I am not the poster girl for a hike like the Inca Trail (actual camping, less than stellar personal hygiene habits, multi-day hikes), although I have always enjoyed day-long hikes in the buccolic English countryside, and absolutely adore views from mountain tops (despite being a little afraid of heights).

I cannot recall when I first made the decision to hike the Inca Trail. I had wanted to do it in 2016, during my trip to Argentina, Bolivia and Chile…and discovered that this was a hike that needed planning. At the time, passes had to be booked 6 months in advance. The reason you need to book in advance is there are a limited number of Inca trail passes given daily, in order to protect and preserve the trail – approx 500 passes, for 200 hikers and 300 porters. And, you can only do this trek with an organised tour – they help you get your pass.

Due to the pandemic, I was able to book mine a couple of months before my trip. In fact, the dates of my trip were decided around this hike – it was the one thing I knew I wanted to do during this sabbatical.

There are a number of blogs and articles that extol the magnificence and transcendence of the Inca Trail hike. This is not one of them. This is an account of my experience of doing the 4-day Inca Trail hike/7-day Tour. It was not pretty. It was not a breeze. It was perhaps even a little traumatic, but I prevailed. To be honest, I think my mind is still processing and re-framing the experience, so let’s see what we make of it by the end of this series of blog posts…

Let me start off by saying I was really lucky because I was with a tour group with 12 lovely humans from a number of different European countries – UK, Germany, Denmark, Iceland, Spain. And we were blessed with the absolute kings of tour guides – Odilio and Elias, who went above and beyond during the hike and afterwards, when we got caught up in a 2-day regional strike in Aguas Calientes. And the tour company, G adventures, was also really brilliant.

10-13th April 2022

To say that I was apprehensive about the hike would be an understatement. My apprehension was not rooted in the actual trek or hike but in concerns about how I would cope with the altitude sickness that had been plaguing me since I arrived in Cusco on 10th April.

I’d learnt from my Salar de Uyuni trip in Bolivia and ensured I factored in a few days in Cusco before the trek, in order to acclimatise to the altitude. I felt really ill on arrival and spent the first 24hrs in bed, with symptoms of general malaise and fatigue, headache, nausea, shortness of breath, palpitations and lack of appetite.

By the next afternoon, I was a little better. I drank lots of coca tea – an herbal tea made using coca leaves which helps with altitude sickness. Yes, it is the leaf from which cocaine is extracted. No, it is not addictive. It is a mild stimulant which gives an energy boost. It has been used by the indigenous tribes in the Andes (chewed and brewed) for centuries. I gave it a helping hand with some western medication – altitude sickness pills and electrolytes.

I focused on doing very little in those first few days, mostly wandering around Cusco Old Town, and meeting up for dinner everyday with half of my wonderful Lima family (Lucas and Rose – who always, always, picked the best restaurants, with the most amazing food! This became a running joke with us, but each meal really was better than the last). We went dancing on the penultimate night, to ‘Inka Team’, at the Plaza de Armas. The salsa lesson was great, and the tunes afterwards took me back to my clubbing days. It was the most wonderfully fun evening.

I also had my first experience of staying a dorm room, during this time. Please, do not ask me why I booked a dorm room…I really hadn’t considered how I would cope with other people’s bathroom habits. (I am a clean freak and I have to say this has been one of the challenges of this type of travel – having to stay in places that are just not up to my usual standards because you know, I decided to embark on this adventure fairly spontaneously ). I was thankful that it was a 2-bed dorm and I hardly saw my roommate, but I did see evidence of them in the little streaky presents left in the bathroom. Why, oh why, do people not check the toilet bowl before they leave a bathroom? Also why do bathrooms not have toilet brushes in them? It’s such a standard thing in the UK, I am always amazed other countries don’t do the same. And that’s not only in South America, I’ve noticed this in other parts of the world too. Anyway, I was over the shared bathroom situation by the first day and couldn’t wait to get to my hotel room on the 13th.

You can imagine my surprise, and disappointment, to be in yet another shared room when I checked into the hotel. This was topped off by being told that I had to attend an orientation that afternoon, instead of going to a private Peruvian cooking class that I had been invited to by a gorgeous guy I had met the day before. I was in such a foul mood, my roommate (and everyone else who met me that afternoon) must have thought I was the worst!

The orientation was quite informative, and served to make me even more worried about the trek – highlighting the 8-12hr day long treks, the disparities in altitude with elevation gains of 1200m on one of those days and the very questionable bathroom facilities on the trek, which also came with an option to have a ‘panoramic bathroom’ i.e. go in nature. I. Couldn’t. Wait.

However my last night before the trek was really lovely. Lucas picked an amazing vegetarian restaurant, Green Point, where we had the yummiest food and drinks – the best oyster mushroom Pad Thai, delicious vegan Ramen, homemade nachos and guacamole with Mango and Goldenberry Kombuchas. And better yet, that gorgeous guy, he joined us…