Blogs from Inca Trail, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 42

The Inca Trail is a 43km 4 day hike throught the Andes starting at Km82 and finishing at Machu Picchu the most famous and beautiful Inca ruins in the world. There was 15 in our group, almost all over 25, and we would spend the 4 days negotiating the trail with expert knowledge supplied by our amazing and charming guide Omar, who may be the best Peruvian ever. I knew before signing up it was going to be hard with the second day featuring a 1200m ascent called Dead Womens pass and the third day involving 3600 steps (very loosely applied term, its a very steep rocky trail) down the mountain nick named Gringo Killer due to the amount of serious injuries suffered by tourist. All this at an altitiude which peaked at 4300m and temperatures ... read more

Having arrived in Peru´s capital Lima, we spent 2 days touring the city, sampling the local cuisine, trying to master a traditional Peruvian dance (in front of 200 diners) and avoiding the local pick-pockets!! From here we took a 2 hour flight to the real heart of Peru - the sacred city of Cusco. Here we felt like we were experiencing our first slice of authentic South American culture: the locals wore their traditional multi-coloured dress, mothers carried babies on their backs wrapped in hand made rugs, llamas wandered on the hillsides and old, toothless ladies huddled together boiling corn on the plaza steps and children competing to make the next finger puppet, belt, hat or postcard sale. (It was hard to resist their cute selling tactics and to stop Anna from wanting to adopt every ... read more

The Inca Trail is a 45km path from 'KM 82', the starting point, to Machu Picchu, the Lost Inca City, and the highlight of all the Inca ruins in Peru. Agua Calientes is a small town at the very bottom of the world-famous historical site, and it is possible to take a train to here and catch a half-hour bus up to Machu Picchu. However the trail, which includes 1000m climbs and descents and takes 4 days and 3 nights, is much, much easier. It is the latter that we were to attempt on the latest leg of our Quest. Day 1 With fantastic foresight, Eleni and I bought bamboo walking sticks at the entrance, to spare our knees the clattering that thousands of downhill steps would bring. You need a passport to do the trail, ... read more

Today is supposed to be the longest walk of the trail, and again I agree to that. Much more downhill though than the other days, some people do say that its harder as there are lots of downhill steps, and its pretty hard on your knees. We started at 8am. The first part was uphill, and we stop for our first sight of an Incan Ruin. We then climb the rest of the way to the top of the mountain, 30 mins or so, and then begin the huge descent. It really is all steps too all the way down. The weather had a mixture of hot sun and rain. There is always mist too rolling quickly off the mountains. After a couple of hours walking, we reach a few more bigger Incan ruins, and have ... read more

We left Ollantaytambo at 8am, and made the 45 minute drive to the first checkpoint of the Inca Trail. At the checkpoint you have your passport stamped and they check your visa to allow you to undertake the trail. Heading the the trail for us was Julio, and four other guides. We are also accompanied by Porters ( who are mostly local farmers who do the trail 5 times a month!!! ), who carry our luggage ( 5kgs ), and all the other equipment we need for camping ( food, tents, cooking eqiupment etc etc ). These porters carry around 20kgs each. They are completely unreal! The first day of the trail is ok, the weather is humid and there aren´t too many climbs to go up. However because of the altitude, it is harder to ... read more