We awoke at 3:30am on our final day to hike up to Machupicchu, the icing on our trekking cake. We lined up at a control gate along with over a hundred other hikers (we were close to the front) and at 5:30 the control gate opened and let us through.
Archive for July, 2010
Peru :: Inka Trail Trek – Day 3
In Peru, continuing our journey along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This posting covers the third of a four day trek.
Peru :: Inka Trail Trek – Day 2 (Part 2)
After our delicious and fortifying lunch we left camp on a steep trail quickly ascending out of the valley toward the second highest point of the four-day hike.
Peru :: Inka Trail Trek – Day 2 (Part 1)
Day two was the most difficult by design. 16km (10 miles) over two passes (13,779ft. and 13,123ft. respectively), with a gross elevation gain of 4,373ft. and gross elevation loss of 3,402ft. (which was by far the more difficult part, especially on the knees) by nightfall – 11 hours total.
Peru :: Inka Trail Trek – Day 1
Instead of taking the traditional tourist route to Machupicchu, we decided months in advance that we wanted to follow the 500-hundred-year-old segment of the Inca trail (Camino Inka) from kilometer 82 of the highway to Machupichu. The route we took is traditionally called the ¨Inca Trail¨ [...]
Peru :: Capital of the Inca Empire
Yesterday was our day of rest. Time to get some laundry done (only $2 for basically everything we brought!). Today we hope to check out some ruins and maybe some of the villages in the Sacred Valley (Valle Sagrada) around Cuzco (Cusco). Our 3 night, 4 day Inca Trail trek begins on Friday!
Peru :: On to Cuzco
Another early morning bus ride, ended up being a 10.5 hour adventure.
Peru :: Out of the World’s [2nd] Deepest Canyon
![Peru :: Out of the World's [2nd] Deepest Canyon](http://awaygowe.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/featured_colca2.jpg)
This was a TOUGH hike…given the altitude, rough terrain, and direct sun. Our hearts were pounding (Lori says even more than hiking out of the Grand Canyon) and quads were burning. We stopped frequently to catch our breath and drink water in the shade, which became increasingly difficult (if not impossible) to find as the hours wore on.
Peru :: Into the World’s [2nd] Deepest Canyon
![Peru :: Into the World's [2nd] Deepest Canyon](http://awaygowe.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/featured_colca1.jpg)
We took a taxi to the bus station at 5am to buy our tickets to the village of Cabanaconde to hike the world’s second deepest gash, Colca Canyon. Information on hiking the canyon was hard to come by, but we had heard that many hikers trek solo to the bottom and we wanted to do the same. For this reason, we opted for local transport rather than a tour bus, and were ultimately very happy with our decision to do so.
Peru :: The White City
We arrived in Arequipa, the ¨white city¨, in the morning and headed to our hostel, El Caminante Class. At 7,700ft we began to notice that climbing 2 flights of stairs to the hostel left us a little breathless. Later in the day we learned that there had been a rollover bus accident involving a double-decker night bus on the roads from Lima to Arequipa involving a different company, we were thankful for our choice of bus!