Trek to Machu Picchu

At the end of May, we went to Peru for 2 weeks.  It was an amazing and exciting trip.  We hadn't traveled out of the country for fun in a couple years and this was our first trip to South America.  Of course, when we were there we had to visit Machu Picchu.  

We are a bit outdoorsy and we knew we wanted to climb the steps to the top (instead of taking the bus) so Dave found a trek that would allow us some outdoor adventure and take us to Machu Picchu.  We decided to go with Lorenzo expeditions.  They are a little bit more expensive than some of the other treks you can find, but I always felt safe doing the adventures and Dave and I had our own very clean rooms in all the hostels.  

The first day, they picked us up, fed us breakfast and took us way up high in the mountains to bike down.  We were up pretty high, high enough it sorta felt like a large man was sitting on your chest.  Luckily, we were only going downhill.  We took a few rest breaks along the way and at our very first rest, I managed to flip my bike while trying to stop.  Nice.  Luckily, as you can see above, I had a lot of protective gear on so no damage done.

After biking, we had the option for some additional cash, to go white water rafting.  I had never been before so away we went.  It was really quite fun.  We merged with several other tour groups so there was quite a big group of us.  The only drawback: they don't want your flip flops to fall off, so if you are going, wear sandals that strap on (see our chacos above) because otherwise you have to take them off and walk a fair distance down to the water barefoot.

The next day was our long hiking day.  I believe we went 10-12 miles in total.  The hiking was not terribly strenuous, but we did go up and down a lot of hills.  About every hour and a half, we stopped at several people's farms to buy water and snacks and to have a rest.  

Our guide showed us the local plants and talked about what they were used for.  It was crazy to see banana plants just growing along the side of the hill or to walk through a coffee farm with the coffee beans spread out to dry.

This day ended at the local hot springs, which is really how a long day of hiking should always end.

The next day we went zip lining in the morning (another optional activity).  There were long zip lines and then there was a crazy suspension bridge that you could cross (still wearing your harness and tether).   

After zip lining, we had another 1/2 day hike to finish out the day.  On our last night, we were treated to a fancish dinner and spent a little time in town buying food for our visit to Machu Picchu the next day.

Early the next morning, we strapped on our headlamps and headed out to climb the 1700 steps to the top of Machu Picchu.  The idea was to get there to see the sun rise, but honestly, our group was a bit too slow and so morning came before we made it to the top.  It took us about an hour and a half to get up all those stairs.  Our guide met us at the top and gave us a tour of this beautiful place.

There were about 40 llamas wandering the grounds.  They were there as natural lawn mowers to keep the grass in good shape.

After our tour, the guide left us and we were on our own to wander the grounds.  We could have paid for an additional ticket and climbed up one of the other mountains, but we had thought we might be too exhausted.  We were right.  When we were done, we went back down the steps and took the train back to Cusco.