Leading up to the trek we had an easy-going “training plan” which consisted of few day-hikes in New England with our friends. We stuffed our backpacks full of the weeks’ laundry and random household items up to 15 lbs to get used to the weight of our bags. We thought this was certainly a good representation of what our packs would weigh for our trek.

For a few nights before the trip, I packed, unpacked, paired down and repacked until I finally was content with a 33-lb pack. In addition to hiking the Inca Trail, we planned a few nights in Cusco, Lima, Aguas Calientes and even a brief visit to Ft. Lauderdale. Everything I needed for all 10 days in 33-lbs, I didn’t think that was so bad but it certainly wasn't the 15 lbs I trained with!

CUSCO

We flew out of PHL to Lima with a layover in Ft Lauderdale. Arriving late into Lima, we spent our first night in the airport hotel before heading to Cusco on an hour flight over the Andes. We later learned that the same flight would have taken 24 hours to drive up and over the mountain range. Needless to say, the views from the plane were remarkable.

We landed in Cusco and proceeded directly to our AirBnB where we encountered the first test of our physicality as we carried our packs up a flight of 100 continuous Peruvian stairs. I say Peruvian stairs because the risers are steep and the treads are shallow, this was legitimate foreshadowing for the rest of the trip.  

We stayed two days and two nights in Cusco. The first day we settled into our place then checked-in with our trekking company. We learned where the bus would pick us up at the crack of dawn and further instructions for the trek. Though we were given the option to hire a porter to carry our bags there wasn’t much discussion of what a “normal weight” was to travel with so we opted out and figured we wouldn’t be the only ones with heavy packs. There were three others at the check-in who would be joining us on our journey: Logan, a nutritionist from Cali and Josh and Jess, a married couple from New Zealand. Logan had been in Cusco for a few days and shared some tips for how to spend the rest of our time in the city. We continued on with her to lunch for some Peruvian beers and Quinoa soup, a Cusco specialty.

The rest of the day exploring the city included a lot of walking and a lot of hills. Cusco is located at an altitude of 11,150’ above sea level so it was required by the trekking company that you arrive here a full day prior to leaving for the trek to help our bodies adjust to altitude. The city was gorgeous, the narrow cobblestone streets reminded me of Europe and the architecture was a vibrant mix of historic buildings and terra cotta tiled roofed homes stretching across the landscape.

While in Cusco, we ventured out to our first Incan ruins at Saqsayhuaman, just north of the city center. This was the historic capital of the Incan Empire and once served as a fortress overlooking the city. After the fall of the Incan empire, the stones from the fort were relocated for use in the construction of Spanish Cuzco. The massive stones that remain on the archeological site are those that were unable to be relocated and provided us with our first glimpse of Incan masonry construction. Two notable points were the picturesque zig zag wall that mimicked the surrounding jagged mountainous landscape and the natural stone slides, where each of us took our turn between children sliding down the hillside.