to eat very much because of my uneasy stomach.

After lunch our guide William had us all circle up and each porter, chef and guide introduced themselves to the group and told a little about themselves. We also had a chance to introduce ourselves in Spanish and tell a little bit about ourselves which was very interesting since most of us did not speak fluent Spanish . Either way, it was a good chance for our whole group to get to know one another.Unfortunately after introductions and pictures is when my stomach turned on me again.

Our bathrooms were what seemed like forever away from our lunch spot and all down hill, so as my amazing husband rushed to help me make it to the bathroom in time is when I hurt my ankle again running downhill. Strike two for a bad day.

After I thought my stomach problems had subsided, we were able to start hiking again but at this point we were well behind the rest of our group. It also didn’t help our situation that almost the whole way was down hill and I had to step extremely carefully now. Although the going was slow, the scenery was beautiful and had transitioned from mountain landscapes to lush green rainforest and tiny water trickling down the side of the mountain at every turn.

For maybe a half hour we were going slow but good and one wrong step was all it took; strike three. I came down wrong on a rock and could instantly feel the sharp pain and pull of my already fragile tendons. Tears sprang to my eyes instantly as pain shot through my ankle. Unfortunately when you are in the middle of a mountain and get hurt, you don’t really have a choice with getting down other than to just power through it.

After a few minutes to compose myself, my husband tried taking my hiking bag from me again to alleviate some of the weight but somehow I was still too stubborn to give it up until one of our guides Gilbert pretty much just took it from me and took it for himself to carry. Meanwhile our other guide Renee, took my left arm and attached it to his and one step at a time he helped me make it down.
Although this took a good majority of the weight off my ankle it is still very hard decending a mountain trying to stabilize yourself with another person. After a little time, the sharp pain in my ankle started to subside and just turned into an aching pain instead. I decided to take my hiking poles back and use those to take the weight off my ankle while giving Renee a break. My husband was right there with me the whole time and any time we came to a step that was too big for me to try to make it down, he would pick me up and set me down on the next step in order to save my ankle.

It seemed like we were hiking forever before our guide finally said “one hour till camp” . Somehow that marking point was like a sign for Mother Nature to open up and lash out on us with a thunderstorm. The thunder clapped loudly as dull flashes of lightning lit up across the sky. At this point nothing was stopping us now.

As the rain came down it made the stones quite slick so I just had to be even more careful with how I stepped. Even in pain I was still adoring the lush forest around us but with every switch back that we crossed, I had hoped that we would see signs of our camp. After what seemed like ages, the other tents finally came into view. Drenched, exhausted, and in pain, we had finally made it to our last camp.

I was able to get a few minutes inside our tent to myself before it was dinner time. Although I had been wearing a rain jacket, everything was soaked and I was freezing. The happy-hour cup of tea before dinner attempted to warm my spirits but I was pretty torn down from the day. I tried to make dinner conversation and laugh with my trail friends but my heart just wasn’t in it with my throbbing ankle and broken spirit from the rough day. I ate a little bit and then retired to our tent early for the night to try to mentally and physically prepare myself for the last push forward in the morning before we made it to Machu Picchu.

Day 4
Our 3 :30 am wake up call was surprisingly welcoming because I woke up with again my ankle feeling rested and less painful. The sharp pains were gone and just the soreness aftermath was all that was left, so I was more than confident that I would be able to make the final stretch.

We all packed up our belongings and got in line at our checkpoint that we would have to cross before making it to the final stretch of the trail. When we passed our check point everyone took off like mad down the trail to try to make it to the sun gate as soon as possible. Ron stayed behind with me and I slowly made my way down the trail one step at at time. Sure enough, one by one, each group that had been lined up behind us stated passing me. To be honest it was a little disheartening every time someone passed me on the trail because I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted to but at this point I would just be happy to make it to the end. Little by little we made our way closer to the sun gate with my guide and I chanting “un poco mas”, “a little more” just “a little more”. Before we arrived at the sun gate one more challenge awaited us; the monkey wall.

The monkey wall was pretty much a straight up set of stairs/stones that you had to crawl on your hands and feet to make it up because it was so steep. At this point Ron had taken my hiking bag from me a while back again and I have no clue how he made it up that wall with his bag on his back and my bag strapped to his chest. (Seriously, husband of the year award). After the monkey wall, we had just a little bit more walking to go before we saw the last set of stairs rising up to the sun gate and our main guide William at the top waving and cheering us on. I’ve got to say that taking that last step to get to the top of the sun gate was extremely rewarding; we had made it.

The only problem was that at the sun gate it was no longer a sun gate but a cloud gate. The clouds had settled over Machu Picchu and taken away our elation of being able to see Machu Picchu for the first time from the top . We tried to wait out the clouds as long as possible but they were just not clearing so our group decided to start the decent down the mountain again to actually get to Machu Picchu.

Cloudy but we made it!