Everything you ever wanted to know about the Andes, the Inca Trail, and Machu Picchu

I'm not sure when I first decided to put the Inca trail on my bucket list. It might have been when I learned about the Incas in gradeschool (but I'm not sure when that was), or perhaps when I started hearing about it as a tourist destination. However it happened, it went on my list and was something I've always wanted to do. Machu Picchu is great too, and it's definitely something I always wanted to see, but there was something about the trail that made it seem more legitimate. And now I understand why.

Backing up a little bit, let me explain something about the Andes mountain range: it's fricken high.

Like high.

I've seen the rockies at home, and they're magnificent, beautifully capped with snow. And I've seen the Cascades, with their volcanoes and high-desert plateaus. But they're nothing like these mountains. The Andes are so high that there are subclasses of them: snow-capped glaciers, rainbow mineral glaciers, desert-Andes (covered in cacti, small shrubs and clay), rainforest jungle (amazonas)-Andes...the list continues. So hiking a trail that passes through all of those...it was insane. It's a good thing we dressed in layers, because the climate change from one hour to another was so different, like every different altitude has it's own micro-climate, with it's own unique vegetation.

When we started the trail, we started with sandy soil, cacti EVERYWHERE, hot and dry and sunny. Once you start climbing the pass you get climb along with the river (waterfalls everywhere, yay!) and you go through the jungle - lots of humidity. But then you reach about 3600m, and the air starts to get a little bit thin, and the jungle just STOPS and turns into small shrubs and pointy grasses. And the sandy path turns into flat-ish stones that are super steep, so that as it's getting harder to breathe, the path is getting steeper to climb, and you basically die all the way to the top of the 'Dead woman's pass' - supposedly so-named because it looks like a dead woman from afar. And I can see it, but I think it would more appropriately be named 'Dead people's pass' because we pretty much all died up there.

The fun part, is that while you're climbing up, you're SO EXCITED for the other side to be downhill. Until you find out that that is where the original Inca trail actually begins, and they were sadistic folks who had a love for HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE steep stairs made of uneven rocks.

My knees may need to be replaced soon.

Anyways, that's day 2. Day 2 sucks. No sights were appreciated that day, we were too busy trying not to fall down the mountain.

Day 3 though - was worth every penny. Still a lot of climbing and downhill, and still a lot of stairs, but the VIEWS! Once we got up into the 'cloud forest', everything is just fog. And when you're walking on a path that is basically a cliff hanging off the mountain, and it's leading you into the fog, if you're like me you feel the tiniest temptation to jump off and see if it would really be like jumping into the soft pillow it looks like - but as you can tell, I resisted the urge. Beautiful views. And you're so high up in the mountains, that you literally cannot see the bottom. it's just mountains, with clouds at the bottom. Heavenly.

And then you see it.

In the middle of freaking NOWHERE, out of the clouds, on the side of the mountain (not at the bottom, but perched or dug out of the side) is a ruin. A building that someone decided to build into the side of a mountain. No one knows how they did it, or WHY, or with what resources - but the locals all have their own theories. And it's cool.

And then on the morning of the fourth day you get over what they call the 'gringo-killer' but is basically a WALL of super steep stairs that you climb unless you're a local, you make it to the sun gate, where you watch the sun rise and illuminate Machu Picchu in the distance. Which is a total miracle in itself because as anyone else who has been there will tell you, that doesn't happen often. More often than not, Machu Picchu is covered by fog. But we happened to be the lucky ones with a clear blue beautiful sky. Hooray!

Machu Picchu is a wonder, there's no doubt. The history, the architecture...it's amazing. But once you've seen all the other ruins along the trail, it kind of feels like watching Harry Potter and then walking into Universal Studios Hogsmead village. It's awesome for sure, but it's been almost cheapened by the mass tourism. THOUSANDS of people visit Machu Picchu per day, most of those are people who bus up from the town below to check it out, join a tour group. It's expensive. It's constantly being restored (because, thousands of people per day) to the point where most of it isn't even 'ruin' anymore, There are lines, and mobs, and people everywhere with NO manners doing whatever they need to do to get the pictures they want - which all look like google images at the end of the day anyways because, filters.

So, Machu Picchu: Amazing, very cool history, but ultimately - a theme park. With a ridiculously large number of stairs, especially when you've been doing them for the past 4 days.

Don't think I'm being a negative Nancy - I loved every minute of the trek. I loved the history, I loved the nature, and the activity, and the whole darn thing. I just learned that, as with most things, the main event isn't everything, and the journey is often what makes the ending worthwhile. If I hadn't seen the trail, if I hadn't seen the other ruins, or walked until my feet wanted to detach and hide from me, I probably wouldn't have had such a good memory. Machu Picchu was a distinguishing moment, but it was the mountains, the moments leading up to it that made it an experience.

Love the journey, friends!

-B. <3