Check out the video below for some footage of the trip!
Started off in Cuzco picking up some provisions including cheese and bread for my dinners, with some snickers bars and gummies. In retrospect I had way too much sugary stuff, especially since I'm a sucker for savory stuff. I'm not sure what I was doing.
I started from Cusco with 200 soles. My memory is a bit fuzzy on the exact numbers, but I think I spent about 40 of these on the taxi from Cusco to the turn off (Ramal de Cachora I think), which I shared with a mom and her kid. Then spent another 55 to get down to the start of the trail. And then another 60 for the park fee entrance ticket. Leaving me with only about 45 soles! Definitely bring more money if you're planning to do this! Anyways this was my first view coming down into the valley starting at 4:20pm!
My first stretch of the trail! A lot of downhill and honeslty a pretty solid amount of vert. I was pretty pooped when I hit the Santa Rosa camp. There were some people there, but I was too tired to talk. I paid a couple dollars to setup camp. Got in my tent, ate some bread and cheese and called it a night.
My itinerary for DAY 2. Big vert day, but mostly exploring around the Choquequirao Ruins.
I made it to Choquequirao ruins around 10am on the second day and wow it was amazing.
The famous llamas in the rock!
I started to head off from the ruins around 3pm and saw these sick flowers. Unfortunately I ran out of water for a bit between here and the next river in about 5 miles. I banked on the river being there though and was rewarded. Thank the gods!
My itinerary for DAY 3.
After crossing the river I jumped over a mountain in the morning. Had lunch at a person's house for a couple dollars. Amazing food honestly! Then got on and saw this amazing view as I was climbing over the tallest mountain pass on the trek.
Unfortunately this night I got very sick and was not having a good time. However, through the night I powered through shivers (despite having all of my gear on and being in a sleeping bag) and diarrhea and headaches through the night.
As an aside: A day or two later I took acetaminophen and while it didn't alleviate all my symptoms it did alleviate the headache and made me feel somewhat functional; also I had all the symptoms for malaria, I guess there's a chance I had malaria—the cdc says "Symptoms of malaria include fever and flu-like illness, including shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness." I definitely had all of those symptoms for about 3/4 days w/ the fever and flu symptoms dissapating after that time while the other symptoms persisted for a total of 2 weeks. But more likely it was some kind of stomach bug or something. IDK.
Itinerary for DAY 4
Long Story Short: Day 4 was a rough day. Every time I moved my head in any direction it felt like I would vomit and faint at the same time. Once I was upright though and walking with my head mostly stationary I didn't feel as bad. Initially I tried to finish off the rest of my itinerary. I kept an okay pace because it was mostly flat or downhill, but I had multiple moments where I felt like throwing up and dry heaved a few times. I did get to cross a river using an awesome (slightly terrifying) bridge crossing contraption cage thing. But I made it!
I realized around 1pm that I just did not have it in me to finish the itinerary. This meant cutting out seeing the Llactapata ruins :(. At that point I knew a small town with road access was coming up in 2 miles. Those were honestly the longest miles of my life.
I haggled with a small bus going to the Hidroeléctrica and was able to get cheaper fare than the tourists (Hell yeah). And while I was feeling absolutely terrible my friends who were on a guided trip popped up!!!@#!@#$!@#$ It felt so surreal! But by pure coincidence we were both stopped in this small town, except I had just done 52.3 miles & 22,257ft of vertical gain solo hiking and was actually super sick and they were just chilling. Hehe. It was pretty funny. Then the bus took me and the tourists to the Hidroeléctrica.
At the Hidroeléctrica I got on another small van there and made it to Aguas Calientes where I just wandered around until I found the cheapest hostel possible. Which was actually super nice.
I still felt sick unfortunately and would be sick for the next 2 weeks, but I powered ahead and still hiked up to Machu Picchu the next day despite my headaches and stomach problems. Definitely worth it though!!!!!!!!!!
This last picture is on top of Huayna Picchu. Yes I did elect to climb another 400m once I already was at Machu Picchu. Yeah I did way too much gain over the course of this trip.... worth it
