Coffee, Cuy & Uphill Battles

Ah, more long hikes these next two days. While we won’t be crossing peaks at 15,000 ft anymore, these are “sucking wind / what was I thinking / did I EVEN work out” altitudes that leave you panting on the uphills. Our fifth day, luckily, consisted of 10 miles of mostly downhill. Sounds easy, but you need walking poles to take the pounding off your knees. The hike snaked along the rocky Salkantay river- one of the many that feed the Amazon. During this trek, we’ll pass through nine bio-spheres. You can really see the difference as we descend. Wildflowers, coffee plants and birdlife abound along the trail. We enjoyed the gurgling sounds of the river for most of the 8-hour adventure.

Our final long day of hiking was a special one- but tough. Our day started with a visit to a local home of a coffee grower. We huddled in the small shack as we watched how they sifted the coffee shells from the beans and toasted them over a live fire. What an amazing scent! Since the Peruvians love their guinea pig, a dozen roamed around the hut sniffing at our hiking poles- not quite sure what they thought of these new visitors. Next, we were off for our 3-hour hike uphill (we climbed from 6,600 ft. to 8,900 ft. before descending. At the top, we were treated to distant views of Machu Picchu in the misty clouds.

After a lovely mountaintop lunch, we visited the recently-restored Llactapa Ruins. While this area is not sacred (you can tell by building techniques) it was important as a stop over on an Inca Trail and looks directly toward Machu Picchu. Four hours of downhill hiking followed and led us to the local PeruRail stop where we boarded a small train to Agua Calientes. To make it up and down the steep mountains, the train uses a series of switchbacks, moving forward and back like a pendulum to make it to the top. What an adventure. After a great dinner in town, we all set out alarms for an early wakeup and dreamt of our next day when we would visit the Lost City of the Incas.