Back from trekking

I can't believe it's over already, but the four day Inca Trail Trek ended on Saturday night. Absolutely exhausting, and challenging to within an inch of my life, but holy crap, so worth it.

So much to describe, but I'll try to give the short version now because I'm on a common computer that wont' let me upload pictures right now. And I have spanish class that starts soon so I don't have time to investigate.

Got picked up disgustingly early on the Wednesdsay morning at my hostel, and we took a bus partway there, stopped for breakfast in Ollantaytambo, a small village in the Sacred Valley. On the way to the Inca Trail checkpoint our bus got a flat tire so we had to stop to get it changed, and then found out a few miles down the road that the guy who changed it did it wrong, so the axle broke or something and then we were on the side of the road waiting for a different bus to come get us. But we got there eventually, with an eventful start to the day, so all was good. In total, there were 16 trekkers, 2 guides, a cook, and 21 porters with my tour, which sounds like a lot, but we were definitely well fed and taken care of, with all the equipment and everything that got brought with us. All the exercise plus some really good food managed to give me my appetite back so that's comforting, although living expenses tend to increase dramatically when you have to factor in meals, ahahaha.

The first day after checking in and showing our passports, the hiking was pretty easy, or at least mild. We got to the campsite right before it started to get dark, which is pretty early at like 5thirtyish here. And it rained that whole first night pretty hard, so much so that i had dreams about them coming to relocate us further along the trail because our tents were washing away down the river. No such luck though. And then the second day we got woken up in our tents at 5am with some coca tea in bed, then breakfast and the start of the hardest day of hiking. The first few hours weren't so bad, as we were travelling through some really cool cloud forests, with beautiful orchids everywhere, hanging mosses and ferns, waterfalls, etc. But then at the breaktime we sort of hit the treeline on the mountain and from there to the top it was a huge struggle. The steps were really steep, and for those last few hours of climbing, my hands and feet had gone completely numb, from the altitude i guess, which made it a bit more difficult. Myself and this other girl, Isabelle, from Quebec, were the last ones to manage to get up to the top of that first pass and let me tell you, there were many times when i seriously was considering living the remainder of my days on the side of that mountain.

Ok, this is nowhere near the end of the story, but i'm getting told to get off the computer now for some reason, so i'll have to continue this later on, but just know that it was an amazing time, and i'm back in Cusco safe and sound, with much to report, verbally and pictorially, soon!
xo sarah