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FAIRFIELD – Dr. Nilfar Karimova of Fairfield visited one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World in October when she spent a week hiking to Machu Picchu.

Karimova was part of a group of 20 people who undertook the challenging Salkantay Trek that connects the city of Cusco, Peru, to the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. The site is famous for many reasons, because of its remoteness high in the Andes Mountains, its well-designed buildings and terraces, and because it’s among a small handful of pre-Columbian ruins almost entirely intact. Encyclopedia Britannica states that the site’s dwellings were likely built and occupied from the mid-1400s to the early or mid-1500s, but the site was never discovered by Spanish explorers and only became widely known to the outside world after it was excavated by American archaeologist Hiram Bingham in 1912.

Hiking in central Peru is not for the faint of heart. Karimova said she arrived a few days early, before embarking on the Salkantay Trek, to get acclimated to the high altitude, which for Cusco is over 11,000 feet above sea level. She and many others of the hiking party took a medicine to counteract mountain sickness, which helps lessen the symptoms related to rapid changes in altitude. However, Karimova said the side effects of the medicine were so uncomfortable that she stopped taking it after just a couple of days.

Karimova stays in good shape by exercising at her home gym and by exercising at gyms such as Boom Fitness in Fairfield and CrossFit Kilo 2 in Iowa City. Even so, the change in altitude between Iowa and Cusco was a shock to her system.

“When I climbed the stairs, I didn’t feel good,” Karimova said about her first day in Peru. “When I checked my oxygen saturation, my oxygen had dropped significantly.”

Karimova has been a physician at Jefferson County Health Center since 2011. She has fallen in love with Fairfield, and with this unique rural health center that is filled with “caring, loving and professional employees.” She took time off from her busy schedule with the health center to fly to Peru on Oct. 6, and spent the first two days touring Cusco and the surrounding area. She went on hikes to get ready for the long Salkantay Trek that would begin on her third day in the country.

“The first day was difficult, even though I was trying not to show it,” Karimova said.

The Salkantay Trek is a guided tour of five days and four nights of hiking that covers 46 miles, and reaches an elevation nearly 3 miles above sea level at 15,190 feet. Karimova said the second day of the trek involved over 14 hours of walking.

“I felt like it would never stop,” she said, “but we had a good group and they were ready. If you didn’t feel like walking, [the tour company] would provide you a horse for a little extra money.”

Karimova is a native of Kazakhstan, a country she’s hiked extensively as well as hiking in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Siberia and elsewhere. She said that, in her home country, if a hiker is injured or can’t keep up, it’s up to another hiker to carry them. She was glad she wouldn’t have to resort to that on this excursion.

On this trip to Machu Picchu, the tour company provided a sleeping bag, rain jacket, hiking poles and nightly accommodations in shelters along the route, including domes where they had a view of the night sky from their beds. Karimova said these little homes were beautiful, and the view of the sky was “magnificent.”

“I was prepared to carry everything, but we didn’t even need to carry a tent,” she said. “When I was growing up in Kazakhstan, we had to bring our food, set up our tents, and it’s so much easier when somebody else is doing that.”

Karimova said she regrets one decision she made, and that was she gave her old hiking shoes to a relative, and bought new ones for this trip. Unfortunately, this meant that her new shoes were not broken in, and after just one day of walking, she had developed multiple blisters.

On the final day of the Salkantay Trek, the hikers reached Machu Picchu. Karimova said she couldn’t believe her eyes. The stones of the ancient city were cut with millimeter precision. She was glad to have visited this sanctuary of the Incas, and encourages other adventure-seekers to do the same. To commemorate the journey, she posed for a photo with the rest of her hiking team at the trek’s summit, holding a sign that read Jefferson County Health Center.

“We all need inspiration and fulfillment,” Karimova said. “Since no one comes and offers it to you, you can create it yourself.”