When I arrived in Cusco together with Jen, early Wednesday morning after a night bus from Copacabana, I wasn't really up for walking with all of my belongings. Neither was she so we decided to take a taxi, but nobody seemed to know the hostel we were going to. I was meeting Simona, a girl I met a the Beehive in Sucre, in that hostel, because we had decided to go to Machu Picchu together. After a confusing taxi ride, some breakfast at a cafe with wifi and way to much walking, I finally found the right place. But I lost Jen on the way though, I guess I'm more stubborn than her... *blink smiley*

Simona had already done some research and knew about a trail, to Machu Picchu, called Salkantay. I had never heard about it but after checking it out I thought it sounded really good! We booked it for two days later. Little did I know about how hard and exhausting it was going to be. I'm happy I didn't, though, because that might have made me not do it and I would have missed one of the best things I've done on this trip.

On Thursday night we had our briefing, we got to meet the others in our group and our guide. It seemed like it could be a good group and our guide seemed like a nice and fun guy. The guide, Carlos, told us that we would get picked up outside our hostel at 5 am the next morning so we went back to the hostel, after the briefing, to pack our things and go to bed early. I ended up falling asleep around 00.30 and I was so tired the next morning. When we got to the start of the trail, I wasn't really tired anymore. The view was amazing and I couldn't wait to start walking, even though that feeling changed after about 10 minutes in the trail.

The first day we hiked through some really nice nature, we saw Salkantay mountain from a distance, hiked up to a lagoon at 4200 meter and took a freezing dip in the water before hiking down. It was a really good day, but around dinner I started to feel bad. I took some charcoal pills and tried to eat some food, but it was a struggle. I figured it was probably just my Swedish stomach which wasn't used to the food and the water (even though it was boiled) so I went to bed early to try and sleep it off. It didn't work. I woke up several times that night because I had to throw up. Poor Simona who was in the same tent.

As you can probably imagine, I wasn't really up for a 27 km hike, that would take me to 4650 meters and down, after a night like this. I decided to pay a bit extra to ride a horse up the first 7 km to the summit. The horse and the horseman were both amazing and I tipped the horseman quite a lot when we got up. The rest of the hike was a struggle and I was happy I got to the summit before the rest of my group so I had more time to get down. To make things worse, the weather was really cloudy and cold, we couldn't even see Salkantay mountain.

Our second campsite was a lot lower than our first one, which was a really good thing since that made my body feel better. I went straight to the tent and fell asleep. The morning after, I woke up feeling like a new person! I could even eat some breakfast and have a taste of the cake our cook had made for us!

The third day was easier, we walked along an easy trail for about 4 hours before it was time for lunch. After lunch we got in a bus and drove to Santa Teresa, where our next accommodation was. After leaving our stuff, playing some card games and changing in to swimmers, we got in to a mini van and drove to some hot springs. Needless to say, it felt amazing after three days of hiking! After a few nice hours at the springs, we went back to have dinner and ended the night with a cozy chat around a bonfire.

Day number 4 was probably the easiest day. We started it by saying goodbye to our cook and then we went on to go zip lining! We did 5 zip lines and one suspension bridge. The longest zip line was 1000 meters and the highest one 300 meters, the suspension bridge was 120 meters and it was definitely the worst one! I did a few different "styles" in the zip lines, normal sitting, up side down, spinning and superman. It was so much fun and we were all happy to have done it. The zip lining company drove us all the way to hydro electrica and from there we had to walk for about 2,5 hours along the train rails to get to our last accommodation, Aguas Calientes. We checked in at our hotel (!) and used the Internet for a while before taking a walk around town. We finished the day with dinner in a restaurant before going to bed quite early to be ready for the last day!

We started walking from our hostel at 4.20 am on the 5th day. The gates to get up to Machu Picchu opened at 5.00 am and then we started the walk up the stairs. It took me about 1 hour and 10 minutes and my water was gone by the time I got to the top but it was worth it! We got into Machu Picchu and our guide Carlos "the Mountain King" guided us around. It was way bigger than I thought! After about two hours, it was time for Carlos to go and we felt so alone and lost without him. He was definitely the best guide I've had in any tour here in South America! Always happy, friendly and helpful, he really cared about the group and told us about the surroundings, the Incas and Peru.

There is a lot to see in Machu Picchu, we spent about 9 hours there which was great since we had time to do a lot! We climbed half way up Machu Picchu Mountain, walked to the Inca bridge, walked around the "city", took pictures with Llamas, saw chinchillas and even had some chill time next to the "plaza". When we got back to Aguas calientes, we were all really happy with the day and with the whole trek of course! We went on the train and then a mini van back to Cusco.