Inca trail to Machu Picchu
2:31 PM
I need to add a little about my day in the sacred valley but i´m going to do Inca trail first while it´s fresh in my head.
We started our Inca trail trek leaving our hotel in Ollantaytambo at 7:30am and heading by bus to KM 82, which is the starting point for the trail. Before heading out, we were asked to pack a duffle bag no more than 6kg which would contain our clothes for the next four days. Everything else we carred in our own day packs. The duffle bags would be carried by the porters.
The first day we relatively easy with mild ups and downs. The hike started at an elevation of 2,600m above sea level and we ended up at our first camp site, 14km later at 3,300m a.s.l. Our camp site on day 1 was Yuncachimpa and it had a great outlook over snow capped mountains. So far, altitude sickness hadn´t bothered me and I was in the lead group making it to camp first.
Day 2 was always going to be the hardest. It started at 6am with a long continuous uphill to our first pass, Abra de warmi wanusca (Dead Woman´s Pass) at a height of 4,215m. It was tough going to hike the 900 odd vertical meters over a 7km hike to reach the peak but again, I was in the lead group making it to the top, passing other tours in the process. Not that´s its a competition. This was not the end of Day 2 tho. We then descended 600m for lunch before climbing another 350m to the second pass at 3,950m. This covered another 7km. Camp site was another 300m descent to 3,680m which took about 2km. Along the way we also passed our first Inca sites of Runkurakay which was at 3,800m, Sayaqmarka at 3,600m and Concha Marca at 3,550m.
Day 3 was relatively easy after day 2. We hiked up and downhill to our third and final pass at 3,670m which was relatively easy going before heading via another Inca ruin of Intipata at 2,850m to arrive at Camp site 3 at Winay Wayna at 2,700m having only done 9km that day. We had the afternoon off and this site was the first time to grab a warm shower and use a proper toilet which was nice. Also managed a cheeky cold beer too.
Day 4 was our last day and it was an early start. 4am to be precise. We needed to get up early so the porters could pack up site and get the 5:45am trail. I should mention the porters are amazing. Whilst we all strugged carrying our own packs weighing up to say 6kg, these little Peruvians were carrying 25kg each and passing us uphill, then literally running downhill, then working hard to get our site set up, feeding us and making sure we had water to drink and hot water to wash hands with. Amazing men.
So yeah, obscenely early start, we couldn´t head for Macchu Picchu until control gate opened at 5:30am. From there, we hiked to the Sun Gate where we were supposed to get our first view over Macchu Picchu but it was all foggy so we couldn´t see anything. A few of us (the fast four) wanted to try and get tickets to another site within Macchu Picchu called Wayna Picchu, which they only allow certain numbers of people to visit so we actually jogged/ran from the Sun Gate to Macchu Picchu.Unfortunately, all the tourists that stay in Aguas Calientas got there first and we missed out. Nevermind.
Macchu Picchu, once the fog cleared, is an amazing Inca City, situated at roughly 2,400m a.s.l. its massive. We waited for the rest of our group to catch up before taking a guided tour around the city. We then had some free time which Jon and I used to climb to the Guardhouse to look out over the city and get some perspective of its size. We also walked to the Inca bridge to have a quick look.
Wow, epic post. I´ll leave it here.
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