The Inca Trail: Part 2 - The Trek

On Tuesday, August 28th, we started our trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We had to be ready for the bus to pick us up by 5:30 am. It was about a 2-hour ride to the trailhead, where there is an official checkpoint we needed to wait in line to pass through. The government requires that anyone hiking the trail is part of a guided group, and only 500 people are allowed on the trail per day.

I think everyone was a little nervous that morning. There were 14 of us, plus 2 guides and 17 porters (including a chef and a coordinator). The photo at right is just our group of hikers, immediately before heading onto the trail.

Some of the chaskies for our group. We always gave way
for them to pass us. 

I immediately gained tremendous respect for our porters. We were asked to use the Quechua term "chaskies", which refers to the Inca messengers that relayed news from town to town with great speed. These men could put any of us to shame by hiking quickly by us with loads of up to 25 kilos (regulated now by the Peruvian government). Most of them only spoke Quechua, but they were always very friendly and helpful.

I included photos of our guides because they were amazing, and without them, I don't think I could have done it. Mike chose to go through SAS Travel for our trek, because of reviews and because they keep the money local, as opposed to guide companies based in the US.
I don't think we realized at the time that we would be getting such a wonderful experience by choosing this company. And I didn't realize how much of a difference that could make. Our guide, Fred, and assistant guide, Hugo, knew so much and were so passionate about this topic that they inspired me to learn more about the Inca culture. Fred is an archeologist with the university in Cusco (Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco) during the off season, and is involved with expeditions to recently discovered ruins around the region, so he has a lot of info not yet published.

Fred, our fearless guide, lecturing at Machu Picchu.

Hugo, our assistant guide, giving us a talk at
Winay Wayna.

The bridge that separates the checkpoint to enter the Inca Trail
from the actual trail (which starts on the other side).

A brief synopsis of our trek, day-by-day

Day 1: After finally crossing the checkpoint after 9 am, we hiked gradually uphill to a nice little park-like area for lunch. The chaskies were waiting for us and clapped when we arrived. So sweet of them. Lunch was much more elaborate and healthy than what I expected, and that was a sign of things to come. Every meal included a great variety of dishes with lots of veggies. Our guide liked to tell us we were eating exotic dishes, like baby condor in its own blood (chicken in a red sauce), chopped llama legs (lomo de saltado), etc.

After lunch, the trail continued on pretty easily except for a bit more steepness near the end of the day. We camped that night further along than other groups so that we would not be sharing a campsite with so many other people and would be ahead of them in the morning. Our tents were set up when we arrived at camp, and as soon as we had time to clean up a little, we had happy hour in the dining tent, consisting of coca leaf tea, popcorn, and cookies to tide us over until dinner was ready. After dinner, everyone goes right to bed. Day 2 is going to be a tough one.



Day 2: Today we had to climb to the top of Dead Woman's Pass, at 4180 m (a 1000-m increase from camp), then go down several hundred meters before crossing a second pass at around 3900 m. It was a grueling hike to the top of the first pass. I was one of the last in my group to make it up. The funny thing is, it wasn't my legs that got tired. I just couldn't catch my breath. The high elevation and my asthma made it tough. Still, I found someone I could keep pace with most of the time (until the end), and I just stuck with her most of the time.

That's me, following Sharon, who kept a good pace for me,
on the way up to Dead Woman's Pass.

There was a bit of celebration at the top of Dead Woman's Pass before we headed down the mountain towards our lunch spot. I found that going downhill was much easier and more enjoyable for me. I assumed this would be true for everyone, but I was mistaken. I was among the fastest in my group going downhill, because I don't really have too many issues with knees/hips/ankles in that terrain. It made me feel like a powerhouse at those times.

Our group at the top of Dead Woman's Pass, along with our chasky
coordinator.

By that evening when we arrived in the camp that would be coldest, I think we were all exhausted but elated that the most strenuous day was over.











Day 3: This was a relatively short day, with a lot of stops at various cultural sites. We arrived at camp early and had time to visit nearby ruins, which were quite large and extensive, on our own time. This was the camp where everyone stays before passing through the next checkpoint to Machu Picchu early the next morning. We relaxed a bit, had a chance for a very cold shower (which I took), and went to bed early.

A llama just hanging out grazing at
one of the ruins.

Ruins we passed through on the third
day. There were so many that I'm not
even sure which ones these are.

The view from our campsite the third night. Not bad, eh?

The other view of our campsite the third night.
Right above the toilets, making for a wafting odor all night.

Amazing view.

Day 4: We got up at 3:45 and were ready to leave camp by 4:20 am. We had to get up this early to get our place in line to cross the last checkpoint along the trail. The checkpoint doesn't actually open until 5:30 am, so we waited for an hour to get started on our last bit of hiking. It took about an hour and a half to reach the Sun Gate (Inti Punku), the main entrance to Machu Picchu from the trail. We didn't quite make it at sunrise, but just after. Machu Picchu was already getting some visitors riding up on the bus from Aguas Calientes, a town that basically exists because of tourism to Machu Picchu.

 We hiked into Machu Picchu, relaxed a bit, then actually exited the park (or whatever you want to call it), so that we could officially enter with our tickets. We spent the morning with our guides touring Machu Picchu. Then they left us for a couple of hours on our own. We then took a bus down to Aguas Calientes to meet back up for lunch one last time. It was actually sad to part ways with our guides at that time, and some of our group was heading out as well. We shared email addresses and are going to try to share all of our photos. This is a very good thing since some folks in the group are quite good photographers.

The last stairs up to the Sun Gate.

Machu Picchu from Inti Punku (the Sun Gate) in all its glory.

 I added several photos from that day, but if you scroll down far enough, you'll see some from Day 5, when we returned to Machu Picchu to climb Huayna Picchu, which was essentially a watchtower for Machu Picchu and provides extraordinary views of the area.

Our group just after we arrived at Machu Picchu. 

Day 5: We got up Saturday morning and took the bus from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu to climb Huayna Picchu, which has regulated access limited to 400 people per day. Our time slot was for 7-8 am entry, which was perfect to avoid most of the heat of the day.

That little mountain on the right,
that's Huayna Picchu.

The checkpoint to enter the trail to Huayna Picchu.

Yes, that's sweat. It's a LOT of steps to get up to that point!

The view of Machu Picchu from way up there.

Lots of very steep steps. And the Inca apparently had
very small feet, judging by the very narrow steps.

 Okay, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. I know it's a lot, but hopefully the photos were interesting. That was basically the end of our 5-day trip on the Inca Trail. We returned to Aguas Calientes later that morning and took a train back to Ollentaytambo, where a taxi picked us up and took us back to Cusco.

I'm so glad we saw Machu Picchu the way we did, hiking the Inca Trail, instead of just taking a train to Aguas Calientes and catching a bus up to the site. I learned so much more about the Andean people and culture, and about myself. And I met some wonderful people that I think I would call friends, even after only knowing them for a few days. Time well spent.