Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu

Our first day on the Inca Trail had an interesting start. First, we waited over half an hour for SAS Travel to pick us up from the hostal. I walked down to the office to see if anyone was there; of course not, being it was only 6 am! Luckily an SAS bus happened to drive by, so I flagged it down and they took me back to the hostal. There I found Julie getting onto our bus. Apparently they forgot to come pick us up! We were lucky there was another SAS travel group leaving for the Inca Trail too!

Our drive out of Cusco to Ollantaytambo was uneventful. From the town of Ollantaytambo we drove another 15 minutes to the start of the Inca Trail. Well, it should've been 15 minutes, except another bus was trying to drive the opposite direction on the road, which was a dirt road only about 1.5 lanes wide! This episode took about 15-20 minutes as we inched closer and closer to an adobe house, and the other bus tried to inch closer and closer to the other side of the road, which dropped down to a cornfield. Amazingly both buses managed to pass each other with only 1 or 2 inches to spare!

We finally arrived at the trail head, and were each given a grocery bag full of snacks! This was unexpected! We quickly learned we always had plenty to eat. Hiking the Inca Trail with a reputable tour agency is kinda like trekking with hobbits in Lord of the Rings; we had breakfast before starting the day's hike, mid-morning snacks, lunch, afternoon tea and then dinner each day!

The first day's hike isn't all that exciting. Basically we hiked partly up a mountain, passing a few villages before arriving at our designated camping area. But it gave us a chance to get to know our fellow travelers; Neil and Graeme from a little town in UK; 3 recent UK grads, Neal, John and ??; 2 Ozzies, Graeme and Sarah whose families are close friends; "Gringo" Bill, the military media consultant; a Russian couple; and Alex, a recent US college grad. We learned few South Americans are now found on the trail, since they have to pay the same prices as other tourists - $300 to $400 per person on average!

Day two proved to be more challenging. Each group hikes up 4 hours from their campsites (ours at 3100 meters / 10200 feet) through Dead Woman's pass at 4200 meters (13800 feet). From here, it's 600 meters elevation down to the first campsites, another 2 hour hike. While it's quite tiring to hike up to the pass, it is beautiful to hike through temperate forest, beech forest, and alpine scrub filled with tiny orchids and flowers. Even though I stopped a lot to catch my breath, I ended up taking lots of photos on the way up because there was so much flora to look at!

After stopping for lunch at the campsite, our main guide Saul asked if we wanted to continue. We had the option to hike 3 more hours to the next camp area, which would save us 3 hours the following day, and allow more time to visit the many Inca ruins that we would see on Day 3. Most of us opted to keep going, so a democratic vote in favor meant we hiked 3 more hours on Day 2. I could tell a few people in the group were getting really tired, but I think they were happy to know we could sleep in an extra hour on day 3. I know I was!

Day 3 was exciting. We hiked through 2 small tunnels the Incas carved, and saw more spectacular valleys and mountains. Not only was the panorama beautiful, but we also stopped to see and learn about several Inca ruins. Many of these included outposts and connection points between several major Inca trails, as well as some religious sites and agricultural research areas. Pretty interesting to learn the Incas did a lot of research on astronomy, architecture, and agriculture! (A side note - I learned from reading 'Guns, Germs and Steel' during our travels that the Incas & Aztecs took several centuries to cultivate corn from a small thumb-sized cob to today's edible cobs)

Our campsite on Day 3 was quite luxurious. It included a restaurant and hot showers. Yay! We ate inside the restaurant, although the food was prepared by our porters and cook. However, this dinner was accompanied by beer & wine, unlike our other meals on the trip ;)

Day 4 was an early start to make it to the Sun Gate just after dawn, to get an early morning look at Macchu Picchu (MP). And what a beautiful view it was! We had a phenomenal sunrise to usher in a sunny morning hike to MP. Upon arriving at MP, we stopped for a break and for half the group to check-in their backpacks, which are not allowed into MP. Only day-backpacks are allowed into the ruins.

We had a 1-hour tour of the ruins with our guides, learning about the various religious and key architectural details of MP. After the tour, several of us decided to hike up Wayna Picchu, one of the mountains on the side of MP, which also has some ruins. We hiked up and had great panoramic views of MP and the valley surrounding us.

After hiking back down to MP, we picked up our belongings and got onto one of the many buses that take people down the mountain to the town of Aguas Calientes. We couldn't have timed it better - it started to rain as we waited for the bus! Also, this is a nice benefit of booking the Inca Trail with a reputable agency - some of them also provide tickets for the bus ride down the mountain & lunch afterwards, rather than having to hike down another hour to Aguas Calientes.

After another tasty meal and hot shower, we headed back to Cusco and picked up our belongings we had stored in town at a hotel next to SAS Travel. Julie and I tried to get a quick dinner so that we could make our return bus to La Paz, but the hotel took a long time, getting our food just in time for us to wolf it down and race over to the bus terminal in a taxi. We arrived only 10 minutes before the bus left town - and it actually left on time!

To Cusco and prep for the Inca Trail

One of our goals on our honeymoon trip was to hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu. Even though we planned it at the last minute, we were fortunate to be traveling during the low season, so it was easy to arrange transportation from La Paz, accommodation in Cusco, and the tour. We actually took a bus from La Paz to Cusco for 2 reasons. First, we thought it might be nice to see the altiplano scenery in Bolivia and Peru, and second, we learned there are no reliable, cheap flights from La Paz to Cusco. It would have cost $400-500 each to take 2 connecting flights, while the bus was USD$40 round-trip and 2-3 more hours each way, so it was a no-brainer. Plus, with the money we saved by not flying, we could buy more artisan crafts from my brother's friends!

Generally, you spend 2-3 days in Cusco before starting the Inca Trail, to acclimate to the altitude. Cusco is 3500 meters above sea level, which is about 2 miles. Since we had been in La Paz for a week, we didn't have to spend the time in Cusco, but we did arrive early to finalize our tour booking and arrange for a return bus ride.

In Cusco we stayed at the Hostal de Ninos. This hotel was started by a Scandinavian lady who wanted to stay and help some of the poorer kids in Cusco. She started the hostel and several other small enterprises to fund schooling and food to some of the children in the city.

After arriving from a long day's journey across the Bolivian and Peruvian high plains, we had a great night's sleep and breakfast at the hotel. The next day we took care of administrative stuff like paying for our Inca Trail tour and finding bus tickets back to Cusco, and then took a taxi to go see one of the famous ruins near Cusco, called Sacsayhuaman. It's pronounced kinda like "sexy woman" - it's quite fun to talk about it!

We learned you have to buy a tour pass to see the ruins. Well, I knew that already, having visited Cusco a few years ago, but we thought we could sneak in or maybe pay to see just one of the ruins. The park ranger would have none of it, but after a lot of negotiation they let us in to see the ruins for the price of only 1 partial tour pass at 40 soles, or $13. The full tour pass for all 10 ruins is now 70 soles, compared to 30 soles only 3 years ago!

No one is exactly sure what Sacsayhuaman was. Most believe it was a fortress/castle due to the layout and location. There are massive rock walls with carved stones over 10 feet high and some of them have multiple corners and angles carved into them. One of the amazing features of Inca architecture is that the most important military and religious buildings have walls made of huge stones carved to fit precisely together without the use of mortar, and nearly every stone will have different angles cut on its sides. It is quite different than ancient European architecture, where stones are cut into simple squares or rectangles. In a few places I saw stones with 10, 12 or even 14 corners/sides or more!

After walking around the large ruins of "sexy woman", we walked back down to Cusco. It's a quick 20 minute walk back into the city along an ancient Incan path. I find it amazing that Incan architecture is still usable on a daily basis even after more than 500 years! We had a quick lunch near the main plaza, called Plaza de Armas, and then walked down to the Temple of the Sun, which is in Cusco. This used to be a key Incan temple, and now showcases Incan architecture and Jesuit art and architecture.

The Spaniards destroyed most of the temple, kept the foundation and built a monastery on top of the Inca foundation. However, in the subsequent years strong earthquakes destroyed the monastery, while the Incan foundation was still intact!

That night we had a briefing session with our tour operator, SAS Travel, where we met our two guides, Saul and Juan, and our fellow hikers. Our group was 13 tourists, and we learned people were from all over the world; Russia, Australia, UK and USA. We also received duffel bags and plastic bags to hold our belongings and sleeping pads, since Julie and I paid a little extra to have porters carry our belongings. I wanted us to spend our time enjoying the hike and scenery rather than being tired from schlepping a backpack at high altitude.