I survived the Inca Trail!

When we first checked in with our trek company for the Inca Trail we recieved T-shirts that said ¨I survived the Inca Trail¨ little did we know we were going to really have to work for those shirts. The Inca Trail is a 4 day, 26 mile hike from the small town of Ollatambo to Machu Picchu. The entire trail is at very high elevation with Dead Woman´s Pass, the highest point in the trail reaching nearly 14,000 ft. We were up for the challenge and had a great first two days. Then, the food poisoning began. The second night on the trail Derrick and I both ended up with some serious stomach rumbling which resulted in full blown food poisoning. I´ll save you the gory details, but trust me it was pretty bad. Derrick had it the worse, and several other people out of our group of 15 had various degrees of it as well. Day 3, the longest and most beautiful day of the trek was also the most difficult for us as we struggled to keep hiking over 9 miles to our next campsite. Our guides and porters carried our packs for the day and set up rest stops for us along the trail. After many hours of slowly trotting along we finally made it to our last camp site and pretty much went straight to bed. The last day, we made it to Machu Picchu for sunrise, we were feeling better, but still not 100%. We felt like we really earned those shirts after that adventure.

It was a challenging few days and a real bummer to feel sick on such a beautiful trek, but all in all we still managed to have a good time. It was a stunning hike with giant mountains, impressive Inca ruins, deep river valleys, and a suprisingly tropical ending. Machu Picchu is amazing, so big and dramatic. So I will still look back on the trip fondly, despite the sickness. Now we´re back in Cusco relaxing for the day and then heading to Lake Titticaca tomorrow. I´m also including some pictures from the trip so far.