Cuzco, Inka Trail to Machu Picchu

We had a wonderful time in Cuzco. We spent three days wandering around the city, eating yummy food, exploring the markets and checking out nearby ruins. Sasqsaywaman (which means satisfied falcon) is the Inka ruins above the city, pronounced ¨sexy woman¨. After the Spanish conquest the Spaniards tore down the walls from this ruins to build their own houses and churches in Cuzco. The stones here are absolutely enormous and it is amazing to think about the Inka creating this fort.

We started on the Inka Trail on March 1st. We spent four days, three nights hiking from outside Cuzco to Machu Picchu. We had a group of 16 people from all over the world (Japan, Australia, Ireland, Turkey, New Zealand, and England) - we were the only Americans! We were hiking in the rainy season so panchos were a must and we definitely experienced our fair share of rain. However there were a couple of afternoons of beautiful sunshine and when we arrived in Machu Picchu there was pure SUN! We had a porter for every person helping us to carry a lot of our stuff and they prepared us gourmet meals. They even brought us hot water in bowls to our tents to wash our faces in the morning along with hot tea, now that´s five star camping! Along the way to Machu Picchu we passed by 7 or more ruins, each one had a different purpose such as a fort, hotel for travelers, religious temple, astronomy.... We passed by so many incredible flowers and I was very grateful for my walking stick because there are a lot of steep parts on the path. The trail has been altered in some parts to make it easier for trekkers but a lot of it was the original Inka Trail which had amazing stonework. On the 4th day we awoke at 4am and by 5:30 we were on our final leg of the journey. After a couple of hours we passed through the sungate and arrived at Machu Picchu, what a site!! We spent the day walking around and learning about this fascinating place. They are still not sure why is was vacated, they found around 200 skeletons there, mostly women. Perhaps the men were off fighting the Spanish. They have many theories, but no doubt the Inka knew how to pick incredible locations and their brillance with stonework will be forever remembered.