The Inca Trail: Part 1 - Pre-trek in Cusco and the Sacred Valley

My husband, Mike, and I just completed our trip to Peru to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It was an amazing trip, so I want to make sure I document it as much as I can now before the details get muddied.

We arrived in Cusco (or Cuzco, depending on where you look), Peru, on Saturday, August 25th, after traveling for 24 hours. We were picked up at the airport by a driver and transported to our hotel. This is when I realized that I would never want to drive a car in Cusco. The roads seem like total chaos, and I just had to have total faith in the driver to not get us killed. I was immediately impressed with how anyone could negotiate the traffic in that town (or any other town we were in, for that matter).

Cusco is at an elevation over 10,000 ft, so I was convinced the horrible headache I developed was caused by altitude. However, after spending most of the day feeling awful, I realized it was actually a case of severe muscle tension in my neck and shoulders causing the headache. Mike worked on my knots, and that made the following day much more pleasant, as we toured the Sacred Valley (guided by SAS Travel) while we acclimatized to the altitude.

Our guide to the Sacred Valley, Martin,
at Ollentaytambo.

I had heard about Machu Picchu, but I didn't realize just how many Inca ruins there are in the area. There are even what our guide called "working Incan towns" (like Ollentaytambo), where the town exists much as it did centuries ago. The narrow roads are still there, and many of the bases of buildings are built on the original stone base. I also didn't realize that indigenous peoples make up a large proportion of Peru, and this area in particular. Our guide was very proud that he was not Mestizo and was pure "Incan blood". In fact, there are areas around the Sacred Valley where most inhabitants do not speak Spanish, but rather Quechua (though in touristy areas, most spoke some Spanish and usually a little English).

On a side note, all streams within towns seemed to be 

channelized like this was, though usually not so elaborately.

We saw a lot of ruins throughout the Sacred Valley that day, and developed a lot of respect for the culture of the people in that area. Farming and handicrafts appear to be the primary occupations in the area, and they are definitely quite dependent on tourism. That's probably why they are so very welcoming to tourists. Many people live in what we would call poverty, though they seem to be relatively happy people. It's hard to know for sure whether they live simply out of necessity or are content that way, but I know they are a lovely, friendly people.

These ladies and kids are demonstrating how they clean 

and dye alpaca wool to prepare it for weaving into 

beautiful products.

If there was one thing I will not miss about Peru in general, it was the bathrooms and plumbing issues. No matter where you are in Peru, there are signs that ask that you not to put paper in the toilets to avoid backups. There is usually a bin sitting in the stall next to the toilet for used paper. Bathrooms often lack toilet paper, so I also had to get used to carrying a little baggy of my own all the time. Most bathrooms in the city and in more modern buildings are otherwise what I was used to, with a toilet that flushes. 

The example to the right is more like what we saw on the trail and in more rural areas at the ruins. Sometimes there is a way to flush, but these didn't have that. Actually this photo is a much nicer example of what we saw on the trail. All I can say is that I'm glad I did all those squats in Crossfit, or it would have been that much harder to use these bathrooms.