#253: The Inca Trails (2nd Ed pg 1043)

May 2006

I have to add this picture in because it is such an integral part of our Incan Trail experience.

This cursed meal!

We've gone over it a hundred times, and all of us are now 100% convinced that it was here we contracted shigella.

But of course, it doesn't hit you right away. It festers and then hits you with a violent vengeance!

So, the morning after eating that fateful meal, we started the Inca Trail!

Ready to go for the hike of a lifetime!

And..... it hit!

During our first night on the trail, Carrie and I woke up with the most violent, unrelenting nausea, vomiting and diarrhea we've ever experienced in our life.  We legit thought we were going to die.  It went on, and on, and on.  No bathrooms, no plumbing, no fresh water, no bed.  We were on our own. However, due to the fact that new people start the Incan trail to MP every day and there are only a certain number of people allowed on the trail, dying or not, we were told we had to get up and hike the next day.  They said we could hike down or hike up, but we had to hike.  We figured,  as long as we had to hike, we may as well hike toward our destination, so we put one foot in front of the other and eventually, these two half-dead women made it over Dead Woman's pass, the most challenging part of the trail.

I honestly don't know what we would have done without these awesome porters helping us!  They carried all the camping equipment and set up our tents at each of our three primitive camp sights. 

I'm still not sure how we survived, but somehow we did and lived to tell the story!

And were rewarded with spectacular views every step of the way!

Verdict:  Absolutely!!  Of course I wish I could re-live this experience without the most intense intestinal illness of my life, but it still goes down as one of the most amazing things I've ever done.  I'm so glad the 2nd edition puts "Incan Trails" as a separate entry.  Most people just take the train up to Machu Picchu.  But the hike on the Incan Trail was an experience in and of itself, and in my opinion, was an even more amazing experience than seeing the site itself.  And you appreciate it even more once you get there.  You've earned that view!  You've worked for it! And MP, while absolutely a must do as well, is a several hour experience and you're done.  The Trails is a several day experience, so you soak in so much along the way.  In fact, if there was a Top 100 in the world, this would make my list - it was that amazing!