South America Part 6: Inca Trail
7/18: Inca Trail Part 1
We woke up at 5am for our pickup to Ollantaytambo. After making a brief stop at a bathroom/convenience store, we rode onwards to Km82, the starting point of our hike. Here, Guido gave us our sleeping bags and inflatable sleeping pads that we would be carrying and using. While we had to carry these and our personal things, a team of porters carried our tents, food, and water. After one last trip to the bathroom, we set off for the Inca Trail along with a German/Thai family of 4, rounding out our group size to 8. Accordingly, we had a total of 9 porters; one per person and one for the guide.
The Inca Trail is a 4 day/3 night hike through the Andes which ends at the Ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. While our eventual destination loomed gloriously in our minds, our first experience was considerably more modest. First off, there were tons of midges. While we were at a high enough altitude to not have to worry about mosquito-borne illnesses like yellow fever or malaria, the midges were quite annoying as they flew around our faces. I had brought a mosquito face net, which helped, but as Anish said, made me look like I was being quarantined.
Something else we noticed relatively quickly was the fact that the trail had a lot of mule poop on it. While tourists cannot use mules or horses on the trail, locals who live along this area can use the animals to help transport goods. While dodging mules and mule poop wasn’t our favorite activity, the trail itself captured our attention with gorgeous mountains and a surging river running parallel to our path.
Along the way, we saw quite a few interesting types of flowers and other plants. The trail had many cactuses flowering red and yellow, spiky bromeliad plants, and various other flowers. One cactus leaf was heavily infected by the parasitic insects that were used in Chinchero to use red dye. After a couple hours, we stopped for lunch.
Going into this trail, I expected food to be sparse and extremely vegetarian-unfriendly. Our first meal on the trail immediately dispelled this notion. First off, by the time we had arrived at the lunch site, the porters, who had traversed the trail much more quickly than we had, had set up a dining tent with a divider to separate their kitchen area from our sitting area. Our lunch itself started with a tasty pumpkin soup, then moved on to eggs and a dish combining guacamole, a white bean stew, and rice. This latter dish was super filling and felt like it was some sort of Peruvian comfort food. After relaxing and digesting for 20 minutes, we continued on.
As the day continued, the temperature rose substantially. I removed a puffy vest, quarter zip, and hiking pants to hike in just shorts and a t-shirt. This was compounded by the fact that we had begun our first fairly uphill stretch. After a particularly difficult section, we came to a small rest area with benches and a beautiful view of the mountains and valley. After taking some pictures, we continued.
Abhijit: “When we reached the top of a hill, near one of the villages along the trail, a little girl came up to us and started playing with us! At some point, she took Keshav’s water bottle and started to run off with it, but left it further along our path.”
After struggling both with the altitude and exertion, we finally made it to our first substantial Inca ruin: Llactapaca. This ruin was lower down along a mountain we had peaked, so we were able to have a good view of the site. This site was a tambo, or resting place, for Chasqui runners. It had several residential huts along with large agricultural terraces. The Inca people tended to make cities shaped like animals or symbols, and this one was no exception. The border of Llactapaca was wavy to resemble a snake, and a large natural rock represented the snake’s head.
We continued our hike through lush forests until we came to a small green bridge. After crossing this, we came to our first campsite. This was an area with several homes belonging to local people. We passed by the homes and several semi-stray cats on our way to the tents. After setting up our sleeping arrangements. we drank hot chocolate and ate dinner. Afterwards, night had fallen, and the sky was full of stars. We used our headlamps to navigate our tents and the bathrooms and went to sleep by around 9pm.
7/19: Inca Trail Part 2
While yesterday’s 10km hike had been described as a beginner warm-up day, today was considered the hardest day of the hike entirely. Unfortunately, our first night of camping hadn’t left us as well rested as we hoped. The sleeping bags and pads were generally fine, but we were woken up at around 3am by a crowing rooster. While it eventually quieted down, we continued to be disturbed several times over the next couple hours.
Keshav: “Given the unfamiliar sleeping arrangements, Anish and I tossed and turned for hours before finally falling asleep. It was our first night, so we were unsure how we would be woken up; all we had been told was that our porters would wake us up. After what seemed like only moments since we had closed our eyes, we were stirred awake by the sound of a crowing rooster. Confused, I wondered if this might be our wake up call, thinking that one of the porters was making a crowing noise. However, this sound was remarkably similar to that of an actual rooster crowing. Thankfully I had my watch handy and quickly and sadly realized that it was not in fact our wake up call, as the time was 3 in the morning. I heard puzzled stirrings from Varun and Abhijit’s tent a few feet over, and in order to remedy any more confusion, I yelled over Anish to their tent:
‘Varun, go back to sleep, it’s 3 AM! It’s a fucking rooster!’
Afterward, I took it upon myself to frighten the rooster away so that we could take advantage of the few remaining hours of sleep. However, the moment I exited my tent, the perpetrator became silent, rendering my efforts useless. A couple restless hours later, we were gently and kindly woken up by the porters who came bearing hot tea and smiles.”
After properly getting up a bit after 5am, we all took a visit to the worst toilet we’d had to use yet. It had a bowl, but no real seat cover, so we had to squat and use our own toilet paper we had brought. While this was a somewhat harrowing experience, our collective group spirit helped us push through. We ate breakfast, spotted some green and purple hummingbirds around camp, then started our hike.
Our hike today started with a long uphill portion which would take us up 1200 meters in elevation to a pass between two mountains called Dead Woman’s Pass. The first of three uphill portion was difficult, but Abhijit and I along with the other family’s son were the first to make it to the first rest stop. As we approached it, one of the porters came running ahead of the rest of the group and took the son back earlier in the trail with him. When Anish, Keshav, and Guido made it to the rest point, we found out from them that the other family would be turning back as the mom was struggling with the exertion. However, we would likely meet up with them at Machu Picchu as they would come by train. We took some pictures at the rest stop then continued.
The second stretch of the trail was much steeper than the first portion, and all of us struggled. As there were only 4 of us with the guide, we stayed together. Soon we realized why this stretch had such lush, rainforest-like vegetation. The rain came down, at first on-and-off, but later more heavily and consistently. While we had rain jackets and backpack covers, the rain was still demoralizing and made this already tough segment even tougher. Finally we got to camp and sat down for lunch.
After lunch, we started our third and final uphill stretch of the day. While this was more gradual, it would take us from 3800 meters to 4200 meters, so the altitude effects were more severe. We played contact on the way up to keep our minds off the climb. My favorite exchange was using the clue water cat snake to refer to an otter. Along the way, we saw llamas wandering the mountain slopes.
At some point, the rain returned, but this time with hail. This luckily cleared up pretty soon and we were rewarded for our efforts with the appearance of a rainbow through the mountains. Finally, we reached the top of Dead Woman’s Pass. This was a saddle-shaped structure between two mountain peaks, and was located at over 4200 meters of elevation. From here, we climbed a bit up part of one of the peaks for a better view of the way up we had come and the way down we would go.
Our way down was trickier than expected as the rocks were slippery from the earlier rain. However, the path itself was beautifully constructed from many different colors of stone, and the falling sun peaking through clouds made the sky beautiful. Along this way, Guido pointed out the first orchids we had seen along the path! As we admired the orchids and more of the interesting moss and lichens covering the boulders, the sun slowly fell behind the mountains and the rock path grew darker. For fear of falling, we pulled out headlamps and finished the last 20 minutes by their light.
After the tough day we had had, Guido pulled out a surprise! Because this night was by far the coldest night, he made a special “tea” with rum to warm us up. With the altitude and physical exhaustion, it didn’t take more than a few sips for me to feel ready to pass out.
7/20: Inca Trail Part 3
This campsite was more of an actual campsite with many rows of tents for the roughly 200 tourists and 300 porters hiking the trail. Accordingly, our bathroom situation was “hole of doom”. There was a concrete building with a couple smelly stalls, each of which simply had a hole in the ground to squat over. Once again, we survived the experience through group encouragement.
Today’s trek was less steeply inclined, but had the longest total amount of walking at 16km. Guido claimed that it would be the most beautiful both in terms of Incan sites and natural landscapes. After waking up and eating breakfast, we immediately took a steep 400m ascent towards the first of two mountain passes for the day (second of three passes for the whole trail). This was the first time during the trail where we hiked along side many of the other hikers, as we had all camped in relative proximity.
My legs were sore from the day before, a fact which was very clear to me through the climb. Along the way, we stopped at an Incan site called Runkurakay, which was shaped like a ceremonial Incan knife. Slightly further up, we also passed a shallow mountain lagoon.
Once we got to the top of this second pass, we were able to get a much better view both of the Incan site’s overall shape and the lagoon. We then went to the top of one of the peaks adjacent to the pass. Here, Guido led us through an Incan religious ritual with coca leaf offerings. Next, we started to head down from the pass and soon came to another Incan site. Here, Guido pointed out a large natural rock which had been carved to resemble the running form of a Chasqui runner. The site also had carved Incan water fountains and several piles of llama poop. The poop showed how little care the llamas had for where they wandered.
Next we had a hike to our lunch campsite. My already sore legs had gotten even more fatigued, and I was very ready to sit for lunch. After eating, we had a tradition where each of our porters introduced themselves, and we introduced ourselves to them. One of them was over 60 years old and still would carry huge loads much faster along the trail than we could.
Anish: “I was blown away by the hard-working attitudes of our porters. Furthermore, they were all incredibly respectful, genuine, and kind men. Each porter was carrying twice (or thrice) as much weight as each one of us and looking after our every need, yet there was never a time that I noticed any porter complaining or slacking off. Shoutout to all the porters who helped us along our hike!”
After this, we had a relatively relaxed and level hike to the third and final mountain pass. This hike passed next to another Inca site along with tons of lush greenery including bamboo. Here, Guido actually showed us how the moss absorbed runoff water, helping filter it and prevent erosion to Inca sites. This was also the first portion of the trail where we walked along an actual Inca trail with original stones, and where we got to pass through an Inca tunnel. In some spots, the trail seemed to be carved directly out of the mountain or terraced to prevent erosion.
The next pass was a popular campsite, so it was inundated with tents and generally smelled like sewage. We didn’t stay very long, but Guido pointed out that we could actually see Aguas Calientes, the town closest to Machu Picchu. As a result, we were actually able to get mobile data, for the first time since Day 1 morning!
On the way down from the third pass, we came across another Inca site called Phuyupatamarka. Guido pointed out that this site had specific rooms meant for use in astronomy. Afterwards, we had a couple hours left to go downhill until our campsite, so we decided to half run down the steps, which actually reduced force on our joints. After around 40 minutes, we stopped at a small Incan site to take a break before continuing.
Along the way, we came across spiraling series of steps and another Incan tunnel. After another 45 minutes, we reached our last Inca site before the campsite: Intipata. This was a huge collection of agricultural terraces from which we had an amazing view of the valley and Urubamba river. Guido arrived a few minutes after we had and explained that the site contained 70% original material in contrast to the 20–35% original material present in many of the other sites we had seen which had needed reconstruction.
We headed the last 30 minutes down to our camp. At one point, the path was actually blocked by several llamas. We finally arrived at around 5:20, which was just enough time to drop our bags and walk 10 minutes further to the site Wiñaywayna. This site closed at 5:40, so Guido hadn’t been sure if we’d make it, but we had gone quickly down the earlier downhill portion. This was by far the most beautiful site we had seen (and was 75% original). The collection of buildings and terraces were beautifully organized and illuminated by the sun setting behind an endless collection of mountains.
Finally we went back for dinner and to head to sleep. This was our warmest night camping, so we were able to sleep without our heavy sleeping bags. It was also the first camp where we had data due to our proximity to Machu Picchu, so we took advantage of the opportunity to call friends and family. This was also the last night we would see our porters as they had to catch an early train from Aguas Calientes to Cusco, so we thanked each of them before heading to bed.
7/21: Inca Trail Part 4
While the other campsites had been painfully cold at times, I still preferred that to what we had here. When first trying to sleep, it was warm enough that I got fairly sweaty. However, after a couple hours, temperatures dropped steeply and I was left feeling clammy and cold. Luckily I didn’t have to deal with this for very long as we were up by 3am to make sure we could save a spot in line for our Machu Picchu checkpoint.
On this 4th day, we would finally reach our destination of Machu Picchu. However, before being allowed onto the final stretch of trail, we had to have our Machu Picchu entrance tickets checked by guards at a checkpoint just a few minutes walk away from our camp. While this checkpoint opened at 5:30, people started lining up far earlier, and only the first 20–30 people got seats while waiting. Also, since our porters had a train to catch, we wanted to be out of our tents by around 3:30 so they could pack the tents and take them.
Luckily, we were early enough to get the last actual seats in line. We dropped off our backpacks with Gudio to save our place then went to brush our teeth and use the bathroom. After this, we waited for around another hour until the checkpoint opened.
This portion of the hike was somewhat tightly packed, but quiet and dark as the sun had yet to rise. We walked quite fast and were able to pass several other hikers and ended up being one of the first few to reach the Sun Gate. Along the way, we had to get through the “Gringo Killers”: 50 steps steep enough that we were using hands and feet to climb them. Once we reached the Sun Gate, we had our first view of Machu Picchu. We took a few pictures, then hurried down to be one of the first to reach the site.
After heading down for some time, we started to come across people who were actually on their way up. My first reaction was that these people looked so clean and neat and not battered. They wore put-together outfits and were taking overly posed pictures. Then I realized, they were tourists who had taken a train to Aguas Calientes and bus to Machu Picchu and were just hiking up to Sun Gate! As we continued down and ran into more of the non-trail tourists, some of them looked curiously at our giant backpacks and general worn down look. We heard their guides tell them that we were real campers and had hiked for days along the Inca Trail to get here. This made us feel like superheroes.
Finally, we made it to Machu Picchu. In the early morning light, the archaeological site looked unreal. Surrounded by steep mountains, the ancient city was far more complete and complex than any of the other sites we had seen. As we approached from the above, we took what Guido referred to as “postcard pictures” before heading downwards and out of the site through another checkpoint. Apparently, large backpacks aren’t allowed for extended time in Machu Picchu as they carry a higher risk of accidental damage.
We dropped our bags off at a storage place outside the checkpoint and waited as Guido tried to find the family we had begun our hike with, as they were going to meet us for a tour of the site. After around an hour, we found them, but they had lost the mom, so we just went on the tour on our own with Guido.
With this tour, we were finally able to understand the intricate details and organization of Machu Picchu. Guido pointed out the urban, farming, residential, educational, and religious areas of the city. The more he explained, the more immersive the experience felt, as if we were walking through a functioning city rather than just ancient ruins.
Some of the cool features Guido pointed out included one of Machu Picchu’s 16 water fountains, different styles and qualities of architecture, mortar and pestle stones, the king’s private quarters, and more. After the tour, we took a bus to Aguas Calientes to have our last lunch with Guido. This was at a relatively touristy and expensive restaurant, but it was nice to have our last time with Guido before we had to say goodbye.
Next we headed to our hotel. As we walked the streets, we realized that Aguas Calientes is truly a tourist town. Every restaurant had some small variation of the same food and happy hour deals, and each had its own greeter outside making jokes and trying to pull you in to eat there. Our tour agency had scheduled us a night in Aguas Calientes with the reasoning that we wouldn’t have enough time to make a train the same day we arrived at Machu Picchu and that we would need another day to see more of the site on our own. However, we finished our lunch by 1pm, and the train we were taking the next day was at 4:45pm. Also, Guido took us through just about the entire site, and we weren’t sure how much more we’d get out of wandering on our own.
After dropping our things at our hotel and looking up things to do, we decided to visit the town’s natural hot springs, but these ended up being disappointingly smelly, crowded, and not even very hot. On the way back, Keshav wound up his towel to hit Anish, but as he did, his sunglasses fell off his shirt. When they hit the ground, a lens popped out, and in a very unlikely turn of events, slipped through a 5mm wide crack in the bridge.
Afterwards, we showered, ate dinner, then watched the only English movie we found coming on TV: After Earth. It was not amazing. The experience was improved by a crema volteada we picked up on our way home.
Abhijit: “I have a huge sweet tooth, and always take the opportunity to try new desserts when I’m traveling. On this trip, courtesy of our friend Naomi, I had a list of Peruvian desserts that we wanted to try. I wasn’t able to try any in Lima, but was able to try a couple during the Sacred Valley tours and the remainder in Aguascalientes after the Incan Trail. Below is the list and where we tried each one.
- Suspiro a la limeña — A layered dessert with a creamy meringue layer on top, a thick condensed milk-esque layer, and (in the case we tried) a thin layer of honey at the bottom. I actually had the chance to try a donut of this flavor at a Dunkin Donuts in Lima not long after I arrived in Peru, but tried the real thing in a cafe in Aguascalientes. It was super sweet, but I liked it enough to get a second one.
- Alfajores -Two soft cookies with dulce de leche in between, sometimes covered in chocolate. We first tried this at the aforementioned cafe in Aguascalientes. I really enjoyed these — they reminded me somewhat of iced sugar cookies, which I’m also a huge fan of. We ended up having many more of these throughout the trip. We also tried chocolate covered variants in La Paz and on the bus to Salta.
- Arroz con Leche — A rice pudding, similar in concept to payasam or kheer in India but flavored very differently (a lot more cinnamon, a lot less cardamom, among other things). Varun also tried an ice cream of this flavor in San Pedro de Atacama.
- Crema Volteada — Similar to flan. We tried this in the aforeforementioned cafe in Aguascalientes. Varun and I both really liked this.
- Mazamorra Morada — A purple corn pudding that’s thick and sweet. We tried this in the Tunupa Restaurant in the Sacred Valley.
- Picarones — Similar to donuts, but served coated in honey. We found this at a concessions/street food stall near a sports field in Aguascalientes. They were rather good and quite cheap.”
7/22: Inca Trail Epilogue
We woke up early for our day of exploring Machu Picchu at leisure. We took more fun pictures before heading up to the top of the site to go see the Inca military bridge at the top of the site. We had missed the Incan sundial during yesterday’s tour because it’s only open during certain times of day, so we headed over to see it.
On the way, Anish looked out from a staircase and shouted out, “Marco Antonio?”. We all looked out, and there he was, the man, the myth, the legend, leading a tour group of 20 Brazillian women. We chatted with him for a bit before taking his leave and continuing to the sundial.
Anish: “This man is literally everywhere. What a treat for us to get to see him again!”
The sundial was kinda cool looking, but without having a guide to help explain things, we didn’t have a great idea what was going on. We started walking back towards the exit, and on the way, came across a nest of baby sparrows in the rocks. We watched for a while and saw the mother bring one baby food. After heading back to Aguas Calientes, we had a few more hours to kill before our train, so we decided to go visit the local butterfly garden. Before heading over, we got a surprisingly good lunch at a restaurant called Mapacho, and shortly after, had our third and final run-in with Marco Antonio.
After a 30 minute walk, we came to the garden. We spotted many beautiful flowers and interesting insects. At one point, we found a huge green caterpillar! Later in the garden, we stopped by the river and saw some tadpoles, and later, several colorful birds at a feeder. Then one of the workers there gave us a tour of a breeding center where we got to see several types of caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies. Afterwards, we went into a smaller netted area of the garden with tons of butterflies. We got to see some drinking fruit juice, and spent time looking for well disguised caterpillars among the leaves.
After heading back, we stopped at one of the many tourist restaurants for 4-for-1 happy hour cocktails and free chips and guac. We then headed to the train station. The train was a lot fancier than we expected with huge wall and ceiling windows and free sandwiches and pear juice. Along the way, we saw multiple Incan ruins!
In the train, we were sitting in a section of 4 seats facing each other. At some point, from the end of the carriage that Abhijit and I were facing, a person started to come down the aisle dressed as a parody of the devil. Took a while for Keshav and Anish to notice as they were watching Netflix and facing the other way, but once they did, we all enjoyed watching the devil pull people up to dance.
Later on the train ride, two of the employees held a fashion show with alpaca goods which were later available for purchase. As it grew darker, the festivities stopped and I fell asleep. At some point, I woke up and train had been stopped. There was a mechanical issue, and we ended up going backwards for several minutes until we came to a point where they could attach a new engine. Finally we continued.
With additional delays, we ended up arriving to our station more than an hour and a half late. Once we got there, everyone in the train quickly met up with their waiting drivers and headed into Cusco proper. We couldn’t find our driver, and after 15 minutes, the station had completely cleared. After many attempts, we got in touch with our main point of contact from the agency, and apparently, our driver had gotten in an accident. Luckily he was ok, so we just got a cab to our hotel.
After getting back, we spent almost an hour figuring out what things Anish and Keshav were taking back with them the next morning vs what I was keeping as well as repacking all the things we had left with the hotel during our trek. We finally slept, exhausted, and much later than we had hoped.
