INCA TRAIL: day 4 - well gang, we made it!

Waking up at 3:30 am has become all to frequent on this little vacation Leah and I are taking, and doesn´t get easier each time you do it. This time was particularly challenging because it was pitch black and raining, making it difficult to move around and pack up. Fortunately, we had a giant, delicious cake waiting for us at breakfast. Our chef certainly had outdone himself.

We got up so early because there was a huge race to get in line to enter the gateway to the last segment of the trail. I mean, HUGE competition. Luckily Alex knew what was up and got us there nice and early, so we were 2nd in line behind a group of about 10 people from the UK. After standing there for about an hour in pitch darkness, they finally let us through and the last brutal hours of our journey had begun like horses out of the starting gate.

About ten minutes in we came across a girl who apparently had sprained her ankle, which was a big reminder to us to be careful. Not heeding that warning at all, I proceeded to wipe out on a giant rock and still sport the giant bruise covering my entire left hip 9 days later.

It literally poured the entire 3 hour hike to Machu Picchu, completely ruining the point of getting up bright and early to see the sun rise at the sun gate, which was where you supposedly got your first glimpse of the city. All we saw was cloud and rain. whooooo. But when we finally arrived the feeling of accomplishment was so great that I got over the weather. We took tons of pictures and once the weather cleared up, it became an absolutely beautiful day.

Machu Picchu was every bit as awesome as I expected it to be and am so glad we forced ourselves to go through with it. We returned to Cusco later that night and proceeded to fall asleep in our beds by around 9 pm or so, despite the loud partying going on around us. We even got a roommate who had also just finished up with the trek and was so happy that we were sleeping and just collapsed in his bed and passed out when we did. Now that this was done, we had the jungle to look forward to and believe me, we had NO IDEA what was coming.