Machu Picchu

In catch up post three of four, a bucket list item was ticked off in Cusco, something that had been on my radar for years, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. My expectations of the trek were blown away.

We were picked up at 5am from our hostel. When I say we, I mean a sub group of 15 of us from the main group. We headed to the nearby town of Ollaytantambo, the official start of the Inca Trail. At 10am, we took our photos and off we went.

Before we knew it, we already hit some Inca ruins and spent some time exploring and taking photos. We looked around the Llactapata ruins, and saw views of the more sizeable Patallacta ruins.

We then stopped for lunch, which I was amazed by. We had soup for starter, and trout for the main. It was at this point we met all our porters and the chefs that would be looking after us for the next four days. This is the first time I had been on a hike with cooked meals and porters, and I could definitely get used to it.

For the remainder of the day, we made a steady climb to our campsite for the evening, where we were again treated to a luxury meal (and popcorn!). The views from this campsite were incredible, definitely one of the best places I have camped.

The next day we had a 4am wake up call to hike the hardest day of the trek. So far, we hadn’t reached any serious altitude, but we would be hitting about 4,200 metres today. After breakfast, we set off on the continuous climb.

Due to the huge climb we undertook, we ended the day at lunchtime, where we got to camp and took a well deserved nap.

We started day 3 again at 4am, which was the longest and apparently most beautiful day of the entire trek. The day started with the climb up to the Runkuraqay Tambo ruins, and I could see why this day was beautiful.

We then had a steep downward climb to the Sayacmarca ruins, where we spent some time exploring.

After lunch we headed over a mountain pass with glorious views and some sheer drops from the path, which made it equally terrifying and exciting at the same time.

We arrived at Puyupatamarco ruins before the clouds came in and a downpour ensued. We then had to descend steeply down towards our final campsite, which was frankly downright dangerous. These Inca’s could have built better paths!

Just before we arrived at camp, we passed the Intipata ruins, which provided the most spectacular views of the trek so far.

We arrived to a soggy final camp for dinner and an early night, but before that I had to admire the view from the tent.

We needed to wake up at 2:30am the next day for reasons unknown, but which quickly became very apparent. Next to our camp was the final checkpoint of the trek, and each group is released in order of arrival. The earlier you get there, the earlier your time slot was at Machu Picchu. It was pouring with rain, but at least we were first to the checkpoint, which helpfully had a shelter.

We raced towards the Sun Gate, where I assumed we were just using as a rest point. What I didn’t realise was this was going to be my first glimpse of Machu Picchu. At 6am, it became apparent this is what the trek was for.

After admiring the view, we then had to race to the “classic” Machu Picchu viewpoint for our 30 minute time slot. But when we got there, what a sight!