The Inka Trail is a Good Crack!

When you are going to be spending 7-10 hours of your day for 3 days straight hiking in the rain and mud and camping out in the middle of the Peruvian Andes, it is good to have some Aussies & Irish in the group. They are good fun and very entertaining! In total, there were 13 people in our group - Aussies, Irish, Americans & 1 Danish on our trek to Machu Picchu. We had a great group and had a lot of laughs. After a couple days of acclimatization in Cusco, we were off. This was one of the things on the top of my list to do while in South America and so it worked out well that it was the last stop on my journey. The first day we hiked for about 7 hours with stops along the way to learn about the Quechua people and archaeological sites. Our guide Hilbert said that the Quechua people, (which are the indigenous people who are descendants from Inka civilizations) do not like the term "ruins" because it insinuates that the cities were not in tact, which they very much are. Our guide Hilbert was a real jokester but was also very informative. He studied archaeology for 8 years and really knew his stuff (as well as spoke really good English)!


5:45 am we are on our way!


Armed with our hiking poles and ready to go.


The crew.


One of the homes of the local Quechua people
along the trail.


Our fantastic guide Hilbert or "Hilby" as we
liked to call him.


Jules and I in front of one of the many
'archeological sites'.


Lunch break. The food was excellent! Honestly
some of the best food I have had down here.


A local woman grinding corn with a stone.


Campsite #1. Jules has magically transformed
herself into a tent!


Jules and I headed out at our first camp site.


Ah the squatter! Really wasn't that bad.


It takes a lot of work to get all of us to Machu
Picchu. This is the entire crew - porters, guides
and us gringos.