Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!! Part 1

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!

The market in Cusco

Back when I purchased my tickets to Peru (FINALLY!! After a long wait – I had been planning the trip for over 2 years!! I secured my fellowship back in 2007 and set the dates in 2008) I talked to my friend Dan. Dan and I met on my trip to Israel in December 2007 and have stayed in touch since our 10-day bus tour through the Holy Land. Dan was super excited that I would be in Peru, and pretty quickly bought tickets to come visit me in Peru! We hadn’t seen each other since Israel, but we had a blast on that trip and anxiously began trying to plan a trip to Machu Picchu.

We both wanted to hike the famous Inca Trail, but Dan only had 7 days in Peru, and the trail takes 4 full days. Eventually, after tons of emails and calls to companies that offered treks on the trail, we settled on a company called Llama Path, and booked our 4 day/3 night, 45-kilometer hike to the sacred citadel of the Incas.

Dan arrived in Lima at midnight on a Saturday night, and I met him at the airport. I booked us on a 6am flight to Cusco (to maximize our time in Cusco before hitting the trail: it is recommended that you spend at LEAST 48 hours at higher altitude before starting the trek!), so we sat in the airport having coffee and catching up until our flight.  We made it to Cusco without any trouble, checked into our unique hostal, Hostal Frankenstein, and had a quick shower and nap before hitting the city to explore.

We decided we wanted an authentic lunch to start off the trip, and headed to a local lunch spot we heard about from our hostal owner. We had a great Peruvian lunch of roasted meat, potatoes, and Inca Kola. In case you haven’t heard of it, Inca Kola is a neon-yellow soda that sort of tastes like a combination of cream soda, cotton candy, and bubblegum. The only problem was that the medicine Dan and I were taking to prevent altitude sickness actually changes the way you taste carbonated beverages, and neither of us could actually taste the bubbles in the soda!

 

Since I had spent 2 weeks in Cusco at the very beginning of my Peruvian adventure taking Spanish classes, I sort of knew my way around the major landmarks of the city. After lunch, we wandered through the main market in Cusco, which is really a pretty interesting place. You can buy everything from scarves, hats and gloves to meats, cheeses, herbs, fruits and veggies, or even full meals cooked up in front of you. My favorite area was always the meats, because I have just never seen anything like it. The smell is actually pretty awful, but where else can you buy a whole cow snout (and WHY would you want to?!)?

 

I took Dan all around the town, and we ended up in Plaza San Blas, which is a cute little plaza high above the main plaza that is surrounded by cafes, restaurants and art galleries. We strolled around, had a coffee, and visited the small, but informative Coca Museum. The museum is dedicated to spreading information about the coca leaf, the plant that is the raw material for producing the infamous drug, cocaine. The Incas have used the plant for centuries, but it had many medicinal and ceremonial uses long before modern chemistry was able to turn it into something nefarious. Chewing the leaves (with or without a carbonate based catalyst) or drinking coca tea is said to relieve everything from altitude sickness, fatigue, upset stomach, headaches, and much more! I personally love coca tea, and drank tons of it while at school in Cusco. It tastes like a yummy herbal tea, and with all those supposed benefits, why not?

 

After buying tons of coca themed souvenirs, we headed to explore an old monastery and convent that was in the guidebook. El Convento Santo Domingo was a pretty cool site – it used to be an Incan complex that had been built over by Catholics over the centuries so that the architecture of the complex is now a jumble of perfectly sculpted Incan stone walls, classic Spanish, and modern looking buildings all piled on top of each other.  We spent a while wandering the cloisters and corridors, but I’m not a huge history/architecture/museum fan, so we opted not to read every plaque or visit the convent’s sister museum, and instead headed to dinner.

 

We had a classic Peruvian dinner of lomo saltado (stir-fried beef, peppers, and onions over French fries) and even stopped for a pisco sour (the national drink of Peru! Its made of Pisco, a grape brandy, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg whites and garnished with a drop of bitters) before we ended up collapsing back at the hostel.

We woke up in the morning and had a huge breakfast before heading out to the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley is an area outside of Cusco that is basically filled with tons of different ruins. There are a bunch of sites to choose from, and since they all seemed relatively similar (rocks, hills, old stuff) we sort of randomly picked one to go to. We ended up at Pisac, a site about an hour bus ride from Cusco.  The bus ride was super scenic, and in between my mini-naps, I was treated to valley vistas surrounded by snow-caped mountains :)

We arrived in Pisac, and split a cab with a French couple up to the top of the ruins to start our tour. We elected not to hire a guide, and spent 2 hours wandering through the huge archeological complex. We climbed up and down the trails, stomped through the ancient buildings, scrambled around the crumbling stone walls, and perched on top of the long-empty agricultural terraces. The Incas used these huge stair-like terraces to grow their food, but now they lay fallow. I think they are super cool are really enjoyed seeing the way the ancient cultures carved these huge hillsides into what look to me like a staircase for giants.

We headed back down to the town of Pisac for lunch, and after some alpaca kebobs, set our sights for the market. Pisac is supposed to be a pretty cool place to shop for souvenirs, but when we stepped back outside a storm was headed in, snd the thunder and wind had prompted most shopkeepers to pack up their goods and head indoors. We took the hint, and headed to the bus stop to try to beat the rain.

We made it onto the bus before any major downpours, but the bus was packed! We were forced to stand for the whole hour trip home (on the way to Pisac we had comfy seats and there was nobody standing) and poor Dan got thrown around pretty well during the trip. We made it back to Cusco in one piece (although we were pretty hot and tired from the long ride) and headed to our orientation for our trek!

Our route to Machu Picchu

We sat through the briefing and were told what to expect during the hike…..Basically, it sounded tough. Lots of hills, lots of stairs, lots of possible pain, haha.

But, I knew all that long before we threw down a ton of money, and we had opted to hire a porter to carry our things (clothes, sleeping bags, etc) so all we had to do was carry a daypack with our raincoats and water. At the urging of our guide we even rented walking sticks – he promised even though we would look like dorks the benefits would outweigh the nerdiness.

After the orientation we had a delicious dinner of pollo a la brasa, or roasted chicken, a Peruvian specialty. We tried to have a beer, but the medicine had the same effect on its carbonation, and it’s hard to enjoy beer without being able to taste the bubbles! We went back to the hostel to try to pack and get into bed early, but packing and showering took us a while, and we got to sleep around midnight. I don’t know if either of us slept very well, we were both pretty excited and anxious about starting the trail the next day!

Inca Trail: Day 1 – Cusco to Wayllabamba

We awoke bright and early (and by that I mean dark and really early…3:30am), grabbed our daypacks and small bags of clothes (to give to the porters to carry), and headed out to meet our tour group. We got on a private bus that took us to breakfast – our group was made of 13 hikers from around the world. I was actually the youngest member of the crew, and the oldest in the group was only 39 years old. There were 2 girls from New York, a few Aussies, a girl from England, a couple from Venezuela, and a few people who were sort of from everywhere (born in Poland, lived in England, Australia, the States, etc). It was an eclectic but young and well-traveled group, and I was sort of worried that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with them all on the trail!

After breakfast in a quiet valley, we got back on the bus and headed to the head of the Inca Trail. We started the hike at “Kilometer 82,” a distance marker and train stop on the train line that leads from Cusco to Machu Picchu.  When we got out of the bus it was quite a busy scene. All the groups hiking the trail start in the same spot, so there were buses, hikers and porters everywhere. But, this is where we noticed the first awesome thing about our tour company. Our porters, the men that carried all our food, tents, supplies and gear, were all wearing red from head-to-toe. We could spot them from a mile away. For our 13 hikers we had 2 guides, 18 porters and a chef! That’s a support crew of 21 people for our 13 hikers.

Our AMAZING porters 

After packing up all our gear, filling up our water bottles, and lacing up our shoes, we started on our way! We had to get our passports checked before starting (the trail is SUPER regulated and only a few hundred hikers are allowed per day), but after the obligatory stamp, we were hiking.

 

The first couple of hours were over relatively flat, dry, desert valley terrain. We wound through the valley, following the train tracks and hugging the banks of the river that flows all the way to the base of Machu Picchu. I say “relatively” flat, because the guides tend to refer to anything other than a 45 degree hill as “Inca Flat.” Inca Flat became a running joke, and almost killed my feet on the first day.  Against my better judgment I had purchased a new pair of hiking boots, and breaking them in on the trail wasn’t exactly the best idea!

Foot relief

But after soaking my poor feet in a freezing cold mountain stream, we continued our hike. We had an amazing 3-course lunch (cold drinks, hot soup, chicken, salads, rice, fresh avocados, and dessert!) and hiked for a few more hours to our first camp site.

Our first day of hiking was pretty difficult – I was short of breath most of the day, it was pretty hot, and the Inca Flats were pretty rough, but the views were SO incredible.  I shared the trail with donkeys, llamas,  and hummingbirds, climbed up and down hills and valleys, and finally made it to camp. The porters had hot tea, and warm water and soap waiting, and we had a Happy Hour of hot chocolate, popcorn and camp songs all before our elaborate 3-course dinner.

 

We all passed out after a few rounds of cards and a few thousand calories worth of rice and hot chocolate. A great first day!!

Inca Trail: Day 2 – Wayllabamba to Chaquicocha

Aka the Hardest Day EVER

In the jungle

O.M.G.

By far the most difficult day of hiking/physical activity I have EVER experienced. But it was absolutely amazing.  We woke up BEFORE the sunrise (to hot tea delivered to our tents, and buckets of hot water and soap to freshen up), had an amazing breakfast, and then set off for a 12+ hour day of hiking.

The first two hours was literally straight uphill through the rainforest. Luckily, we had an overcast morning (with a slight on and off drizzle), so it was cool and shady in the forest. After a quick snack break in a valley, we had an amazing view straight up the mountain to the famous Dead Woman’s Pass – it was covered in a thick mist and as we restarted the hike it started drizzling.

STAIRS. I have never climbed so many stairs.  We climbed for 2 hours on a rocky trail poised on the edge of the valley, through on-and-off misting rain, and we finally made it to the very top of Dead Woman’s Pass! From day one (8923ft) we climbed to 13,779 feet!

At Dead Woman's Pass

Sadly, we still had 6-7 hours left of hiking :(

After reaching the peak, and refueling on chocolate and a variety of Amazonian nuts, we had to begin a treacherous 2,000 foot descent.  Unfortunately, the weather on the next valley was crazy: once we crossed the peak there was a driving wind blowing the now legit rain into our faces and the temperature dropped to a few degrees above freezing. Instantly my hands were numb, my pants were soaked, and I was trying my hardest to see through the tiny slit I left in my waterproof jacket hood.

I finally decided to just go for it and I ended up half-jogging down the never-ending staircase. After about 30 minutes of awkward galloping, countless downhill switchbacks, and a few hundred meters, the weather lightened up and it began to warm up. Overall, we climbed down for about 2 quad-liquefying hours. Knees still shaking, we stumbled into camp and had hot tea and a huge delicious lunch.

But the respite was short lived, and we were told that we had to climb another 1,500 feet up. And then? Down another 1,320 feet to the next campsite (to our next meal).

So, I re-laced my terribly ugly boots and fortified by a small mountain of carbohydrates took to the trail again. I can’t say I didn’t consider lasso-ing a llama and riding it up the next pass. But the next few hours were beautiful, up slopes covered in ruins, past high, hidden mountain lakes, and up and down more and more stairs. We came to the top of the next pass (13,123 feet!) and then into a valley. Hanging on a ledge on the inside of the valley, there was a HUGE ruin, a compound overlooking the jungle floor.

Dan's feet didn't fit on the stairs! :)

It was a really amazing site (and sight). I was almost getting sort of tired of piles of rocks that people call ruins, but this one was really beautiful. The sun was setting behind the mountains, and this huge site was just clinging to this precipitous ledge. It was a great way to end the day.

After wandering around the ruin for a while, we climbed DOWN the valley for the last time for the day, and found our campsite. From the site, we were surrounded by vistas of snow capped peaks and the sunset. The fog rolled in just as the sun dipped all the way behind the mountains, and it got cold quickly. We had a HUGE meal, complete with hot cocoa and dessert. Not surprisingly, we passed out immediately. We had another big day coming up!