Inca Trail

Dear Mom and Dad,

We survived the Inca trails to Machu Picchu! Barely. We took a three hour bus ride to kilometer 82, where our trek began. Our group included many people from Australia! One family with their two daughters, their boyfriends, an older and younger couple, a single male, and a couple from Europe. They fed us breakfast before our trek began, which included a ham sandwich, banana, and some baby food mush. I was a little nervous as to how the food would be on the rest of the trip if that was any indication of it. Non of us had any idea of what we were about to get ourselves into.

Our first day we hiked 14 km in 6 hours. It seemed to be difficult but nothing compared to what we had to face on Day two. I chose to color cordinate my headbands in order to keep track of which day each picture was taken on. Gold = first day. Pink = second day. Silver = third day. Hawk band =  fourth day. We weren't allowed to take showers since there was no running water, so you could also take a guess by how sweaty we look. Here Charlie and I are at our first resting point.

The next few pictures is of the first archaeological sight. Only 30% of these ruins are original. The rest has been restored by the National Park.

From our first day's hike we could view what we would be tackling on Day two. "Dead Woman's Pass." It would be the highest point on the trek and the most challenging to climb. It's called "Dead Woman" because of the shape of the rock. If you look from right to left, you can see a profile of a woman's face down to her breast with the nipple sticking out. The nipple is the centerest point. So creative.

Everynight we received hot water to wash our face and hands. Charlie and I started using it to soak our feet! We were exhausted after the first night. We left for our adventure at 5:00am, and didn't get into the first camp sight until 6:30pm and then of course and to eat dinner. The food was absolutely AMAZING. Best food we have had so far on the entire trip. Please note the color of the water from Charlie's feet in comparison to mine. We couldn't leave anything outside our tent because many people and porters from other treks have been known to steal shows and walking poles. This meant the sweaty socks and shoes were contained in our tent for the entire night. As if breathing in the high altitude wasn't hard enough.

Staying in a tent isn't my cup of tea. The ground is so hard even with the flimsy mattress pads they provided. I would have not carried one because I don't think it added any comfort to my sleep. I even tried to convince Charlie into giving me his. Didn't work. Our sleeping bags did keep us warm for the nights, so at least we weren't miserably cold. It rained everynight, but our tents were set up with perfection, and we stayed dry throughout the night.

Last picture before heading to bed...

Day Two:

I was very nervous about today's trek. We would be covering 12 km in 7 hours with the dreaded "Dead Woman's Pass." The highest point would be 14,000 feet. So high, with no oxygen. My muscles ached and it was only breakfast time. Morning sunrise.

Today's trek also seemed to be through the jungle. Everything was so green due to all the rain. We knew this meant rain for us at some point along the trek. Pictures don't do justice to how beautiful everything was!

Most pictures are of me hiking because of course Charlie was always ahead of me. He did wait for me to catch up or he got the stink eye. 

 

  

Of course we had to take more llama pictures along the way. They make it up the path soooo easily. These ones were taken while we enjoyed our orange and cookie snack. The company did a great job with providing snacks inbetween meals.

These next series of pictures it looks like I'm smiling. That's only for the camera. I was about to cry the last 15 minutes of this climb because it was so difficult. Charlie tried to keep me motivated by feeding me granola bars, saying words of encouragement, and taking as many breaks as I needed. Eventually he just started smacking me in the butt like a horse, so I wouldn't stop. Whatever works, and I did get to the top!

Okay for the real picture of how I looked during this dreadful time....

 Our whole group made it to the top! Notice the weather change. We had to put our raincoats on shortly after. We loved our raincoats during this hike. The entire group complimented our jackets because they kept us the dryest out of everyone, and the rain evaporated of the jackets the fastest. Thanks dad! My feet also stayed dry during this trek. Great shoes don't always have to be fasionable.

This is what we had to trek down afterwards in the rain. It was VERY steep. One small slip and tumbling down you would go. With my grace, I had no problem...

Beautiful waterfalls throughout the entire trek! Some of them we couldn't capture because of the rain.

I'm running out of time to finish Day Two. The internet is drastically slower and we have plans to meet a couple for dinner at 7:30. Showers must happen inbetween now and then. Tomorrow, I can hopefully have everything updated.

Love always,

Matti Jo and Charles Dale

PS. It has hailed here even though Charlie and I are both wearing t-shirts because the temperature is warm. Weird.