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Published: November 3rd 2004
Day 1 - Getting going A 5.30 pickup took us by minibus with the group to KM82, the point on the railway where the 4-day Inca Trail started for us.
We got aquainted with the group:
Laura, 21. Cambridge girl, full of energy. Seems to have been everywhere.
Dave, late twenties 😉 Scotsman with a bit of Irish. Full of knowledge, a chatty world traveler. Author of "Poland under the Comunists". Seems to have been everywhere, literally.
Stephanie, 26. Canadian, relaxed and well balanced holidaymaker. Obviously the more adventurous kind.
Pete and Sarah, 25 and 26. English and Irish explorer types with all the gadgets.
Aly, 26. Our guide, a Peruano. Very knowledgeable and interesting fella.
After being surrounded by a mad mob selling walking sticks and bottle holders (they surrounded and followed the jeep until it stopped!), we set off up to the first camping spot. We arrived after a shortish walk (about 6kms), pretty much on the "Peruvian" flat. So not too steep then.
Day 2 - Up to dead woman´s pass Day 2, a bit more of a slog - we connected with the real Inca trail somewhere along here. We
passed through beautiful cloud forest on the way up. The highest point on the trail after a steep and gruelling morning climb of about 1200 metres was "Dead woman´s pass" where we took some photos and I verified the altitude with the GPS at 4,220 metres.
Really impressive scenery, good weather and a really steep slog down 600m to the camp site for the evening after the pass.
Day 3 - Inca Trial Day 3 started with a very steep climb up and up through the cloud until the second highest point at about 3900 metres. The views are supposed to be spectacular here if the weather is clear but it was totally foggy until mid afternoon. During the heaviest of the rain we saw a guy sheltering under his sleeping bag - good thing you don´t have to pass any IQ tests to do the trail! We passed some small ruins on the way and these were explained to us by Aly.
After lunch the weather started to clear a little on the steep way down to our third camping spot, just outside Macchu Picchu itself. We caught glimpses (through the cloud) of Macchu Picchu village (Aguas Calientes)
at the bottom of the valley and saw a small ruin terrace on the mountainside - the fabulous Macchu Picchu is on the other side of this mountain.
So we went to sleep just over an hour´s walk away from the lost city ready for a very early start for the walk to the Sun Gate.
Day 4 - Macchu Picchu at Sunrise! The alarm woke us up at 3.30 and we groggily got our stuff together. Breakfast was at 4.30 and by 5 we were raring to go at the park entrance gate - it doesn´t open until 5.20ish - behind just one group of 4 even-more-eager blokes.
At 5.20 we rushed off at maximum early-morning-walking pace staying well ahead of the group of American girls (it was excellent to be beating Americans, although petty) and at 6.05 we were in the top 10 people to arrive first and see Macchu Picchu from on high (Sarah was no.7 and I was no.8).
So we sweated a bit, and awed, and wowed, and took some pictures which you can see and then proceded to rush further down to the site itself.
After a short break and some admin (getting
our trail tickets stamped, some yoga and the best tasting bacon and egg sandwiches in the world) we came back into the site feeling all smug when presented with the daytrippers and their clean clothes and washed bodies. Macchu Picchu was ours, not theirs!
Anyway, we wandered about a bit around the site and had stuff explained to us and later decided to climb to Huayna Picchu overlooking Macchu Picchu by 250 metres from the opposite direction to the sun gate. We got some great views from there as you can see in the pictures.
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Highlight of South America (so far)
Vishwanath
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Add History
I am reading this article in India. I am interested in knowing "Dead woman´s pass", "small ruins on the way and these were explained to us by Aly.", "saw a small ruin terrace on the mountainside " When reading article if these details were not given it becoms boring. Please add little History so that we can learn and take interest. Regards.