Inka Trail and Macchu Picchu

An amazing four days!

21.07.2007 -17 °C

We had now spent the best part of a week over 2700m and were fully aclimatised and ready for the hike. We started with a short bus journey to the famous KM82 starting point, where we registered and got our passports stamped! We started slow but as the day went own we found a good pace. We passed the first of our six Inka ruins on the trail and ended up walking for about 5 hours. The day ended by meeting the porters who cooked for us(!) and scrambling into our tent for an ealry night - the next day would be the hardest of the lot.

At the start!

End of the first day

We woke early with a suprised knock on our tent door - it was the porters offering fresh warm coca tea (we could get used to this!!!). After filling our tums and mouths with fresh coca leaves, we chewed our way all the way up to the dizzying heights of 4215m/13,820ft! It was hard to breath at points, with us having to take farily regular rests and plenty of water. We had climbed 1300m today, at altitude, and the only way down was the other side of the mountain - a knee crushing 600m!

Our picnic spot!

Just about to finish the big hike up

At the highest point

The next day was the most beautiful. High alpine traversing of the rocky mountains, looming glaciers still high above us with some parts of the track unrestored from the Inca period - including tunnel sections! We camped only a 2 hour walk from the Sun Gate.

The morning came, well, 4am to be precise and we started walking in the dark towards Macchu Picchu. We arrived at the sun gate as the sun peaked over the mountains and we were offered the first sight of the ruins - wow! We quickly walked down towards the first terraces and had views of an almost empty site from the classic angle.... Incredible. We spent the next six hours walking around one of the New wonders of the world before heading down to the train station. We chugged along a fantastic track all the way back through the valley to Cusco....

View from the Sun Gate