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Published: August 6th 2009
Early in the Morning
Starting our Inca Trail from Km 82Our path to Machu Picchu started back in February while we sat at an internet cafe in New Zealand. We thought it was about time to start thinking about booking the Inca Trail, the famous four day hike to Machu Picchu- the same trail the Incas built in the 15th century that extended from Cusco (the capital of the Incan Empire) to Machu Picchu (the Incas most sacred place.) It was a big scurry at the internet cafe because companies were already sold out of the trail and we were able to find one company left that could take us the beginning of June, let me remind you... this was in February. Well, we paid a huge sum of money and booked with the one last company with the date of June 2nd in mind. We would leave for our trail June 2nd. We have had this date in our mind since February. Yes, it was expensive and yes it was so far in advance, but I figured if I was coming to Machu Picchu, I had to do the original trek... the one every other person wants to do, but because the trail is limited to 500 people per day
(including guides, cooks and porters.) not many people get to do.
When we arrived in Cusco, we had some problems with our company: they were located far out of town, there was a miscommunication with their opening hours and the sleeping bags we rented from them were HUGE and we would have to carry them for four days because we were too cheap to hire a porter to carry our stuff. I was pretty nervous about the trek. I thought maybe we had made a mistake. I wasn’t getting what I paid for; I was just getting ripped off. We went to our pre-departure meeting the day before we left and confirmed everything with Erick, our guide. They would pick us up from our hostel at 4 or 4:30am... big difference! Well, I hardly slept at all that night, knowing I would wake so early. At 4:40am, when they still had not arrived, I was ready to yell and scream and get my money back. I was ready to give up and go on a cheaper alternative trek to Machu Picchu. Well, Erick did show up. They had gotten lost and couldn’t find our hotel. Not off to a
great start, but at least it was a start to something.
Now for some background on the Incas and the Inca Trail. The Inca Empire spanned from Colombia all the way to Argentina and Chile through five countries. The center of the Inca Empire was Cusco and their strongholds were mostly in Peru. They ruled from AD 1438 to AD 1533. By AD 1533, the Spanish had invaded Peru and Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, was killed on the orders of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish rule. During their rule, the Incas built many structures and had a very advances road system, which are now known as Inca Trails. The trails connected the regions of the Inca Empire from the northern provincial capital in Quito, Ecuador past the modern city of Santiago, Chile in the south. The Inca road system linked together about 40,000 km of roadway and provided access to over three million km² of territory. Because the Incas did not make use of the wheel for transportation, and did not have horses until the arrival of the Spanish in Peru in the 16th century, the trails were used almost exclusively by people walking,
sometimes accompanied by pack animals, usually the llama.
The Inca trail to Machu Picchu, aka Camino Inca or Camino Inca, is now the most famous of the Inca trails. The trails used to lead from Cusco to Machu Picchu, but now we start hiking at Km 82. Some of the path was restored by archaeologists, but much of the path is still original. I could tell the original parts because they were much steeper and the stones were more scattered than the restored parts. Theories suggest that the reason the path was destroyed from Cusco is so the Spanish could not find Machu Picchu, but much of what we know is just theories, since the Incas did not have written language.
So here we were: it was 6:30am, at Km 82 ready to begin the ancient path that links us to one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I was tired and cranky, but ready to begin. We met Bill and Catherine, our hiking partners. They were from Canada and my parents’ age. I was so impressed they were going to hike because if you ask me, neither of my parents could handle this! Sorry mom and
dad, but you can’t! We ate breakfast at Km 82 and got our Inca Trail stamp in our passport. Bill and Catherine had porters to carry their things, but our bags were already heavy and we hadn’t even started. Jeff was carrying my sleeping bag because there was no way I could do it, but we were ready. We set off with the five of us hikers, Erick our guide, and 11 porters (to carry tents and supplies) and 1 cook. That was our family for the next few days. We were ready to begin! This was the date we had been waiting for, since we booked in February!
The beginning of the trek was fairly easy. There were some hills and we were getting into a groove. Just when I got really tired, it seemed like it was always break time. Those breaks always came at the perfect moment! Our first important stop of the day came at Llactapata, our first of many Incan ruins. We sat down with Erick for ¨story time¨ and enjoyed our morning snack. Erick is so passionate about what he told us that it was hard to not love every second. He told
us that Llactapata was a trading place. It served as a place where Incas from the Andes Mountains could come and trade with Incas from the jungle. They would exchange goods since the Incas did not have a money system. When it was excavated, archeologists found dried provisions there and this is how they got to the trading post theory.
After our short story time, it was time for some serious hiking to begin. We had to climb 500 meters in altitude today... not fun! By lunch time our legs were sore and we were exhausted. We had been awake since 3:30am and now it was lunch and we had hiked some of our 500 meter climb. Our porters had everything set up by the time we reached lunch. They even had mats set out for us so we could take a short nap before lunch. I easily fell asleep for a few minutes and then it was time for lunch. This was our first major meal on the trail so we would see how good the food was. We had an appetizer, soup and a main course of trout and rice. The food was fit for a king.
It was delicious, even I ate the trout! This was a good sign!
After lunch, things got harder. We began hiking on the steep Inca steps the rest of the way to camp. The scenery was amazing thought. We were now in the trees with streams passing near us. Erick had us go on, while he stayed with Bill and Catherine. So, we walked, and walked, and walked, up and up and up... then just when I thought I could not walk up anymore stairs, I turned a corner and there was our campsite, all set up for us. The porters greeted us with hot water and soap to wash our face and hands. There were llamas grazing nearby and the view was amazing. That night we camped at Llulluchapampa campsite at an altitude of 3,750 meters (12,303 feet). The second I stopped walking, I was freezing. I put on all my clothes and took off my cold, wet, sweaty shirt I had been wearing. When Erick arrived with Bill and Catherine, Catherine did not look good. She had not been well the previous few days due to the high altitude in Cusco. They had flown from Lima and
only had a few days to acclimate. We had been at this altitude since we left Chile, so we were very acclimatized. Catherine went straight to her tent to lie down, while the rest of us had afternoon tea. By the time dinner came around Catherine was still not feeling well and did not eat. The rest of us enjoyed an amazing dinner, followed by tea and bedtime. I cuddled up into my sleeping bag expecting to be freezing, but our tent and sleeping bag were top quality. My face was the only thing that was chilly and I slept pretty well that night!
Erick woke us up early the next morning to get an early start. I have never had such a great wake up call. He opened our tent with hot coffee for us. Then it was a pancake and porridge breakfast to give us strength for the hardest day of our trek. Catherine was still feeling ill and had been throwing up in her tent, probably from the altitude, so they made the decision to go down. They would head down back to Cusco with their two porters and we would meet them again at Machu
Picchu. It was sad to see them go, but for the best so Catherine could get better. Now, the trio had a private tour. Just us, the porter, the cook and Erick. How lucky are we? Private tours cost three times what we paid. The first part of the day, we would climb 700 meters in altitude to the highest point of the trek and our first mountain pass, which was named ¨Dead Woman’s Pass. ¨It’s not named that because people like me want to die when they do it, instead the local people can see a shape of a woman lying down in the mountain. The walk up was hard, especially first thing in the morning. I pushed myself pretty hard and by the end of it I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to walk and make it up. We did make it up! The first group that day to conquer ¨Dead Woman’s Pass.¨ As we rested at the top and took pictures of the amazing view at our highest point in the trek (4,200 meters or 13,779 feet), Erick told us he had a surprise for us from his ¨magic¨ backpack. He pulled out
Here comes the stairs
My least favorite part of the hike was all the steep steps. a small bottle of Peruvian rum and we all toasted to our hardest part finished. We had climbed 1200 meters in the past two days and now it was time to go down.
We started heading down, into the peace and quiet of the valley. As we did, a family of deer appeared right next to us. They ran away at first and then came back to check us out before porters scared them away. The porters are crazy. They carry 25 kilos on their back and they literally run down these passes wearing only sandals. Some of them put straw in their shoes for traction, but most just run the whole Inca trail. There is a race every year from Km 82 to Machu Picchu. It took us four days; the fastest porter did it in less than 3 1/2 hours. They truly are amazing guys! After descending down into the valley, Erick told us that we should press on today and camp at a different spot than planned. Apparently, we had been doing such a great job hiking that he thought we could reach the top of the third pass before the end of the day and
camp there. He said that it is the best camping spot, so how could we argue with him? We were up for the challenge. So we had a short break at the bottom of the valley before heading up again to the top of the second pass. We had to climb another 400 meters before lunch.
After climbing 200 meters up, we reached Runkurakay Ruins. We stopped there for more story time. Theories believe that Runkurakay was a ¨tambo¨ or resting place along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The construction is round because of the round plate it sits on. These ruins were discovered in the year 1915 (four years later than Machu Picchu). The view from the ruins was amazing. No wonder the Incas wanted to stop there and rest for the night before continuing on.
It was only a short-lived break at the ruins before heading to the top of Runkurakay pass at 3,924 meters. We had 200 more meters to climb and I was exhausted. I had climbed up and down all day and the last 200 meters was the hardest for me. But we reached the top and had another celebratory shot of
rum, but first we poured one out for Pachamama for keeping us safe and giving us good weather.
Before lunch, we reached one more ruins: Sayacmarca. Sayacmarca was also discovered in 1915. There are two different Inca Trails that lead out from Sayacmarca, on heading to the Andes and one heading to the jungle. Some believe this means that Sayacmarca was an agriculture center that provided provision to Machu Picchu. Others believe that it was a fortress. If you see the position, there are windows that look out at every Inca trail and its location sits high above anything else. There is also a platform that they have found in many other Inca complexes. These platforms sit high above the rest of the ruin. If you link all the platforms, archeologists believe that were communication platforms where horns were used to communicate with the other locations by using a relay system. Amazing!
After Sayacmarca, it was time for lunch and we were hungry. We hadn’t eaten since 6am that morning and it was close to 1:30pm. As we hiked from the ruins I thought I was going to pass out, but I didn’t and we made it to
Chaquicocha, our lunch stop and the place we had originally planned to camp that night. It was another great lunch and another little nap before our final ascent of 150m. The hike after lunch was pretty easy and I didn’t even have to stop to rest, well minus the one time I tripped and almost fell off the cliff, but you know me... I’m a klutz!
So we arrived at the third pass, Phuyupatamarca, and our camp was all set up waiting for us. The 16km we had hiked this day really took its toll on me and I was sore! The clouds had rolled in pretty bad so we weren’t able to see the amazing views, but the cook did prepare chips and guacamole for tea so we were pretty excited. As we chowed down, Erick ran into the tent and told us to come outside. The sight was amazing. The clouds had dropped a little so we were looking down on them in the valley. The way they sat there looked like you could go jumping on them or just walk across them. As the sun began to set the clouds took on this amazing bluish orange
color and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. Every now and then the clouds would move just so and you could see the tops of the different mountain ranges: it was magnificent. Just as we were about to go relax in our tent before dinner, Salkantay Mountain (the highest mountain in the region) became fully visible. It almost reminded me of our Mt. Everest moment almost 10 months ago. The mountain was huge and towered over all other mountains in that area of the Andes. It was at this moment we all realized how lucky we are to have seen the amazing things we have seen and to have come across so many amazing moments like this.
Again, we had an amazing dinner and immediately got into bed. It was freezing- more than the first night. We were camping our second night at 3,670 meters (12,037 feet). Although it was lower than the first night, it proved to be colder. Still, our tents and sleeping bags kept us warm, but I had a cough that kept me up most of the night. At 6:15am when Erick came to wake us,
I was not a happy camper, but he was so energetic. He kept yelling at us to hurry up and come follow him up this small hill to see the view. Overnight the clouds had completely cleared and all the mountain ranges were beautiful. I felt like crap, but it was still an amazing moment. Plus it helped that our porters had hot tea ready for us at the top of the hill while we looked over the valley and the mountains. Those guys always have the rights things right when you need it. Erick could tell I was pretty miserable so he gave me some cough drops and told me to take my time in the morning. Our third day was our ¨easy¨ day. We set out later than the past two days at about 7:30am and only had to hike 6km this day. I was still pretty sore from the night before, but we only really had to walk down hill today.... 1,000 meters aka 3,000 steps. You may think downhill is easy, but my knees and ankles hate it, especially going down the steep Incan steps on uneven surfaces.
It was only a short walk this
Our family
Us with the porters morning to the Phuyupatamarca ruins. The Phuyupatamarca ruins were discovered in 1914 (3 years after Machu Picchu) and is thought to be a temple. When it was excavated, archeologists found idols and llama bones. They believe that this proves it was once a temple. You can also tell temples because the stone work is perfect unlike common buildings that have smaller stones and less perfect stone work.
We took it easy this day, walking slowly because we had plenty of time to make it to camp. Our porters had already run past us with all our equipment and were going to get us the best spot to camp that night. We arrived a bit later at Intipata ruins, farming terraces that were discovered in 1935. I could not believe that they were discovered so recently, but when you look at the surrounding area you can see why. The area around the terraces was covered with trees and forest, so you can see how these terraces got buried underneath. We took a nice break at the terraces because the area had an amazing view looking over the Urubamba River and the surrounding mountains.
We arrived at our camp early
that day, so we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy our surroundings. We spent the afternoon playing cards and chatting with everyone. We had the best campsite for our final climb tomorrow to Machu Picchu. Our porters had nabbed us the very first spot on the trail! Chris decided to take a shower, but Jeff and I were already used to be smelly so what was one more day! We did find some excitement when the porters of a nearby camp found a poisonous snake in a tree above one of their hiker's tents. Our porters ran right over and killed the guy and then stuffed him into a plastic bottle so we could all take a look at him. I was not a fan of poisonous snakes living in trees above my tent. Erick made sure all of us had our tents zipped tightly so that nothing could slither in when we weren't looking.
Later that afternoon Erick took us to see Winay Wayna, our last ruin before Machu Picchu. Winay Wayna was at a lower elevation (2,700 m), but this did not mean it was less spectacular. As we approached the ruin, we realized we
The trio with the background
We came from way down there! were the only ones there, yet the campground with all 500 people on the Inca Trail was only five minutes walk away! It was incredible. Winay Wayna was our biggest ruin so far and truly spectacular. Erick told us that some people actually like it more than Machu Picchu. My first though was that it was huge! I asked Erick if Machu Picchu was this big and he laughed at me and simply replied, "yes." I guess that was a stupid question...
Winay Wayna was discovered in 1941 and many believe there is still more of it yet to be discovered. 85% of the building you see is original, which is truly amazing. It has the most original building of all the ruins on the Inca Trail. Many believe that Winay Wayna was a temple or living quarter with 60 people living at it. Since Machu Picchu was for the most important and most elite, Winay Wayna could have been a backup place for all the other Incas. We spent some time walking around the ruins and then Erick brought us another surprise from the "magic backpack." He pulled out a box of red wine or "vino tinto" and
we all cheered to a great few days and to Machu Picchu to follow. Of course we poured one out to Pachamama as well!
The next morning we awoke at 3am to get started on our greatest feat yet... our final four km to Machu Picchu. We ate our last breakfast and said goodbyes. We hiked the few minutes down the road to the entrance gate to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail. It opened at 5am; we were there before 4am! We wanted to be the first through the gates so we could be one of the first to Machu Picchu so that we could get one of the few tickets to climb Wayna Picchu, a 2,750 meter mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, they only give out 400 tickets a day and with all the tourists at Machu Picchu, we wanted one of those tickets. So we sat for over an hour while Erick told us ghost stories of the Andes and weird encounters he had had on his many trips on the Inca Trail.
When the gates opened at 5am, we were the first group through. From there we started to run... in the dark...
uphill. I wanted so badly to make it to Machu Picchu I just ran and ran and tried not to give up. My breath was hot and my lungs were on fire, but the last ascent is a series of steps uphill to the Inti Punku (sun gate). When we arrived at the sun gate I was too tired to speak. As I looked down on my first spotting of Machu Picchu, I got tears in my eyes. Not because Machu Picchu was so beautiful, but because I was exhausted and happy to finally be here. We had little time to enjoy the view and continue to race to the front gates so we could check in and get our tickets to Wayna Picchu. We saw Bill and Catherine, who were meeting us there after returning to Cusco, but we had no time to say hi. It was time to get our tickets. When we arrived at the gates to Wayna Picchu, the tickets were SOLD OUT! I was pretty disappointed, but at least I could say I literally ran to Machu Picchu.
We spent the next hour touring around Machu Picchu with Erick, Bill and Catherine. Machu Picchu
did not disappoint. It was truly an amazing sight and definitely worthy of being one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Machu Picchu means old mountain in Quechua. Be careful to say Peak-chu and not Picchu, for picchu means penis and you definitely don't want "old penis" to be a seven wonder of the world. It is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,430 meters (8,000 ft) above sea level. It is often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas" and is the most distinct symbol of both Peru and the Incan Empire. The Incas started building it around AD 1430 but was abandoned as an official site for the Inca rulers a hundred years later at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. It was thought that only holy people lived here. Although known locally, it was "discovered" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American historian from Yale. There is no evident to show that the Spaniards ever found Machu Picchu, an amazing feat, considering the Incan buildings in their conquest of Peru. Many historians believe the Incas fled here to the last refuge. Two Inca Trails have been found leaving here and heading
in the direction of the Incas last refuge.
Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its primary buildings are the Intihuatana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. These are located in what is known by archaeologists as the Sacred District of Machu Picchu. Apart from the Temple of the Sun, Machu Picchu also has a temple of the earth and of the now. The three levels are represented in Incan legends by the Condor (sky), the Puma (now) and the Snake (the earth). When Hiram Bingham "discovered" Machu Picchu, he reported that he had found no gold, but every archeological dig since then has found gold, which makes you wonder why Bingham only reported finding bones and ceramic. He took these items with him to the US, which was very controversial, as many thought they should stay in Peru. In September 2007, Peru and Yale University reached an agreement regarding the return of artifacts which Hiram Bingham had removed from Machu Picchu.
When Machu Picchu was "discovered" in 1911, there were two families living there. One had a young son who showed Bingham around, making him
the first tour guide of Machu Picchu- now a highly coveted position amongst Peruvians. Machu Picchu is divided into two parts: the agricultural terraces and the palaces/living quarters. Erick showed us around both.
Our tour of Machu Picchu proved to be one of the highlights of our trip. The Incas were amazing architects and the buildings are built with such precision. These huge stones fit together almost perfectly. A giant condor made of stone stands nearby to take dying bodies to the afterlife. Stones are perfectly carved so that when the sun hits them they create the shadow of the sacred Andean cross. Sun dials tell time perfectly. Temples are built perfectly on geologic plates so that they are not destroyed in earthquakes. With our technology now days, we still can look towards the Incas for their perfect understanding of the earth and how it moves. The Incas were amazing people. They just made one mistake... Machu Picchu is sinking! Not by much, but every year it gets lower and lower until one day it won't be here any longer!
Our day spent exploring Machu Picchu was truly fascinating. Erick told us all kids of history and we
really appreciated the huge buildings and the temple complexes. The whole place was spread out and truly special. At the end of our tour, Erick took us to a secluded part of Machu Picchu, with no one else around (which is hard to do at one of the most visited tourist spots in the world) and pulled out his last surprise from the "magic backpack," a bottle of champagne. We toasted with Bill and Catherine and talked of our amazing past few days. We loved Erick and all our porters and it was sad to say goodbye. We exchanged contact information and set off to explore on our own. We set off to the agricultural terraces to sit and relax with Bill and Catherine. We watched the llamas feed on the grass and took some great pictures. The government of Peru introduced llamas to Machu Picchu to be natural lawnmowers. A small family of llamas now thrives at Machu Picchu. Then we said our goodbyes to our Canadian friends and went to explore with just the trio.
We ended up running into our good old Irish friends who had tickets to climb Wayna Picchu. They were pretty tired out
from their bike and hike to Machu Picchu and offered us three tickets to climb the mountain! I was so excited! We had seven minutes to make it to the beginning of Wayna Picchu before their ticket expired. We made it and started our climb. The Incas built a trail up the side of the Wayna Picchu and built temples and terraces on its top. The peak of Wayna Picchu is about 2,720 meters (8,900 ft) above sea level, or about 360 meters (1,200 ft) higher than Machu Picchu. According to local guides, the top of the mountain was the residence for the high priest and the local virgins. Every morning before sunrise, the high priest with a small group would walk to Machu Picchu to signal the coming of the new day.
The climb was supposedly one of the hardest parts of the trek. You climb the 360 meters straight up using tall steps and often having to hold on to wire ropes that were placed there for safety. However, we didn't find the climb to be all that difficult. Maybe it was because we had just hiked four strenuous days, but we sped up Wayna Picchu. Once
at the top we looked down on Machu Picchu. It looked nothing like the large, grand building we had seen on the ground. It was tiny and appeared like a dwarf under Wayna Picchu mountain. I actually thought the view of Machu Picchu from this mountain was less special than everyone says it is, but I was still happy to do it. Once we were there, I wanted to do everything I could and see Machu Picchu in every way possible. After enjoying the sight and the ruins at the top, we descended Wayna Picchu and said our last farewell to the "Lost City of the Incas." It was time to catch a bus into the town of Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town). We boarded our bus and took the windy road to the town. There we had lunch and enjoyed a beer with our Irish friends before hopping on a train back to Cusco.
We arrived in Cusco, smelly and tired at about 9pm. I was exhausted. We checked into our dorm, showered and went to bed. Chris was leaving early the next morning to catch a flight to Lima and then home to the USA. He was
at the end of his adventure. We were very sad to see him go... the trio was no more. Jeff and I still had two weeks of traveling on our own through the rest of Peru and to Panama.
Jeff and I slept in that next day and transferred to a double room. We were planning on staying in Cusco a few more nights and then heading to Nazca to see the famous Nazca lines. We had a nice breakfast and then headed to an internet cafe to send emails and call home about the amazing time we had just had. That is when I got the news that would change the course of our next two weeks.
I am sad to write that this will be my last blog of the trip. Quite unexpectedly, my grandmother had a stroke and has passed away. I feel like this is an appropriate time to write a few things about my Grandma B... I 100 percent know that she is the reason I am here in Peru today. She took me abroad for the first time to Europe when I was 12 and helped to inspire my love for travel.
From that moment on, she has shared travel stories with me and encouraged me to see the world. She was the biggest supporter of this trip and it seems ironic that the end of this trip is also the end of her life. From the moment I began talking about this idea of seeing the world in a year she wanted me to share every part of it with her. I am just sad that I cannot share my stories with her now. She truly gave me my sense of adventure. The first time I traveled to New Zealand I had to bungee jump in Queenstown on the same bridge that she had jumped off a few years earlier. I had a dream of skydiving when I turned 18... and again, she shared that dream with me. My grandma picked me up, drove me to the airfield and jumped out of the plane with me. From the second I moved to San Diego, she took care of me with free laundry days and free Pat and Oscar’s lunches and free mani/pedis. When she first got sick, I was able to return some of the favors by stopping by and refilling
her pills each week and yelling at her when she didn’t take them. She had two sons and I was her only granddaughter. She let me borrow clothes and talked to me about where she got her hair done. I will miss my crazy, adventurous, traveling grandma. At least I know that where she is now she can see the entire world and can protect me in all my future travels.
The next few days were a whirlwind as we tried to get back to the US as quickly as possible. We flew from Cusco to Lima the next day, stayed at the Lima airport hotel and then flew home the day after that. Within 48 hours I went from planning the last two weeks of our year adventure, to being at home, with a nearly dead grandmother. I am so happy I was able to make it home to see her and say goodbye before she passed. It is only appropriate that the end of my adventure was the end of hers as well. What a crazy ride this year has been....
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Courtney
non-member comment
I can't tell you...
how many of us watched and lived through you this past year :o) Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.