re: Machu Picchu trail advice.

Dude, I went on one 3 years ago and it was top 3 best experiences of my life. I did it with the group Llama Path and did the Salkantay trail which was 5D/4N. It was more challenging and I didn't train at all but I was 26 at the time and sucked wind at times but was fine. I could literally go on for days about the experience. If you go, just get to Cusco like 2-3 days before your hike and you won't have any problem. The hike wasn't tough, just the lack of air in my lungs was killing me.

Salkantay is way way more remote and I think you get a truer sense of Peru. You don't see some of the other ancient Incan towns along the way like you would on the Incan trail, but we camped out in actual Peruvian villages where it's like life hasn't really gotten to yet. Simply fascinating. The first night we camped in a high valley that was surrounded with mountains everywhere...it got down to 20 degrees and I thought my dick would freeze off ...but looking back that was probably my favorite night. We hiked for hours, covered so much ground, then got to the campsite and all 15 people on my trek sat in a tent and got to know each other for about 4 hours. My 4 friends and I were from Louisiana, met 4 guys who just graduated from Vandy, a couple from Switzerland, a lesbo couple one from Portugal the other from New Zealand, and a couple of randoms didn't really keep up with. Just a GREAT experience. Man, I'm jealous because I want to do it again.