Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail & Huayna Picchu (8,832 ft) Peru by Brian Schultz September 20- 23, 2006
I read about Machu Picchu in a National Geographic magazine many years ago and thought it'd be a neat place to see but people with a fear of flying don't entertain such thoughts for too long. Now that I'm flying, and with my sister asking if I wanted to go with her, it was easy to contemplate such a trip. She isn't a hiker so it would have been a typical tourist trip but her waning interest over a year's time prompted me to pursue it on my own. Hiking the Inca Trail beckoned and sounded infinitely more fun than riding a bus to the ruins so I made arrangements early this year to book a flight and hire a guiding group, a necessity because the government won't allow you to hike on your own. Reservations should be made in advance to ensure the date you prefer because only 220 hikers are allowed on the trail per day (as of 2006) and permits are required. I chose SAS Travel Peru after reading up on various agencies and was extremely pleased with how they handled everything from beginning to end.
This was my first trip to South America. Frequent flyer miles covered the journey from Minneapolis to Lima but I paid for a flight on Lan Airlines from Lima to Cusco, where most guided groups depart for the Inca Trail. My flight to Lima arrived in the late evening and I stayed in a hostel before flying to Cusco in the morning. Cusco is a fascinating town at 11,000 feet elevation and I had the whole day to explore it before meeting my group in the evening. The main square, Plaza de Armas, is a hubbub of activity and also where the SAS agency is located. Narrow side streets spoke out from the square and you can't walk anywhere without women and young girls approaching trying to sell dolls and finger puppets. They are relentless and won't take no for an answer, and will follow you for blocks. If you buy from one, which I did, others will hound you to buy from them also. Equally opportunistic young men also tag along trying to sell art prints and I soon learned to just walk fast and avoid making eye contact. There were many opportunities to practice my Spanish in Cusco, especially at my hostel and at some of the shops where little English was spoken. Both the hostels I stayed at in Lima and Cusco were very modern and very cheap. The Hostal Marani in Cusco was especially nice for only $18.00 US per night.
At 7:00 I met the guide and my fellow hikers at the agency. Our group of hikers numbered five including myself. John and Jennifer from Toronto, Canada, Steven and Sharon from Ireland and Scotland, and I hit it off immediately. Our guide, Carlos, a young man of 25 years, spoke adequate English and gave a brief summary of what to expect on the hike. We'd have 11 porters to carry gear and food and the four day trip would start at 7,808 ft. elevation, cover roughly 31 miles, and reach its highest elevation at a pass called Dead Woman's Pass,13,780 ft., before descending to Machu Picchu.
Day 1 Wednesday September 20, 2006:
Our day began at 6:00 AM with a 90 minute drive to a small town for breakfast, and then to Kilometer 82 at Piscacucho, the starting point on the Inca Trail. We passed through a control point to get passports and permits checked before crossing the Urubamba River, and at 9:45 officially began the hike. I was the only one in our group carrying a full pack, the others hired porters to carry theirs. The weather was sunny and hot as we started up the trail, which began as a dirt path but turned into a rock highway of sorts, and Carlos provided a history lesson at the first of the many Inca ruins we encountered. Interestingly, local residents still live in homes along the trail and we ate lunch near the site of a new one being built. The porters had set up a large tent for lunch and served a ton of food, reminding me of my climb on Mt Kilimanjaro. The food was excellent and the surrounding terrain also reminded me of Africa. All campsites on the trek are pre-assigned and we arrived at ours in the late afternoon, barely beating a rain shower. The locals had set up tables near the campsites with Coke, beer, and Gatorade for sale. At the end of our first day, Carlos implored me to hire a porter to carry my pack for the upcoming grueling day. He didn't think I could handle the 44 pound weight, especially since the porters themselves are not allowed to carry more than 40, but I told him not to worry. Around 10:00 PM a thunderstorm blasted through camp, with lightning flashing and thunder cracking overhead before quickly moving up the valley. Our distance traveled on the day was 18 km, about 11 miles.
Day 2 Thursday September 21, 2006:
We departed camp at 7:40 AM and at 9:00 arrived at a flat area where most trekking groups congregate for a break. Elevation here is ~12,400 feet and alpacas roam freely in the area. In the distance, Dead Women's Pass was visible and at 9:40 we started up for it. Our group was strong but I pushed ahead and reached the pass (elevation 13,780 feet) at 10:30, beating many of our own porters and receiving wary looks from the others who were resting. The subpeak to the right of the pass looked like it might be close to 14,000 feet, and after eyeing it for a few minutes, I couldn't resist. I dropped my pack and started up, scrambling up mostly class 2+ terrain with some steep muddy class 3 spots, grabbed clumps of grass to stay righted at times, and made the exposed summit to a GPS reading of 14,050 feet. I descended in ten minutes to my waiting group and after a photo at the pass, we departed at 11:20. Clouds were swirling about.
The descent on the other side loses 2,000 feet elevation to a camp where most of the groups are assigned for the night. I went ahead of our group again on the descent and enjoyed the company of two young women from London, arrived at the camp at 12:40, and waited with my group's porters until the others showed up at 1:00. We stayed for lunch but our assigned campsite was unfortunately on the down side of another high pass. Our group was tired. Carlos was well versed in Inca history but our stop at one of the ruins on the way up to the second pass to hear a 25 minute lesson was difficult to take. We just wanted to get to camp. We reached the completely fogged-in pass at 4:00 and arrived at camp at 5:30 (elevation 11,700 ft). After a snack of popcorn and tea, everyone was back in a jovial mood, and with the hardest day now behind us, the jokes and good-natured ribbing began. Carlos said he normally doesn't eat with the hikers but enjoyed our company so much that he stayed. He said he's never had a group that got along as well as we did. Distance traveled was 18 km again.
Day 3 Friday September 22, 2006:
I was glad to see some blue skies in the early morning because so much of the last two days were cloudy. We had a clear look at one of the snow-capped peaks from camp but not for long as clouds settled in quickly again. We departed at 8:00 AM in good spirits, knowing the day would be short and easy and that showers awaited us at the next camp. Carlos said the day would be more scenic and he was right although the clouds obscured our views of the surrounding peaks. The trail continued as a paved road. We descended on steep steps and traveled though a few tunnels. We also passed by several ruins and received the requisite history lesson on them. Carlos was a bit difficult to follow as he jumped back and forth with the facts but we didn't mind because today we weren't tired and showers were near. We arrived at camp at 12:50 and had lunch before cleaning up. This camp was nicely arranged with a large building, decent restrooms, and a bar. All guided groups camp here and our campsite was the closest one to the facilities.
After everybody rested up we took a short hike to see what turned out to be the best of the ruins so far on the trip. The seven minute walk to reach them was absolutely worth it as they were fantastic. In the evening we gathered with our porters to give them their tips because most would be heading back to Cusco in the morning- I was elected to give the thank you speech since I know more than two words of Spanish. We tipped generously because they worked hard and prepared such good tasting food. High recommendations go to the SAS agency for the hired help. They boiled water every night for filling bottles in the morning and treated it chemically as well. I never got sick from the food or water, unlike some people in the other groups. Distance traveled on the day was 10 km, about 6 miles.
Day 4 Saturday September 23, 2006:
This was the day everybody was waiting for. We'd seen enough of the other ruins along the trail and were anxious to get to Machu Picchu. John, who'd kept everybody in stitches laughing for the past three days, suggested we persuade Carlos to abbreviate the history lesson at Machu Picchu, if possible, so we could spend more time on our own. I was especially in favor of that because I wanted to climb Huayna Picchu, the famous backdrop mountain seen in traditional Machu Picchu photos. We departed at 5:35 AM for the Temple of the Sun and reached it in an hour. The views looking down at Machu Picchu were impressive and after thirty minutes of mingling with the other groups and taking pictures, we descended. The many people now on the trail included tourists who'd hiked up to Machu Picchu after getting off their buses from below and we finally arrived at the upper terraces of the ancient civilization at 7:50. What a great feeling to be there!
Machu Picchu is an incredible place and unbelievably well preserved. We snapped lots of photos and lingered before our required check-in, then stowed the packs and took a short snack break before heading back to the ruins. As we regrouped, Carlos began talking about the ancient civilization and John asked how long he'd be speaking before we'd be sprung loose on our own. He said about an hour. John replied, "Carlos, you've got thirty five minutes, so give us the short version!" I had to keep from laughing out loud. Carlos actually presented a very interesting commentary but when the clock neared 10:00 and the weather started clouding up, I was the one who chimed in and said thanks but I've got a mountain to climb.
Huayna Picchu (8,832 feet)
Huayna Picchu's access gate is closely monitored. Everyone has to sign in and out and the process is slow because everybody's passport numbers have to be written down. While I waited 45 minutes to sign in, a crew with a gurney filed past to retrieve somebody off the peak and returned shortly with a moaning woman, apparently okay but whose circumstances were not made known. I started at 10:45 behind four Americans who thankfully let me pass them, and hurried on, hoping to beat the recommended one hour time for the ascent. The elevation gain is approximately 1000 feet.
I grunted up the brutally steep but not difficult trail in 32 minutes and made a class 3 move to reach the top, in lieu of circling around and walking up. Throngs of people were on the summit when I arrived at 11:17. The views of the ruins below were nice but the top was too crowded and I left after ten minutes. I didn't pay attention on the descent and ended up on a different trail so I returned to the summit, stayed another ten minutes, and finally departed on the correct trail at 11:50. The descent took longer than the ascent because so many people in front were taking a very cautious pace, which was just as well because a slip, especially on the steep steps below the summit, would not be good. I arrived at the gate at 12:30, for a roundtrip time of an hour and forty five minutes.
Our group was to meet for lunch at 2:00 in Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu. I arrived on time and after lunch parted ways with the group. John and Jennifer would be staying the night in Aguas Calientes, as were Steven and Sharon, while I took the five hour backpacker's train to Cusco to spend the night at the same hostel I stayed at before. My flight to the US from Lima the next day was scheduled to depart in the late evening, and not wanting to sit in the airport all day, I arranged for a city tour in the afternoon. It concluded a wonderful trip to a wonderful country.