Classic Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

I have completed, as our tour guides used to say, the bloody Inca trail on Saturday night and I could not have been happier. It was fun, challenging and gorgeous.

It takes 4 days and 3 nights to walk 49 km from the village of Ollantaytambo (or km 82) to Sun Gate at Machu Picchu. The Inca trail experience for me was by far more rewarding than Machu Picchu with its thousands of tourists. Feel free to throw stones at me.

All the guidebooks write than Inca trail is overcrowded and suggest to take alternative routes to Machu Picchu. I disagree. According to new rules, only 200 hikers are allowed per day along with 300 porters. Given the number of campsites along the way, it did not feel crowed at all. Quite the opposite experience is at Machu Picchu itself.

Inka trail is interesting in itself as it is almost 80% original Inca construction (after lunch of Day 2), small steps up and down allow you to jog like Incas did centuries ago. Moreover, along the trail there are a few well-preserved ruins that impressed me more than Machu Picchu due to the setting in the mist or jungle, tucked between the green mountains.


a shot from the bus, driving to the start of the trail - amazing Sacred Valley
Day 1 was fairly easy as we started hiking at around 11 am and finished at 6 pm. Only the last hour and a half was uphill - we were approaching Dead Woman´s Pass.



The first ruins on the way - Llactapata

Day 2 was the longest and the hardest. Starting at 7 am we were hiking uphill for at least 3 hours to reach the top of Warmiwañusca or Dead Woman's Pass, which, at 4,215 m above sea level, is the highest point on the trail.



Verónica Peak from Dead Woman´s Pass



The other side of Dead Woman´s Pass

An hour and a half of downhill jumping in big steps we reached hour lunch spot, where a lot of groups camp for the night (the ones who camp earlier on Day 1). We, on another hand, started going uphill again, reaching the second pass of the trail (Runcurakay Pass at 3,850 m.a.s.l.), which, although smaller, was tough. Not even coca leaves would give me the energy. My knees and thights felt every step that afternoon.



After the top we headed downhill again through the thick cloud forest and jungle, where I took video of the mist filling the valley within seconds. There, thirty minutes away from our campsite, we visited one of my favorite ruins - Sayacmarca ("Dominant Town"), which sat on top of a sheer cliff.



Day 3 was relatively easy, depending on the amount of pain you had in your knees and legs from Day 2. I took tons of pictures on Day 3 as the landscape was just overwhelming. We were lucky with the weather, heading into the dry winter season, we saw all the snow peaks we were supposed to see all the way from Cusco. Snow peaks, wild flowers, canyons, clouds hugging the green hills, Inka trail, porters bypassing us - you could not ask for more.





The third and final pass was Phuyupatmarka with ruins right beneath it. The ruins in the mist looked exactly how I imagined Machu Picchu - mysterious, misty, dark, abandoned, empty. Absolutely amazing!

Day 3 brought us two more amazing Inka sites - Intipata (or Terraces before lunch)and Wiñay Wayna ("Forever Young") in the afternoon.



Day 4 I call SAS Peru boot camp. Usually Day 4 is an easy day when you wake up at 4 am, have breakfast, walk to Sun Gate and to Machu Picchu... Not for us. Half of the group expressed a desire to hike up Wayna Picchu, the highest hill at Machu Pìcchu. Since only the first 400 hikers are admitted to Wayna Picchu (and only before 1 pm), our guides decided to divide us in two groups. The first one was sent on the faster track to Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu with an idea to re-join the rest of the group at 9:30 am for a guided tour of Machu Picchu.

Hmmm. We started off at 5:30 am, passed the last control of Inca trail and started running. Literally. It was raining and foggy, but Wayna Picchu group had to make it fast. So off we went. Our guide in front was bypassing our hiker groups at amazing speed. I made it to the Sun Gate in 40 minutes!!! (officially it takes 90 minutes) From Sun Gate you have the postcard view of Machu Picchu, but that day you could not see a thing, thick white fog filled the valley. From Sun Gate we started running again to the entrance of Machu Picchu, another 20 minutes. Machu Picchu was hardly visible. A lot of tourists already!



We were at the entrance of Wayna Picchu a little after 7 am. I was the 81st hiker admitted! We made the steep climb to the top in 30 minutes vs. an hour suggested. Again we were timing, and we were racing. On the top we saw absolutely nothing, but the clouds, but we had fun running from 5:30 am.



Wayna Picchu

The tour of Machu Picchu was OK and at 12 pm I was ready to leave that crowded place!

If I start describing all the interesting stuff I learned about Incas and people from Andes speaking Quechua I will never leave this bloody internet spot. So, just do the Inca trail. I heard you can book it for September. :)

Full Inca Trail set is here.