Peru & Galapagos 2016: Trek to Machu Picchu

I'm We're up early once again to meet our driver and guide at 6:00. We're off to do a one day hike into Machu Picchu. Our driver takes us to the train station at Ollantaytambo. The station is surprisingly clean. There are a couple of stray dogs in the reception room begging for handouts. Our guide tells us there are also stray dogs that hang out at the entrance/exit area of Machu Picchu that are so well fed they do not eat bread, only the meat in the sandwich.

The train has modern cars with roof windows.

They serve us breakfast on the train on funky table mats. Breakfast is a pastry with a quinoa filling.

Unfortunately, it turns out that it looks better than it tastes.

We pass through some great scenery and a tunnel or two and get off at Kilometer 104, the start of the one day Inca Trail hike into Machu Picchu. There is no platform--it's a long way from the last step of the train to the ground.

We cross over the Vilcanota River and go through the control gate, they match my passport info with my entry ticket. We use the (marginal) facilities and Atilio tries to find our porters who will be carrying our personal effects that we have repackage from our suitcases for our stay in the Machu Picchu area. We will reconnect with our suitcases in Cuzco 4 days later.

Porters are used extensively to carry tents, bags and other supplies in the 4 day hike. Historically there were no regulations to keep them safe and many of them would carry loads in the 35kg range over a 4 day hike. Now there are regulations in place; the maximum load is 20kg. Our porters:

We start off on the trail around 9:00. The first ruin is less than 100 steps away. Chachabamba is a group of buildings with a main ceremonial plaza. Atilio explains the uses of the various structures and points out architectural features such as this niche in the wall which would have fitted a piece of wood for the roof structure. Parts of Chachabamba are being restored. The walls are constructed of field stones that are fitted and mortised in place.

Then we start climbing stairs. A lot of stairs. The trail in the first section is dirt; stairs are generally easy to navigate, but are very uneven in both height and width of the step. Stonework can be either missing or rough; you have to look at the ground 99% of the time or risk falling.

It was hard work. I know now that the trail was 9.6km and rose about 800 meters. Hard at sea level, even harder at 8,000 feet. I didn't know that when I was preparing for the trip; in hindsight I would have trained a lot more. The first time I asked the guide how high we had climbed he said about 100 metres. That was a surprise to me as we were one eighth of the altitude requirements and I was already pretty tired. I wondered if I was going to make it.

There were some points going up those many steps I just concentrated on putting one step in front of the other. And there were many many many rest stops. There were several groups on the trail and we would keep leapfrogging some of them along the way. One group was a team of yo-yo masters. Every time they stopped, they would pull out their yo-yos. They were very good and I would have enjoyed them a lot more, if I wasn't so out of breath.

At 11:45 we arrived at our lunch break spot, by a beautiful waterfall. It's much higher than the picture but I thought I'd show the little bridge we crossed over on. There was a lovely bagged lunch for us with about 8 different items in them. Judith and I both ate maybe two or three of the items and donated the remainder to our porters. There was so much food in those packages, we could have shared one and still have some left over.

After lunch I felt refreshed and ready to carry on again. I'm guessing we had another 150-200 meters to climb. Along the way were some very pretty views of the Vilcanota River valley as we skirted the hillside. In this picture you can make out the trail we took midway up on the hillside facing you.

The path eventually leads to the Winya Wayna ruins. This is a massively large place. We could see it in the distance from the trail and could see that it was large, but seeing up close confirms its immense size. The distant view:

We came up a long flight of stairs that started about midway up the structure. You should be able to make out the trail coming to the site on the other side and the stairs go up to the level where those tiny people are standing. You walk across the structure to get to the side where I took this picture.

After this part we're now officially on the main Inca trail.

The path is now paved in stone. It's uneven. Coupled with the uneven stairs, it's a tough hike because there's no "give" to your footstep. We hit a checkpoint gate and we're ever so close to our destination.

We're still climbing higher. There is a section of stairs that is so steep, you can use your hands on the steps to help you up. Judith called it the "gringo killer". I have no idea why I'm smiling in this picture. There was no joy involved with this section.

Not long after this section, Atilio indicated that the Sun Gate was just at the end of the next hill. It would be the highest point of the trek. I motored up and voila, an amazing, spectacular vista appeared.

I'm convinced pictures can never do justice to seeing something in person. It's the scale of these ruins that makes you wonder how it could have ever been built with the limited tools they had at hand. And on the peak just behind the main ruins, is another set of ruins at the very top known as Huayna Picchu.

Shortly after, Judith appeared and we took this celebratory "We did it" picture. We finished in 6.5 hours, well within the average time frame for this trek.

The Sun Gate also had a few other people admiring the vista.

We stand here for a while and then make the long trek down to pick up the bus ride down. We take more pictures on the way out because it's so unbelievable.

While making our way out, we discover that that last bus is in 15 minutes, so we speed up the last half kilometer and arrive in time to catch the bus. I time how long it takes to get down the hill: 14 minutes. The bus arrives at Aguas Calientes, the village at the bottom of the hill. There are no cars here; there is only train service in and out of the village.

Our hotel is the Sumaq Machu Picchu. It is one of the finest hotels I've stayed at, particularly in terms of service. When we arrived, Judith came to the counter and said who she was. The clerk's response was that "yes, we know" and she meant it. We gave them our passports (this is required for check-ins) and then we were invited to have a seat in the reception area. A clerk came out and offered steamed face towels for Judith, Atilio and I. And then another came out and served up some ice tea. (You could tell it wasn't a mix.) And then another came out and offered up some fancy snack treats.

One of the clerks came back with our passports and another came back with the paperwork to sign. So far there were 5 different clerks that had attended to us. We're told there is a complementary afternoon tea with snacks from 3:00 to 4:30 every afternoon. Then there is a complementary Pisco Sour drink everyday in the bar from 5:00 to 6:00. Or you can sign up for a cooking lesson to learn how to make a Pisco Sour and a dish called Cheviche (which I signed up for.)

The room is big and has a balcony with a three panel sliding glass door overlooking the river. Here are some shots: