The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

Day 2 of the Inca Trail was a brutal day of hiking that started at 5:30am. We started by getting our tickets to enter the trail, and crossing the river at the control point to get in. Impressively, my ticket had my name spelled wrong, wrong age, and they switched Mark´s and my passport number, but despite the closer scrutiny we were allowed to continue.

Our group consisted as 8 tourists, 1 guide (Henry), 1 cook, and 4 porters. The porters carry the food, tents, etc., and us tourists only had to carry a bag with our personal things, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat. The other tourists in our group consisted of Dane from Canada, Diedrick from Holland, and Mark and Michael from England. Lastly we were rounded out by Phillipe and Veronica, a couple from Belguim, which included the only girl in our group.

On the first day of hiking the trail the different groups get spread out over a bunch of different campgrounds. There are 500 tourists allowed on the Inca Trail each day. Our group had camped farther away from Machu Picchu than the rest of them, so on Day 2 we had to hike all the way up to Dead Woman´s Pass and down to the next campground, where almost all of the groups spent the second night. For the first part of the hike our group stayed together, but when the sun came out we really got spread out as everybody moved at their own pace. After a long lunch, we hiked the last way to the pass which was 2 hours of constant uphill\upstairs hiking to the top. 6 out of the 8 of us completed it in an hour and caught the group ahead of us, and then we waited over an hour for Diedrick and Michael to make it to the top after stopping for rest every 6 steps.

On day 3 we also got up at 5:30am, and we were making good time through the easier part of the trail and the ruins along the way that we decided to go all the way to Machu Picchu today. After lunch at the last campsite before Machu Picchu (this place actually had a store and hot water), we hiked the rest of the way through the Sun gate to Machu Picchu for sunset and then down to the nearby town of Aguas Caliente. Sore after 3 days of hiking, our group headed immediately to the hot springs in town to relax. After a few hours there, we head to a restaurant where we spent the night to have a spectacular dinner where our cook showed he knew how to use a kitchen when one was available. After being couped up in a tent for 2 days, we headed out into town for some drinks and even some dancing. On the way back to the restaurant, Dane, Diedrick, Mark, Mark and I challenged some locals to a 5v5 soccer match after finding some guys playing on a short concrete field. After falling way behind early, we finally started to click and tied it up before losing 9-8. After that I got an hour of sleep before heading back to Machu Picchu the next day.

Henry gave us the tour when we arrived, and then all of us tourists except Michael climbed to the top of Wayna Picchu, the adjoining mountain next to Machu Picchu. After hiking back to town we spent the day there before heading back to Cuzco on the train and bus.