The Inca Trail-Days 1 & 2

By now you should have read the lowdown on hiking the Inca Trail, which includes tips for choosing a company, what trail to take, and what to pack while taking part in this once in a lifetime experience.  But what can you expect when actually hiking the trail?  Well this recap is just what you’re looking for, a page designed to let you know the ins and outs and highs and lows of hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

The recap is a condensed, edited, and slightly changed version of the posts my wife Megan and I wrote on our blog a few days after completing the hike.  It was broken down into four different posts, so for a longer and more detailed read, feel free to check them out:

• Day One

• Day Two

• Day Three

• Day Four

Day One of the Inca Trail

We had to wake up early on Wednesday, our first day, as our bus picked us up at 5:15am. We somehow got very lucky as we only had five people in our group, as compared to 16 in the other two Peru Treks groups that left that day. Not only were we lucky to only have five people, but the five we had were great. We all got along very well, and it was fantastic to have such a great group of people to share this experience with.

After about a two hour bus ride, we stopped in Ollantaytambo for breakfast, then continued on the way to the starting point for the Inca Trail trek. We talked to the rest of our group for the first time and also started getting to know our guide, Cesar (who was incredible, but you’ll hear more about him later). It was rough for me, as I was the only guy in the group along with my wife, Maddy (from Holland), Lisa, and Jackie (both from the Bay area in California).

After the obligatory picture at the start of the trek, we were off. After crossing a bridge, we got a glimpse of the views that would become common to us throughout our trek. The first day was the easiest day, but we still covered 7.5 miles (12 km).

Anyone hiking the Inca Trail has to go with a company as the trail is regulated, and the government only allows a certain number of hikers per day (200). We went with Peru Treks, who was absolutely amazing from start to finish and from top to bottom. As I mentioned earlier, Cesar was our guide, and he had a great knowledge and provided tons of passion throughout all four days of our trek. He made the trek so special for us, and I truly believe it would not have been the same without him.

In addition to Cesar, we also had 11 porters and one cook for the five people in our group. One thing that interested me on that first day, and would continue to amaze me throughout our trek, was the porters. These guys are tough, hard-working farmers who carry 55 pounds (25kg) per man, and they don’t do it with ergonomic backpacks like we had. They carry our tents, our food, the cooking gear, chairs, and even some of the trekkers gear (each trekker had the choice to pay extra to have porters carry their stuff; we’re tough, so we chose to carry our own stuff). These men not only carried over 50 pounds of gear, but they would practically run the entire time as to get ahead of us to set up camp and get our meals prepared. It was truly remarkable.

We hiked for several hours that first day before coming to a stopping point for lunch. It was at this point that we had our first taste of the fantastic food we would be eating throughout the next four days. We started off with an avocado salad that was one of the highlights of the food for me. Next was a bowl of soup and garlic bread. Then they brought out a huge plate of fried rice, grilled chicken in a tasty sauce, fries, lightly battered and fried trout, and fresh veggies. Are you kidding me? Unbelievable!!

The only downfall of lunch was that we still had several hours of hiking to go, and we were all stuffed. After we finished our meal, the porters broke down the “dining tent”, tables, chairs, and all the cooking equipment. They packed it up and raced ahead of us so they could get to our campsite and set up our individual tents, the dining tent, and start preparing our dinner. Though the hike itself was extremely tough, Peru Treks made sure we were pampered when it was time to rest. You will not hear me say one single negative thing about Peru Treks throughout my review of this hike. If anyone is considering hiking the Inca Trail, I STRONGLY urge you to go with this company. They were spectacular (Read more about Peru Treks on my tips for trekking the Inca Trail).

The rest of the hike on day one was rather uneventful. We did pass a few ruins along the way, and it was up and down, but the terrain was manageable, and it was nothing compared to the next two days. We made it to camp by about 4pm, and we arrived to find all of our tents set up, chairs set out, the dining tent set up, and the porters standing there clapping for us as we arrived (not to make this sound like an advertisement for Peru Treks, but seriously, where do you get customer service like this, much less in the middle of the Andes?). We had several hours to rest and check out our campsite, which was in someone’s backyard (along with their kids and many animals, including the roosters and dogs that would serve as our alarm clocks the next morning).

We got to chill out and get to know each other better before dinner, including our guide, Cesar. The conversation spanned a multitude of topics, including our careers, the just completed election (we left the morning after Obama was elected), Peruvian politics, history of the Inca Trail, and many other interesting tidbits about each other. It was a great first day, and after another fantastic dinner, we were off to bed pretty early, as the next day would prove to be the most grueling and challenging.

Day Two of the Inca Trail

We awoke on the second day at 5am, had a great breakfast, and we were off on what was supposed to be (and was) the most difficult day. We camped at 9800 feet (3000m), and we would climb to the highest pass of the trek at nearly 14,000 feet (4200m). The thing that made it most difficult was that when we started from camp, there was no up and down to get to Dead Woman’s Pass (the highest pass); it was all straight up, for about five hours. We had the option again to hire porters just for this day since it was so difficult, but we decided not to (I still can’t decide if this showed our toughness or stupidity). Although the hike was really difficult, the views were stunning.

The first day we all hiked together as a group, but because this was going to be longer and tougher, we all hiked at our own pace, with several meeting points along the way. One of these meeting points, about halfway up to Dead Woman’s Pass, had some truly amazing views. In addition to the views, all groups hiking the Inca Trail met here. Of course our porters arrived first, and had a table set up in the middle of the field with sandwiches, tea, and popcorn all ready when we arrived. It was a well deserved break before the two hour hike ahead of us to the first pass.

After the break, we continued our hike straight up. We knew it was difficult when we saw some of the porters breathing heavily and struggling. We knew this would be one of, if not the, toughest part of the hike, but we were rewarded when we got to the top of Dead Woman’s Pass and were able to take in some astounding views and another well deserved break before we had to descend two hours to our camp.

It was great to see the looks on people’s faces as they arrived at the top, including a 60-year-old man from Chicago who was hiking the Inca Trail with his son, and a 6-month pregnant woman from Belgium (who was actually sitting there at the top before we arrived). So many things impressed during these four days, and the melting pot of people who accomplished this goal of hiking the Inca Trail was certainly one of them.

After resting at the top for a while, it was all downhill to our camp, which sounds like it would be easy, but it wasn’t a pleasant stroll down a grassy hill. It was steep, rocky, gravelly at times, and with HUGE man-made steps along the way. Downhills like this can really beat up your legs, especially your knees, and the full, heavy backpacks were really starting to be a burden (this is where your walking sticks come in very handy).

But we finally arrived to camp at about 5pm, just as the sun was going down. We were again greeted to a standing ovation by our porters (it really never got old), and they had some cookies, popcorn, juice, and tea to tide us over until the rest of our group arrived to eat dinner. We were completely exhausted, and the thought of having to hike 9 miles (15 km) the next day seemed daunting.

We camped at 11,800 feet (3600m) the second night, so it was significantly cooler than the first night. Another cool thing about being at that high altitude was that we were literally in the clouds. It was amazing to see the landscape change every few seconds as clouds rolled in and out, and that would also be a theme for our third day as we hiked through the cloud forest, which looks exactly as it sounds.