We did the Inca Trail trek from September 5th to 8th, and we honestly can’t say enough good things about SAM Travel, the tour company we trekked to Machu Picchu with (thanks for the recommendation, Connie and Adrian!). We saw so much. We learned so much. We could go on for hours. Days, probably.

So… if you want to hear all about it, you’ll have to come by for supper, or sit down with us for a nice long phone call. We’re going to make this one post full of photos and leave it at that. There’s a lot to share (and our laptop was stolen in Calama, Chile… so it’s harder to share now).

Day 1

We lucked out in our trip by only having a fantastic guide and a small group of four. Our co-hikers Steve and Wendy were absolutely delightful people, and we hope that we can hike some trails with them again some day…

Official “before” photo:

From L to R there are Grober, our guide, Steve, Wendy, me, and Bryn. Yes, it was raining as we set out, and we were wearing almost everything we’d brought with us.

Pachamama smiled a little rainbow over the trailhead for us though, so we set out under an auspicious sign (it’s a faint rainbow, though – you may have to squint a little).

A few sights from the first day on the trail:

  • Patallacta Inca site
  • Trailside WiFi in Wayllabamba – Grober’s hometown
  • Rain rain rain
  • Less rain once we got above the clouds.

Day 1 campsite! That’s our team of intrepid porters, or “Orange Crush” as they are affectionately known on the trail. Each tour provider has their own signature colour, which makes it easy to know who’s overtaking you when a train of porters comes running past.

Day 2

Day 2 was the toughest, and probably the hardest day of hiking we’ve ever done. We climbed over 1000m to Dead Woman’s Pass at 4200m, the highest point on the trek, before descending 700m to have lunch. After lunch, it was lather, rinse, repeat as we climbed back up another almost 600m to a second pass before descending to our campsite.

Some beautiful ruins and picturesque trail sections made up for the fact that the skies were overcast all day, so we didn’t get much by way of vistas at the top of those passes. That said, in hindsight we were grateful for the drizzle, as it would have likely been punishingly hot with all the climbing if the sun had been out!

In the morning, the cloud forest had a jungly vibe, but the scenery quickly changed.

Tired but feeling accomplished at 4200m! We *thought* this would be the literal high point of our trip, but Bolivia put that to shame once we got into the altiplano desert!

The clouds started to lift a little bit and give us tantalizing glimpses of the valleys and the trail ahead as we started down from the pass.

Again, lots of ruins and beautiful trail scenery all day, interspersed with porter trains overtaking us at a clip as we paced ourselves up (and down) yet another Incan stone staircase.

  • Runcuracay
  • Saycmarca

Some good flora and fauna on day two as well. I couldn’t get enough of the hummingbirds and tiny succulents growing on the ruins.

Day 2 finished with a fairly level stretch (“Andean” or “Incan” flat – it’s never actually flat), and a gorgeous ruin called Saycmarca that we had almost to ourselves.

Day 3

Day 3 was short and sweet – much needed after the tough climbs and descents of Day 2! Our poor calves and quads were happy to arrive at the campsite by midday, and then spend a gentle few hours exploring the nearby Winay Wanya site on our own.

The cave in this photo dates from Incan times. You can see the trail continuing beyond the cave in the bottom left of the image.

We visited several other sites along the way on the third day, but also started to see some signs of modern civilization.

The third campsite had a great view over the valley. After a break, we headed over to Winay Wayna to explore.

Having a site this large to ourselves was a pretty special experience.

Day 4: Machu Picchu

After three days of trekking under cloudy skies and occasional drizzle, the sun lifted over the mountains just as we were walking in to Machu Picchu from the sun gate. The fourth day features an early (3:30 am) start, with hikers queuing up for the trail to open at 5:30 before racing (carefully) to the sun gate to be among the first to reach Machu Picchu. It was worth it! We had about fifteen minutes of taking photos from the classic viewpoint before the hordes of bus-borne tourists began arriving.

This is the first glimpse we had of Machu Picchu from the sun gate. We’ve already been up for more than three hours at this point, but happy to be here! Another 45 minutes of walking ahead of us to get into the site proper, though.

MADE IT.

Sunshine AND smiles!

Official “after” photo before heading out of the photo area to re-enter through the main tourist gate. It was…uh…busy.

But we persevered for a couple of hours touring the site with Grober before collapsing in an exhausted heap down in Aguas Caliente at the bottom of the valley.

It’s a really remarkable place.

This photo is taken looking back towards where we started, past the quarry area. Among other things, we learned that Machu Picchu wasn’t finished when it was abandoned. It takes a long time to build out places like this.

This mountain is called “happy mountain”.