Inka Trail to Machu Picchu

We survived the Inca Trail! We booked a 7-day tour through GAP Adventures many months ago, because permits for the Inca Trail book up months in advance. Only 500 permits are issued for every day, 200 of which are for hikers, and the remainder for guides, porters and cooks.

The first day of our tour was spent in the Sacred Valley near Cusco. We visited many ruins, including Sacsayhuaman (easily remembered by it's close pronunciation to "Sexy Woman") Pisac and Ollantaytambo. The landscape is still very desert-like in this part of Peru.

GAP adventures supports an eco-tourism community called Planetierra in the Sacred Valley. We visited the community, where women spin and dye their own alpaca wool ("baby" and "adult" wool), and weave tapestries and textiles using traditional methods. The wool below was dyed using a variety of local plants and minerals. We got to see each part of the process, and bought some sweet unique souvenirs!

We visited the Sunday market in Pisac too. Vendors littered the streets for blocks (with children and animals in tow) selling everything from powdered dyes, to potatoes, to textiles and batteries.

Our last stop was the town and ruins of Ollyntaytambo.

Peru national elections take place on Sunday, October 3rd (tomorrow, actually), and so we have been seeing politcal propaganda everywhere; even painted onto the sides of houses. Below is a group of locals carrying flags for their preferred political party through town. Evidence of the upcoming elections is literally everywhere (including increased bus fares!).

On day 2, we started the Inka Trail. Our group consisted of 16 hikers, 1 lead guide, 2 assistants (tail-guides), 2 cooks and 22 porters!

Most of our group was from Canada, the UK, Australia or New Zealand. Here's our eager pre-departure picture (still looking good!).

The early part of the trail took us through local farmlands where we encountered many local children and livestock (cows, llamas, pigs, dogs, ....). This pig photo is dedicated to Taryn (sorry, we tried to bring Rupert home for you but he was a bit wild and muddy).

The first day of the hike took us mostly along the Urubamba River valley, with some steep ascents (and descents) along the way. Our guide called this day the "training day" (a casual 7-hour hike).

At the end of the first day of trekking we arrived at our camp site, where the porters had kindly already set up our tents, and had snacks ready. We played cards and socialized with our group, before heading to bed at 8:00pm (!). To be fair, wake-up call for the next day was at 5:00am. We started each day our super early (in the dark) so that we had prime weather for hiking, and the trail mostly to ourselves. This also meant we finished hiking in the early/late afternoon everyday and had a good number of hours to "chill out" each evening.

The early morning light was also ideal for picture taking, as the valleys got hazy in the afternoons.

Day 2 of the trek "the challenging day" took us up to the top of Dead Woman's Pass; the highest point on the trip. It was a steady uphill from 6:00am until 11:00am, followed by a short break and then a steep 2-hour descent.

Here is a picture from the top of Dead Woman's Pass. As we descended the scenery changed rapidly into cloud forest.

On day 3 of the hike we woke up at 5:00 to a gorgeous view. We resumed hiking at 6:00am to tackle the steepest section of the trail before the weather got too hot.

Here is a picture of one of the steeper sections of stairs we climbed. Most of the 40km trail was built by the Incas from huge stones. It never looks as steep as it was when you look at the photos!

Over the 4 day hike we passed by numerous Inca ruins, where we usually stopped for water/snack breaks and a historical explanation by the guides.  In the photo below, you can see the steep stone staircase on the left leading up to the ruins.

Towards the end of the third day, the landscape became much more jungle-like. The humidity skyrocketed, and for a large part of the day we were hiking through cloud. The trail was narrow and carved into the side of the mountain. In the picture below it looks like the trail leads into a cave, but it did come out the other side!

We didn't see much wildlife, but there were lots of huge, "furry" moths, and we saw many birds, including this humminbird ("calibri" in spanish).

After lunch on the third day of hiking, there was a mad race for the final campsite, where we would be able to shower for the first time in 3 days. The final 6km descent to the campsite was a long, steep, downhill staircase, nick-named the "gringo-killer". We learnt that "gringo" isn't actually a derogatory term here (unlike in some places). Lisa was on a bit of an adrenaline kick and raced down behind the porters (made it to the bottom in 45 minutes!); managing to snag this picture on the way. Our porters (unlike those from some other groups) only carried the legal maximum of 25kg on their backs. We were told that despite laws, some cheaper travel agencies underpay and overload their porters. Despite the huge loads, they were super cheerful, and were laughing and joking as they ran down the mountain to the next camp.

At the final campsite, we all enjoyed hot (electric!) showers, cold (expensive) beer and a good company. We played our new favorite card game (called "shithead") pretty much non-stop until dinner every evening. The cooks even made us a cake to celebrate completing the bulk of the trip (only 6km left for the next morning).

We crawled into bed at the ridiculous hour of 7:00pm to try and catch a good sleep before the 3:00am wake-up call the next morning. It began pouring rain at about 2:45am and our first thoughts were that it was going to be a cold, wet, dark morning. Fortunately it stopped raining just before breakfast, and we the trail at 4:00am. The objective was to be the first group to the "checkpoint" and hence the first group to reach the Sungate (where we would be able see Machu Picchu at sunrise). We were indeed the first group at the checkpoint, but that meant we had an hour and a half to kill while we waited for the trail to open. The final stretch included a ridiculously steep set of stairs. Despite the fatigue, we all "gave 'er" and raced for the sungate.  Here it is!! Note: completely cloudy. We couldn't see Machu Picchu.  Got a great group shot though! We were really expecting to see sunrise over Machu Picchu but we should have taken the hints from our guide more seriously, who referred to the Sungate as the "Cloudgate" the whole 4 days.

We waited for the "lagger" (one in particular, haha) to catch up at the sungate then slowly headed down to Machu Picchu. There was really no rush now, because the entire site was covered in cloud, and it was 6:30am afterall. Our guide, Ali, let the assistant guides, JC and David lead the tour around Machu Picchu. We were hoping to climb Wayna Picchu (the iconic peak in the background) but it was impossible for Inca-trailers, since only 400 tickets are given out every day, and the lazy people who take bus up from Aguas Caliente at 5:30 (and those who did the alternative Lares trek)  snag all the tickets. We could have climbed Machu Picchu mountain (behind the site) but partially because the views were clouded over, and partially because our legs were really dead, we opted out. Luckily, at 7 in the morning, we had the ruins nearly to ourselves (or relatively speaking, considering it's Machu Picchu, and ~1000 people visit it every day).  The light wasn't great for taking pictures, but it was neat to get pictures with so few tourists in them, and just to see the magnificent site in general.

The terraces below were used for agriculture, whereas some of the terraces on the other side of the site were mainly for structural support and decoration. Because of the steep grade of the mountain, the terraces made agriculture possible; without them, rain would simply wash down the slope, and mudslides would have been inevitable.

Here is a picture of our friend, Jo Leek (from the UK), poking her head out through one of many huge stone doorways (this one in particular lead to a bedroom).

Here we are! It felt great to be here.

After we'd explored the site we took a bus down to Aguas Caliente and enjoyed little luxuries; an unbelievable meal at Indio Feliz restuarant (recommendation courtesy of some fellow travellers), and washrooms complete with toilet seats, toilet paper, and hand soap.. wow!

This is the token halarious picture of the post.  We weren't on the bus when this happened; but, apparently this lady sat down on the very last seat on the bus between Les (from New Zealand) and Mark (ex-pat Australian who just spent 3 years in Toronto) (two fellow Inca trail hikers) and this was her look for the entire 30 minute ride down.  She was pretending to sleep I guess, but was really covering her nose from the undeniable scent of two men who have just spent four days hiking.  Mark is kindly wafting the scent her way! Photo credit: Matt Leek.

We took the train back to Cusco that evening (had an entire train car full of GAP travellers, so naturally most of the group drank beer and played cards). For reasons unknown, we thought it was a smart idea to go out and celebrate that night (stay up for a full 24 hours). Chris, our friend from the UK, snagged this picture in the men's washroom at the bar. Make what you will of it.

We spent two days recuperating in Cusco, since we were both fighting a cold or flu of sorts, and some serious fatigue. We bravely tried Cuy (Guinea Pig) and Alpaca meat (local specialities); conveniently desguised as Cuy in spicy peanut sauce and stewed alpaca in a creamy spinach sauce. We'll put pictures up at some point, but they aren't on our camera. Sam (another friend from the UK) ordered Cuy al Forno (entire grilled guinea pig, spicy pepper in mouth and all). It was interesting! We are now in Arequipa. Keep posted for our next adventures; Colca Canyon! (One of the deepest in the world). We are heading out now to set up our next treking adventure. Keep the comments coming!