inca trail review

i have survived the inca trail. it was an incredibly emotional and difficult experience for me, and i've probably lost close to 10 pounds now. this was probably the single hardest thing i've ever done and i'm very proud of myself.

see, the thing you guys don't know is that along with my previously-mentioned cold, i also came down with a serious case of diarrhea the first day. i completed the whole four-day trek virtually starving myself, consuming only gatorade and glucose tablets. my body was basically eating itself for energy. but not only did i finish the trek as i had planned, i even managed to climb the huayna picchu mountain at the end, out of stubbornness or stupidity, i'm not entirely sure.

our trekking party consisted of two guides (freddie and cesar), 19 porters, two cooks, and 16 trekkers. there was another american couple, a canadian couple, a kiwi couple, an aussie couple, two british girls, a single british guy who had been traveling for seven months on his own, and a british father and his daughter and son. i want to mention that we totally lucked out with our group. seriously, everyone was really cool and decent. i had so many people offering to give me medications and constantly asking how i was. it really was touching to have so many strangers actually care. those glucose tablets were given to me by the aussie couple, and i'm not sure i would've made it through the third day without them. and on the last hike up huayna picchu, it was one of the british girls who intentially stayed behind with me so i wouldn't be all alone. small things like that make all the difference.

so monday morning, we were picked up at 5:20 am and driven to ollantaytambo where we had breakfast. the day before, my stomach was a litte off but i figured it was just a fluke. i ordered banana and caramel pancakes with hot chocolate. it tasted excellent, but within minutes i had to go to the restroom. that was the beginning of the end. we started hiking at 9ish that morning and stopped for lunch.

let me stop and say the chef on our trek was amazing! there was just one head cook and his assistant. and everything he made had to be carried up the mountain by porters. he cooked on two tiny stovetops and yet managed to make an amazing array of food. every meal was like four courses. he even made pizza! i was sick at that point, but i decided to try it anyways. it was excellent. he never repeated a single dish and even made special meals for the one vegetarian in our group. he was really creative too. he made this fruit salad with sprinkles! and rice with alphabet noodles! he came up with stuff i'd never imagine but it all tasted good. some highlights included the trout, orange chicken, chinese fried rice, sangria, garlic bread, and of course the pizza. it's almost a shame he's only the trekking company cook because he really was capable of so much more. unfortunately, i was only able to smell and see most of it. he did make special meals for me, but they were intentially boring and bland for my sake. they made all sorts of weird soup and tea concoctions for me, but nothing helped. but man, sitting at the dining table as everyone else ate his food was painful! go apolinar!

anyways, so it was after lunch that i started realizing that there might really be a problem. i finished off the first day, staying with the group, and we settled into camp by 4 pm. the first day is considered the easiest and is 12 km.

after dinner on the first day, i told freddie and cesar about my problem. cesar gave me some pills he said would take care of it. but you know what, the next morning, it was worse.

the second day of the trek is considered the most challenging. it's also 12 km but includes a huge climb up to dead woman's pass, which has actually killed a few people. it was also on this day that i pretty much lost all pride and dignity. i had to run off the trail and into the bushes on so many occasions it was no longer even embarassing anymore. and cesar had to stay with me and nick the whole day. at one point, he even asked if i wanted to go back. or if they should rent a donkey for me to ride back. i had been planning this damn trip for so long there was just no way i was going to give up that easily. but maybe for a second i considered it. i spent the rest of the day just focusing on the one or two steps in front of me. and when i wasn't doing that, i was up ahead by myself on the verge of tears. when we finally arrived in camp, 30 minutes after the last trekker, they clapped for me. still, i've never really been last in anything before, and it really hurt. i hated being the weak one. i'm happy to say it never happened again. i found out later on that the guides had serious doubts i would make it. we didn't have mirrors so i have no clue what i looked like, but i'm told i was pretty ashen and had noticeably lost weight in just that one day. that day was hard for everyone, even the healthy ones.

so the third day, i had given up eating completely which helped a lot. by not eating, i wasn't going to the bathroom which saved energy. squatting in the bushes starts to kill your legs, especially when you're already weak. my legs were probably getting more of a workout from the constant bathroom breaks than from the hiking itself. anyways, the aussie couple gave me the glucose tablets that day, and i think they helped at lot. if nothing else, they tasted good. this day was also the longest at 16 km and considered the most beautiful. the morning was easy and gorgeous as promised. but the afternoon ended with 2000 steps down! before i said something about 200; well i was wrong. it's probably actually closer to 2700. walking down jagged crude stone stairs for over two hours is absolutely killer on the knees and feet. we got into camp later at around 5 pm. there were showers at this place, and i meant to take one since we'd been hiking for three days totally dirty, but we ran out of time. after dinner we went and met all the porters and it was pretty cool.

a note about the porters. apparenty peru treks takes good care of the porters by supplying sleeping bags, sleeping mats, jackets, and actual backpacks. they also have a max weight of 18 kg. but along the trail, we would see other companies' porters and their conditions were awful. some of these guys had sandals and were carrying bags the size of their bodies. and they may be carrying everything tied up in a huge blanket. it was really sad. they really aren't treated any better than animals.

that also reminds me. we saw tons of alpacas, llamas, cows, mules, and donkeys on the trail too. it was really neat.

also, before i forget, sleeping in the tents sucked. the mattress pads aren't very thick and i ended up messing up both hips over the first two nights, and on the third night i figured i'd be smart and sleep on my back. well that just messed up my tailbone, so on the last day i had bad hips and a bad tailbone. not good at all. pretty much gimp. i slept maybe max two hours a night. also, my stomach problems forced me to get up every night, put on my hiking boots, and wander around in the dark with a flashlight in search of the restroom. these campsite restrooms were no more than porcelain holes in the ground.

okay, so the last morning, we got up at 3:40 am in order to get to the sungate by sunrise. we walked six kilometers total. it was a pretty easy walk that morning which is good cuz i was really pretty banged up by then. we got to machu picchu at around 7 am. it really was beautiful, but i didn't get as emotional as i thought i would. then again, i had an emotional breakdown the night before in the tent, so i guess i already had gotten it all out of my system.

once we got there, i realized we would be able to get tickets to climb huayna picchu after all. in any photo you've seen of machu picchu, there's always a tall mountain in the background. i had told myself i would climb that if i could. they limit it to 400 climbers a day. nick refused to do it, so i tagged along with the two british girls, the kiwi guy, and the aussie guy. i had my glucose tablets but no water. nick didn't want me to do it since he was worried my legs were too shot by then. but i figured, i've already survived four days, what's two more hours right? it was stupid, but i knew i'd regret it later if i skipped it, even if i did have a really good excuse. there are about six fatalities on that mountain a year. i'll admit, about 10 minutes into it i started to seriously question myself. but like i said, one of the british girls stuck with me and it really made a huge difference. in the end it took me one hour 40 minutes to get up to the top and back down.

after that, we took a bus to aguas calientes, a nearby town, to meet everyone for lunch. again, i ate nothing but nick had some good pizza. we also realized we had like four hours to burn till our train back to ollantaytambo. nick, me, the british family, and the single british guy ended up just walking around town and looking at all the shops. man, walking up and down stairs just about killed us! but we had a good time and got to get to know each other much better. people who were previously so reserved became so open after the whole ordeal. i guess that's what happens after you've also been through something like that together.

anyways, so we got back at around 10 last night and we just went immediately to bed. this morning we woke up and sorted out the hotel fees with the owner and everything was good. we just arrived in lima around 1 pm. we're back at the same hotel, and angelo told me i have a bacterial infection. i've taken some sulfur tablets and i hope that works. i said i wanted to lose weight, but not that much ;)

right now, thinking about the trek is just very emotional for me. it's still too recent. maybe i'll have fonder memories later. the people, food, scenery were amazing, but the trek itself was just too painful. i had people constantly tell me they couldn't believe i finished it in my condition. on the one hand it makes me proud, but on the other it just makes me wanna cry.