45 km – 2200 meter climbing – 2350 meters descending – walked in 4 days (and 3 nights of camping 🤦🏻‍♀️): these are the facts of our adventure on the Inca Trail.
First Day
Our group consisted of 12 participants, 2 guides, 2 chefs and 18 porters, who were carrying all necessary equipment.
Our big group – the two guides are missing, they are taking the pictures
The adventure started with a pick up at 4.30 am in Cusco. After a long bus ride through the Sacred Valley and a nice breakfast, we passed the first Inca Trail check point at KM 82 in Piscacucho at 8 am.
In the first part we walked alongside a gurgeling mountain river always having amazing views on the mighty mountains surrounding us, giving way to horses and donkeys who were carrying cargo to remote villages along the way, as well as our porters or porters from other groups.
After roughly two hours of hiking we stopped at the first Inca site on the way – Patallacta, which was an Inca checkpoint and accomodation for the pilgrims to Machu Picchu. After another 1 1/2 hours hike we arrived at our lunch stop. With full stomachs we started the last part of this day`s hike and after another 1 1/2 hours we arrived at the campside Ayapata in 3300 meters above the sea. Our tents were already set up and we had time to wash ourselves with prepared warm water. In the evening (like on all other evenings) we had tea with popcorn and some other snacks, before the „real“ dinner was served. There was always a soup followed by three or four different main dishes, which we never managed to eat up.
Second Day
Snuggeled in our warm sleeping bag, we woke up in the middle of the night by heavy rain. Expecting nothing good for the next day and not used to camping, we had a fitful sleep. The porters woke us up at 4.30 am, as we had to start early. It was still raining and ahead of us lied the hardest day of all. Nobody was very keen to start the hike, knowing exactly what we had to master. Luckily the rain stopped just in time when we started our ascent of the „Dead Women’s Pass“.
View down the valley which we climbed
We first walked through an area of very old forest and, after passing a certain height, the landscape consisted of small bushes and gras. We arrived at the pass after 3 1/2 hours, absolutely exerted and out of breath as the pass was 4200 meters above the sea. After a longer pause to recover from this strain, we descended around 700 meters in altitude to our lunch spot.
Christine shows the “Dead Woman’s Pass”
Unfortunately the afternoon wasn`t much easier than the morning. After our lunch break we started to climb up again to our second pass at 4000 meter above the sea and down to our campside at 3600 meters. The second part of the day was even more strenuous, as we were tired from the morning and the altitude startet to have its effects. On our way down, we had amazing views on the Inca site Sayacmarka. In the evening, the clouds had cleared and we could enjoy a marvelous sunset.
Sunset at the second campsite
Third Day
This day promised to be the easiest and most beautiful. We started our day at 5.30 am and hiked the first hour up and down through the cloud forest. Sadly it was rainy and very cloudy, so we weren`t able to marvel at the amazing mountains around us. But the cloud forest offered a lot to see as well. To arrive to our campside we had to descend 1000 meters. The first hour was very steep and many felt their legs and knees from the day before.
Descending “through” the mountain on the Inca Trail
On our way we came through the Inca site Intipata, which was fascinating and very impressive due to its vast amount of farming terraces in the steep mountain side.
Intipata
We arrived at our campside before lunch just in time before it started to rain very heavily. After lunch we had some well deserved free time and at around 3.30 pm we went to Wiñay Wayna – another Inca site. This site was also build with a vast number of farming terraces, but also had a temple and over 20 storage and living houses. We took our time and explored the site until it became nearly dark.
Wiñay Wayna
In the evening, we had a small celebration of our achievment of surviving the Inca Trail. The tent was nicely decorated and the chef outdid himself and backed a hugh cake for us just in a pan. We had a great evening and after the briefing we went to bed.
Final Day – Machu Picchu
The most important day of our adventure started at 3.30 am. We had a very short breakfast and then had to wait in line at the control gate to the trail to Machu Picchu. The gates opened at 5.30 am and we started our way to Machu Picchu with around 100 other hikers. With no obvious reason, our guide started to „run“ along the trail and we had to keep up. It felt like nordic walking up a mountain and soon we weren`t able to keep the pace. The last meters to the sungate were terrible, as we had to mount an extrem steep staircase named „Gringo Killer“. However, arriving at the sungate and having a first look at Machu Picchu made all the struggles forgotten. From the sungate it was another half hour until we really entered Machu Picchu. The ruins together with the colossal mountains around, were truly a magical sight. After registering we had a two-hours tour and saw the most important constructions and temples.
Machu Picchu
As Yves and I had purchased a permission to climb Wayna Picchu (a peak just behind Machu Picchu) without really knowing what that would entail. We parted from the group and climbed up that mountain. It was very hard, as we both had sore legs and some of the stairs were so steep, that it felt like climbing the staircase to heaven. On the summit, we had amazing views over the ruins and its surroundings.
The final but steep ascent to the summit of Wayna Picchu
View from the summit of Wayna Picchu
We stayed until 1 pm in Machu Picchu, also taking a look on the rest of the ruins and then jumped on a bus to Aguas Calientes, where our train departed at 4.22 pm. At around 6 pm we changed to a bus and arrived in Cusco aroung 8.30 pm.
Saying goodbye to this amazing Wonder of the World
We were really proud of ourselves that we managed to hike the whole trek, very happy that we saw so many beautiful Inca sites, especially Machu Picchu, but also relieved that we had the amenities of a real bed and shower again. 🙂
Erst einmal weg... 