The Inca Trail

Oct 27 - Training Day
From Ollentaytambo we drove to Km 82 to pick up our gear. We each were allowed a duffel with 6 kg, 3 of which were taken up by the sleeping bag and therma rest. Porters carry the duffels and we each had a small day pack and a hiking pole to carry. Each porter is allowed to carry 25kg and they are all weighed at the start of the trek. We definitely couldn't complain about it being hard when we saw them literally running past us with those huge bags! Our group passed through the first checkpoint and we were on our way. The first day was fairly easy- about 5 hours of hiking. Our assistant guide Evelyn started us out with a nice slow pace. There were large flat sections and then some up and downs. We roughly followed the valley bottom. The terrain on either side was quite steep and dry. Not a lot of green trees around on those hillsides yet. Unfortunately today was also the rainy day! The weather switches so quickly, we were taking our rainjackets and ponchos on and off every five minutes it felt like! By the time we got to our lunch spot the porters were well ahead of us and had the kitchen and dining tent set up and a wonderful meal of soup, fish and rice waiting for us. Pretty crazy how wonderfully they can cook on a hike - better than Iot of meals at home! After lunch it was only an hour or so to our campsite. Again, tents were all set up with our mattresses inflated and sleeping bags out. Luxury camping! To pass the time before dinner we all played cards. Dinner was another delicious meal and then it was straight to bed!

Oct 28 - Challenge Day
It was a 5:30am wake up today, which isn't so bad when you are woken up with a cup of coca tea and a bowl of hot water and soap brought to your tent! Breakfast was quinoa oatmeal, cake bread and jam and a stuffed omelet. We started hiking at 6:30am. Today was called challenge day because the first five hours were all uphill. We quickly learned that slow and steady really does win the race, so by keeping a consistent slow pace with no stops (they just make you stiffen up!) we were able to make it to each rest point at the front of the pack and in good time. When we thought we couldn't go upwards anymore, we reached Dead Woman's Pass, which our guide had promised would be "the worst 20 minutes of our life". It was a lot of super steep stairs, but with our slow pace, a zig zag pattern, and some pump up music from the ipod we made it to the peak relatively easy. The incredible mountain and valley views make it a lot easier to take, and once you find your rhythm its easy to forget your walking straight uphill because there is so much to look at! This brought us to the highest point of our hike, it was at 4200m and the view was very rewarding but we were VERY chilly with the rain and wind up there! We waited for the rest of the group to catch up for a victory photo and then it was time to start the descent. From Dead Woman's Pass to our camp was 2 hours of downhill steps which definitely makes the legs shake and feel like jello after a while! Our walking poles were much appreciated on that stretch. Once we arrived at the camp we had a hot lunch, some time to play cards, popcorn and tea at 5:00, and dinner at 7:00. Every meal we had on the trail was delicious so we'll save time by not describing them all!

Oct 29 - Long Day
Another early start at 5:30am with the same tea and hot water waiting for us. Our first stretch of hiking from our camp was uphill but we got a break to look around an Inca Ruin. From it we could sort of see the figure of a woman on the opposite mountain which is what Dead Woman's Pass from the day before is named for. The day started out quite foggy so we didn't see much of the terrain for the first bit. We did see a deer though! A nice little three-point. The rest of the hike before lunch was several up and down sections with a stop at another Inca Ruin. We had lunch on a mountain top and were greeted by a hail storm with thunder and lightning- very glad we were in a tent for that point. Since we were ahead of schedule we decided to wait the storm out a bit. After lunch we descended through the jungle on the original Inca Trail (not all of the hike followed the original trail as some sections have been destroyed or were on the other side of the valley). The whole way along the mountain has been cut out to form a cliff that is laid with stones. It must have taken so much time and work to build! The third ruin we stopped at had a view of the backside of the mountain Machu Picchu is on. It was exciting to see how close we were getting! After descending for another hour or so on the same skinny path along the mountain we reached our last ruin of the day which was amazing. It was a series of large terraces cut into the mountain side accompanied by an incredible view of two mountain valleys. We spent quite a bit of time here taking pictures and soaking in the view. It was quite a content time- we were proud of how far we've come, we were excited because we could almost see the end goal, and it was so beautiful. We got to our camp quite late that day, it was about 12 hours of hiking. We just washed up quickly, had dinner and then went to bed. We needed to get a good sleep in for the big day ahead!


Oct 30 - Machu Picchu
Today was a 3:45am start, both because we wanted to get to Machu Picchu early for sunrise and because the porters had to have everything packed up and at the bottom of the mountain by 5:30am to catch the train back. We had to cue at the final checkpoint until 5:30am before we could start hiking. We were not first in line but we quickly passed more than one group (ha!). Most of the hour and a half hike was uphill but our excitement kept us going. When we reached the final set of stairs to the Sun Gate we picked up the pace and were the first two of our group to make it to the top where we got our first sight of Machu Picchu! It was such a rewarding view. By some miracle the rain clouds and fog we had experienced so far were gone, the weather decided it liked us and there was not a cloud in the sky over Machu Picchu! It was light by the time we reached the Sun Gate (at 7:00am) but we were still able to see the sun rise over it which was neat. From the Sun Gate Machu Picchu is still far away, lower down the mountain, but this view really emphasizes how isolated it is! After we had a snack and took pictures we continued the trek downwards until we reached the famous viewpoint of the ruins. Machu Picchu is immense! It's a massive fortress in the middle of a huge, otherwise uninhabited mountain range. It had been built for over 100 years starting around 1440 for the Incan emperor Pachacutec. After about a century the Inca's abandoned it because the Spanish were getting close. It was abandoned around 1537 and not scientifically rediscovered until 1911 by Hiram Bingham. He was told its name by the locals which is Quechua for 'Old Mountain'. We learnt you have to be careful pronouncing Machu Picchu or it has a veryyyyy different meaning ;) ) It's hard to describe what it felt like to be looking down on Machu Picchu in person but it was pretty incredible - very surreal. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We both agree that hiking the Inca Trail to reach it was the best way to do it, the people that took the train up may look better in their pictures but no way was it as rewarding!! Although actually reaching Machu Picchu was incredible the previous three days of hiking were just as amazing.

The sun decided to stay out for the rest of our time at Machu Picchu which was much appreciated. We had to hike down to meet one of our group who didn't do the trail with us and then we started our tour of the ruins, led by Luis who was our head guide for the trip. There is a lot of interesting history about the ruins and the significance of seemingly small details in the structures. The area is covered in huge terraces build for agriculture that now just have llamas chewing the grass. The Inca's built up the steep mountainside with layers of big rocks, little rocks, gravel, sand, then fertilizer and incredible rock work retaining walls to hold it in. There was also tons of storage houses and it was interesting to compare the rock work on those to that of the temples on site. The temples (of the sun, of the condor, of the three windows, etc.) have huge perfectly carved rock cubes with no mortar needed. The doorways are in a slanted shape to keep them earthquake proof. Quite mind boggling how advanced the architecture was. Even more complicated is how they designed the windows of the temple of the sun so that on summer solstice the sun would hit one window just right so that it cast a shadow on the bedrock floor inside, and also light the tomb below, and on winter solstice the same from the other window. That plus the original sun dial and rock moon calendar we saw just seem so advanced! On site there's also a huge structure which was like a university, a plaza area and plenty other buildings.

After a lot of walking around the site in the sun it was time to go. We both didn't want to leave despite our tiredness - there was just so much to soak in. However we bussed down the mountain, grabbed lunch and then took the train back to Ollentaytambo. The train ride was very scenic winding through the valley bottom but also very bumpy! From Ollentaytambo we caught a bus back to our hotel in Cusco. A disappointingly cold shower later and we headed out for dinner with the whole group. Four of us girls decided to celebrate after dinner, ignore the aches in our legs and go out dancing! Our guide from the trail Evelyn joined us which was fun!

All in all, an amazing four days!

-Court and Lisa

Pictures (again, apologies for the random order)
1-On the terraces at the end of the 3rd day
2-Dead Woman's Pass, 4200m
3-Our first glimpse of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate at 7:00am
4-We made it! The famous "postcard" viewpoint
5-start of the Inka Trail
6-Ruins on the 3rd day
7-some terraces at Machu Picchu
8-Machu Picchu
9-start of day three
10-12 - Machu Picchu
13-a section of the trail from day 1
14-a section of the trail from day 2
15-a section of the original Inca Trail from day 3