Trip Report: Chronicle of Our Inca Trail Hike.

At almost 9000 feet above sea level in Cusco, I scrubbed and cleaned myself hard in anticipation of three days without access to any shower facility. I don't think my hiking mates did the same, but they were all getting ready for this big hike one way or the other. Some, like Susan, Alison and myself, started working out months ago in preparation for this. Others like Howard and Alex appeared to be hiking pros and had nothing to worry about. Then there was Ein who assumed it would be an easy hike and preferred not to train beforehand.

We used Llama Path (http://www.llamapath.com/) for our hike and had nothing but praises for them. We signed up for a private hiking tour and there were 11 porters, one cook and one guide to support us during the hike. Donned in bright red uniform, our porters looked like an impressive bunch. When moving in unison, they resembled a line of red ants walking uphill, carrying our personal items, tents and sleeping bags. Our cook would made us tasty meals of different variety everyday even though he didn't have a proper kitchen to work with. Our guide Roger had a great sense of humor and spoke good English. He also displayed such patience for us. These people had no doubt helped make our hike easier.

Day 1 was relatively easy. This was perhaps Roger's attempt to ease us in. We started at 8923 ft and hiked up to Ayapata at 10,829 ft. Along the way we saw different plants. We also had to dodge animal poop, mostly of llama's and donkey's, along the way. For a second there I thought I was hiking up the "Shit" trail. Our excremental experience continued that night at our campsight. The toilet facility featured the squatting toilets and many campers did not know how to use them. A lot of them had "missed the target". It was not a pleasant experience if you ask me.

After spending a rather restless night (a lot of us had to get used to sleeping in the wild without the police siren going off in the background), we set out for the second day of our hike. This was considered the most challenging day since we had to trek up "Dead Woman's Pass" at 13779 feet followed by the second pass at 13123 feet. It must be the excessive amount of coca leaves I had ingested since I was the first one among the 400 hikers to reach these two passes. Months of strength training and working out to "Body by Jake" dvds had paid off. The rest also did well. It took Ein longer than others to complete the hike but at least she trudge on and completed it . Kudos to her determination (but not to her unwillingness to train and exercise beforehand)!

Some of us started off day 3 with sore knees, calf and thigh muscles. It was an easier hike compared to the one on the previous day. We descended down to 8792 feet and immediately felt the warmer climate. We visited a couple of Inca sites along the way before resting at our camp site. This camp site had a restaurant which also housed a shower facility so we all took advantage of it. It was sure a great feeling being clean after 3 days of only wiping ourselves.

Day four was the final and big day of our hike. Today we were supposed to arrive at the Sun Gate followed by Machu Picchu. Even though we would only hike for a couple of hours today, we had to get up before the crack of dawn since we wanted to watch the sun rise at Machu Picchu. Despite leaving our campsite at 4am, we were the second group in line waiting for the entrance to Sun Gate to open. We relied on our headlights to trek in complete darkness for an hour before we got sunlight. We arrived at the Sun Gate with the view of Machu Picchu in our sight . We then hiked for another hour and reached Machu Picchu just before sunrise. After four days of hiking, bitching, eating and more hiking, we finally got to this famous UNESCO world heritage site. We then toured the site for a couple of hours and headed to our hotel in Aquas Calientes for a good rest.

In my opinion, the trip was definitely worth all the planning I did leading up to it. I am sure the thousand other young Asian Americans I encountered on the hike would agree with me. I had never seen that many Asian Americans visiting a destination like Machu Picchu other than the outlet malls and casinos in the States. Machu Picchu must be a rite of passage for them.

Aside from hiring a reliable and efficient tour company like Llama Path, here are some tips to help make your hike a smoother and more comfortable one..

Tip 1: Do not be overly active on your first day of arrival in Cusco or overeat during the first couple of days of your hike to avoid altitude sickness. Also avoid drinking alcohol.

Tip 2: Train for the hike (running and strength training exercises help)

Tip 3: Apply some Tiger Balm ointment under your nose before you use the campsite's lavatory (trust me, it helps!).

Tip 4: Bring a small towel for the hike (you will get to shower on day 3 and trust me, you will need it badly!)

Tip 5: Layer yourself. You will experience weather that ranges from 30F to 85F during your hike. It's like experiencing four seasons in a day.

Most importantly, think positive and always take that one step ahead of another, be it at a fast or slow pace. Never take a long break. It will only tire you down.

We are all so glad we did it. We burned a lot of calories in the four days and probably offset some if not all of the calories burned by binging in Lima after our hike. My blog entry on Lima and Cusco will follow shortly.