Bruh, my damn knees. Oh. My. Goodness. I’m on the train back to Cusco and I am thinking deeply about my hike up Machu Picchu. I want to make it clear, I didn’t do one of those 4 day hikes up the whole mountain but I did spend several hours on the mountain and I want to share my experience for anyone else who feels that they are too out of shape for this adventure. Here, is my fat girl’s guide to Machu Picchu.
Altitude Sickness
I really used to laugh at the idea of being bothered by elevation until it happened to me. I flew in from Lima to Cusco and literally within an hour I actually thought I was dying. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like my heart was sitting in my throat and as my taxi began to climb through the hills, I felt worse and worse. Luckily I have a wonderful Airbnb host who made me some tea with coca leaves and took me to get something to eat. I got almost no sleep because I couldn’t breathe enough to settle down.
I say all of this to say that if you are planning to do the full hike, partial hike, or just take the train up the mountain, you need to make plans in case altitude sickness starts to hit. You don’t want to find yourself leaning against Inca ruins, trying not to vomit.
There are a few things that I believe can help:
- Acclimate to altitude before you try and hit the trail. If you are hiking the full trail then you may have a few day to adjust but if you are jumping right in then you may want to spend a few days in a high altitude city to get adjusted. If you give your body a few days to breathe with less air, then when you hit Machu Picchu it won’t be such an adjustment.
- Coca leaves: If you don’t know, these are the leaves from the plant that makes cocaine. The leaves themselves won’t get you high and it is perfectly legal here in Peru. In fact you see people chewing on them and it is a very popular tea leaf. You even find them making different drinks out of the leaves. It is supposed to help with the altitude issues.
- Hit up your local pharmacy as they make pills that you can take that should help.
- They can give you oxygen. Now, in full disclosure I got this info from a lady sitting next to me in the train station. She stated that she had it the first day that she came in. She said that it helped her to feel better. Extra oxygen could be an option. I’m going to do some research into how that can be made available.
Overall, I would make sure that you are paying attention to how your body feels so that you can make the necessary adjustment. It has nothing to do with fitness level, it’s more to do with how your blood carries oxygen. I saw plenty of thin and seemingly fit people sitting down and leaning against rocks. I also saw women twice my age, with walking sticks, doing just fine.
Proper Clothing
I can not stress this enough. Machu Picchu has little rhyme or reason to their weather. During the 7 hours that I was there, it went from sunshine and warm weather to windy to raining and there was no warning that the weather was going to change. I saw rain clouds over areas that never looked to have rain. It can be warm one minute and then boom, you start to feel a chill. I usually say to pack as light as possible but this is a situation where you need to be prepared.
Proper shoes
I decided to go this hike in Steph Curry’s basketball shoes (I don’t even know what version). This was in most ways the wrong decision. While the shoes were light, there were several things that they weren’t. This isn’t a criticism because they obviously aren’t hiking shoes but I should have purchased a pair of hiking shoes or something that had better ankle support. I would have done much better with shoes that hug the foot tighter.
Rain Coat
If you don’t want to have a full raincoat like I did then you can get one of those cheap little ponchos that they sell. I am talking about the cheap plastic ones and not the really nice ones that they sell in the shops. Overall you will find that it will be a big help. I was standing in line for the bus when the rain came out of nowhere. I’m glad that I had a raincoat to protect my documents.
Jacket
Depending on what kind of rain coat you have, this may not be necessary. The temperature can change on you and you are going to want to stay warm. If all you have is just the plastic poncho then I would consider bringing a jacket as well unless you go during the time of the year where you know it is for sure going to be cold and you are already appropriately dressed.
Water
This should be obvious but I saw a lot of people without any type of hydration and I don’t know how they didn’t pass out. The air was really drying out my body so I assume that it is quite dry or adept at dehydration. There are several shops that sell little bottle holders for just a few soles. This could help you have water without having to carry it in your hands. You can also get one of those water backpacks.
The Upside
I really felt accomplished as I was walking around Machu Picchu. I felt a similar feeling when I first went to the Grand Canyon. You really don’t know what these world wonders look like up close and personal or the physical effort that it will take to navigate through the areas. Hiking is no joke and even though I was super exhausted when I finished, I really felt like patting myself on the back because I accomplished things that other people were not able to, or don’t get the opportunity to accomplish.
The Downside
I was unprepared for the amount of flying and biting insects that Machu Picchu. This fat girl’s guide to Machu Picchu would not be complete if I did not tell you that you are going to have to bring some sort of bug repellant with you. I left the country with a whole bunch of bites and fully convinced that I had contracted Yellow Fever. I at no point had Yellow Fever but Google did say it was a possibility. The other issues that I ran into are addressed throughout the rest of the post.
Well, there you have it. My fat girl’s guide to Machu Picchu. Travel safe my dear friends. Also, check out my post about solo travel in Peru.