Following the Inca Trail - 4 Crazy Days in the Andes

Hey everyone, after four days hiking through the amazing Andes mountain range we are back on the grid and have more stories and pictures to share.

These trails are called "Peruvian flats" (up then down, up then down...)

Saturday morning we woke up at 4:30 am to catch a bus to the Salkantay trailhead. When we met our bus driver he was surprised at how big our backpacks were and in essence told us that "we would never make it." While the conversation was disconcerting to say the least, we loaded up anyway enduring a two hour bus ride over bumpy dirt roads.

Dustin making the decent

The first day of the trek started off pretty intense, but we still had a good time getting to know the other members in our group. Of the 9 trekkers we were the only Americans and probably spoke the least amount of languages. By the time we arrived at our camp that night we had already reached an elevation of over 12,000 ft above sea level and were feeling the first effects of altitude sickness.

Sunday morning we woke up to our biggest challenge yet, a 20 kilometer hike that would take us above 15,000 ft and past some of the most impressive terrain any of us have ever seen. Even our best photos or most eloquently worded description would fail miserably to capture the splendor of the Salkantay peak. Due to the high elevation the air was extremely thin, making the ascent more difficult than we had anticipated but around 12:00 we finally reached the desperately gasping for air.

After conquering the mountain highlands our descent took us back into the wet and rainy jungle. Our camp that night was situated on a cool little mesa overlooking an impressively vast and narrow valley. The challenges continued, however, as almost all of us (except Justin) got violently ill from a combination of food poisoning, dehydration and high altitude. We found out first hand that the high Andes, miles away from civilization, is not the ideal place to get sick.

Open Field Nap Time

Battling illness we spent the next two days trying to recover while continuing our trek through the jungle. The last two days offered a different look at the breathtaking Peruvian countryside than the previous ones had. We scaled lush, green mountains, crossed waterfalls and stumbled upon exotic spiders and fruit all on our way to Machu Picchu.

Frile Spider

Grenadine fruit

The summit of Mt. Salkantay (15,500 ft.)

After walking over 30 miles in four days, tonight we are staying in a small town at the base of Machu Picchu, licking our wounds and preparing for our ascent tomorrow morning at 4:30 am. Hopefully it's as amazing as we hope! The pinnacle of our trek was when all of a sudden between the trees, we could see why we had been hiking for 4 days. If you look right at the middle of the picture below, you can just make out the Incan city.

Machu Picchu from Incan Trail

 Tomorrow we will post all the pictures we take as we will be visiting the city as well as a neighboring mountain that has an excellent view of all the different ruins. We can't wait!

 -Porter