Cusco and the Death Hike

We arrived in Cusco by bus around 630am last Friday. Cusco is located at a headspinning altitude of 11,500ft. Fortunately, coming by bus we slowly acclimated to the altitude and didn't have a lot of trouble. However, on day one, Scott and I could literally walk no more than 50ft without being extremely short of breath and feeling like we were going to pass out. Needless to say, we didn't do too much day one because that whole town is made of hills and stairs. Scott snapped this one before he colapsed on a girl selling chiclets...jk but we did take a rest afterwards.

Overall we really liked Cusco. It had windy cobblestone streets, old churches, Inca everything, and great people who speak much cleaner Spanish than our friends down south. We visited many ruins and outdoor markets where we both bought fashionable llama print gloves, beanies, sweaters, ect. We have become quite the bargainers!

The majority of our trip to Cusco consisted of a 40km trek up to the majestic Machu Pichu. It was called the Lares Trek. Absolutely stunning scenery through mountain villages, lakes, rivers and ending in a relaxing hot springs. The aguas termales were slightly disappointing because the water smelled and looked like metalic urine, but whatever, 3 days of hiking 40km and no shower.....it got the job done.

The most extreme part of our hike was day 2, where we crossed a pass with a staggering altitude of 15, 748ft. I, Jess, had horrible nausea and light headedness, and my hubby had a bad headache. So as exhausted as we were after getting to the top, we just wanted to get down, fast. Did I mention it was raining, the whole time? Good times. Below is us at the pass... half alive.


The last day, we arrived early to Machu Pichu, which was all fogged in at first and we couldn't see anything at all, very disappointing. However, as soon as the fog lifted, it was incredible!


Now we are in Ecuador exploring so we will update you soon!