The Incan Trail was a great trip. We spent five days hiking along the Incan Trail in Peru. While the hike wasn’t technical, it certainly proved to be long days through absolutely spectacular wilderness.
After flying down to Peru, we only spent a night in Lima before hopping a small flight to Cusco. The plane was small, bumpy, and noisy, which made for a great start. Also, my toothpaste and toothbrush was stolen by the baggage handlers… I’m not too upset about it. You gotta be pretty hard up to steal a man’s toothbrush.
We spent a couple days in Cusco, mostly to get used to the altitude. Since I had some downtime, I did what I do best: wandering and drinking.
You are required to hire a guide and porters for the trip. Since we hired a guide, he brought us to some awesome Incan ruins around Cusco. While these were amazing, they pale in comparison to the Incan ruins in the mountains.
I would normally shy away from hiring a man to carry my stuff, but since you are required, we enjoyed pretty small backpacks. Mine weighed less than 12 kilos. Backpacking in style.
After a couple days of “adjusting” *cough* drinking, we headed up to the start of the trail. It was a nice train ride through the maintains. At the trail head, we met our porters who were all wonderful people… they also had the thighs of gods. It’s embarrassing to be a 30 year old man with a 10 kilo pack and have a 60 year old run past you with 40 kilos of your stuff while you wheeze and complain.
The trail itself is very well maintained and has the skin of a 20 year old instead of the 500+ years it actually bears. The first part of the trail has some awesome ruins and old Incan way stations you can wander around. You also happen by ancient terrace farms, which are pretty epic as well.
Camp itself is more akin to glamping. Tents are set up by the porters when you arrive for the evening. There is a dining tent and dinner is prepared for you shortly after settling in. In the morning you are woken up with breakfast and Coca tea… Oh Coca tea. It’s like coffee but a million times better.
Alright, I’ll get into more of the trip in part two. That’s enough for today.
Team Strawberry Seahorses 