Well it's been a while since my last post. About 2 weeks ago I embarked on my pilgrimage to Macchu Picchu. There are several ways the average person can get there-through the traditional Camino de Inca and a few alternative treks. In the past years they have had to regulate the Camino de Inca trail and limit it to 400 people per day. Apparently the wear and tear to the trail was proving to be detrimental to the terrain and therefore they capped off the number of people per day who can use the trail. As of the time I checked on the UNESCO schedule in late April, the trail was booked until through July. 
However the more I looked into things the more I was turned off by this option. No horses are allowed on the trail so for every one to two people about 2-3 porters are required. One of my friends said her group including tourists and porters was about 40 people. I opted to go with the 5-day/4-night Salkantay trek instead. The group was approximately 6 of us with an amazing tour guide, 3 porters and a few horses.I can honestly say this trek was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. It really offered a snapshot of the different terrains of Peru from the mountains to the high jungle it was incredible. We were also lucky enough to have a tour guide who knew the plants and animals extremely well.
We camped each night, the first being at the base of the mountain Salkantay. The scenery is pretty jaw dropping when you approach this mountain-it shoots up from the landscape very dramatically. 
The second day we hiked over a pass of about 4650 Meters which is over 15,000 feet. Talk about lack of oxygen. I think it was pretty tough for all of us, but so worth it. The thing about altitude is that it not only affects your breathing but it can have crazy effects on your stomach as well. A few hours after we came down the other side of the pass our porters had a hot lunch waiting for us in a tent. I think most of us merely picked at our food. Luckily our guide made us some Muna tea which really helped. This is an herb which I think is absolute magic for the stomach. I've had it a few times and each time I am amazed at it's stomach healing powers. 
We also chewed on our share of Coca Leaves. You need to chew it with Lime ash to catalyze the process as seen in the picture to the left. 
Each night we camped in a different location after about 7-10 hours of hiking. By Day 3 we were deep in the high jungle. Fruit trees and butterflies were around every turn. I even saw wild orchids. There were also about 1000 mosquitoes who seemed to just LOVE the flavor of my skin. 
At the end of Day 3 we were to take a short trip on a bus to our campsite but there had been a big landslide the night before. So we had to wait for another bus to come pick us up on the other side. While waiting we hopped up over the hill to find a Futebol field and a crew of people sitting around it. The next thing I knew I'm in an hour-long Futebol game in my hiking boots with playing on a team of Peruvians. 
After our bus came we descended down to our camp and then to Santa Teresa hot springs where washed away the 9 hour hike with hot spring water. What a beautiful location. It was a perfect end to the day, followed by an amazing meal by our porters. 
Day 4 we set off on our final trek to the base of Macchu Picchu - Aguas Calientes. There is no question as you approach the mountain from below why the Incas thought to make this their masterpiece in this location. The rugged granite faces of the mountains are absolutely majestic.
We woke up the following morning to catch our bus to Macchu Picchu at 4:30am. If you get to the mountain early enough you can also sign up to climb Waynu Picchu the infamous mountain face you see in every photo taken of the Macchu Picchu site. I am posting a bunch of pictures from Macchu Picchu here and on my flickr site. From what I gathered from our tour-the Incas were just an amazingly advanced society. Its pretty unbelievable what they built. If you see the rock structures up close its pretty insane-the pure size and weight and location of these rocks-it must've taken them an eternity to build. They had it all, a compass, a sun timer that told the seasons, observatories for the moon and the sun, and the entire place, as you can see from Waynu Picchu was built in the shape of the condor. The most mysterious thing to me is that they have no actual writings of the Incas. No written out plans in hierogliphs...nothing. So how did they get these structures so perfect, the crop terraces so evenly spaced, all of it? And on top of a mountain that took us 20minutes by BUS to climb....no entiendo...
And don't even get me started on the climb of Waynu Picchu. It took almost an hour just to climb up and the stairs and they built major structures on top of this peak as well.
Anyway-I'll leave it at that-there's a lot of history you can read online without me recapping but its a place that I think everyone "must see" in a lifetime.
