Day 1 - Lares Valley to Machu Picchu

Ok, we did it! After weeks, no...months of planning, many dollars spent on transporation and gear, and nearly 50 kilometers of rugged hiking through the Andes, we finally made it to the famed Incan Lost City, Machu Picchu! Calves are a bit sore and blisters are slow to heal, but the experience is one we will never regret nor forget.

We don´t want to bore you with all of the details so here is a photo journal of our experience.

After a 3 hour bus ride we arrive at the trailhead. Here you can see our gear, our porters and the local ¨welcome wagon¨.

15 minutes into the hike and Meg is going strong. We shouldn´t mention that the young boy ran past without missing a beat.

We were very proud of the fact that we chose to carry all of our gear while many of our younger trekkers hired porters.

The porters, with a later start, blew past us on their way to set up lunch. When we arrived the cook tent was up, the table was set and fresh squash soup was hot.

We made it to our first summit! Just over 4,000 meters. The lake in the background was where we had lunch.

The horses carrying our food and shelter make their way past us. They certainly had a tougher job.


At the first summit... what goes up must come down. Camp, a warm bed and dinner is somewhere in the far, far, far distance.

5-star camping! Washing off 14km of hiking at our first base camp.

With clean hands, we had our evening snack of fresh popped popcorn.