Superchachacos

(or superhikers for those of you who were wondering)

Dia Five
Early morning bus ride through gorgeous mountain scenery that we missed out on because of foggy windows and sleepy eyes. We stopped to have breakfast before heading on to Ollantaytambo to pick up the other group and then take the narrow, boulder ridden "road" to KM 82 and the start of the Inca Trail. The drive seemed to involve almost as much driving backwards as forwards as we met buses, trucks, etc. We were greeted at the drop off point by locals hawking hats, water bottle carriers, and of course walking sticks. After some organization our hike began under the leadership of our guides Reuben and Elvis and the help of 16 porters and 2 chefs. The first day was slow paced and we passed by many local huts where locals sold cool drinks and food to hikers. At lunch we became acquainted with our 3 course meals - you definitely don´t go hungry on the Inca Trail. We passed by ruins that were the supply center for Machu Pichu: The scenery was superb - steep Andean glacier covered peaks (the main peak being Veronica), rivers, and the occasional llama and donkey. We camped away from the masses as our tour hiked further up the mountain for our first night where the porters had everything set up for us and locals where present selling beer and coke.

Dia Six
Jimmy typing now...
Day 2 of the Inca Trek started at 6 am with hot tea delivered to out tent door, a daily occurrence.of course. This was followed by a multi course breakfast with some coca leaf tea. Let me clarify that although cocaine and coca do have some basic origins in common they are by no means the same thing. Now all hopped up on coca, we begin what many (just me) call the death march. This is also the day where the 9 hikers who have porters carrying all their stuff could go ahead and hire more porters to carry even their day hiking bag, but we figured it was more fun to carry stuff and keep our money. It begins with the basic concept of walking forward and going up and repeat. This went on for a couple hours and about 2,500 vertical feet. We stopped and had a nice little break to enjoy the view. This was followed by roughly the same actions as stated before. This went on for about another hour and a half and took us up an additional 1,000 feet. Much like the destructive capabilities of the lines at Disney World this portion of the Inca Trail has only one goal, basically to torture tourists. From what I saw it was extremely successful. At the top of the 14,000+ foot high pass we took in the awe inspiring view of the clouds and fog. We do have some pictures of us celebrating up there. Now with the hardest part over, the rest of the day will just go by nice and smoothly. Jenny not being much for up hills exuberated in the wonder of a 2,000 foot downhill and I believe was once found skipping down stairs at full speed (see picture some day in the future). After this little decent we stopped for a lite 3 course lunch extravaganza and a bit of a siesta. Apparently most other tour agencies consider this an ideal breaking point for the day and are letting there regularchacos end their day here. Ahh but Reuben had grander ideas for his superchacos. We were going to go up over a 13,000 foot pass to get a head start on the crowd.

Jenny not feeling in the best of condition after the altitude changes of the first half of the day was more in the mood to nap then hike, but she moved on. This is where things began to go awry. A little bit of a stomach issue began to appear and a little bit of overheating and maybe some chills and maybe some other things. Jenny was not doing well as we attempted to surmount this pass. Already not being a fan of uphills and now getting sick, this was not looking good. We stopped by some Incan ruins, which are apparently just lying around all over the place here, I asked the guides if they had anything for Jenny´s sickness. They thought the best cure for this would be to take her pack and let her walk the trail. Jenny does not seem to believe this is the best of ideas, because Jennys don´t give up there packs to anyone, even Jimmys. So things moved slowly and we took it about 3 to 10 steps at a time, but we found the top of that peak. Now awaiting the grandeur of Jenny skipping down the hill was probably not the best idea, but I could hope. So we fought our back down an other 1,000 feet and things just seemed to be getting worse. At one point I did sneak off and explore some more unbelievable ruins off to the side of the trail. As the sun set we found our way through the rain forest and into our final location. Jenny quickly found a comfy spot in the tent and I headed over to hustle some hikers at cards and eat a couple plates of popcorn. We ate, we laughed, we waited for Jenny to get better. Eventually the best idea seemed like to sleep amidst the mountains and the rain forest noises and to put day two to bed with no dessert.

Dia Seven (Day 3 of trek)
Jenny back in charge...
I awoke feeling much better and ready to face another day on the trail. The valley we camped in was surrounded by mountain peaks, and breathtaking. It rained most of the night which meant that the porters and our guides who had forgotten ground clothes spent the night soaked. The hardest part of the day was a gradual hike at the beginning. After that the trail remained level and completely set in Incan Stone (as the Incans laid stone 1-2 meters deep all along the trail). We went through several tunnels and again walked through ruins. Clouds however set in during the day and obstructed most of the mountain scenery. We made it to the last campsite before lunch. This last campsite is crazy as everyone camps here the night before heading to Machu Piccu. Tourists are everywhere and there is a main lodge that served snacks, coca-cola and alcohol. Most of our group opted to pay for warm showers and clean clothes but Jimmy and I took our chances with the ice cold shower and put back on our filthy clothes. In the afternoon we went to Wiñay Wayna a ruin 5 minutes from the campsite, which was spectacular. Here Reuben went off on one of what some in our group called "insanologues" telling us how this site reflected the rainbow and how everything was divided by 7 when in fact nothing was. Entertaining nonetheless. That evening we thanked the porters and retired to bed in order to wake up at 4:30 am.

Dia Eight (Day 4 of trek)
We awoke bright and early and went to a "light breakfast" which seemed to have just as much food as previous days. We hiked to the checkpoint in the dawn light and then waited in line, which seemed rather like a Disney World experience. We arrived at the Gate of the Sun within an hour and half and watched the sun hit Machu Pichu. We then headed down to the sight, quickly distracted by the resident llamas, especially the mother and her day-old baby. After getting rid of our packs, we followed Reuben around and listened to explanations about the various sites. Our attention span quickly waned and we round ourselves starring off into the mountain scenery, which in some respects is even more remarkable than the ruins themselves. We hiked toward Wayna Pichu were found that we could still scale its peak as the 400 person limit has not been met. Seven of us decided to make a go of it. At the bottom we ran into Nate Scott and his dad and arranged to have dinner when we got back - stange place to run into people from MN. Anyway, the hike up Wayna was more like a climb, and I believe in the US it would either be off limits, completely rebuilt to meet safety standards (and covering the Incan work) or you would need a mountaineering guide with you. It was scary to say the least, especially as people were going up and down narrow stairs that had shear dropoffs. At the top Jimmy and I mistook the exact route to the top and hence missed the climb through a cave to the tip-top. The view was spectacular, though, and worth the trip.

After our climb we made our way out of the ruins, but not before spotting hidden llamas who were chomping on dirt. We took the bus to Aquas Caliente, we we spent the afternoon exploring. Jimmy and I made acquaintances with the local kids and puppy dogs. Jimmy even got involved in a "heated" game of futball with two 5 year old kids. It basically involved the kids trying to kick the ball down a hill that lead to the train tracks while Jimmy ran after it.

That was the end of our Incan Trail adventure. We of course have more detailed stories and hundreds of pictures.