True Tales of Trekking in Peru, Vol. 2 – The Inca Trail

This is the 100,000,000th picture ever taken of Machu Picchu.

However, let’s backtrack to how I got here. 

Got KM82 all to ourselves (for about 30 minutes)!

I venture to say there is probably no glamping in the world quite like Machu Picchu glamping. Never heard MP is glamping? Well it is – total glamping by my standards. I mean, you still have to move your feet and the showers are cold (like for real ice cold) but it is just a few days and all you have to do is move your feet. This incredible group of people take care of everything else. Cook, clean, put up tent, lay out resting mats, pour water, pack up, move to next site, carry your crap (and all that extra crap you packed too), and for some groups, they’ll even carry you along the path if you’re completely out of steam. It’s just wild. But when tourism is your biggest industry and MP is your biggest attraction, you have to create as many jobs as possible – and this is one of the ways. I admit it was a bit hard to wrap my head around the whole affair and by our standards the whole process raises alot of questions, but as our guide explained, they are jobs. Maybe not great jobs, but jobs nevertheless, and they are welcomed as that. Jobs that pay. It was also a relief that our guys were super friendly and happy and laughed alot, so even if it was hard work, they did seem grateful. Ok, you can ponder that over dinner. Moving on to those footsteps…. 

Two suggestions for you should you do this trek someday: 1. Always wear two pairs of socks (suggestion from Mark Adams – remember that book I keep mentioning…..) and 2. Use hiking sticks. Follow these two suggestions and you will thank me later. 

I’ll be honest. I’ve done day hikes in the past – mostly in Big Bend, but never overnight treks. And never to the elevations that this hike was going. But hey, it seems like everyone has done this hike so it can’t be that bad, right? 

The first day hike is about 7.5 miles. It’s a pretty gradual incline and starts to get your head out of the city and onto the trail. You share this part of the trail with donkeys, motorcycles and the local villages along the trail. There are still homes in the park because the families were there before the park was created. Today the mostly exist selling Red Bull and M&Ms to the hikers – and charging S/1 (one Peruvian sol – about $.30) to use the bano (bathroom). It was an easy couple of hours hike to the lunch spot when we realized the full extent of amount of food we were going to be offered during this hike. As we sat at our lunch table I watched not one, not two, not three – no my friends, I watched FOUR of our porters walking towards us with trays of food. I almost fell out of my chair. It was crazy. So much food – juices, soups, potatoes, vegetables, meats (not for me!), and more. Each meal three times a day. Just crazy amounts of food. Each meal – exactly the same. More food than the two of us and our guide could eat. And the food was fantastic.  We kept telling them it was too much food but apparently the cook knew we liked the food and his way of showing his appreciation for us liking his food was to make even more. And round we went.(I also think it’s possible that each tour has a set ration of food and you get the same amount whether there are 2 or 16 and they just don’t know how to adjust it but it worked in our favor this time). No doubt a crazy but sweet process of appreciation albeit perhaps a bit lost in translation lol. Thankfully Ivan told me the porters got to eat any leftovers as snacks (and I hope that is true) because we ate as much as we could until it hurt each meal (to show our appreciation) but there was still half a table of food left. I now believe it is possible to hike to MP over 4 days and actually gain weight. 

 This was lunch, ‘happy hour’ (which is hot chocolate and snacks) and dinner. – Day 1. Seriously, for two people….

The MP hike is really all about Day 2 – the infamous Dead Woman’s Pass at 13,779 ft. This is how it goes – up at 530AM – hike up 5 hours – something like up 4,000 ft elevation then after the pass, down 3,000 ft elevation then up 3,000 ft again, because why the hell not at this point. This is also where you have to worry about altitude sickness. Thankfully no problems for us and we saw our first Alpacas so it was all worth it. This is also where you 1) learn to hike – zigzag on the up, sidestep on the down and 2) find your zen – life becomes one step at a time. If you mind is anywhere other than in pure enjoyment of the feeling of putting your foot on the ground, you’re probably going to go crazy. So zigzag – zen, repeat x 11 hours. 

That little notch in the middle is the infamous Pass.

This is not Dead Woman’s pass, but it is a cool pic 🙂

ALPACA!!!!!!!

I swear, they might be the real reason to hike the Inca Trail.

And these were easy stairs….

But I made it! Time – 10AM, Day 2.

Now only 7 more hours to go….

But haha my friends. Made it to the top? Excited about going down? Ok, but there’s a catch. It’s nothing but rock. Big rocks. And sometimes big rocks that look like stairs but they’re really just big rocks. Ok, ready? Vamos.

It’s like Bikram Yoga really. About 30 minutes into it you’re so tired all you can do is exactly what they tell you to do and try to not think. Same here – all you can really do is just put one foot down at a time (sideways is better) and try to not think. If you do  think you’re likely to fall and lose a couple of teeth in the process. And that was the next 7 hours of the day. Remember that zen thing. Yep right now is that time. One step – no thoughts. Next step – no thoughts. But then the zen master appeared with another test. 

 Rain. 

 Yes my friends, a couple thousand feet downhill on rocks, in rain. You will never find a better environment to enhance your enlightenment than right now. If you don’t, you probably don’t have a chance. So the Day 2 MP experience has led me to declare the Inca Trail the best hike to find your zen. Who knew?

The green ponchos work the best I’m told

Day 2 ended with MORE ALPACA (or are those llamas? I still can’t tell the difference)!!!! and another feast – which made it all worth it. Goodnight.

 Day 3 is a short hike day – only 5 hours. Sounded super easy after Day 2 but each day has a special surprise and today offered two – a rainy start and more of those crazy rocky steps. A bunch up and a bunch down. The reward for finding your zen again on Day 3 though was the most spectacular ruins yet along the trek. Now usually my post would be a little better with some names and details of what these ruins were but my phone decided to opt out of this process for the extent of the trek so I couldn’t take notes. So below – please enjoy a bunch of pictures of really cool, pretty important Inca sites along the trail. If you ever go, please send me your notes 😉

You finish Day 3 around lunch time and have the afternoon to contemplate what you’ve just accomplished and hype yourself up for Day 4 – the final stretch to the Sun Gate and the first view of Machu Picchu itself. You also get to celebrate the journey with your crew – and it was super cute. Wilbur 1 made a cake y’all – a full on cake with icing and it weighed like 5 lbs. I can’t imagine the effort that took but it was SOOO good there was no room for dinner afterwards. (Yes, we got the cake before dinner – because we are celebrating after all). 

Then Wilbur made the biggest meal yet – it was just too much and the guides got to come eat with us and help finish it all. No kidding – even with six of the eight porters joining us there were still leftovers! They were such funny guys and it was a great few days with them. After the meal ends the night wraps up quickly. The next morning the porters head out at 330AM downhill for 2 hours with all the gear to catch their free train home (if they miss it they have to walk – again things to think about…) and we get up to start hiking at 530AM to get to the Sun Gate by 7AM. So hasta mañana and see you at Machu Picchu!

Gracias amigos!