THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU

October 12-October 15, 1999

Our Inca Trail Experience began Tuesday morning, October 12^th, at 5:00 am. My watch alarm went off and I knew it was time to get up and finish packing for our trek to Machu Picchu. We were ready by 6:00 and we ran on over to the SAS Travel Office. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the nice breakfast that awaited us. There was bread, butter, marmalade, scrambled eggs, coffee and tea, and…..drum roll please….real orange juice!!!! Once everyone was there and ready, we jumped onto the busses and drove just past the ruins of Ollantaytambo onto kilometer 82, where we started our trek.

We had a great group. Fredy Conte was our guide. He had a very happy disposition to him and he really knew his Inca history. Fredy is studying Tourism at the University. He speaks several languages, including Quechua, Spanish and English. 

Fredy explains Inca history and tradition to us on our first day on the Inca Trail.  He is a fantastic guide and person.

We also had many wonderful, dedicated porters. You have the option to carry your own bag or to have a porter carry it. We opted to carry our own belongings. I should really say that Rich opted to carry most of our belongings, while I toted the water (a lot mind you) and the books and some food. The porters carried our tents, all of the food, and thousands of kilograms of other supplies! There were 16 clients in the group:

Linda and Michael Frender, a fun couple who had just married a few months earlier and are also traveling around the world. We became friends with them instantly. They are already 4-months into their 16-month trip. They had already traveled through Mexico, Central and now South America!
Emma and Richard Pruitt had also just recently married and were on their 2-month honeymoon where they visited the Galapagos Islands along with many other exciting South American attractions. They are from London, England.
Jim May and Ed Leckie are two bachelors from Sydney, Australia on holiday. They had already snowboarded in Chili, trekked through the jungle in Peru and were now with us. They were always up for chatting and having fun on our trip.
Jen Bessell and David  Quilty: are also from Australia. They were also on a long holiday traveling through South America. They were a lot of fun too.
Kim Kolback and Kathy Gibbs are two Miami lawyers on a six-month sabbatical from their law careers. These two blond women added a lot of life to the trip. Although they were athletic hikers in Peru, you could not take the Miami out of them! Kathy had her porter carrying her big red roller bag and she sure could Salsa.
Frances Knight and James Dawson are also from Australia. Poor David was sick two days in a row. He sure was a trooper though. He managed to hang in there as we ascended up to 4200 meters that second day.
Warwick Smith and Nola Tomaska, were yet another Australian couple. Nola was looking very stylish with her matching pants and boots. She claimed that this was not on purpose, and I believe her. Some people just have a knack for style, even when they are on a four-day hike.

The first day was a nice easy hike and we had beautiful weather. We passed by the ruins of Patallaqta, which were so grand, that someone could have told me we were at Machu Picchu, and I would have believed them. Our camp was already set up when we arrived at Wayllabamba. There was a nice clean (I think) stream nearby, where we were able to clean up and purify water. We were treated to a snack of hot drink and popcorn and cookies, and later, a great dinner.

Day Two was the biggie! This day involved a steep climb from 3000 meters to 4200 meters at the first pass, which is officially named Warmiwansuca, but has also been affectionately dubbed "Dead Woman’s Pass" because it looks like a dead woman lying down. Although this climb was steep (especially as we neared the top), it was beautifully diverse as we passed through jungle like rain forests covered with lush trees and waterfalls and then onto arid mountains with Llamas roaming about in the valley. From the top of this mountain, we made a steep descent down rocky stairs, which were slippery because it had just started to rain. We ate lunch in the rain and then started another steep climb up real Inca steps to the ruins of Runquracay. Wet and exhausted, we pushed on up to the twin lakes of Yanacocha, which Freddy told us meant "black lake". Our camp was almost all set up. Rich and I climbed into our tent. It was pretty cold at this point, as we were up pretty high at around 3800 meters and again, it was rainy and windy. The porters brought us hot chocolate and popcorn. I looked out our tent, hoping to find everyone else in their tent, but a group had congregated outside of the porter’s mess tent. Feeling antisocial, I put on my gators and boots and sloshed through the mud to join my comrades. We stood there and talked until it got dark, and then Freddy built us a fire out of a tin can. We ate dinner in the dark. To this day, I am still not sure exactly what I ate for dinner that night. The rain had stopped and the sky became lit up with stars. It was a great night. Once it was time to go to sleep, Rich and I rolled into our sleeping bags with lots of clothes on, including a hat. It was worth it though, as we had a great night of sleep. We were lucky not to get the leaky tent that night.

Freddy woke us up the next morning at 5:30 am. He wanted us to get a head start on the other groups. As we were getting ready we heard a loud crashing sound and saw dust on the side of a nearby mountain. It was an Avalanche! Linda, Mike, Fredy and a group of others ran over to the cliff of our mountain and yelled "AVALANCHE!!". There was a large group of trekkers camping in the valley below. The avalanche stopped before it could reach them, which is a good thing, since I highly doubt they would have heard our warning. After all of this excitement, we made our way up to the second pass, the Abra de Runquracay, which sits close to 4000 meters high. The views were beautiful from this point. The day was getting warm as the sun came out and shined upon us. It was now finally time to do a little downhill trekking. My legs were very grateful, but my knees were not pleased. However, I had my walking stick that I purchased at our stop back in Ollantaytambo a few days before for 3 soles (about 70 cents), so I could not complain. A short way down from the second pass, we reached the ruins of Sayacmarca. Since there is no written history for the Inca Empire, many archeologists, historians, guides and trekkers must speculate as to what the purpose was for each of these Inca structures. The two theories for Sayacmarca are that it was either a resting place for the Incas as they made their way to Machu Picchu, or it stood high as a guard post as it was aligned with other ruins which sat up high, such as Runquracay. We sat and rested at Sayacmarca while Fredy explained these theories to us as he drew in the sand with his stick.

Soon we were off again on the descent down to Phuyupatamarca. There were several baths here that were fed water from way above on the mountain. The Incas had a knack for creating intricate water systems. There was also a huge bedrock at the top of these ruins. The Incas flattened the stone out by hand. Fredy, the angel sent from heaven as we were all very hungry at that point, handed out our squeeky cheese sandwiches and snacks as he explained to us the significance of Phuyupatamarca and the meaning of the reoccurring theme of three. Three steps, windows, etc. signify the three levels of life: The condor, the puma and the snake. The condor represents God and the spirits of those in the afterworld. The puma represents life on earth. The snake represents the underworld. (See Fredy, I really was listening). After this lesson, we continued down the long stairway until we reached Camp 3 near Winaywana, which was actually a little lodge.

When we arrived at Camp 3, Freddy had a long table waiting for us and a delicious lunch. Afterwards, we paid our five soles for a hot shower (rip-off) which was luke warm at best. However, after three days of no shower, I was not complaining! We visited the ruins of Winawana in the late afternoon. They believe that either a priest or a scientist lived here with his family and some soldiers to protect him. It was a beautiful sight. That evening, our group relaxed in the lodge, as we drank some cervezas and danced a little salsa. We also toasted the Porters, who again, were absolutely fabulous.

Day Four began at 4:00 am. This was the day we were to finally arrive at the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. We walked through the lush cloud forest as the sun came up until we arrived at Intipunku, the Sun Gate. From here we could see Machu Picchu. The lost city was beautiful. Behind Machu Picchu stands the tall mountain of Huayna Picchu, which we actually summited later that day. We all sat and enjoyed the view from the Sun gate for a while as we celebrated our efforts in reaching our final destination. In fact someone actually popped open a bottle of Champaign. We had a Machu Picchu guide take us around to teach us all about the mysteries and beauty of this magnificent Inca city.  Machu Picchu is a large magical Inca city with amazing architectural phenomena such as sun dials, rocks carved to match the shapes of the mountains around them, beautiful temples and complex water systems.

Fredy's Group at the Sun Gate.

A view of the lost Inca city of MACHU PICCHU from above.

After exploring Machu Picchu and climbing up more steps to the top of Huayna Picchu, we took a bus down to the little tourist town of Aguas Calientes, where we would be catching a train to Ollantaytambo. The train experience was a riot. Luckily, Fredy got us seats. You have to rush to your seat before someone else gets it. I was fortunate that Rich knew what he was doing, or I probably would have boarded the wrong train car. The train was packed with trekkers and locals. Freddy and some other native Peruvians were hanging on to the train from the outsides as it whizzed on by the countryside. It was great to arrive at our destination and jump on a bus that was headed home to Cusco. I was glad that I was on our bus and not the one that was being driven by one of the clients from the Netherlands who was a truck driver, but had never driven a large bus through the winding roads of the Andes Mountains.

It was great to come home to our family at the El Condado de San Agustin in Cusco. Aide welcomed us with open arms as she handed us a delicious postre (dessert).

I recommend the Inca Trail experience to anyone with two legs and a great appreciation for the outdoors and history. If you do decide to go, I recommend arranging it through SAS. They are right on the Plaza. It was a bargain at three times the price which is a low $88 dollars per person for all three days, including meals, transportation to the trail and tent. Don’t forget to ask for Freddy. He rocks!

Return to my South American Travelogue to read about our return to Cusco and our adventures in Bolivia and the Galápagos Islands.