I am in aguas calientes (the tourist town that you stay in the night before machu picchu) and ready for a 5am wake-up to go see machupicchu tomorrow. I'll type more later but here is what i typed up while trekking and camping the past 4days/3nights. I don't think I have ever been as dirty as I was today hiking into aguas calientes. Luckily I got a hot shower tonight....

Day 1
The hike started off very early. I had on a pair of spandex and workout pants over it expecting it to be super cold. Unfortunately it was very hot! I was pretty parched and sore and hot for the next 3 hours. Luckily we stopped for lunch and I got a refill of h20 and since then have been fine. The food we get is so delicious. We started with guac then had asparagus soup and garlic bread. Then we had. The rest of the day was pretty exhausting and i was so sore but luckily it cooled down. I think my neck/shoulders are the most sore. The actual exercise part is hard but manageable, but the breathing is the most difficult when going uphill. I like to think about all the stuff we learn in physiology as I climb up steep hills. It is super dorky but i always think what my blood is up to. When i take little breaks, I always squat or lean over which increases the preload to the heart. Little kids with serious heart defects do it when they run around so i have decided it is the best thing for me. We reached our final camp after about 3 more hours (totaling about 6-7 hours) and boy was i happy. I changed out of my sweaty clothes (btw i need to get hiking pants, hiking shoes, and sweat resistant clothing. I am doing great the second day with spandex and scrub pants but dorky hiking pants with Zip off bottoms would be awesome. My sneakers are fine but it would be nice to have extra ankle protection. Luckily i bought/borrowed a hiking stick from the company and it has been awesome. I will give a full rundown of what i would bring at the end- mostly so i can look back on it when i hike again. When we arrived to our campsite, the porters had everything set up. I relaxed a bit in the tent and then we had happy hour soon after. It was so great. There are 13 people on our trek with our 2 tourguides. We hung out in the tent having hot chocolate and crackers with a caramel nutella-like spread and such yummy popcorn (mmm butter and salt). They also give us snacks for the day (to eat somewhere between breakfast lunch and dinner) so we are definitely fed! Yum Dinner was soon after in the same warm tent. We had lots of food: soup with veggies and pasta, chicken and lots of yummy veggies in a yummy sauce. I feel like i am not giving it justice! We had flambayed baby bananas for dessert! After we "washed" up and got into our tents. It was quite warm and i am sharing with a very nice english woman from London. She is very nice and just spent several months volunteering in an orphanage in cusco. I slept like a baby alpaca. We woke up at 5 am to Coca tea. Everyone chews coca leaves here which i believe is eventually cocaine. It apparently gets rid of nausea headaches, is an anesthetic etc so it appears to most likely be cocaine. I of course have not tried it because the last thing i want is to be kicked out of med school. We had our first breakfast which was so delicious. Nice crisp omelets with green peppers, more milo ( hot chocolate) and cuscan bread with such delicious thick jam with big chunks of strawberries. We left for our hike soon after to the salkantay mountain. It was a super steep uphill climb for 2 and a half hours. Towards the end I was looking ahead what felt like 12 ft and making it my goal to get from 1 rest stop to another. It was quite strenuous but very rewarding to get to the top greeted with warm tea from one of our porters. We sat ( and froze) as the guide talked about the salkantay mountain, aka savage moutain, a big snow peaked monstrosity that our trek was centered around ( along with machu picchu). In 2000 the inca trail became regulated and so the salkantay trek was created. Much fewer people trek it and it is quite beautiful. It is still unregulated so we saw 2young men trekking it sans tourguides and trekkers. I much prefer my luxe version complete with tents set up, horses to carry my bag and porters to serve me tea atop the mountains. I have also found that i no longer care about stepping in cow/horse/donkey/mule shit that scatters the trails...as long as it isnt fresh of course. It is just every other step along the way. So After reaching the top of the mountain we started our downhill descent. Luckily i had my walking stick: what a lifesaver. I made the next 2.5 hr trek with one of our guides raul. It was really great talking to him and learning about his country and how we grew up in the foothills of the sacred valley speaking quetcha. School became free and mandatory in the early 90s so he was able to go to school as a child and then to public university to become a tour guide. I foubd it very interesting all the tourguides must have a 4-5 yr university degree to be a tour guide, it is basically one the majors they can choose from. We basically ran down the mountain and then waited a good 20 minutes for the rest of the group to catch up. It was great until Raul started asking me if I wanted to drink sangria with him under the stars that evening. I decided to keep my distance from that point on! There is another guide, JJ and 12 other people on my tour. The nice english woman i am sharing a tent with, 4 couples, and the 3 students from harvard who are doing fieldwork afyer the trek. One couple is from the us (an editor and an english teacher) who i really like. They are in their late 20s: early 30s and are just really nice and both run a lot. There is a couple from chile, Switzerland, and australia as well. The harvard kids are an undergrad, a gay phd student, and a postdoc who grew up in sonoma and went to Berkeley. All interesting people! So after part 1 of the downhill journey we hiked another hour down to our lunch site. We even got 30 minutes to enjoy the sunny spot and squeeze in a catnap. I was not happy when i woke up and we had about 3 hrs downhill to go! Luckily i got back in the swing of things and had a nice chat with the phd student. He is super nice and i got to talk all about medicine ( and he appeared really interested). and not only medicine but obgyn. Gosh i love my profession. The last bit of the days journey had lots of mud and wet paths (downhill) and it was a treat to arrive at our campsite. I washed my feet in semi warm water and laid down exhausted until hour happy very soon after. Dinner followed, and then i had to politely decline my tourguides persistent attempts to get me alone. Next time i travel alone i will talk about my trauma surgeon husband who is just so wonderful he couldn't take off work. I slept wonderfully and woke up at 6! A whole extra hour which i thoroughly enjoyed. Today (friday) was a nice short day. We traveled through the jungle along a pretty river. There were lots of bugs and even a pack of mules along the way. We stopped 3 hrs in for our snacks- cookies, an apple, and passion fruit ( from the farm we rested at and possibly one of the yummiest things i have ever had.) the next 2-3 hrs were relatively quick and painless (as painless as trekking on a sore body can be) and i enjoyed a nice conversation with the australian woman about medicine (popular topic) and her job as a social worker. She and her boyfriend have been traveling for 3 months around south america and have another month left in peru once they return. I am very glad that this trip has a decent amount of people on it because i definitely enjoy that i get to meet lots of people! It is a lot of fun to hang out ( when we are eating or hiking...the only other thing we do is sleep) and meet people from all over the world! We arrived at our final campsite around 1:30 and enjoyed a nice lunch. Now we have the afternoon off (it feels like the first time i have had 3 hrs to myself since before the boards!) so time for a nap then happy hour, dinner, and a 430 wake-up.The salkantay spot was our highest elevation at 4600 m. I checked my camera for pics of the signs when we hiked cotopaxi in ecuador and it was at least 4800 m there which explains why i got altitude sickness there. I have no idea how long they recommended we get acclimated in quito but i know we had only arrived the night before. They recommend minimum 2 days for these machu picchu treks and i luckily had 3 and haven't yet experienced any sickness.