A Tale of Two Treks

From the earliest stages of planning this trip, we knew it was going to be an "outdoor" sort of vacation. All our vacations are. Cities and small towns, sure. Those are great. Beyond them though, the great outdoors! Soaring mountains! Endless plains! Startling blue waters of lakes and oceans!

Two specific outdoorsy things dominated our plans: hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and trekking among the mountains of Bolivia's Cordillera Real. They took about the same amount of time (3-4 days each), and both were amazing. The similarities end there.

(Okay, technically, do the similarities really end there? There are probably hundreds of things that were similar. Both were in Spanish-speaking nations. Both skirted snow-capped mountains. Both were difficult. Both were at high altitudes. Both involved a guide. Both involved us sleeping in tents. And so on. Beside the point.)

(Up at the top of Dead Woman's Pass, the highest point on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu)

Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu was incredible. You're not allowed to hike the trail yourself, so we signed up with SAS, the Cadillac of Machu Picchu trek companies. Oliver and I were 2 among a group of 8 twenty/early thirty-somethings from the States and Europe. It was like one of those movies of safaris in the 1920s. Porters carried our heavy bags. We ate dinner (a feast!) each night in a tent. We were awakened each day with a cup of hot tea and a bowl of warm water to wash our faces. Our guide told us stories every night about the origins of the Incas, mystical Peruvian beliefs (ghosts and pishtacos, anyone?), the Shining Path, and Peruvian politics today. There was even a shower the night before we arrived at Machu Picchu.

(Our guide Paul explains the meaning behind the Andean Cross)

We woke up at 4 that day to start the hike to Machu Picchu, arriving at the Temple of the Sun in time to see the sun rise. Spectacular. We had a guided tour of the site, then had time to wander around for a few hours, soak in everything. Machu Picchu itlsef was overflowing with tourists, but still majestic.


Contrast: trekking in Bolivia's Cordillera Real. We did a three day hike to Laguna Chillata and Laguna Glacier. This time, our guide was a local guy who took us grocery shopping the night before the trip for our food. He spoke no English and we spoke broken (at best) Spanish. The three of us made our way from arid fields to loose rock of a retreating glacier. We saw almost no other tourists. We got drinking water from a stream rushing down out of the glacier. We saw Incan ruins at one point, but they were just there. No ticket office. No preservation. No nothing.

(Oliver and Eduardo load up the mule)

(Inca ruins minus tourists. Except for us, of course.)

The difference in the treks is the perfect symbol for the difference between Peru and Bolivia (from my admittedly limited point of view). Peru is like the older teenage brother. Machu Picchu has been attracting tourists for decades, and Peru knows what to do with the hordes that come in. Bolivia is more of a wilderness. Fewer tourists, fewer amenities. More of an unknown entity. A little grittier in terms of getting from Point A to Point B, perhaps. But.

Absolutely.

Indescribably.

Stunning.