July 29 - August 1 - Inca Jungle Trail and Machu Picchu

Stace at the beginning of the bike

Our day started out with a bus ride to the highest point of the entire trek at around 4100m where we would bike down from. They supplied the bikes and gear, and we followed the guide down the winding mountain road with the bus following behind. I was a little worried because a few people we had talked to said their guide didn't let them go fast, but that was not the case with our guide. He actually let us go as fast as we wanted with only a few stops where we waited for the others to catch up. He even let me use his bike after I got a flat tire about 2 hours into the ride. Both Stace and I ripped down the entire thing which was super fun.
We road 30 minutes by bus to the next town called Santa Marta after the bike ride where we had lunch and got checked into a hostel. It was an early night for both Stacy and I.

View during the second day

The second day was a hike to the next town called Santa Teresa. We were told it was 6 to 7 hours of walking, which turned out to be more like 3 to 4 hours of walking with another 3 hours of stopping and waiting. There was about a 1 hour break after the first hour of walking where the guide told us about the local plants they were used by the incas for different spiritual and medicinal purposes. He painted our faces with a paint made of a local plant, we dressed up in traditional clothing and tried some of drinks made with chicha which is a alcohol made from corn. We also tried chewing chicha which is still used by indigenous people for treating altitude sickness, combating hunger, increasing energy and treating stomach aches. Unfortunately we all ended up with really sore tongues as I think the substance they chew with the leaves to help extract the medicinal properties actually caused some sort of chemical burn on our tongues. However it was interesting experiencing the numb mouths and throats that comes with chewing the coca leaves.

Trail on the second day

At the end of the day of hiking an inca trail along a steep cliff and then along side the river, we came to some hot springs where we stopped for an hour. Not the nicest hot springs I've been to but still pretty nice after an afternoon of hiking. We caught a bus after the hot springs up the hill to the town where we stayed the night.
The next morning we had the option of doing a zipline or skipping it and meeting the group at the next town later that morning. Since Stacy wasn't interested and I had already done a ton of ziplining we decided to skip it. Unfortunately there were only two other options: take a bus to the next town, or walk 3 hours along the same narrow dusty road as the buses. Not being overly enthused by the idea of inhaling diesel fumes and dust for three hours we decided to take the bus. We arrived early at a place called hydroelectrica to wait for the group after they finished ziplining. There we found a small little tienda that served coffee and tea in the shade where we veged out for a few hours while we waited.

Tienda at Hydroelectrica

When the group arrived, we had lunch and started on a 3 hours walk along side the train tracks to the town below Machu Picchu called Agua Calientes. It was a gorgeous and easy walk as it was full of vegetation and cool rock formations and completely flat. We arrived in Agua Calientes around 4 and checked into our hostel where Stace and I had our own room, private bathroom and hot shower. We had dinner that evening where the guide told us our options of either getting up at 4am and hiking up stairs built by the Incas for an hour to Macha Picchu in the dark, or taking the bus at around 5am. Naturally Stacy and I chose the hike and am so thankful we did.

Machu Picchu

We got up at 4am, packed up our big bag which we were able to leave at the hostel, grabbed our day bags and started on the hike at 4:30am. It was pitch dark except for the little bit of light from the full moon overhead. Luckily both of us had our headlamps so we were set. We had to pace ourselves on the way up as we didn't want to tire ourselves out for the hike later up the Machu Picchu Mountain that overlooks the site. We made it up the hill in about 45 minutes when it was still dark. We were also right in the clouds which was really neat. We had to wait about 30 minutes for the site to open, then about another 30 minutes for our guide to arrive. When he did, we got a 2 hour tour of the site which was very informative. We then headed up the mountain overlooking the site. It was another 45 minute hike up another steep set of stairs. It was tough, but worth it. There was an incredible view of not only the site, but the surrounding mountains and valleys. We had lunch and started heading back down.

Stace and I on Machu Picchu Mountain

Stace was really hot from the sun so decided to take a nap in the shade on one of the terraces at the site while I ran around like a child in a playground to see more of the site. After about an hour or so, I was convinced I had seen every little nook and cranny in the site and we started heading back down to Agua Caliente. Once down we had to waste about 5 hours until we could catch the train back. We sat around watching the Olympics, then wandered around the market. At 9:30pm, we caught the train which brought us about half way, then caught a bus the rest of the way. We arrived in Cusco exhausted around 1:00am and headed straight back to the hostel that we had stayed in before we left for the tour.