We made it! We arrived back in Cusco last night after 4 days and 3 nights hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It was an amazing and difficult trek which can be summed up with a few central themes: rain, sore muscles, sweat and beautiful views of the Andes.
Day One
Our group consisted of myself, mein Schatz, mein Schatz‘s father, and two quiet Frenchmen. We were picked up at our hotel the morning of the first day, and more or less shuttled to the beginning of the trek, which is about 82 km outside of Cusco. The first day is usually dubbed the “easy” day, and it actually was. We only hiked 10 km, up and down steep hillsides, and we saw a view of one ruin. There was rain in the morning, which cleared up for beautiful views in the afternoon.
Day Two
The second day of the trek is appropriately dubbed the “hard” day, which is the understatement of the year. We got a wake-up call at 5am, so we could begin our climb of 1200 meters early in the day. We climbed for 4 straight hours up steep Inca steps, from about 3300 meters (9,900 feet) to 4500 meters (13,500 feet) — and even though we were in good physical shape, the change in altitude makes you short of breath and adds to the difficulty.
I have to say the climb up was really challenging, but I felt good mentally and physically. But the 2 hour, knee-jarring climb down thousands of steep Inca steps to our camp was more challenging. My legs were pretty sore already and so my knees revolted on the way down. This portion took me much longer to complete than the rest of my group, and so I found this portion of the trek to be much more difficult mentally. Once we arrived at the camp, we had a high carbohydrate lunch, and spent the rest of the day recovering from that day’s trek.
Day Three
The third day is known as the “beautiful” day, and that it definitely is. Again we arose at 5am, and began our day trekking in the rain and making good use of all our waterproof gear. Although we started with a 400 meter climb, the rest of the trek was not as hard as the previous day — although with my stiff quads and calves, I was moving slower than I had on the first day. We saw a lot of Inca ruins along the 16 km we hiked on this day, and though I don’t remember them all by name right now, I’ll make sure to look them up when I post the pictures.
The sun came out that afternoon and the vistas of the Andes Mountains were so grand and sweeping — definitely giving me feelings of humbleness and joy. We reached our camp by 4:30 pm, where we celebrated making it through the hardest part of the trek, and anticipated our visit to Machu Picchu the next day.
Day Four
Of course, the fourth day is Machu Picchu day — and we arose at 4 am in order to make it to the first check point by 5:30 am. Train loads of “day trippers” arrive at Machu Picchu around 9am, and part of the benefit of spending four days hiking is to make it to Machu Picchu before the masses arrive. We hiked through the rain for a couple of hours, rushing to get there as fast as we could, and we reached there around 8 am.
By this time, the clouds began to clear, and I was overwhelmed with awe at being in this sacred place. Having hiked three and a half days to reach this place builds in a special level of anticipation and I was thoroughly in amazement. What a beautiful city! Built in almost complete isolation in the middle of the Andes, you come to feel that it could not have been built any place else. As the train loads of clean tourists began to arrive, those of us who had hiked (and who reaked of sweat and were covered in mud) felt a special connection to this place.
Today we are in Cusco, have dropped off all of our muddy and sweaty clothing to be washed, and have arranged some tours of the Sacred Valley for the next few days.
Thanks for your e-mails and comments, and I will do my best to post again when I have the chance!
More about our adventures in Peru: