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Top Reasons to Trek to Machu Picchu
Just below the equator lies a place of mystery, adventure and romance. Glacier fed rivers roar through the Andes, ice peaks tower over mist shrouded jungles and lost civilizations call the adventurous. Ten days of Defining Eve’s April trek to Machu Picchu, the Amazonian Rain Forest and the cities of Cusco and Lima, Peru gave Defining Eve’s group a long list of reasons to return.
The Amazonian Rain Forest: Hiking through the rain forest is amazing. With an accredited guide, it becomes a quest to learn and understand the eco-system. Our guides specialized in creating a personalized experience; fishing for piranhas, boating the tributaries and, of course, hiking at a pace that kept us moving without wearing us out.
Where we lay our heads: The accommodation in each area of the trek was surprisingly luxurious. The bamboo huts in the rain forest were elevated resort villas open to the rain forest. In Cusco, Lima, and the small villages, our hotels were comfortable and well-appointed usually historic buildings, nothing like a Super 8. While hiking to Machu Picchu, we experienced adventure camping, with luxuries. Porters carried our gear and set it up before we arrived.
The Hiking: Defining Eve’s crew trained prior to the trip, took some time to acclimatize and, therefore, experienced few discomforts. We hiked nearly every day, through rain forests, side trips from cities and the three days of hiking at up to 4200 meters to arrive at Machu Picchu. We even added a summit to Wayna Picchu, a climb that is not as death defying as it appears. Each member of our group completed it.
Andean Cuisine: From the day they handed us the meal wrapped in a banana leaf in the Amazon, we craved the food in Peru. In the cities, (Lima’s population is 9 million) we were faced with difficult choices of where to eat. In the villages and resorts the food was often fresh colorful vegetables, some meat and potatoes. During our hike to Machu Picchu, the porters would run ahead, catch fresh fish, and have it prepared for us when we arrived.
The Culture: Descriptions of culture are often distilled into the sites we saw (ruins, architecture, creatures from the rain forest) and the things we bought (ceramics, woolens, and jewelry), but the culture was more than that for us. It was how we engaged with our environment; our guides, the people in the cities and villages, the language we stumbled to speak and all the ways we saw the world from a new perspective.
Machu Picchu: Constructed from precisely sculptured granite blocks joined with the exposed stone of the surrounding mountains, the site is a stunning architectural achievement. It is the fabled lost city of the Inca and remained a secret to the outside world until it was rediscovered in 1911. Exploring Machu Picchu was definitely worth the preparation.
Defining Eve is organizing another Machu Picchu trek that will depart in mid-August. For more information, phone our office, 482-7030.
