On Friday morning we woke up at 3:45am to catch a bus to the start of the inca trail. We stopped at a little town for breakfast, then we set off 2 hours to the control point for Machu Picchu park. Here the porters in the red uniforms packed all of the supplies for 4 days. Tents, food, cooking utensils, everything to keep the ship afloat for the next couple days basically. Caro and I opted to carry our own gear. The weather was hot but manageable and the first couple hours we were both just happy to be on the trail hiking.

The first day we hiked 7 hours and by the end of the day we were second guessing what we had gotten ourselves into. It was mostly uphill for those 7 hours. Seriously, we were struggling. The crew consisted of a couple in their 30’s from England, our tour guide, and 11 porters to carry all the gear. We saw some inca ruins and one of the highest peaks in Peru called mt. Veronica. A couple times we were hiking it felt more like Hawaii then peru. Super tropical and lush, then we’d hike to a plateau and then it felt like high desert again. We had to be ready for all conditions, and according to the forecast, it looked like rain for us.

The first day was beautiful, great weather, but we had no idea what we were getting into….