Four Days on the Inca Trail

Machu Picchu
13.1631°S, 72.5450°W

Prior to arriving in South America, the last time I had spent any significant time thinking about the Inca Empire was World History class in high school. Anything I ever learned about the Incas was always in the context of Central and South America’s Inca-Maya-Aztec trifecta of civilizations, so trying to remember the differences between these ancient societies has always been a bit difficult.

The one thing I have always remembered, however, is the Incas were responsible for Machu Picchu. Sarah and I had prioritized a Machu Picchu visit after our own research and hearing so many great things about seeing this ancient kingdom in person. While there are a number of ways to get to Machu Picchu, we decided on a four-day hike up and down (and up again) the Inca Trail.

We arrived in Cusco (via Lima) a couple days before our trek. This gave us the chance to get adjusted to Cusco’s altitude, which at over 11,000 feet is higher than any city in North America and nearly every city in South America. What this means in practical terms is that you feel as if you’ve run a marathon with a plastic bag over your head after walking up a flight of stairs, stepping out of a taxi, or even eating a sandwich. We had some minor symptoms from the high altitude, but played it safe by not exerting ourselves and drinking a shit-ton of water. Overall, we felt pretty good.

To hike the Inca Trail, a licensed trek company needs to be hired. We decided on Llama Path, mostly because of their great reviews and support for the porters who – like Kilimanjaro porters – really do all of the hard work.

The night before our departure we arrived at Llama Path’s offices for a pre-trip briefing and to meet our guides and the other 11 people we would be trekking with. We were greeted with popcorn and coca tea, which we enjoyed while our guides Marco and Charlie walked us through what to expect over the next four days.

Most of the other trekkers we met were on an extended vacation from Australia. They had just come from Brazil, where two had just been married (congrats Chris and Jackie!).

The Australian contingent was friendly and seemed very fun, as did the other two people we’d be hiking with, a couple from the UK in Peru on vacation. One thing I’ve learned over the last 20 years of travel is that you know you are doing something fun and moderately dangerous if there is a group of Australians alongside you. I took this as a good sign.

Our head guide, Marco, told us that would be meeting our bus the next morning at 4:30 a.m. He encouraged us to get a good night’s rest, and we obliged.

Day One 

Our group met in the dark hours of the morning in Cusco’s Plaza Regocijo. We loaded the bus, which had an onboard oxygen system to help riders adjust to the altitude (only if needed), and headed off for a two-hour ride to our departure point.

To help emphasize Llama Path’s good treatment of porters, the first stop on our drive was to the porter living quarters, just outside of Cusco’s downtown. The porters in our group ranged in age from 20 to 55, predominantly from villages high up in the Andes Mountains. Llama Path provides accommodations and good clothing and equipment for these guys, which after seeing how hard they work, we greatly appreciated.

From the porter’s house, we headed to breakfast just outside of Ollantaytambo, a village in Peru’s Sacred Valley known for its preserved Inca ceremonial grounds and large agricultural terraces (more on that later).

After breakfast, we headed to the start of our hike, crossing over the Sacred River and up towards Llaqtapata, our first stop. Hiram Bingham, the American who stumbled across Machu Picchu in 1911, also recorded information about this site in his expeditions. Marco told us that there is still a lot unknown about what Llaqtapata was used for, but said that it was clearly an important destination for Incans traveling to the mecca of Machu Picchu.

It was impressive, or as Marco would say (regularly throughout the trip), it was mucho wow wow.

We headed to a camp called Hatunchaca for lunch, before making our way to the campsite for the evening, Ayapata. Sarah and I had heard that the food during our hike, prepared by Llama Path’s Chef George, was going to be very good. What we weren’t expecting was we would be given four-course lunches and dinners that were some of the best meals we have ever eaten. Seriously, the food was that good, all of it carried by porters and cooked without aid of electricity. We were blown away.

Day Two

We woke up with the sunrise and had a great breakfast, before starting our hike for the day. The second day is known to be the hardest, given that it ascends to the highest altitude. We hiked to  “Dead Woman’s Pass,” named because the terrain looks like the profile of a woman laying down.

The temperature was constantly bouncing around because of the elevation changes and unique climate surrounding the area. We were told the weather along the trail changes rapidly, and sometimes you can experience four seasons in one day. Fortunately, it never got too hot or cold at night, so we just had to rotate layers and don a rain jacket from time to time.

Day two was also when it was recommended we start chewing on coca leaves to help with altitude acclimation and to increase our stamina. Coca is native to the Andes region and has been used by the Incas and Peruvians for thousands of years.

Day Three

Our third day started with another great breakfast, followed by an uphill hike to two Inca sites, Runcuraccay and Sayacmarca. We continued to be blown away by how these structures were created and have remained so intact and preserved. The Incas were truly a brilliant civilization, something it was easy to appreciate as we saw the craftsmanship and design of these ruins.

The rest of the day was mostly a downhill hike through some dense vegetation and expansive views of the Andes Mountains in the distance. After stopping at an Incan site called Phuyupatamarca, we arrived at our campsite in the early afternoon and headed to the Winaywayna ruins (given the majestic nature of these sites, “ruins” always seems like an odd term for these impressive structures). Our guide Charlie gave us a great overview and history of the area and the spiritual and agricultural structures of Winaywayna.

Day Four

To beat the crowds, we woke up at 3:30 a.m. on our last day and made our way to the Sun Gate, the entryway to our last short hike to Machu Picchu. It was a cloudy and drizzly day, so we had to wait a bit to get a good view of Machu Picchu, but when we did it was incredible.

Machu Picchu was built in the 1400s but abandoned in the 16th century during the Spanish conquest of the area. In the Quechua language (spoken by the indigenous people of the Andes region and nearly a quarter of all Peruvians today) Machu Picchu means something along the lines of “old mountain.” While much is still not understood about the exact purpose of Machu Picchu, it is known this was a place where the best and brightest of the Incan people would visit for spiritual purposes and to study medicine, astronomy, and agriculture, among other things.

Machu Picchu is South America’s most visited historical site, and for good reason. From first sight, we were blown away with not only the actual buildings but what must have gone into planning this massive complex. We walked around in awe for about an hour, tired and glad to finally be at our destination.

I was also contemplating how to explain to Sarah I had signed us up for an additional two-hour hike.

Wayna Picchu Mountain is the tallest peak surrounding Machu Picchu. For an additional fee you can climb to the top for the incredible view…a view that in our case also involved risking our marriage (i.e., I probably should have let Sarah know about this additional hike a bit earlier).

Despite our tired legs, we made it to the top of Wayna Picchu Mountain and while the clouds interfered with some of our pictures, the views made it worth the hairy eyeball I got the whole way up (and most of the way down).

We met up with the rest of our group after our extracurricular climb, and they were all pleased to know we were still married. We took buses into Aguas Calientes, a town created in the 1980s to support tourism, and then got a train back to another bus that would take us into Cusco.

Back to Cusco

After a festive and rum-soaked ride on the bus back to Cusco, we said goodbye to our new friends and were dropped off to our Airbnb. We had decided before our hike that we liked Cusco enough to stay an additional week, so were excited to get a full night’s rest and then venture out to explore more of this incredible place.