In June of 2003I headed down with my old friends from Boston Alene and Mary to Hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

 

For this trip I decided to set up a private trip with Go South Adventures. They offer experienced local guides.

 

The Inca Trail had been on my list for a long time, so I was very excited about going. I also hadn't spent much time with Alene or Mary in the last 10 years since I had moved back to California from Boston, so I was excited to catch up with them as well.

We flew into Lima and toured the city. The next day we flew to Cusco where we had great fun partying and exploring nearby ruins for a couple of days as we got acclimatized to the altitude.

On the first day of the we left Cusco by bus and drove a few hours to our trail head. The first day on the trail is relatively easy. Our guide had one of our porters run ahead and grab a great campsite along the Urabamba river at Paucarcancha.

On the second day we gradually gained altitude to 12,000" and grabbed a primo campsite at Llulluchapampa. From here we had a good view of the Warmiwañusca pass we would have to cross the next day. This is also where Mary's precious water filter broke practically reducing her to tears. Endless abuse from Alene and me eventually broke back the Mary we know and love.

Day three was the big day where we crossed the high passes: Fist we ascended and crossed Warmiwañusca pass (13,680 ft.). From there we descended to the Pacaymayo River and then climbed up past the ruins of Runkuraqay. We then crossed a lower pass to the ruins of Sayacmarca (12,628 ft.). We continued our way along an amazing section of Inca engineering to finally reach the incredible ruins of Phuyupatamarca (12,000 ft.), where we camped for the night. Here our guide had a big surprise for us. He had the porters convert the meal tent into sauna for us! It felt wonderful (apparently the porters freaked out that all three of us were in there together).

Day four was also long. We immediately started steeply downward (for a change) into the cloud forest to the well restored ruins of Wiñay Wayna (8,855 ft.), located along the same river as Phuyupatamarca. After a two-hour walk through a cloud forest covered Inca Trail, we arrived at Machu Picchu (7,800 ft.) through the Intipunku, the door of the sun. We crashed that night at the town of Aguas Calientes. We showered at our hotel, had a good dinner, then partied our brains out, mostly drinking Pisco sours.

On the fifth day we caught a train then a bus back to Cusco where, being Cusco veterans, we went out and partied again. From there it was back to Lima and back to San Fran and Boston respectively.

  See the pictures of this trip

  See recommended reading for this trip

  See a gear list for this trip

Note: My pics have no comments and are still out of order. For a better set of pics of our trip, go look at Mary's.