The Cuyabeno Jungle

Our first day in Quito, Ecuador, we arranged for a five day trip exploring the jungle in the Cuyabeno National Reserve. Due to a relatively recent war with Peru, Ecuador no longer has any of the actual Amazon river, but the Cuyabeno river feeds into the Amazon and the surrounding area is part of the Amazon rainforest. Cuyabeno is considered primary rainforest because it has never been cut down and regrown like many other areas. This means that there is much more wildlife to see!

To start our trip, we first had to take an eight hour, over-night bus ride to Lago Agrio. The roads were very windy and mostly dirt, so we didn´t get much sleep that night. We arrived at 6 am in pouring rain, but we weren´t supposed to meet our group until 9:30-10, so I had a short nap in the lobby of the hotel where we were supposed to meet. I´m not sure the hotel was too happy about me napping in their lobby, but fortunately they didn´t say anything.

Our travel agent had given us stickers to wear so we could locate our group. There appeared to be a couple of other groups meeting at this hotel as well, but no one else from our lodge, Samona. As 9:30 turned into 10 we started to worry because not only was nobody there to meet us, but no one else was wearing the stickers (the travel agent had told us there would be seven people in our group). Then, at 10:00 a man introduced himself as Naicer, our guide, and told us to get in his unmarked jeep. There was another dude driving, who we later learned was Naicer´s brother. We asked where the rest of our group was, and he said we had to pick them up from the airport. A little strange, but we went along with it.

First, we drove to Naicer´s parents house where we switched to a Volkswagon van. Then, on the way to the airport, Naicer got a call informing him that two of the people in our group had cancelled and the other three people were actually scheduled to come next month. We weren´t sure if us being the only two in the group was a good or bad thing, but it was definitely strange. We drove to the airport anyway where we picked up some papers. Then we drove to a gas station where Naicer appeared to have an argument with the attendant. Strange again! We later learned that the gas prices are much cheaper in Ecuador, so people often smuggle gasoline across the nearby Columbian border. The papers we had picked up from the airport were authorizing us to fill up several tanks of gasoline to use for the jungle boats.

After getting a little lost in downtown Lago Agrio due to construction, we next drove to a restaurant and picked up a few take-out boxes. Finally, we were ready to start the three hour drive to the Cuyabeno reserve. We stopped halfway through the drive at a tiny restaurant in a tiny town. There, we ate the take-out food, which turned out to be really yummy fried chicken with white rice. The restaurant owners didn´t seem to mind that we had brought our own food and weren´t buying any of theirs. Strange!

From Cuyabeno (The...

The rest of the ride was bumpy, although very scenic. At the entrance to the park, they transferred all of our supplies to a dug out canoe. Since it was just Dan and I, we also picked up two hitchhikers, a woman and her young son. It had been raining all morning, so they gave us heavy ponchos to wear. Fortunately, the rain dwindled to a stop within the first half hour of our two hour ride. On the ride we saw many animals including macaws, yellow handed titi monkeys, stinky turkeys, and a river otter. We were very lucky to see the river otter because they were almost extinct. We knew this was special because Naicer got really excited when he saw the otter, quickly scrambled to get out his camera AND video camera from his luggage, and took photos/movies the entire time the otter was in site. Naicer was a really great guide because he would get really excited about the wildlife and you could tell he loved being in the jungle. In the below picture, Naicer is at the front of the boat and you can see the otter´s head to the left of the boat:

From Cuyabeno (The...

The Simona lodge actually consisted of a bunch of separate huts all connected by a wooden walkway a few feet above ground. We were there during the dry season, but apparently during the wet season the entire campsite is filled with water and you can actually fish for piranha right off the walkway! Our hut was the largest, with two floors and a total of six rooms. Each room had a private bath with shower. However, the toilet, sink, and shower water were all from the river so the water was a little brown. There was no electricity in the rooms, but there were two candles that were sufficient for everything but reading.

From Cuyabeno (The...

There was also a large hut that contained the kitchen and a large room for dining/lounging. On the first night we were instructed to not keep any food in our room because of the insects, so I put my bag of snacks in the communal refrigerator in the kitchen (I still had some Cliff bars I´d been hoarding for emergency snacks). However, despite our precautions, our room was swarmed with giant cockroaches every night. Most of them were about the size of my big toe! Below is a picture of two crawling through some clothing I had put on a shelf (after taking this picture I quickly shook out all my clothes and started keeping everything in plastic bags).

From Cuyabeno (The...

When we got to the lodge, it was filled with tourists. However, it turned out that all but three of them were leaving the next morning, so we ended up with a nice group of five. There was a brother and sister who were about our age and another older woman, coincidentally all from Switzerland. Our first morning at the lodge we went for a hike. However, before we left, we were equipped with water-proof, knee-high boots, which turned out to be essential for jungle hiking. I was constantly amazed by all the different plants and animals we saw, but the two highlights were when a GIANT grasshopper landed on one of the guy´s backpacks and hiking through this big mud pit:

From Cuyabeno (The...

In addition, on our way back to the lodge we saw a pink river dolphin, which is somewhat uncommon during the dry season. Unfortunately, river dolphins are a little shyer than their oceanic cousins, so this was our only picture:

From Cuyabeno (The...

After getting back to the lodge, we had lunch and relaxed until mid-afternoon. Then we went piranha fishing! Our poles were sticks with fishing line and hooks, and our bait was STEAK. Piranhas usually hang out around tree roots and the technique is to first thrash your pole around in the water like an animal in distress, and then wait for the fish to bite. Right away Naicer caught a little Piranha (about six inches), but the crazy part was that it had a parasite living in it´s throat! Naicer pulled out the parasite and let the fish live. The parasite was very light yellow and looked more like a bug than a worm. Unfortunately, Dan and I were unable to catch anything.

From Cuyabeno (The...

After piranha fishing, we moved the boat to slightly deeper water and went swimming. The water was so murky you could only see about two inches into it, so Dan and I opted out of this activity. It was dark by the time we headed back to the lodge, and Naicer spotted a baby boa constrictor hanging off a branch. He coaxed it onto a fishing pole so we could get a closer look. I tried to pet it, but it kept trying to bite me, so I decided against petting.

From Cuyabeno (The...

That night, after dinner, we went for a night hike! There we learned the trick of putting your flashlight in front of your nose to make all of the animal´s eyes shine back at you. This even worked for fish in a stream, and I was amazed by how many eyes appeared out of nowhere. We came across a very photogenic tree frog, but the highlight of the trip were the fisherman spiders. These spiders can be as big as my hand and actually catch fish out of streams! Below is a picture of the fisherman spider with its dinner (but I must admit that Naicer killed the fish himself and fed it to the spider for pictures):

From Cuyabeno (The...

From Cuyabeno (The...

The next day we took a boat ride up the river to see the medicine man. He showed us a bunch of different plants and explained how he uses them. While on the tour, we came across a giant fluffy caterpillar. I really had to restrain myself from petting it, because apparently they are covered in poison and are terribly painful.

From Cuyabeno (The...

After the tour the medicine man performed a short cleansing ceremony on me. I didn´t notice much of a change.



Later that afternoon, while everyone else was taking a siesta, I decided to try my luck at piranha fishing again. After an hour of the fish stealing my bait, I finally caught a tiny little piranha. However, despite his small size, his teeth still looked a little menacing and I was afraid to take him off the hook. I threw the fish, still with the hook in its mouth, back in the water and put the pole on the dock. Then I ran and found someone to help get the hook out. However, by the time we got back, the little guy had either managed to free himself, or a bigger fish had come along and eaten him, because he was gone. I still had half a cup of steak pieces left, so I decided to keep going, and half an hour later I caught a really big one. At this point there was a girl there to help me unhook and release him, but in retrospect, I wish I had saved him for eating. Supposedly, piranhas are bit boney but make great stew.

From Cuyabeno (The...

Even later that afternoon we paddled a canoe down the river to the nearby lake. On our way, we came across a caimen. It´s head was over a foot long and Naicer steered us to within a few feet of him. He didn´t move the entire time, but was definitely watching us.

From Cuyabeno (The...

We also came across a group of about 30 squirrel monkeys. There was a break in the trees that they were jumping across. A few of them missed the branch they were aiming for, but they managed to catch the next branch before falling to the ground.



At the lake we saw a beautiful sunset. However, we started seeing lightening in the distance so we hitched a ride with a motorized canoe boat back to the lodge.

From Cuyabeno (The...

That night, back at the lodge, we found a GIANT walking stick insect in the dining area that I let it crawl on me. I think he liked me because he didn´t want to let go of my shirt.

From Cuyabeno (The...

The next morning we went for another hike where we saw bats, toucans, turtles, stinky turkeys, and thousands of mosquitoes. Both of the below pictures where taken through Naicer´s telescope:

Toucan:

From Cuyabeno (The...

Stinky Turkey (named because the meat is too smelly to eat):

From Cuyabeno (The...

The last afternoon turned out to be pretty frustrating because we were basically abandoned by our guide. The three Swiss had left and Naicer had to go pick up another group of tourists. Naicer said that we could join another group that were going on a boat ride to look for anaconda. Our travel agent had said our group would be no bigger than eight people, because larger groups tend to scare away the wildlife, but from the boat we didn´t think it would be too big a deal. However, it turned out that they were actually going piranha fishing and then hiking back to the lodge on the same route we had taken that morning. By that point we were pretty tired of hiking through hot, mosquito-filled jungle, so we asked if we could just go for the boat ride and not hike back, but the other guide said that was not possible. We were pretty frustrated because we had just hiked that same route that morning, and hiking with such a big group would not be very fun, so we decided to stay at the lodge.

When Naicer got back just after sunset we explained what happened. He was very sorry and said he could take us out to look for anaconda. Apparently, the anaconda like to hang out around a section of the lake filled with giant tree stumps. Navigating the boat past all the dead trees was pretty challenging, and a few times Naicer had to get out of the boat, and standing on a branch a few feet under the water, push the boat by. We were undable to find any big snakes, but the boat ride itself was fun and I appreciated Naicer trying to show us a good time.

The next morning we had to wake up at 4 AM to start our journey back to civilization. However, all the new tourists that Naicer had picked up that day were still on city time and kept us up until midnight with all their noise. The next day we had took the two hour boat ride back to the road and the three hour van ride to Lago Agrio. Fortunately, instead of then taking an eight hour bus ride back to Quito, we instead took a one hour plane flight.

When we finally got back to Quito at around midday, we headed straight for our hotel, showered, and took a much needed nap. Strangely, all of our clothes we had brought to the jungle felt wet because it was so humid there, so we also had to have everything washed. In addition, a GIANT cockroach crawled out of our bag.

The entire time we were in Quito we stayed in a great hotel called Hotel Pickett. It had friendly staff, cable TV, and somewhat reliable hot water for $20 a night. We stayed there before the jungle, after the jungle and before Galapagos, and after Galapagos, always in the same room. However, it wasn´t until getting back from Galapagos that we started noticing cockroaches in the hotel. They were much smaller than the jungle version, but we had to wonder if we had something to do with their sudden appearance...

Every day we were in the jungle got a little hotter, and every day we got more mosquito bites. I applied 98% deet at least 3 times a day and slept under a mosquito net, but by the end of the trip I had about 30 bites on my legs. However, overall I loved our jungle adventure! I had always heard so many stories about the jungle, and it was really neat seeing it for real. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend a 5 day trip to the Amazon jungle!

From Cuyabeno (The...

Ecuador -- We managed to spend a month here!

Hello!

Carrie and I are in Quito, having finished our jungle and Galapagos tours. We've been watching the World Series here... let's just say that Red Sox Nation doesn't exactly extend into Ecuador, but the atmosphere is still fun. Many Ecuadorians cheer at any exciting play, regardless of which team is executing it. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with the results so far. As for our journeys, the last long blog post left off in Peru in Machu Picchu...

Upon arriving back in Cusco, we found that our hotel had evidently forgotten that we were due back, despite us telling 3 different people before we left. They only had a room with tiny single beds left, which we regrettably took because it was late and we were tired. The following morning, the hot water didn't work, which made us quite angry because we hadn't taken a good shower in many days. We decided to switch hotels, and from there things were better.

After taking a much needed hot shower, we tried to figure out the best way to get to Ecuador. We quickly found out that flights to Ecuador are very expensive. With that, we decided to arrange a flight from Cusco to Lima, followed by 2 days in Lima, followed by a flight to the Peru / Ecuador border. Once that was arranged, we decided to relax and enjoy our last few days in Cusco. Here are some photo highlights:

The Irish Pub in Cusco:

From Cusco, Peru

A random parade going through the Plaza de Armas:

From Cusco, Peru

The view of Cusco from the hills of Sacsayhuaman:

From Cusco, Peru

Gradually, I became a bit worn down by Cusco, mostly because of the relentlessness of the people on the streets trying to sell things to tourists. Initially, Carrie and I enjoyed getting begged to dine at restaurants, but eventually I got sick of having someone follow me around when I was just trying to walk down the street. In the end, I felt that many people in tourst areas of Peru saw us more as walking dollar signs than as people. Unfortunately, this gave me a rather negative final impression of Cusco, which is really a decent city.

After Cusco, we took a 1 hour flight to Lima, the capital of Peru. It was warmer there, given the coastal location, but it was still not hot, and it was extremely cloudy, as apparently the sun doesn't shine there until December. We stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood, which was actually quite nice. Our hotel showed lots of promise to be one of our favorites, until we realized that there was loud construction taking place from 7am to 6pm every day. Here are some photo highlights from Lima:

Parque del Amor ("Lovers Park"):

From Lima, Peru

The Plaza del Armas:

From Lima, Peru

Guards marching in front of the palace:

From Lima, Peru

One of the highlights of Lima was a seafood dinner we had. Here are some highlights from what we ate:

Carrie got Ceviche, which is raw fish that gets cured by the vinegar:

From Lima, Peru

I ordered flounder, which apparently is the fish to get in Lima:

From Lima, Peru

We then got 2 fancy desserts:

From Lima, Peru

All this, plus a bottle of domestic white wine, $58!

After Lima, we boarded a flight to Tumbes, which is a town at the northern edge of Peru, near Ecuador. Unfortunately, Carrie had the privelage of sitting next to Peru's fattest man on the plane. Once we got to Tumbes, as expected, a travel agent type came and talked to us, and offered us a ride across the border. We took the offer, especially once a local said he wanted to do the same thing. The border crossing was very confusing, and we eventually ended up ditching our travel agent, but we eventually made it into Ecuador and boarded a bus to take us to Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and gateway to the coast.

Guayaquil was very hot and sunny, which Carrie and I were thrilled to experience again. We didn't spend much time there (we wanted to get to a beach town), but the highlight was the Iguana Park, in the middle of downtown! Iguanas were basically walking freely throughout the park, and people could get close to them and even touch them! Here is one picture of me attempting to bond with an iguana:

From Coastal Ecuador

After Guayaquil, we boarded a bus for Montañita, a coastal town known for its great waves, surfers, and nightlife. The town itself is very small, with only a couple main streets. On the main streets are a bunch of businesses that are all about the same: On the ground level is an open air restaurant that blares mp3s all day, and becomes a bar / nightclub at night. Above the ground level is usually some sort of hostel, with most rooms or common areas containing many hammocks to lounge out on and relax. Carrie and I settled on a $20 per night room that contained ocean views and a private balcony.

While in Montañita, we spent time seeing the ocean again, and began to shift our diet to shrimp, squid, and whitefish. Here is one of my favorite dishes that I had there:

From Coastal Ecuador

Here is a surfing shot:

From Coastal Ecuador

Unfortunately, our Montañita experience did have some minor downsides. Like much of the Ecuador coast, it was very cloudy and not especially warm at the time of year we were there. Also, there was an election in Ecuador the weekend that we were there, and so by law, the bars were not supposed to serve alcohol. Most places did not follow this rule for us, but the town seemed to have a much calmer and quieter vibe than normal. Finally, our delicious culinary experiences were interrupted by an ant infested breakfast that Carrie received. When we told the waitress about the ants, she simply wiped off the top section which had the most visible ants, and gave the plate back to us, still containing insects! So after the weekend, we decided to head out of Montañita.

Our next stop was a beautiful ecological hotel called Hosteria Alandaluz. This came highly recommended to us, and it did not disappoint. Carrie and I had a choice of places to sleep, and we settled on a private cabin for $32 per night!

From Coastal Ecuador

From Coastal Ecuador

It even featured an "ecological" bathroom where you poured sawdust instead of flush!

From Coastal Ecuador

From Alandaluz, we did multiple day trips. One was a canopy / zip line type place that wasn't expecially exciting, but the others were very memorable. We spent a day at the Playa Los Frailes, which was a beach located in a National Park. It's location was somehow set up such that it was actually sunny part of the time, and we could comfortably go swimming!

From Coastal Ecuador

The other day trip was to Isla de la Plata, which is known in some guide books as "the poor man's Galapagos". Since it was very similar to Galapagos, I'm going to postpone writing about it until I write about Galapagos (hopefully soon). You can view pictures from it in the Coastal Ecuador album on the photo site.

The Alandaluz experience wouldn't be complete without food... They specialized in seafoods accompanied by vegetables from their gardens. It was delicious. Here is one photo:

From Coastal Ecuador

After Alandaluz, we got ready to head to Quito. From there, we did the jungle and the Galapagos. Carrie and I will have more posts to come about those. The photos and some videos are now uploaded, so you can go to the full photo site and full video site (links in upper right corner of blog page) to get sneak previews! Until then, I wish everyone the best!

Very quick update

Hello everyone!

Carrie and I just returned from our jungle adventure in Ecuador's Cuyabeno nature reserve. Tomorrow, we head to the Galapagos Islands! Unfortunately, we haven't had a chance to upload pictures yet, so we won't have a full update until we get back from the Galapagos. In the meantime, I hope all is well with everyone, and GO RED SOX!!

Peru, Machu Picchu, and the Inka Trail

Hello!

This post comes to you from Quito, Ecuador. Carrie and I got here on Saturday, and we've been resting up for our upcoming trip to the jungle. While we haven't done much exploring here in Quito yet, we've had a good time just going to nearby restaurants and bars... Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), we were able to catch the Cubs game at Wrigley Field, and watched them get swept away by the Diamondbacks. On a happier note for me, I was able to find a bar with NFL Sunday Ticket, and watched the Patriots game, followed by switching bars to watch the Red Sox dominate the Angels. Hopefully, the Yankees will fall soon, but we'll see... Anyways, the last narrative post I did went up to Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side. From there, we entered Peru...

We took a "tourist" bus from Copacabana, Bolivia to Puno, Peru, on the other side of Lake Titicaca. While on that bus, we spoke with one of the employees who decided to befriend us and help us find a hotel. As always, we were initially skeptical of people who tried to arbitrarily sell us things. However, this man (whose name was Palermo) offered a free taxi ride and a good rate, and showed us the hotel's location, which appeared to be decent. We took Palermo up on his offer, and we ended up in a reasonable hotel for only 50 soles (about 16 dollars) per night, which appeared to be a substantial discount off of their posted rates.

From there, Palermo was ready to offer us tours of the Peruvian islands of Lake Titicaca, and book us on a special guided tourist bus to Cusco that made stops to tour several locations along the way. While we managed to find a better deal for the island tours, we did take Palermo up on his bus offer. He even insisted that he call one of his friends in Cusco who would help us find a good price for a hotel. More on that later...

After spending some time in Puno, we realized that Peru was a much more touristy country than Bolivia. There were districts of Puno filled with tourists walking the streets, and English speaking Peruvians hassling you to enter their restaurant or buy their products. On our Peruvian islands of Lake Titicaca tour, we had a boat full of 25 tourists, which was quite different from our private tour on the Bolivian side!

The first stop on our island tour was to the Uros floating islands, which were quite amazing, although it was clearly very touristy. The islands were apparently constructed using reeds, and we watched a demonstration explaining how the islands were secured to the lake. A woman showed us her home, which featured solar powered electricity! There was some doubt amongst our tour group if the locals actually lived on this island, or if they actually lived on the mainland and came to the islands to put on a show for the tourists. My guess was that they actually lived there, but their way of life consisted mostly of tourism shows, and not the fishing and craft-making lifestyle that they talked about. Here are some pictures:

One of the floating islands (viewed from our boat):

From Lake Titicaca

The ground on the island, consisting of reeds.

From Lake Titicaca

Locals demonstrate construction techniques for the islands:

From Lake Titicaca

Carrie, dressed in traditional clothing with one of the island's residents:

From Lake Titicaca

An "authentic" reed boat, that Carrie and I rode on. While riding the boat, we noticed that underneath the initial reed layer was wood...

From Lake Titicaca

After the floating islands, our boat headed for the Taquile island. Here, we hiked for a few hours, but honestly didn't see too much stuff worth remembering, in my opinion. The boat ride took a couple hours to get to this island from the floating islands, and it took another 3 hours to get back to the mainland. My recommendation for future Peruvian travelers would be to focus on the Uros islands and skip the Taquile.

After our island tour, we got ready to head to Cusco. The bus ride was fairly uneventful -- we observed some sights on the way, but the "touristy" feel was a little overwhelming. There were clearly people waiting for us at each sight, ready to sell us anything and everything. Our favorite sight along the way was an Incan temple... the stonework was pretty incredible. Here are a couple pictures:

From Cusco, Peru

From Cusco, Peru

Once the bus arrived in Cusco, we were immediately mobbed by people telling us we should have them find us a hotel. One person gave a name that sounded familiar... I think it was the name Palermo gave us back in Puno. We decided to see what this guy had to offer. He ended up finding us a nice hotel where we enjoyed a comfortable 2 story room in a good location for only $25 per night!

Cusco was a nice town -- a good mix of tourists and locals, with lots of restaurants, bars, and sights. With our time in Cusco before our Inca trail tour, we visited the town of Pisac and their incredible market (Carrie has a post about that), as well as various museums around town that came with the Cusco "tourist pass", a fairly expensive (and possibly overpriced) ticket that got you into most sights around Cusco. As expected, Carrie became an expert at bargaining for free drinks and appetizers at restaurants.

One good story from Cusco involves me and my dirty shoes. As Carrie and I walked through the Plaza de Armas, a fairly young boy offerred to shine my shoes. Looking at my shoes, it looked like I actually needed it. We asked him for his price, and he said "whatever you want, maybe 3 soles ($1)". I told him I'd give him 2 soles. He began shining my shoes, and after abount 1 minute, a police officer approached, scolding the kid and telling him he couldn't do that where we were. So we moved to a different street away from the plaza. The kid them resumed, and actually was doing a nice job (see this picture at the halfway point):

From Cusco, Peru

This was when things got interesting... The kid began telling me that one cleaner he was using was "very special", and cost extra. Since he was doing a good job, I had planned on paying him a little extra anyways, so I didn't really object. Then, ANOTHER police officer came, yelled at the kid, and told us we should only pay him 1 sole (abour $0.30). After the police officer left, the kid told us that since he was using the "special cleaner", we needed to pay him TEN SOLES ($3.33), to which we laughed and told him we'd give him 5 (what we had been planning to give him). He shook his head, saying that was no good, but he finished the job, and we gave him 5 soles, and left. He appeared unhappy, but we felt he was going to look unhappy unless he successfully rippped us off, so we felt fine about the whole thing.

OK -- let's get to the big stuff... The Inka Trail and Machu Picchu:

Last spring, we reserved our trek with Peru Treks, an organization that appeared to be highly recommended by some books and websites. Generally speaking, they did not disappoint. Our group consisted of 15 hikers, 2 cooks, 2 guides, and 20 porters to carry all of the equipment. There were 4 days of hiking, 3 nights spent in tents along the way. On the last day, we arrived at Machu Picchu, where we explored for most of the day before heading back to Cusco on the train.

Our tour group consisted of 8 friends (all about 24 years old and aspiring accountants) from Ireland, 3 friends from Scotland, 2 friends from England, and Carrie and I. Our group was very friendly, and it was nice for Carrie and I that everyone spoke English, so we didn't feel left out of any conversations. Unfortunately, by the end of the trek, our group was in rough shape, as everyone but 2 of the trekkers got sick during the trip, and one trekker through his back out and had to be carried to Machu Picchu on a stretcher!

From Inka Trail - ...

From Inka Trail - ...

As for the crew from Peru Treks, they were exceptional. Our guides, Victor and Puma, were both knowledgeable about the area, and were also good at managing the different speeds of the hikers. Carrie and I felt that they allowed us enough freedom to hike on our own, while still being fully in control and aware of what was going on. Our two cooks made surprisingly gourmet meals throughout the trip. Each day, we got a full breakfast, a snack for the hike, a 3-4 course lunch, another 3-4 course dinner, and tea after every meal! There are some decent food pictures in the photo album, which you can get to by clicking here.

I need to dedicate a separate paragraph for the porters. Some porters carried food and cooking equipment, others carried tents and camping gear, and others carried luggage for the trekkers. Trekkers had the option to rent a duffel bag, which they could fill with 6kg worth of gear to be carried by a porter. Once you filled the bag, a porter carried your bag, and the bags of 2 OTHER PEOPLE. All porters carried up to 20kg worth of gear at one time. Here's the incredible part... On a typical day, we'd be woken up, and breakfast would be ready in 30 minutes. After breakfast, the guides and trekkers would start out on the trail. Midway through the trek, we'd here running behind us, and porters would RACE PAST US with 20kg worth of gear!

From Inka Trail - ...

Once we got to our location for lunch, the dining and cooking areas were already completely set up, food was being prepared, and the porters were CLAPPING FOR US for bravely hiking the trail with our tiny day packs! After lunch, we would start hiking, the porters could clean up, then race past us, and by the time we got to our campsite, the tents, dining areas, and cooking areas were already set up, and the porters were clapping again! It was really incredible.

As for the trek itself, it was HARD. Day 1 was the "easy day", where we hiked in fairly flat elevations. Carrie and I, trying to keep ourselves in the best shape as possible, took it easy on the first night. We quickly realized we had a fun group of trekkers when the rest of our group immediately started drinking beers upon arriving at the campsite! They managed to completely clean out the supply held by the woman living at the campsite! Here is a video of Carrie at our first campsite:



Day 2 was when things started getting really tough. Most of the day was uphill, and very steep. In addition, some of our fellow trekkers began falling ill with some sort of nasty stomach flu. The uphill sections were extremely tough -- Carrie and I would take 20 steps, rest, take 20 more steps, rest, and repeat. Finally, we reached the highest point on the Inka Trail:

From Inka Trail - ...

After the summit, we headed downhill for another couple hours. While we welcomed not having to climb anymore, the downhill was hard because of its steepness. I tweaked my ankle a bit after landing on some steps badly, and my knees began to ache from the constant downhill. Finally, we arrived at our campsite, where we rested up.

Day 3 was not much easier, unfortunately. It was the longest distance hiking day, featuring both uphills and downhills. In addition, new group memebers were becoming sick. Probably the only good things about this day were the tropical scenery and the fact that there were shower facilities at the 3rd campsite.

From Inka Trail - ...

Unfortunately, I became the newest victim of the stomach bug during the 3rd night. I won't get into details, but I'll say that it was a long and unpleasant night. To make matters worse, we needed to wake up at 3:45 am!

For day 4, we had the rude awakening in darkness. I was unable to really eat much breakfast, and we started out on the hike to Machu Picchu. I moved slowly, step by step, gradually built up an appetite, and was eventually able to eat some snacks. I was not alone in my difficulties -- another girl got sick as well, and our trekker with the bad back was now unable to walk. Miraculously, we eventually made it to the Sun Gate, where we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. In this photo, Carrie and I are with our assistant guide, Puma. You can see Machu Picchu in the distant background:

From Inka Trail - ...

After the Sun Gate, we headed downhill to Machu Picchu itself. It truly is a remarkable place, having been constructed many hundreds of years ago! What was hard was that so many people (myself included) were really exhausted by the time we actually got there. While our head tour guide gave us the Machu Picchu tour, I found myself walking to each point, listening to the first minute of his talk, and then involuntarily dosing off. Luckily, Carrie had a bit more energy and was able to absorb more of the information. Below are a couple of my favorite pictures, but I'd highly encourage everyone to view the full photo album... we put captions in for many of the pictures.

From Inka Trail - ...

From Inka Trail - ...

From Inka Trail - ...

Generally speaking, while I thought the tour company was great, I'm not sure I'd recommend the full 4 day trek. It is very grueling, unless you are a seasoned trekker in great shape who really loves this kind of thing. By the time we got to the best part, we were exhausted. Instead, I'd recommend just taking the train from Cusco to the Machu Picchu city of Aguas Calientes, where you can then take a short bus to the ruins.

OK!! Enough for now... Look for a new post maybe in about a week regarding our Ecuadorian adventures!