The Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

I can distinctly remThe Inca trail to Machu Picchu.ember back in my 9th grade Spanish class studying Machu Picchu, one of the seven wonders of the world, and thinking that one day somehow I was going to go to Machu Picchu. It has been a dream ever since. Back then, the idea of visiting Peru seemed exotic and far stretched, I never would have thought back then that I would now find myself having lived on the border of Ecuador and Peru for almost two years.
I remember even back then thinking if I ever had the opportunity to go to Machu Picchu I would do the Inca trail, it only seems right to make a hard trek to see something so beautiful. Luckily Lesley also wanted to do the trail, and about 7 months ago we started planning our trip.
We have 9 vacations days to take, that means two days of travel to get there, one day to acclimatize to the high altitude, four days on the trail, and 2 days of travel back to site.
Being that we are sketched out by the border by our sites, we decided to fly to lima from Guayaquil and then from there we would catch a 22 hour bus ride to Cuzco. And let me just add in there, that I would take a 22 hour bus ride on those nice buses over my 14 hour bus ride to Quito any day! Nice big spacious chairs that recline, your own headphone set so you can choose if you want to listen to the movies, meals on board, and a little pillow and blanket, it was almost like being on a plane.
We arrived in Cuzco on Easter Sunday late at night, now since we´d been on a bus for 22 hours we didn’t quite realize it was Easter and as soon as we got to Cuzco hit the town for a night out… after all putting two volunteers living in small towns in a big city overrun by British pubs, chill bars, and international food restaurants is like two kids at Disney for the first time. It was only the next day that we realized ooh did we close the pubs on Easter Sunday?
That next day we spent waking around Cuzco trying to breath at the high altitude, walking in and out of markets, trying not to buy everything we saw, exploring the plazas and some of the ancient ruins, and eating some of the foods we´d been craving, for me gyros!!
On Tuesday morning at around 6AM we were picked up by the tour company and off to KM 88, where the Inca Trail starts. From there it would be four days and three nights of hiking a total of 42 km and climbing over 5,000 feet. Piece of cake right? Not to mention the 20 lb backpacks on our backs the whole way!
Of course being our luck, the rest of the group we were with got admitted to the trail and for some reason our passports were denied. We ended up waiting anxiously with one of the guides to get clearance and after about an hour finally were off on the trail! (I´m pretty sure in the end the check point guard was just paid off, no figures).

The first day we crossed the Urubamba river and saw the Llactapata archaeological site, an important site for the cultivation of food back in the Inca times. Then after lunch we hiked to Patallacta, one of the Inca villages. After about four hours of hiking we arrived to Huayllabamba, our campsite for the night. (Also, the beginning of me freezing to death, apparently a Florida girl now living in the desert heat of Ecuador does not do so good camping in the cold Andes in like 30 degrees weather, achachay!)
The second day we started our hike around 5 AM. This day we hiked for about 6-7 hours uphill climbing from 9,000 feet to dead women´s pass at 13,776 feet and then descending for an hour some 2,000 feet.
This is the description from the guide info for the day: ¨this is the most difficult part of the trek. You climb abruptly upwards until you reach Warmihuañusca Pass (literally means where the woman dies) at 13, 776 feet. You will arrive to Llullupampa half way, which is a good place to stop and rest as you need it for the last part of the climb. It is known as the smugglers route during the XIX century and is the only point along the way where you could become altitude sick. Normally there are strong winds and low temperatures up here. Once across the pass you will need additional rest to recover before the decent to the campsite. There are also very steep staircases, ones of which steps are almost vertical putting a heavy stain on everybody´s unprepared knees.¨
Yeah, that actually is a great description of the second day! It was cold and windy, a straight incline, altitude sickness is a bitch even chewing those coco leafs and hard candies doesn’t help, and those 3,000 cobblestone vertical steep stairs at the end leave you feeling like a dead woman after going through dead woman´s pass. But on the bright side the views were incredible, the mountain range breath taking, at the second pass a lady was selling M&Ms and other American candies, and you just had to keep reminding yourself, that you must get through the second day for the great ruins on the third day and machu picchu on the fourth day!

Day three also starts really early around 5 AM and is a long day of hiking, around 7 hours, but this is the day where you go through most of the ruins on the Inca Trail. The first ruin was Sayaqmarca known as ´the Dominant village,´ it is built on the side of a steep cliff and is a religious site for the Shaman (medical healer) of the Incas. Then we hiked to Conchamarka, a smaller site that was used as part of the Inca messenger system (they had messenger sites all along the trail and messengers would run the trail from site to site with messages from Cuzco to Machu Picchu for the royal family). From there continued hiking through some of the inca tunnels to Phuyupatamarca known as ´village about the clouds´ because is it in the cloud forest. It was a ceremonial site to perform purifications before continuing to Machu Picchu.
By this point we were dirty and exhausted, wet and cold, sore all over, but somehow at the same time filled with adrenaline knowing when we arrived to the last ruin we were at the campsite and close to entrance to the sun gate of Machu Picchu. I was so excited (and had no feeling left in my legs) that when I saw Wiñayhyayna in the distance I literally slid down the trail into a pile of mud (luckily my walking stick stopped me from going right off the trail!). Wiñayhuayna is huge, it was the last urban center before Machu Picchu and has multiple sections for religious ceremonies, guard towers, cultivation, and living quarters all built on the side of a mountain.
The last camp site had two public showers, and like everyone else on the trail it was well worth the wait for a 3 minute cold shower after 4 days of hiking and being dirty. We also had a big dinner and thank you celebration for the porters on the trail with us.
The next morning we started the trail around 4:00 AM, to be at the Sun Gate Intipunku which looks over Machu Picchu just as the sun was coming out. It was incredible reaching the sun gate, and seeing the first site of Machu Picchu in the distance. The Inca trail had taken us from the Andes to cloud forests into the Amazon. And here was Machu Picchu the hidden fortress that was never discovered during the conquest since it is so well hidden at the tip of a mountaintop surrounded by a cloud forest. Luckily, the day we arrived was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky! Just incredible views of Machu Picchu and the ruins! I don’t think the pictures I have can even do justice for how gorgeous the Inca ruins are on the trail and at Machu Picchu. That day I was like a kid on crack according to Lesley, with a huge smile on my face and content as could be to finally be at Machu Picchu!
After a full day of exploring the ruins, we dragged our sore bodies down to Agua Calientes and went to the oh-so-nice local hot springs before catching the night train back to Cuzco. From there we had an early afternoon bus back to Lima where we spent the night in a hostal in Miraflores, the nice beach front part of Lima. Now, I know I am a Peace Corps volunteer and easily impressed with just about anything, but this part of Lima really did impress me! It had nice grass parks, cliffs looking over the pacific ocean, and this great mall built into one of the cliffs, that had everything you could dream of eating, dunkin donuts, cinnabon, the cookie factory, sandwich shops, and best of all a starbucks!
If you haven’t put Machu Picchu on your bucket list of things to do, I strongly recommend it, it is truly incredible and unforgettable!