Inca Trail -Salkantay

We're alive! We just finished 2 and a half days of hardcore hiking, and now we're in Aguas Calientes, the town just outside of Machu Picchu!!!! We're going up to the ruins at 5:30 tomorrow morning :)

So our hike was basically amazing. Our group was just 5 girls: 3 girls from New York, and Sam and I, and our guide Henry. The first day we got up at 4 am and caught a bus around 5 to go to a town about 3 hours away. We arrived in Mollepata (molle=tree, pata= high place... I'm learning all the Quechua I can!) and had breakfast, then we started our hike! There were a lot of flat parts on dirt road, but also a decent amount of uphill parts that were somewhat tough. We stopped and had a nice lunch with soup and chicken and rice, and all the tea we could ever want (with coca leaves! oh snap). We kept hiking all the way to our camp, at the bottom of a glacier on a biiig mountain! It was so pretty :) But that night was pretty cold...

The next morning we had to hike very very uphill to a mountain pass between 2 glaciers. It was hard, and we just kept taking about 3 or 4 (very slow) steps and then stopping to rest/breathe. We finally got to the top of the mountain pass, had a snack, and then started our descent into an ever-changing climate. We had lunch while it was raining, and put our ponchos on preparing for the worst, but it just kept getting nicer out, and it stopped raining about a minute after we left from lunch. We started to get into the jungle... and I saw some amazing flowers (lots of WWPD pictures, Zack) and the river below us. We got to our camp and played some cards, then we got some rest in a much warmer climate, which was nice :)

The next morning (today, actually) we woke up and started our last uphill/mostly downhill hike through the jungle. In the morning it was cold, but it got much warmer within a few hours. There were lots of waterfalls along the way, and whenever we stopped our legs hurt a little, but the hike was just perfect. It was a lot of flat walking and some uphill and downhill, and especially a perfect temperature in the shade. We finally arrived at a small town (the end!) for lunch, and then took a van to a train station.

We got on the train to go to Aguas Calientes, the town right outside of Machu Picchu. It was really stuffy, so I did a little exploring and found a spot by an open window and a place if i wanted to sit down. I met some women from Colombia and guys from Switzerland and Amsterdam. The European guys spoke English (and probably some other language, just not spanish) and the Colombians spoke pretty good English and obviously Spanish, but I did a little translating when they were talking and wondering what a word was in English, heh.

So now we're here in Aguas Calientes and we're waking up eaaaarrrrly and going to MACHU PICCHU!!!!! I just can't wait :)

Chaos!