Monthly Archives: January 2009

Continued. Read the first part here. Day 3 The rain that started the minute we got into our tents last night hasn’t let up by morning despite my numerous pleas to whatever gods will hear me, so we crawl out of our warm sleeping bags into a cold, wet day at 5:00 a.m. We have 15 km to cover, rain or shine. Behind us, Dead Woman’s Pass is covered in snow. Ahead of us another pass waits, the Trail’s second, …

11 responses to “Breaking Down the Inca Trail: Days 3 & 4″

The Classic Inca Trail is a four day hike, covering 26 miles. Here’s how it broke down for us. Day 1 Around 5:30 a.m., we board a bus in Cusco and travel 1.5 hours to Ollantaytambo, where we have a chance to eat breakfast and grab any last minute items we forgot. We then continue on to the start of the Inca Trail, where we pass through the official checkpoint, take a group photo, and begin our day’s 12 kilometers …

9 responses to “Breaking Down the Inca Trail: Days 1 & 2″

We survived. My brother Gregory, Jeff, and I have made our pilgrimage to Machu Picchu, the sacred site of the Quechua people* and returned to Cusco, more or less intact. This past summer, Jeff and I hiked somewhere around 500 miles. More than once, we hiked over 20 miles in one day, and then woke up the next day to do it again. I wouldn’t say it was fun and I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it wasn’t killer. …

11 responses to “Machu Picchu: Conquered”

Happy New Year to everybody out there! We passed it in Cuzco, although with no TV to watch the ball drop on, we may have celebrated a few minutes off. The pouring rain kept us inside and the cold kept us under our covers, so it was a calm and quiet one for us here. Resolutions of less overanalyzing have already been made and broken. But you can’t go wrong starting a new year by hiking the Inca Trail, which …

6 responses to “Happy New Year!”