Alright, so Negar and I were being little brats before we left for the Inka trail and I'll be the first to admit it. We had grown so accustomed to being back in a Loki, surrounded by so many lovely and entertaining people that leaving for four days and three nights to go sleep in a tent and hike 45 km seemed like the most unappealing thing on the planet. We kept asking each other if we could just not go (mind you we had paid about $700 for this tour already) and stay on with our friends at Loki. To be fair, we knew we were being ridiculous. We knew we were being unreasonable and that we would most likely have the time of our lives on the trek but the idea of hiking for days on end in the wilderness was a lot to wrap our minds around.

It also didn't help that on the Friday before we left for the trek, when we met our group and were given our briefing for what would be happening the next four days, that we hated our tour guide. He's Quechuan who wouldn't particularly consider himself Peruvian (more on his background later). I thought him to be incredibly condescending as he spoke to us about the porters that would be accompanying us and the do's and dont's of the trail and Quechuan traditions. He seemed to think of us as total morons who had never left our cave that is America (to be fair, besides Negar and an Irish guy on our tour the other eight of us were American). I didn't like him one bit (don't worry - this changes and he's now one of my favorite people on this planet!!) and I was crying a bit on the inside at the thought of spending four days with this man hiking the Inka trail all the way to Machu Picchu. So after the briefing Negar and I headed back to Loki and drowned our sorrows in some much needed drinks at happy hour. Our last night at the hostel also happened to be masquerade night and when Facun made a mask for me I couldn't just leave and go to bed. Oh no, my friend. Although the tour company was coming to pick us up at around 5:00 I stayed up to party party until about midnight, and then I decided it would be irresponsible not to go to bed. I said my goodbyes and told everyone we would be back Tuesday, which seemed like it was forever and a day away... Sad face.

In any case, we were picked up at 5:00 and driven in a minivan for a few hours to the start of the trail. Mind you, my knee was still absolutely f***ed (massive scab) from my shenanigans with Israeli a few nights before and wearing leggings was the most painful thing on the face of the planet. Because of the place it was located - right where my knee bends - the cut kept reopening with any sort of movement of my knee and the added moisture in the region we were in (also sweating) made things even worse. So my cut kept getting stuck to my leggings and it was just massively painful. Therefore, that first morning at breakfast I had pulled my leggings up to let my cut hopefully breathe a bit and the scab harden before I pulled my leggings back down. It didn't, however, and the whole of the Inka trail my knee was in misery. It was painful to walk uphill, painful to walk downhill... Painful to sleep, sit down, everything and anything. Just keep that in mind - I won't mention it again cause it's kinda gross.

Anyway, that first breakfast was spectacular. Tea/coffee, fruit salad, toast. If that first breakfast was anything to go by Negar and I knew we were going to be eating like kings this whole trek long. And we did. Our equipment was then distributed to us after breakfast and Negar and I both received our hiking poles, which we had absolutely no idea how to use but assumed to be useful (which they were?). Our bags were also weighed to make sure that they weighed no more than 7 kg each. These were the bags that the porters would be carrying for us all the way to Machu Picchu. There are regulations in place stating that the porters (absolute legends) cannot carry backpacks weighing more than 20 kg. 20 kg!!!! That's so heavy! And we nearly died carrying our small daypacks up... You really should have seen these guys go - running up and down the mountain carrying all this heavy equipment. Absolute champions. Most if not all of them were Quechuan from the mountains we were about to hike and most spoke Spanish but a few could only speak their Quechuan dialects. They were all incredibly lovely in any case and such hard workers... I could go on and on about how much I appreciate them (and how I wanted to marry one because they're so useful) but that would take us off topic about how we barely survived the Inka trail.

Anyway, after breakfast we set out on the first leg of our hike which was relatively flat. Negar and I were able to have the chats along the way, which was great, and we also tried to sort out how to work our hiking poles. I'm still not sure we ever succeeded in using them properly but they were useful going downhill, I will admit. Anyway, that first portion of the hike wasn't too difficult and within a short amount of time we had reached our first Inka ruins, where Isacc (our guide that I still hadn't warmed to at the time) gave us a nice, long lecture about the history. Onwards we went but this time Toribio, our other guide, took the lead and as I was at the front of the group he started talking to me, first asking if I spoke Spanish (because he didn't speak much English) and then upon finding out I did began asking me bottomless questions. Like what I was doing traveling, what I studied in university, was I married (no?), was I in love, etc. Yeah, pretty heavy questions for the Inka trail I have to admit and I couldn't help but feel like he was hitting on me. Maybe it's because he said things like, "Oh, you studied business? You're going to make some man very happy one day," before asking if I were married. Negar could tell from just behind me what was going on and was only too pleased to tell me later on that if I needed the tent to get some on the Inka trail then she would give me 30 minutes. You're so funny, Sharafi, you really are. And it's not like he was unattractive! On the contrary - very handsome face and all but he was shorter than Negar so that was a slight deal breaker? As bad as I feel for saying it... But he was very interesting and had only been working with our tour company for a month. Previously he was a park ranger in the national park we were walking through and his family still lived in the area so he pretty much knew everybody we passed on the trail. Pretty cool.

We continued talking all the way to our lunch place where our porters (of which there were probably 16 for only 10 people in our group, not including our two guides) had set up a lunch tent for us. They even transported a toilet for us! No joke. They carried a portable toilet up the mountain with a tent covering and all so that we didn't have to go to the bathroom in the wilderness. When I say this was "glamping" it's really not an exaggeration. They had also set up little bowls for us outside the lunch tent to wash our hands and faces, which was very much welcome as I hadn't expected to sweat so much! So gross that first day and the thought of not having a shower for four days seemed very unsettling at that point.

Anyway, before too long lunch was served and my goodness was it fabulous! For the entire trek the food was incredible. At both lunch and dinner everyday there were about five big trays of food served and that came after either a starter (at lunch) or soup (at dinner). Dinner also included dessert. When I say that I haven't eaten so well while traveling I'm not kidding. Turns out that our chef traveling with us, Mario, was awarded the title of "best chef" on the Inka trail twice. #winning

The food was usually Peruvian in origin but many of the dishes were Mario's own creations and I can say without issue that everything I tried was delicious. He was also cooking and preparing everything on portable cookers and inside a small tent. Like, if that's not impressive I surely don't know what is.

After lunch we were all ready to die as we had gorged ourselves on all the delicious food, but after refilling our waters it was time to head back out on the trail. Toribio and I were up at the front (Negar made sure to keep her distance because she was just enjoying watching us too much) and made our way up some minor hills. He then told me that his mom lives around the corner and that we would be stopping shortly so that he could go drop by and visit her. Negar made a "funny" joke that maybe he already wanted to introduce me to his family. Comic genius that she is...

Before long he was back and we set back out on the trail. We had a bit of distance to still get through before we reached our campsite for the evening and sadly the path already started heading uphill. To be honest, I was shocked at how I wasn't dying. I was actually doing the best of the entire group, always right behind the guide and most definitely not noticing any effect of the countless months of smoking I had put my body through. Needless to say I was quite pleased and continued on the trail behind Isacc, as he had retaken the lead. This is where I began chatting to him about this and that and as soon as he figured out I could speak Spanish he refused to speak to me in English. We, Isacc and I, eventually reached our campsite and were quite a bit ahead of the rest of the group so we waited for them at a beautiful lookout point as we watched the sunset. We spoke about my studies and travel plans and life and my opinion for him turned positive quite rapidly. Cool guy, I thought to myself. And so freaking funny - but more on that at dinner time.

When we finally arrived to our campsite that first night we were pretty tired (I had been up till midnight partying to be fair...) and feeling quite gross after having sweat so much. As this was the Inka trail and there would be no showers until the end of the trail, Negar and I made our way to the bathroom to take baby wipe "showers". That's right, we had brought copious amounts of baby wipes with us in the very hopeful attempt to keep our body odor as minimal as possible during the four day hike. Apparently it worked because we reappeared at our tent after having changed clothes and Toribio asked if we had showered. "Bueno." More or less, my friend.

Inside the tent (so weird saying Negar and I slept in a tent for three nights - so unlike us, right?!) Negar and I unrolled our sleeping bags and prepared our things as quickly as possible before it got dark and we had to take our headlamps out. That's right, we had to buy headlamps for this little expedition because otherwise there is no other light in the campsite to see (besides in the tents). Imagine trying to go to the bathroom... Yeah.

Then it was tea time! So Negar and I grabbed our headlamps and headed over to the dining tent. Tea time was on point. Popcorn and biscuits and these weird wonton-like things filled with dulce de leche. Yes, my friends. Weird wonton-things with dulce de leche. Naturally, we all stuffed our faces to the point that we weren't very hungry for dinner afterwards. But when the soup and then five platters and dessert came we all gave our best effort to eat as much as possible. It all looked so appetizing! Over dinner Isacc also filled us in on what we would be doing the next day and (although we were all aware of the fact) it was meant to be the most difficult day. 16 km up and downhill all day long. Kill me now? He did make us feel better though as he had taken to calling us "champions". "Only the best for champions." "Are you all ready, champions?" He would even yell out along the trail: "Champions coming through! Make way for the champions!" He slowly became like our embarrassing dad that you loved to bits but at the same time you wanted to hide your face from the stares of others so bewildered by this crazy tour guide. At the start of the trail he also asked if we knew what the llama laugh was and I'm kicking myself to this day that I didn't get a recording of his voice doing it... It was this high pitched giggle he did and he swore to us that llamas laugh - apparently only if you're lucky or if you're a "champion" like us he said. In any case, anytime he said anything to us he would follow it up with a llama laugh and I couldn't help but break out laughing every time he did it. And then he would do it again. He also said "cheeses" all the time to express his surprise or generally when one would use the exclamation of "Jesus". I asked him one day when he said it if he was saying "Jesus" (as I have such a bad tendency of doing) and he said no, "cheeses". Amazing. And I say that now instead of "Jesus". Just say it both words out loud to yourself - so similar but "cheeses" is to die for. His laughter and manner of speaking and the things he said had me laughing the entire trek. His way of being was just so infectious that I couldn't help but smile and laugh the whole way and I'm so grateful to him for that. Had I not been laughing I might have been crying... Because that second day kicked our asses.

After dinner that night Negar and I put our headlamps on and tried as best we could to brush our teeth (using our water bottles as our water source) and wash our faces before we crawled into our sleeping bags for the night. We couldn't help laughing for about ten minutes looking at each other with our ridiculous headlamps on wrapped in our sleeping bags here in the wilderness of Peru... How did we get here, Negar? This is so unlike us. So unlike us. We were definitely worried before setting out on the trek that we wouldn't have the kind of fun that we have with our friends in Loki or elsewhere but that night reassured me that Negar and I could have all the craic holed up in a cave if need be (or a tent). All we need is each other and some headlamps and we're good to go.

The next day was literally 16 km of walking uphill and downhill and remember my knee... Ouch. We had to get up at around 5:00 for breakfast, which was difficult but we were awoken by our porters brining coca tea so that wasn't all too bad. The first portion of the day was uphill and tough - Isacc and I up at the front, naturally ;) And then we got to the base of what they call "Dead Woman's Pass", which is the highest pass we crossed on the trail. Looking up at it and then later walking it I really never thought we would ever reach the top. The stairs on the way up where mismatched stone steps that had probably been there since before the Inkas and were at times quite difficult to climb. It didn't help that it started to sprinkle on the climb up... So there we were trekking up this massive hill in the sprinkling rain all the while I was getting really hot so I decided to take both my jacket and jumper off until I reached the top. Because I hate walking uphill I pretty much raced to the top just to get it over with. Isacc told us to wait for the rest of the group at soon as we got up to the pass so it was probably foolish of me to be the first one to arrive because there was nothing for Kevin (Irish guy) and me to do for about an hour and a half while we waited for the others to show. I received quite a lovely compliment from a porter on my way up, though, when he said that I was very strong. Made me feel so good about myself especially coming from this little legend carrying 20 kg on his back.

In any case, at the top it began raining a bit harder so Kevin and I threw on our ugly green blobs of rain ponchos that Alpaca Expeditions (our tour company) had given us and enjoyed the coca tea and sandwiches given to us by one of our porters. Slowly but surely the rest of the gang started to arrive but Isacc said it was going to be a while before the whole group would manage to the top. Apparently one of the couples, this American guy and girl, were having a hard time getting up the hill. I would definitely say they were quite unfit and although I believed the Inka trail would be easier than it really was, no way would I attempt it if I were very out of shape. Apparently they were fighting the whole way up the mountainside as well (which definitely doesn't help the situation) and poor Toribio had to stay back with them to make sure they made it.

I told Isacc I needed to get down the mountainside because my hands were starting to go numb and he said we could go ahead and go and meet the porters at our lunch spot. So down we headed but damn was it scary. Not only had it started hailing to go along with the rain, but the steps were massive and very slippery because of the rain that I became so terrified of slipping. My knee was hurting because I had to bend it so much to get down and I couldn't feel my hands to properly hold on to my hiking poles. f***ing great. This is so much fun, isn't it Allison?! Good work in signing up for this mess... I was so angry all the way down as I was not only in pain but deathly afraid of slipping (just to reiterate - it was horrible). And it was two hours of this sort of situation. Fog all around so I couldn't see more than a few meters in front of me and I cursed the whole way down. It didn't make me feel any better to see porters literally running and jumping down these slippery steps at the speed of light. "Just keep going," I kept telling myself. It'll end eventually. Or will it...

Eventually it did end, to be fair, but I was raging when I showed up at our lunch spot. My thighs were so sore from the up and downhill and worst bit of it was that the day wasn't yet over. We still had more up and downhill to go and I wanted to cry. To be fair I wasn't the worst of the group by far. The horrible couple I mentioned a few paragraphs ago showed up at lunch and had a little b**** fight about God knows what and poor Toribio looked like his energy for life was slowly being drained with every step he had to take.

Lunch was delicious, though. Of course it was... And before long the clouds and rain started to clear into a pretty nice day. Back to the trekking we go! When they said this was the hardest day they were definitely not lying. Here we go.

Isacc told us to wait for him at ruins near the top of the hill as he was going to stay back and make sure Toribio didn't throw himself off a cliff after dealing with annoying couple. Jokes but he did say he was going to help Toribio out a bit. Fair enough, I'm sure Toribio could use all the help he could get. So we waited at the ruins, which Isacc said was the halfway point to the top of the second pass. Ugh, more hiking to go. By the way, all the scenery at this point is beautiful! The fog had disappeared and we could finally take in the amazing mountains all around us. It was quite neat that we could spot both "Dead Woman's Pass" and our lunch spot at the bottom of the valley where we had just come from. It definitely acted as a bit of a motivator.

After getting a bit of a history lesson from Isacc we continued further up to the top of the trail where we sadly encountered this horribly annoying American guy s***eing on about his great job at the Department of Defense and this bulls*** and that. For the rest of our trek we could always hear him coming before we caught sight of him and we usually tried to hurry along so none of us attempted to throw him off a cliff... We tried to leave the top quickly to get away from him, then, but it was only more downhill so I was ready to throw myself off a cliff. At least Negar and Kevin were with me this time on the way down so we chatted about this and that and it softened my pain a bit and made the time go by a bit faster. About an hour and a half later we reached the last ruins of the day and waited for Isacc to give us a lecture. Lecture he did not this time around, though, so I ran to the campsite because I (and everyone else) was wrecked from the day of uphill and down. The last half an hour seemed like it would last forever and it was all I could do to not to break down in tears... I really thought I was never going to reach the campsite. I was so sad but I just kept trudging along thinking that at some point the misery must come to an end and end it did, finally!

Upon reaching the campsite the porters clapped for me and I was grateful that they had already set up our tents so I could immediately head to change and take a "shower". Negar arrived not too long after and we were overjoyed to be able to unroll our sleeping bags and to have completed the hardest day on the Inka trail! Suckkkkkkas, we did it! We then put our headlamps on and went out for tea time with the others and no food or hot beverage has ever tasted so good since. Our legs and feet were in bits but I was really so proud of us for what we had accomplished that day. Isacc's encouragement of calling us "champions" definitely kept me going but at some stages I was ready to rent a donkey and be trotted down to the campsite rather than walk... Yeah, it was that tough. Jokes, I wouldn't really rent a donkey and do that but the idea was reassuring that I could possibly do that if I did in fact want to give up.

The annoying couple and poor Toribio still hadn't arrived even two full hours after everyone else (and after sundown!) so some of the porters had to take lanterns out and go get them. They finally showed up right before dinner and Toribio looked like a broken man and fair enough... The poor man had walked 16 km with the worst people on the planet and lived to tell the tale. We asked him in Spanish (the others in the group didn't speak any Spanish so it was excellent) how his day had been and he said "tiring". We asked how it was with the couple and he just made a face. Poor thing. He dies now.

Dinner was lovely yet again but we were all fairly exhausted from our long day so bedtime came rather quickly. Negar and I put on our headlamps (I had a cheeky smoke behind our tent - it's not allowed on the trail) and washed our faces and brushed our teeth while we laughed about how ridiculous we looked and then crawled into our sleeping bags. This is when I first realized that my sleeping bag had a hood on it! I could zip myself all the way in and then put the hood on so I looked like a weird caterpillar/mummy sort of thing (apparently they're called mummy bags - go figure). Negar asked me if I was really going to sleep like that with my hood and I responded in the affirmative. And sleep like that I did. At 5:30 the next morning when the porters came 'round with our coca tea I was still zipped up looking like a caterpillar (like a boss). I'm going to be a beautiful butterfly soon...

We got up and had breakfast and then set out on what would be our easiest hiking day. It was slightly uphill but very manageable in comparison to the previous day - much needed. I was walking with Isacc again and this is where I got to know more about him and I'm very grateful for that hike with him. He told me (after I asked) that he has three daughters and that's the reason he has to hike the Inka trail - to provide for them. He's starting his own tour company so he can do more office work but until that time he has to continue to hike the trail. I asked about his wife and he told me about his marriage of convenience more than love - that his wife had a child out of wedlock with another man when she was very young and that they met a few years later. I gather that they may have been in love at some point but now it's different. He says it's not fair to his daughters to do anything about it because they aren't responsible for any of their issues. He told me of a conference he recently attended (he loves conferences) where the speaker said (translating from his Spanish): "Be happy with your problems/flaws or else they will consume you." The gist being that you have to accept yourself and your circumstances or else you'll make yourself unhappy. I thought it very fitting for my life at the moment, as well. I'm a mess, let's be honest, but I'm a very happy mess. I have nothing figured out but I'm having a great time seeing what each day has in store. He said that you have to make yourself happy no matter what - that you WILL make yourself happy no matter what obstacles are in the way. I liked that. Make yourself happy no matter what and you'll be OK.

We got to our campsite by lunchtime that day and decided not to change because Isacc said we would be visiting some Inka ruins after lunch. So we washed up a bit and sat down for lunch - spectacular! Afterwards we all sat down for a little while to stretch our legs and recover. Before long though (and before I passed out for a nap) we all decided it would be best if we just went straight to the ruins while we still had the energy to do so. I asked the rest of the guys if they also wanted to join and everyone agreed. We thought we would let Isacc rest but we then heard him llama laughing from his tent saying he was coming along, too. So off we went. The ruins were so close that Isacc said we could wear flip flops, which we were very grateful for as our feet had been suffering in the hell that is hiking boots for two days.

We arrived after about ten minutes and the views were spectacular! The ruins were built at the bottom of the hill overlooking the river down below with mountains all around. Terrazas were built into the mountainside with stone steps leading down to the ruins. Isacc said we could walk down the steps to see the llamas below and after some coaxing we agreed. Very cool ruins. Good llamas. I was so impressed and I still think that they maybe ruined Machu Picchu for me a bit - not that Machu Picchu wasn't the coolest thing on the planet but these ruins were up there as well. And you only get to see them if you hike the Inka trail. Ha, sucks to suck.

Two porters then came along with Toribio to give us T-shirts for surviving the Inka trail. Never have I been given a shirt in such a cool setting. Just putting that out there. Isacc then proceeded to give us a two hour lecture on the Inka ruins... I love him to bits but if you tune him out for even a minute you're absolutely lost. He'll be talking about their water canal system and then shift to different types of corn and then fertilization techniques so that you really must follow along to learn anything. I don't think I even had such long lectures in college... In any case, we slowly started wandering back to the campsite and this is where I caught our waiter, Miguel, (yeah, we had a waiter and all) decorating our dining tent. He was putting up streamers to celebrate our last night on the trail and I have just never seen something so precious, ever. I also caught sight of a cake in the cooking tent. That's right, they somehow managed to bake a cake on the Inka trail! Wut.

We all came down for tea time before long and then it was dinner time. So much food, so much happiness. We were going to Machu Picchu tomorrow!!! Ahhhhhhh.

It's customary on the last night of the Inka trail to tip your porters and chef a bit extra for all their hard work and fair enough - they worked their asses off. Everything was impeccable. I have not a single complaint and we all felt the same so we tipped them quite well, I thought. Well above the suggested tip, anyway. After our cake the porters gathered around and we gave them the combined tip for their group and then Isacc asked the few Spanish speakers (Negar, this other girl and me) to same some words of thanks as most spoke both Spanish and Quechuan. Negar was too shy so I tried as best I could to say thank you for everything. I said the food was incredible, everything was amazing and it was one of the best trips of my life. I tried, lads. I did my best. But I think they were quite pleased and that just made my night. It was such a treat seeing their sweet smiling faces (I know it sounds creepy, but go with it) everyday and expecting nothing in return. They were literally carrying my life on their shoulders and I wanted to give them all a big hug but I had no desire to a) come across as creepy, nor b) acquire a Quechuan mountain husband, so I refrained.

We went to bed shortly thereafter as we were to be awoken 3:30 and this time without coca tea. We put our headlights on and you know the drill by this point.

The next morning came way too soon but we were all excited to be heading to Machu Picchu!!! We got dressed quickly and went down for our last meal with our company. Most of the porters were leaving on the train back to Cusco at 5:00 so they had to get going quite quickly. After we ate we all put our headlamps on and followed Isacc and his llama laugh to the start of the trail. The Inka trail doesn't open until 5:00 so we had to wait around at the start of the trail for about an hour or so before the officials came to open the gates. We initially tried to read my Spanish book but because Kevin doesn't speak Spanish we had to translate the pages and it became tiresome after long. Then we put some N'sync on and jammed out for a little. And then it was time to go!

And off we set! It was still dark at the outset and it was quite humorous seeing everyone in their headlamps and getting flashed in the eyes constantly but before long the sun started to rise over the beautiful scenery in the area. Incredible, truly. Very, very stunning. Check the photos ;) It was a fairly easy walk most of the way - fairly level - and after about two hours we finally reached the sun gate and got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu! I can't tell you how incredible that was - walking through the sun gate and seeing the place you've seen endless photos of and have been struggling to reach for four days. No better feeling in the world. We all sat down to eat our snacks and take in the scenery for a while and take some photos, naturally. Then it was time to walk down the last hour to reach the ruins.

Along the way Isacc asked for our help in starting his new tour company. Nothing more than writing a few reviews but we said we would be more than happy to do so. The realization set in that after we had our tour around Machu Picchu we would have to take our leave of him and it made me really sad. I had grown so accustomed to his presence and laughter and humor and I didn't want to just say goodbye. Maybe it sounds lame but he had become one of those beautiful people that you meet while traveling and he was going to be one of those people that we then had to take our leave of. Not fair.

In any case, we finally made it to Machu Picchu and after a few necessary photos overlooking the ruins we went down to use the toilet and get our passports stamped. We were apparently a bit late getting going but Isacc gave us a tour around the complex and filled us in on the history. It really is an incredible place - a place everyone should see in their lifetime. He talked of the Spanish coming to Peru but even after the Inkas had abandoned the complex the Spanish never found it. It was left unfinished - imagine what could have become of the place had they never abandoned it... He also talked of how Peru took all the profits from the tourism the complex brought in. The Quechuan natives, descendants of the Inkas, see nothing of the profits - so Isacc had a bit of a b**** about Peru and I left that lecture thinking, "Yeah, f*** Peru!" How can they do nothing for our amazing porters... When this is their land? It left me thinking, in any case.

Our tour of the place was incredible and I loved every minute. Afterwards Isacc said he was going down to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu, and would meet us at a restaurant to give us our duffel bags with our things and train tickets back towards Cusco. So we had another few hours to kill in the complex and we decided to sit on a ledge overlooking the ruins and take a "nap" and/or have the chats. I went for another wander before long and then we also headed down to Aguas Calientes to meet Isacc. Bye, Machu Picchu. You were very pretty!

Down at the restaurant we ordered some food and used the wifi to connect with our past lives. Very strange being connected with the world again after so long apart...

We got on our train back in a few hours and we said goodbye to the mountains we had called home for four days and three nights. I definitely believe I shed a tear... I couldn't help it. I told Negar before we left for the trek (when we were still being little b****es) that I thought we would come back changed people and I think I was right. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed myself on that trek... Don't get me wrong - it was hard. It was really hard, but it was also incredible. It was one of those "experiences" that everyone talks about. And Machu Picchu was definitely amazing, but I think the best part about the whole thing was that we were completely out of our comfort zones. I don't know if you know this or not, but Negar and I are not necessarily "hikers" or "outdoorsy" sort of people. We'll go for the odd walk now and then, and sure we work out when we're at home, but none of this tent and not taking showers for days sort of business. But despite all of that, despite who we are at nature, we managed. We did it and I've never felt more accomplished in my entire life. I think I was more proud of myself completing the Inka trail than getting a college degree, as strange as that might sound.

The tour company was also incredible. The guides, the porters, the food, the equipment. It was all out of this world and I'm so grateful to them for making this one of the best experiences of my life. I truly believe after completing the trail that there is no other way to see Machu Picchu than hiking and sweating for four days through the jungle. It would have definitely been a lesser experience had we done it any other way...

So what I'm trying to say is that we had an amazing time. It was incredible. I knew it would be and I'm almost ashamed of us for our behavior before the trek (the not wanting to go business). It's something I'll keep in my heart forever and I hope that everyone who can do the trek will do it as well. It was definitely a once in a life experience and it's incredible how many of those I've had over the past few months... I sure hope there are more to come ;)