Inca Trail

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Before heading out on the Ina Trail, we spent 3 days relaxing in Cusco and for my part trying to get over a stomach cramping case of travellers diahrea. A quick trip to the doctor, a stool test, and a packet of Ciproxin later we were ready for 4 days of pain on the Inca Trail.

Friday 26th we started at 6am, pretty easy for a first day. Saturday involved going almost straight up a 1200m mountain then 700m back down. Luckily it was all over by lunch time and most of us slept for the rest of the day. Sunday was more up and down, 16km in the end, but we finished up camping in a somewhat civilised area, complete with cold beer, hot coffee and flushing toilets!!! Monday was the last day, a 4am start so we could do the last 2 hours of hiking to Machu Pichu and see the sunrise (in theory). Unfortunately we were in cloud (a common occurance that high up) and couldn´t see 50m away let alone a sunrise. By mid morning it was clear and we got to see a fair bit of Machu Pichu before the hoards of tourists arrived by bus. At lunch time we headed down to Aguas Calliantes for a swim in the Hot (luke warm) Springs and later in the afternoon caught the train back to Cusco for a good night´s sleep back at the hotel.

The photos tell a much better story than words, so have a read of them for more details. They basically follow the flow of the trail.

Tuesday we did some tourist shopping and that evening had dinner with the Inca Trail gang (guinea pig is over-rated). After dinner we got the 10pm Bed Bus back to Puno and then the next morning continued through to the Peru/Bolivia border.

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Photos

The money shot
We were lucky that by mid-afternoon the clouds were starting to clear up.

Day 1 - Breakfast
We stopped at a lookout on the way to the trailhead for a bite to eat. The town in the background is where a lot of people from Cusco move to when they retire.

Day 1 - Control Point 1
The Inca Trail is now heavily regulated, with control points where they check your tickets. In past years, you could hike it by yourself, but now you must be with a group. Once we passed the control point, we walked across the river, then the trail began.

Day 1 - Lunch Stop
The porters would race ahead of us and have the tent set up with lunch almost ready by the time we got there. Once we were finished, they'd tear the tent down in no time and take off again to the first night's camp site.

Day 1 - Incan guard city
There are a number of valleys that run up towards Machu Pichu. This was one of the guard cities that regulated the flow of people and goods along the valley.

Day 1 - A hiking we will go....
With the huge number of people now hiking the trail, it is very well maintained, almost a little too well at times.

Day 1 - First night's camp
The tents were all set up for us when we got there, which was great. A little girl was going around and selling drinks to everyone, she must make a small fortune doing that.

Day 1 - Snow capped peaks
The mountains, part of the Andes, were very impressive.

Day 2 - Morning Tea
Every meal they set up a tent and gave us a constant suply of Coca tea, which I think helped with the altitude.

Day 2 - Rest stop
The second day was wet, cold and windy. But luckily it only rained a once for about 1 minute.

Day 2 - Dead Woman's Pass
Here we are at about 14000ft above sea level, having just come up about 4000ft vertical. It took a while for us to catch our breath, but most of the hard work was over for the day.

Day 2 - The view from the top.
What you can see here is only the top part of the trail. The middle and lower sections were more jungle that thinned out to this grass higher up.

Day 3 - The Watch Tower
Back in the day Incans would stay here overnight while they were travelling and it also served as a guard post so they could regulate the movement of people.

Day 3 - Rest stop
It felt like all we were doing was walking up and down the sides of mountains, but come to think of it, we were.

Day 3 - Travellers luck
Stone piles like this are meant to bring good luck to travellers along the trail.

Day 3 - Incan Pathways
Many of the stones that make up the trail are still in place from when they were layed by the Incans. It's pretty rugged terain.

Day 3 - Stone work
The stonework on many of the ruins is pretty incredible. I guess that's why it has lasted so long.

Day 3 - Dinner with the group
They put on a bit of a feast for us, well deserved if I may say so after hiking for so long.

Day 3 - Porters, guides and hikers
This is a big group photo with all the people from our group, taken on the last night before we got to Machu Pichu.

Day 3 - View from the balcony
The view out the back of the building was pretty incredible, with the setting sun throwing it's light onto the mountains.

Day 4 - Group money shot (kind of)
When we first arrived at Machu Pichu, it was covered in cloud, but we decided to take a photo anyway.

Day 4 - Standard Machu Pichu
In any advertising brochure for this place, this is the photo that you will see most often, maybe with a little more sun.

Day 4 - Excavations
There was restoration work going on all over the city.

Day 4 - Llamas
These things were all over the city, keeping the lawn mowed I guess. A lot of the city was built on the side of the mountain.

Day 4 - Intihuatana Stone
This is also know as the hitching post of the sun, it was apparently used to measure the angle of the sun, but like this whole place, there are a few theories going around.