Peru

There’s one drink that Peruvians love more than anything… its Pisco.

After we checked into our hostel, we went out for drinks around the Barronco area, a popular neighborhood in Lima - the capital city of Peru. Pisco sours are very popular. We had several at the Ayahuasca bar, a back ally dive full of colorful glass bottles of locally produced pisco.

I was exited to hear that Lima had beaches, but the excitement quickly faded when we hit up one in Barrano. The entire beach was packed with local families, tourists, and vendors selling plastic trinkets. I couldn’t see the water with all the umbrellas. 

We could’ve spent more time in Lima, but after spending a lot of time in Bogota - we were looking for something a little bit more mellow. As soon as we got back to the hostel, we moved our flight to Cusco so that we would leave the next morning. 

Off to Cuzco!

Cusco was a nice change from the crowded city. We stayed in the tourist area, near Plaza de Armes. We found a couple great vegetarian restaurants. The Greenpoint was one of my favorite vegan spots. The food is mind-blowing, we ate there at least ten times. 

Chocolate is a popular export of Peru. There are several chocolate cafes that brew thick concoctions of homemade cacao, steamed milk, cayenne pepper, and honey. Delish.

We decided to explore the countryside a bit and took a side trip to Pisac, a tiny village an hour outside of Cusco. It had beautiful ruins and an artisanal market. 

We hiked around the outskirts of town, prepping for the Inka Trail. 

The coco leaf is everywhere in Peru. The plant has many different uses, the most widely known is the alkaloid in the leaf that is used for cocaine. Mainly people either chew the leaf like tobacco or put it in tea. I personally get more of a buzz drinking a strong cup of coffee, but chewing coco leafs helped me deal with the altitude- especially when I was climbing. 

Coca often came in the form of raw leaves or powder. The old women at the market who sold us coco leaf powder recommended that we mix it with baking soda to make it more potent. Cocaine production 101.

After a few days around the Cusco area, we headed to Ollyantantambo, another tiny town about 2 hours from Cusco. This was the starting point of the Inka trail. 

We spent the afternoon hiking around several ruins, prepping our bodies for the 4 day Inka trek. High altitudes, low oxygen, uphill climbing … exited but nervous. 

Cobblestone streets and tiny wooden doors... for tiny little Inkas. 

Day 1 of the Inka trail. We took a bus to the start of the trail, got our passports stamped, credentials checked, and met our group. 

We chose Peru Treks, who has a very good reputation of being one of the best tour companies for the Inka trek. They are known to treat their porters fairly (porter mistreatment is unfortunately still common among certain tour companies). The food was really good, healthy, and delicious. Jasmine and I were among 16 trekkers, 19 porters, and 2 guides. 

We chose not to get a porter and carried our bags the entire trek. The only benefit to this were the bragging rights (i recommend getting a porter).

Day 1 was not to hard, a couple uphill climbs, but nothing too bad. After the 5 hour hike we set up camp. There were several farms we passed along the way and stayed on the property of one of the farmers. 

Day 2 we were woken up at 5:30AM. “Buenos Dias senoritas!”, one the porters said to us as he handed us a hot cup of coca leaf tea. 

We had a giant breakfast and headed off to what was supposed to be the toughest day of the trek. 8 hours, all uphill. The mid-point would be the highest point of the mountain range- 14,000 feet. The hike up was really tough. There were points I had a hard time breathing from the altitude. Lots of yoga breaths. 

"Embrace the uphill"

We finally made it to camp around 4PM. After a huge dinner, we sat around and got to know our porters. Both hikers and porters went around and introduced themselves. Most of the porters were from towns around Cusco, between the ages of 20-30, and had at least 3 kids. The hikers were from all over the world; Sweden, Ireland, Argentina, England, Scotland, and the US. 

We went to bed around 7PM. Part of my sleeping bag got wet from the rain.. I slept about 2 hours. 

...but it was all worth it to wake up to this in the morning. 

Day 3 we were woken up again with hot coca tea. That day we hiked 10 hours- some uphill climbing but mostly it was “Inka flats” (steady up and down hills). The sunrise that morning was surreal. The morning dew made the trees sparkle as the sun was coming up over the mountains. Clouds were below us… we were in the sky.

Jazz and I were the 2nd group to arrive to base camp. Lunch above the clouds. 

We had our last dinner together and got to bed early. 

Day 4 we woke up at 3:30AM and headed to Machu Picchu, only a 3 hour hike. 

We finally arrived to Machu Picchu, the visibility was bad and there were already hoards of tourists pouring into the gates. 

The next day we climbed Huayna Picchu, the mountain pictured below. 

The groups of tourists really took away from the experience of Machu Picchu. Especially coming off of an amazing 4 day trek through gorgeous mountain ranges. Being alone in nature (at times it was just Jasmine and I hiking along the trail with no one in sight) and surrounding myself with pure beauty was something I enjoyed most about this experience. Machu Picchu was pretty, but I hated the fact that it was so exploited and populated with people. 

The journey was way better than the destination. 

We stayed the night in Aguas Clients, a tiny town just below Machu Picchu. It was extremely touristy and over-priced. The town is known for its hot springs, but I was told that they are not worth the visit. 

"The best views come after the hardest climbs". 

Hiking the Inka Trail was an incredible journey.