The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - Peru

Keegan Tudehope
Mar 22, 2017
11 min read

Day 30

Day 1 of the Inca trail

After a 6am departure time from one of the squares in the city, we drove 2 hours in a bus to a small town where we ate breakfast. Then we drove another 2 hours to the start of the hike at the 'famous' kilometre 82. Here we found a mass of SAS staff waiting for us and our equipment for the hike. In total, there were 15 people on our tour, with 2 guides, Felipe and Oliver and then a support crew of 17 staff. This included a chef, sou chef, waiter, head porter and regular porters

who were ready to carry tents, sleeping bags, camping mattresses, chairs, gas tanks, cooking equipment and probably a kitchen sink. These guys were incredible on the 4 days hiking. Not only did they carry everything except our bags, although you could pay for that option, they waited on us for everything at every breakfast, lunch and dinner campsite.

At first, we didn't know how much they would look after us, but Ellie and I were happy for them to carry our sleeping bags, mattress and 2kgs of clothes to make our hike easier. This cost us US$100 for the 4 days; it was worth it to have 10kg less on our backs. After meeting the crew and handing over our extras, we began the hike, stopping first for a photo at the start of the Camino Inka trail.

From there it was all uphill. That's not just a metaphor either, it was mostly uphill. At least on the first day. It wasn't too hard at all on the first day, in fact this part of the trail was labelled 'easy' by the tour company. It was roughly 6 hours and 14km with some flat and some inclined mountain hiking. The trail started along the river and then began rising up a mountain. The views and scenery were awesome. The landscape was often changing with the altitude and by evening at the campsite it was quite cool when we sat for dinner and early in the morning when sleeping.

On the first day, the lunch and dinner were fantastic. At lunch the chef prepared ceviche, raw fish cooked in lime that Ellie ate earlier at a restaurant and Ellie said it was just as good. I don't eat fish so they made the salsa and lime dressing for me separate and even that was tasty. Then the table was covered in food. From rice, chicken, potatoes, sweet potato, salad and more; no one went hungry and everyone was impressed by how the porters could hike up hill, set up a dining and kitchen tent and then cook some delicious food. We continued to be in awe as the days went on and the food continued to be delicious. Dinner that night was equally as good and again, no one went hungry. Every meal precluded with coco tea or coffee at lunch for the energy and camomile tea or hot chocolate before bed, always with lots of sugar as it helps you climb the mountain and to sleep better.

After a great first day, we were a little weary, chewing coco leaves helped with the altitude and energy, the food kept us energized but the early start and the next day labelled as 'challenging' saw us all off to bed early. Into our tents and sleeping bags listening to the flow of the river near to the campsite to have a fantastic sleep.

Day 31

Day 2 of the Inca trail

Fantastic sleep it was not. Not for me anyway. I was longer than the tent was and because Ellie and I slept side by side I couldn't lay on an angle, plus I didn't fit in the sleeping bag either. Then there was the matter of going to the toilet in the cold of the night that kept me awake also. At breakfast, I shared similar issues with fellow travellers but everyone was alive and ready to go again.

The other travellers were a mix of many nationalities and many friendly people that we got to know over the coming days. There was another couple from Australia, Rodger and Amy, who live in Sydney. We got along with them like a house on fire, so it was a good thing they're both firefighters. The small word story from this one is that Rodger is originally from Townsville which was completely bizarre to discover at breakfast on the first morning. That made 4 Aussies, matched only by America with 4 people; 3 girls traveling together and Lucas with his wife Hannah, from Norway. That was the next most populous nation as Grete and Else were also from Norway. Then there was Stella, from China but lives in the US, Andreas from Germany and a couple from Italy.

It was a good mix of people and it made the hiking easier being in a bigger group. I'm sure Ellie would have left me if it was just us 2 on the trail. I preferred to go fast for 10-15 minutes and have a rest then go again, while she preferred to go slow and have a tiny rest every so often. Sometimes I went ahead but mostly I hung with her and once or twice on the second day took her bag as it was 'challenging' as per the tour company label. But it didn't matter how fast or slow you went; the guides were always at the front and back to pace us. What was good was being able to talk to people along the way to take your mind of things and having different people to talk to made it easier to not run out of conversation. We mostly talked about travel, South America and often how we had visited places where the others came from. For example, we talked about what we did in Washington DC with Cara and Ailey, who both came from there and told them how we loved it there. Others shared their own adventures to Australia or their desires to come although no one (maybe 1) had been to Townsville aside from Rodger and Amy.

Having each other to get us up the mountain was particularly useful on the second day. Libby, one of the American girls was very ill and her friends stepped up and carried her bag. Not only being ill but it was the hardest part of the 4 days. The second day was 12km long and approximately 7 hours hiking. The altitude, which makes everything a little bit harder went from 2600m on the start of day one to a peak of 4200m on day 2. Keeping in mind day 1 wasn't much of a climb. The day had started at 5:30am with a porter knocking on the tent to deliver coca tea, then breakfast of pancakes, toast and porridge was served at 6. The hike to lunch was 3 hours, then another 3 to 'Dead Woman's Pass' (mountain shaped like a woman laying down - supposedly looking dead) and then an hour or so more downhill to the camp site.

The relief of making it to the pass was warmly welcomed by all, as were the views of either side of a valley. It's once again a time I will avoid describing as pictures will do it much more justice, but even then, not as much as it deserves. The scenery on both days lovely and continually changing as mentioned earlier due to the altitude and climate at the various altitudes. We had some rain in the morning, but it didn't last long before we had clearer skies.

After another early start and a gruelling hike that everyone overcame, it was dinner and another early night to bed for everyone. Ellie had done so well and surprised herself, thinking she suspected it to be harder, the food was once again fantastic, silencing our preconceptions based on reviews online and with smiles on our faces we looked forward to an easier day on day 3.

Day 32

Day 3 of the Inca trail

The third day of hiking was labelled as 'unforgettable' by the tour agency and it lived up to expectations. Not because of the difficulty of the trail as they had previously labelled the days, but because of the Incan sites, the trails across and alongside mountain tops with good views of the valley and surrounding mountains and some awesome lookouts with awesome views.

Click on the images for Incan landmarks gallery

Today was the longest of the days, seeing us up again at 5:30 and waltzing into camp in the dark. Breakfast was again served at 6 and we hit the undulating trail not long after. The hiking was easier as with inclined sections, there was equally or more declining sections allowing the legs some much needed rest. Even the inclines were undulating, as they went up and down every so often. The only trouble we had was the weather. After stopping at one of the Incan structures used as a lookout across the valley, we continued to a huge downpour of rain that lasted until lunchtime. Even with ponchos we were getting soaked so Ellie and I double layered in poncho plastics to fend of the wind that hindered the effectiveness of the poncho plastic. After lunch the sun came out and from being wet and cold we quickly took of the layers of clothes and dried out in the hot sun. Change was constant at the various altitudes across the 4 days. You had to be ready to adapt to the conditions at all times which is why we had a day bag with different clothing options, along with snacks, water, sunscreen and insect repellent.

Click on the images for scenery of the Inca trail gallery

Aside from Machu Picchu, there are many Incan sites along the Inca Trail. There was 1 or 2 on the first day and 3 or 4 on the third day. There are even more along the way but these were the ones we saw along with many agricultural plateaus on the side of mountains used for farming various crops. At each site, one of the guides would offer historical information about each of the sites and the civilization in general. From practical to religious beliefs practiced by Incan people, mentioned earlier as Quechuan people with the Incan king. Felipe, one of the guides, even performed 2 offerings to the 'pachamama' (Mother Earth), one at the beginning of the trail and one with everyone involved at one of the Incan sites that had the most spectacular view over the valley in what would have been a lodging for the king on his path to Machu Picchu.

The Incans were a remarkable civilization with an incredible astronomical understanding and advanced technological skills in the way they lived. An example of this is the agriculture plateaus they constructed on the mountainsides or at the foot of their villages. The purpose was not only for farming produce, but also for protection against landslides and it could be said protection against invasion by attackers. Although, it didn't sound like this was necessary from what we heard from our guides. The walls of the various levels were impressively constructed and still intact after almost 500 years of non-use, but we also learnt of the drainage system as well as how they were positioned at various altitudes to harness the different climates to produce different types of food. As some food, wouldn't grow in the cold and vice verses with the hot. They were extremely intelligent people and as we learnt more about them I became more disappointed that they were no longer in existence.

That side of the history is influenced by the Spanish, who during the 15th century was a prosperous nation and began to conquer and claim more territory, many of it in South America. They overtook the Aztecs in current Mexico and surrounds before moving down towards current Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. As they noted the capabilities of the Incan empire, they opted to obliterate the people so as to not have any possible challenges to their power and governance over the new territory. While there is likely some missed information and maybe some errors in my understanding, this is my general understanding of what happened in the early 16th century. It's the reason why all of South America speaks predominantly Spanish, while smaller language groups exist of traditional and local languages.

As mentioned earlier the views were awesome, both along the trail and from the lookouts we encountered. For that reason, it was my favourite day of hiking, along with being relatively easy on the legs. Even though it was 16km and a lot of hours, the stops at different sites and lookouts, and the up and down trail, at times among the clouds, made it a great day. Having arrived in the dark via torchlight, we had survived the 3rd day and had the easiest and most anticipated day to come, the sun gate to Machu Picchu was the final climb and after yet another filling and tasty dinner it was early to bed as the earliest wakeup call of the trip was to come the next day.

Day 33

Day 4 of the Inca trail

Machu Picchu, is somewhere I have wanted to go to for a long time. My desires to go to South America stemmed from pictures I had seen of this incredible place. There were certainly other things I wanted to see and do here, but this and Rio were probably my major draw cards when I first wanted to visit SA. That and the fact that both Ellie and I want to go EVERYWHERE, but that's different. Because of this I wasn't grumpy for the 3 days hiking or the 3am wake up on the 4th day. After a quick breakfast, we hiked a whole 2 minutes before stopping in the line at the ranger’s checkpoint and waited an hour. The reason for the early wake up was for the porters to head to the train and return all the equipment to Aguas Calientes and return to their homes. We would later head and collect our extra belongings before returning to Cusco but first we had to join the thousands of tourists at the famous landmark.

After the checkpoint, we hiked for around an hour and arrived at the sun gate following the steep stairs labelled 'the gringo killers', which weren't hard at all, just steep. The sun gate known as Intipunku is the entrance to the city of Machu Picchu. The pictures from here were great, especially when the low clouds dispersed allowing a full view of the city. We joined a queue of many tourists in the best spots for photos and later made our way down to the city. We had a few photos and a bit of a history lesson at one site from our guides before heading to a checkpoint outside of the city. We left one bag at a luggage hold and continued the full tour of Machu Picchu again led by Felipe and Oliver. The technology and skill was again impressive in the construction and makeup of the whole city, which is split into 2 sectors, the urban and agricultural sectors.

Click images to enlarge

After 3 days hiking and a big tour, our experience came to an end by catching the bus down the mountain to Aguas Calientes, where we would have a shower in a hostel that was oh so good, followed by a huge buffet lunch. This food along with a beer to conclude the trip was welcomed but we still had to get to Cusco. This meant a train to Ollantaytambo and then a minivan to Cusco that arrived around 8pm. We farewelled those who had also made the trip back today and thanked our guide Felipe once again. We ate a quick dinner at the Golden Arches and rushed home to bed, exhausted from a huge 4 days.

The tour was expensive, but well worth it. The experience was easily worth the cost because it made it more worthwhile getting to Machu Picchu and we saw so much more along the way. We were engrossed in the history from our friendly and helpful guides from day one and bonded as a group through the hardships that climbing mountains and hiking 49km brings. Each person on the tour, despite the differences in backgrounds and personalities got along and made the trip enjoyable. The porters made it possible and the chef ensured we made it to the end well fed and with enough energy to make it home. As a group, we tipped them for their efforts, as we did with the guides, who did a fantastic job with a good sense of humour and a wealth of historical and hiking knowledge to share along the way. It was a fantastic experience that I would recommend for anyone with 2 good knees to do once in their life. Unlike Felipe and Oliver who started again the next day, I wouldn't do all that hiking again anytime soon. If any of our trail friends get to read thins, thanks for a great tour.