The Inca Trail & Machu Picchu

Our tour company, Peru Treks, had told us to come to Cusco two days early to acclimatize to the altitude and to pay, of course. Coming from the altiplano of Bolivia meant we were as acclimatized as we were going to get, and so we felt as ready as we were going to be for our trip to Machu Picchu along the Inca Trail. We did spend the two days buying some more essentials, such as head torches and doing laundry, and then, at 5.30am on the 9th July, our guides arrived to pick us up from our little hostel.

We were already packed and ready to go and so we stored a large backpack which we did NOT want to carry with us, and we enjoyed the hour long journey to the West of Cusco to start our trek. We were with another 10 people from all over the world, some of whom had flown in to just do this trek before flying home again. We arrived at the start of the trek – only 200 people are allowed to commence the trek each day to help keep the trail in good condition. Our group went with about 20 porters who were all Bolivian locals who worked the Inca Trail to make up some money, whilst in the off season they went back to their farms. These guys were extremely strong and carried all our food, tents, their own tents, sleeping bags, personal equipment and even some of our groups personal equipment ($100 per porter, at up to 6kg of stuff). Francesca and I had decided to save our money and carry ALL our own stuff, and pretty soon we realized that everybody in the group had paid for a personal porter. This made me slightly worried, as I was carrying all of our stuff, minus one bed roll which Francesca carried. I had about 13kg of stuff which was about half of what the porters were allowed to carry in total!

The hike was to be a four day affair, culminating in a walk through the famous Incan Sun Gate for a view over the ruins of Machu Picchu. The Inca Trail is a 43km long at times precarious trail over four mountain passes (rising from around 2600 meters to over 4200 meters), covering up to 15 km in a single day.

We queued up dutifully at the entrance whilst the park guards (the whole trek is in a National Park) checked everyone’s passports and tickets. The Inca Trail passes are non-transferable and are done on passports rather than on names, so you have to make sure they get your passport number right.

That first day was comparatively easy, with a set of rolling hills over 12 km. We noticed a lot of communities still along the trail, with even motorcycles coming and going. The pathway soon meandered up and up until we had some beautiful views of the Urubamba river which coincidently Machu Picchu is located on, many miles further to the North West.

Our guide stopped us after a short period of time, at a viewpoint overlooking the ruins of Wilkaracay. Our trail had led off to the West away from the main Urubamba river which forms what the Incans consider, and refer to as, the Sacred Valley. Wilkaracay was built to overlook this valley and protect it. The fort must have been imposing back when the Incans used it to defend their valley, now we felt that the mountains themselves, not to mention the trail we were on were imposing, because of the amount of work we still had to do.

Another ruin we saw was Llactapata, a collection of buildings that scientists suppose were built by a chieftain who wanted his home there. The famous explorer Hiram Bingham first discovered the site in 1911, the same year he discovered Machu Picchu. Seemingly, Llactapata was not grand enough for Bingham to explore, and it was not until 2003 that it was really researched thoroughly.

Bingham is a controversial figure nowadays, as although he is revered as the discoverer of Machu Picchu, he is also considered a thief by modern Peruvians, who are fighting Yale University for the return of many objects he exported there.

Our guide pointed out another trail, far below on the route along the Urubamba which he told us was the original Inca Trail between Cusco and Machu Picchu. The messengers, or chaski, could run this route in just several hours. Many trails have been uncovered in the jungle, and it is thought that there may well be more sites that the jungle has completely hidden. The 4 day route we were on is another bona fide Incan trail, and about 80% of it is original Incan stone.

We continued on, Westward, following the Kusichaca river ever upwards, all the way to a small village called Wayllabamba, which we arrived at early, around 2pm. This was the final community we would see until arriving at Machu Picchu and it’s neighboring town of Aguas Calientes. We would stop there for the night, after watching the World Cup. Our porters had arrived much earlier than us as they pretty much ran along with the heavy equipment on their backs. They had set up the tents and cooked us lunch and dinner that night – and the food was really good!

Energized after an early breakfast, we set off on the second day. This was the one we had worried about as it was the hardest day. It involved going up to our first mountain pass for over 6 hours. The first pass was called ‘Dead Woman’s Pass’. Nice, huh? Apparently it was not named for some tourist who fell or had a heart attack, but for the shape of the pass. It was supposed to look like a woman lying down, but I could not see it myself.

The walk was grueling and tough, and I have to admit to thinking about turning back a few times. However, stopping and taking a look around at the wonderful scenery soon motivated me to go on. That and the fact that I did not want to go back the way I had come!

Finally Francesca and I made it to the top and a group photo was taken. The views of the jungle valleys far below with snow-capped imposing mountains all around us were amazing.

The descent was no piece of cake either. Francesca and I had rented sleeping bags and walking sticks from the tour company, but the way down was still pretty tough on my knees. Many steps led all the way down to the valley below. The next camp site was located at 3500 meters at a place called Pacaymayu.

At our camp site we watched as the clouds rolled into the Pacaymayu valley further below us. We tried guessing which mountain we would be scaling the next day, and, after another lovely dinner, we slept the sleep of the tired.

Day three was possibly the most beautiful day of the whole trek. We left very early so we could fit in the 15 km we would need to walk, and after the second day, this was going to be a challenge!

First we made our way upwards, out of the valley to another set of ruins called Runkuracay. A set of small circular ruins, we stopped here for some photos. Discovered in 1915 by Bingham, he initially thought the place was a fortress, but it is now thought to have been a tambo, or resting place for travelers. This set of ruins had some great examples of inclined walls that the Incans built to withstand earthquakes.

We continued our climb up some superb staircases. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with some superb views of the mountains around us, including some little ponds and small lakes that were up there. We spotted a deer, llama, and various lizards. From our vantage point at the top of this second pass we could see the ruins of Sayacmarca, which means Inaccessible Town in Quechuan. No-one really knows the purpose of this town, which is located in a fork in the trail. Our route continued onwards and downwards, now heading North towards Machu Picchu which we would reach the next day.

The next leg of the journey was another descent but this time down into cloud forest. This part of the trail was paved completely with 100% Incan stones, laid down over 500 years before, and still in use. Pretty impressive. We even passed through our first Incan tunnel. At this point, we were still going strong, as some of the trail was up, but some down, so not too strenuous!

We reached our next checkpoint for the day after many hours of walking, and after our third and final pass at 3670 meters above sea level. The checkpoint was the ruins of Phuyupatamarca. These were the most impressive ruins so far, and we stopped for a little tour. Fifteen buildings, a plaza, six Incan natural baths and huge observation balconies with views across the jungle all point to some amazing holiday villa or sauna for travellers maybe.

Our lunch stop that day had a nice surprise for all of us – pizza! How the porters managed to get that made is beyond me!

A walk to the last ruins before Machu Picchu, called Intipata, had the iconic view of these same ruins. Convex agricultural terraces hewn out of the middle of the jungle, these ruins looked amazing. With few buildings, this place probably served a purpose solely for agriculture, but could have also been used to relay visual messages across the valley, and even up to the Machu Picchu mountain which we could now see. This mountain obscures the view to Machu Picchu itself, and it would be that mountain we would have to navigate around the next morning.

We left for our final leg of the third day, and after about an hour we descended into more cloud forest, where we finally saw the last camp, called Winay Wayna. It took another two hours or so to actually get to this camp, but the views as we walked and walked were incredible, including going through another Incan tunnel, this one, more steep than the first.

This last camp was a bit of a pain in the ass as our campsite was located way past everyone else’s, and my knees were about ready to fall off at this point as it was all down steep stairs. The toilets in all of the camps were really grim, so we tried to hold off as much as possible. When 200 people pass through these campsites every day, it is no wonder why. The question is, why do the porters carry the tents, only to have to set them up and break them down each day? Why not just have permanent tents set up at each camp? Our guess is job creation. Without the need for porters, their would be less jobs for the locals!

The next morning we left the camp very early (5am), and we had to walk part of the way in the dark. We were a little freaked out by reports that an American girl had slipped on this leg of the journey, falling over 200 meters into the valley below.

Francesca and I walked very carefully along the winding trail. At first everyone had to queue at a control checkpoint to get into Machu Picchu, and so when we got past this, everyone all of a sudden were rushing as fast as they could to get to Machu Picchu first! This was ridiculous as tourists taking the train and bus directly from Cusco that morning would all be there a long time before any of us. Not to mention that the trail was clearly dangerous, so we took our sweet time.

Finally we came to a huge set of stairs that just seemed to be going forever. It took a few hours of walking that last day, but we were comforted by the fact that we would never have to walk it again! It was still another very beautiful part of the trek though, especially when we finally saw the famous Sun Gate at the top of the stairs.

We passed through the Sun Gate and walked a little, down some more stairs, and that’s when we saw Machu Picchu – me for the first time, Francesca for the second! The group waited for the sun to come up over the mountains, and so clearly there was no need to rush in the first place as Machu Picchu was in the dark! The city was drenched in light and made for amazing photos, just like you imagine from seeing Machu Picchu on television or in magazines.

When Bingham first discovered the ruins, he was in the area looking for ruins, and a local boy told him about the ruins. After trekking up through the jungle he discovered some locals were actually using the lower reaches as farmland, but the rest of the site was completely hidden by jungle.

We walked down the trail leading to Machu Picchu past many tourists who were heading up from Cusco that morning. It was difficult to not feel just a little superior, as we were all very proud we had made it!

Machu Picchu was probably built between 1460 and 1470 AD, about one hundred years before the Spanish arrived. The name means Old Peak, and this UNESCO site was recently voted onto the Seven Wonders of the World list. Built in a classical Incan style it is easy to see why.

We went on a tour of the city, with our excellent guides who were with us from the beginning. We learnt that the city was pretty much a summer retreat for the Incan royalty in Cusco. The city has several temples, including a Temple of the Condor and a Temple of the Sun, and one theory is that Machu Picchu was solely a religious site.

The city looked a little small from way up from the Sun Gate, but once you get down into it, we really appreciated the scale of what the Incans achieved, in the middle of nowhere, amidst mountains and jungles. With agricultural terraces, numerous houses, a guard house / watchtower at the highest point and various temples; this city was awesome. We viewed some of the Incan walls which were cut absolutely perfectly, and fit together like Lego. Behind some of the most important buildings, but hidden from site, was the quarry area where they got the rock from. The soil is pretty bad in the jungles of South America, so the Incans took the good soil from the bottom of the valley so that they could farm.

There are approximately 200 buildings in all in Machu Picchu – my favorite was the Temple of the Condor, which had a condor head carved into the floor, with two huge rocks as wings.

There is another mountain next to Machu Picchu that is accessible for tourists, called Huayna Picchu. We decided to stick with our tour group instead, particularly as the climb and descent of the mountain is extremely dangerous. The mountain used to be the residence of the high priests and virgins, according to local legend.

The Temple of the Sun had one special feature which our guide told us about. Two windows at the top of the temple both pointed out over the mountains. The amazing thing was that on the winter solstice, usually June 21st, the sun would appear over the mountains shining directly through the Sun Gate into the window far below! We reasoned that there must be another gate out there for the other window and the summer solstice, but no-one has found one yet!

We began our journey back to Cusco after having a few hours to enjoy Machu Picchu. We picked up our bags which we had stored at the locker storage outside, and jumped in a bus to the nearby touristy town of Aguas Calientes.  We had been due to stay in the town overnight, but I changed our train ticket to head back the same day. After spending some time with the group getting drunk and watching the World Cup, we headed to the train station – with me a little worse for wear, unfortunately, and headed back to the touristic safety of Cusco, where we would be spending some weeks relaxing, catching up on work, and hanging out in a rented apartment that Francesca had sorted out for us.