The tour company picked us up from our AirBnB around 5 am and drove us to Kilometre 82. This checkpoint is where the hike begins!

We stopped for breakfast on the way around 7 am before heading to the starting point. They gave us some snacks; we filled up our water bottles and put on some sunscreen. We were off after that!

The trail starts with a bit of an incline right off the bat! We got to the top of this incline which was not more than 40-50 metres long and I was already out of breath… I was nervous for what was to come... four more days. Thankfully, it got easier! You soon get used to the weight of your backpack – we had travel bags that had ~8-9 kg worth of stuff (i.e., clothes, toiletries, etc.).

The tour was incredibly well organized. There was a dozen staff for four travellers. They had a guide, eight porters, a chef, and a sous-chef. The porters and chef carried 20 kg worth of stuff on their backs and went at 1.5x our speed as they had to set up camp and prepare meals at each point. They carried our tents, sleeping bags, food, water, utensils, etc. We were amazed at how strong these guys were! Some of them were in their late 40s… I was also expecting very simple meals, like sandwiches, given we were camping but they prepared meals with appetizers and multiple entrees. It was fantastic given we were camping! It was also my birthday on the second day of the hike, and they made a cake at 3,600 metres. I was blown away (pun intended)!

The second day of hiking was probably the hardest… you are at the highest points of the hike and climbing mostly uphill. On this day, I felt a bit of altitude sickness, which included a headache and general tiredness. You also felt your fingers and toes tingling at times! Weird.

We would start the days at 5 am and set out just after 6 am. The reason for the early starts is to ensure we maximize the time when the sun is out. You need to be at your campsite by 5 pm because by 6 pm, it is dark. On the second day, because of the path we were taking, we didn’t stop for lunch until 2 pm. Where we stopped for lunch was also our campsite for the night, so we were hiking for about 8 hours from breakfast to lunch. I needed a nap that afternoon! We played some card games afterwards and then had dinner a few hours later but I found you could always eat as you were walking so much.

The third day was going well… we saw a few ruins and were eating coca leaves to help with the altitude. However, just before lunch, my knee started to hurt. It was a bit swollen and inflamed, which could have been hiker’s knee. I put some tiger balm and our guide wrapped it up. I made it to lunch but was nervous for the rest of the day and the next morning as we hiked to Machu Picchu that day. It was supposed to be relatively flat according to our guide but flat was a loosely used term. It was a lot of downhill, so I was slowest in the group. We did make it to camp by 5:30 pm so it wasn’t too bad, but I did struggle that day. My walking poles acted like crutches.

The next morning, we were up at 3:30 am as we wanted to get to Machu Picchu as early as possible to avoid the crowds. There was a huge lineup of hiking tour groups waiting to enter the actual Machu Picchu grounds at around 5 am. This didn’t include the folks that would take the train and bus into the ruins.

When the sun started to rise around 5:30 am, it was foggy and rainy. From there it was still a 1.5-hour hike to the actual ruins so we were hopeful things would clear up. They did! There were still a few clouds when we got there but it still looked incredible.

As the morning went on, the sun really started to heat up and the clouds disappeared. The temperature started to soar – we were feeling it! So much for a rainy and foggy morning. We were exhausted by 11 am. We took some photos… sorry LOTS of photos, and then hopped on a bus down the mountain.

This was it! We were officially off our feet. The bus took us down the mountain to the city of Aguas Calientes (roughly 2,000 metres above sea level). It’s named after the hot springs behind the city, but we were too exhausted to go further than the restaurant our tour guide took us too. There, we had a drink and lunch! It was the first time sitting on cushioned chairs in four days… #blessed

After lunch, we roamed the small town for about 20 minutes and got some snacks for the train home. It was a 3-hour train ride! It was a really cool train with lots of natural light, but we were so tired that we still fell asleep. When we woke up, we played UNO with the other couple that was in our tour group. Apparently… I suck at Uno. I finished last every time except for the last game! Ugh.

We arrived at our AirBnB in Cusco around 7:30 pm after picking up our stuff from our original AirBnB. The hosts in Cusco are super nice and let you store luggage with them after checking out. We were in a rush to shower and get to bed that night because the next day, we had our last early morning. We were heading to Rainbow Mountain! We bought some apple pie and empanadas from a Café nearby and hit the hay.