It was July 28, 2016. We woke up in darkness to grab a quick breakfast at our hotel before walking down the road to the train station in Ollantaytambo along with many other travellers up at this early hour. We were met by a representative from our tour company who handed us some train tickets and sent us on our way on the 6:10 am train out of Ollantaytambo. We were lucky enough to be treated to amazing views through the windows on the roof of the train, allowing us to see the tops of the Andes mountains once the sun rose up.
Many people were taking the train straight to the town of Aguas Calientes, but we were getting off at the mysterious "Kilometre 104." When the train rolled to a stop at KM 104 about 1.5 hours later, we hopped out and found ourselves with a few other travellers on the side of the train tracks in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees. We spotted a guide representing our tour company, a man named Henry who would be leading us on the Inca Trail along with some people from Hong Kong. After taking the obligatory "Caminos Inka" photo, Henry led us on a bridge over the river and then gave us some bottles of water, snacks, and our passes to the Inca Trail.
We had decided months back that we were going to do the "short" version of the Inca Trail. The Classic trail is 4 days, and there are some other routes that go for even longer. Many tourists don't even hike the trail and just take the train straight to Aguas Calientes and ride the bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu. Tickets to the Classic route sell out many months in advance, and even though I thought we booked early (6 months before), nearly all the Classic tickets were sold out. The Peruvian government limits the number of Inca Trail passes to 500 per day in order to keep the site well maintained. Even though we opted for the short version, it still involved hiking from early morning until late afternoon which was about 15 km, and that tired me out pretty good!
The first part of the Inca Trail was a steady uphill climb. I was very thankful that I had some walking sticks to help me up! Henry was a great guide and did not rush our group, allowing us to take lots of breaks and stop for photos along the way. The Inca Trail was really beautiful. We were able to walk along the edge of the mountain on a well maintained trail, with amazing views of the surrounding mountains and valleys below. Before going to Peru I was nervous that we'd end up in Machu Picchu on a rainy day, with our views of the ruins obstructed by clouds and leeches on the path (memories of hiking in Nepal in a rain cloud!). Lucky for us, the weather was perfect.
Along the Inca Trail one of the highlights was the ancient ruin site of Wiñay Wayna, which means "forever young" in the indigenous Quechua language. This site overlooks the Urubamba River and has the ruins of stone houses and agricultural terraces. Wiñay Wayna was really impressive, and a great stop along the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu.
After several hours of climbing up, the trail turned to more of an up and down path. We stopped for lunch at the Alpaca Expeditions camp site, where people doing the Classic 4-day hike stop overnight on their last day. We were treated to a great lunch prepared by the chefs in a tent, and were greeted by a bunch of llamas who were very curious about us!
Several hours of hiking later, we reached a steep uphill set of stairs to climb. The steps were so steep that people were using all four limbs to get up! As I was climbing, using my walking sticks for support, I felt very excited because I knew that at the top of those stairs we would finally reach the Sun Gate (Inti Punku), which was once the main entrance to Machu Picchu. From that point, we would catch our first glimpse of Machu Picchu down below. When I finally reached the top of those steep stairs, I not only felt relieved but was overcome with happiness once I could see Machu Picchu with my own eyes - something I had been looking forward to for so long. I felt like crying tears of joy! Machu Picchu was even more amazing than I expected it to be, and I'll never forget that feeling of when I first saw it from the Sun Gate.
After a bunch of photos, including a few with a perfectly poised llama right outside the Sun Gate, we continued down, down, down the trail to Machu Picchu below. When we finally reached the site, we could not actually enter the ruins because our pass only allowed entrance on the next day. Our guide told us to stealthily take some photos and then head down to the place where the buses stopped in order to catch a ride to the town of Aguas Calientes nearby, where we would be staying the night.
While the sun started to go down, we took some snaps of the site. Tomorrow we would be back to explore the ruins. That evening our group was taken to dinner at an awesome restaurant called Indio Feliz by our guide Henry, where we celebrated our amazing day on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
Many people were taking the train straight to the town of Aguas Calientes, but we were getting off at the mysterious "Kilometre 104." When the train rolled to a stop at KM 104 about 1.5 hours later, we hopped out and found ourselves with a few other travellers on the side of the train tracks in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees. We spotted a guide representing our tour company, a man named Henry who would be leading us on the Inca Trail along with some people from Hong Kong. After taking the obligatory "Caminos Inka" photo, Henry led us on a bridge over the river and then gave us some bottles of water, snacks, and our passes to the Inca Trail.
We had decided months back that we were going to do the "short" version of the Inca Trail. The Classic trail is 4 days, and there are some other routes that go for even longer. Many tourists don't even hike the trail and just take the train straight to Aguas Calientes and ride the bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu. Tickets to the Classic route sell out many months in advance, and even though I thought we booked early (6 months before), nearly all the Classic tickets were sold out. The Peruvian government limits the number of Inca Trail passes to 500 per day in order to keep the site well maintained. Even though we opted for the short version, it still involved hiking from early morning until late afternoon which was about 15 km, and that tired me out pretty good!
The first part of the Inca Trail was a steady uphill climb. I was very thankful that I had some walking sticks to help me up! Henry was a great guide and did not rush our group, allowing us to take lots of breaks and stop for photos along the way. The Inca Trail was really beautiful. We were able to walk along the edge of the mountain on a well maintained trail, with amazing views of the surrounding mountains and valleys below. Before going to Peru I was nervous that we'd end up in Machu Picchu on a rainy day, with our views of the ruins obstructed by clouds and leeches on the path (memories of hiking in Nepal in a rain cloud!). Lucky for us, the weather was perfect.
Along the Inca Trail one of the highlights was the ancient ruin site of Wiñay Wayna, which means "forever young" in the indigenous Quechua language. This site overlooks the Urubamba River and has the ruins of stone houses and agricultural terraces. Wiñay Wayna was really impressive, and a great stop along the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu.
After several hours of climbing up, the trail turned to more of an up and down path. We stopped for lunch at the Alpaca Expeditions camp site, where people doing the Classic 4-day hike stop overnight on their last day. We were treated to a great lunch prepared by the chefs in a tent, and were greeted by a bunch of llamas who were very curious about us!
Several hours of hiking later, we reached a steep uphill set of stairs to climb. The steps were so steep that people were using all four limbs to get up! As I was climbing, using my walking sticks for support, I felt very excited because I knew that at the top of those stairs we would finally reach the Sun Gate (Inti Punku), which was once the main entrance to Machu Picchu. From that point, we would catch our first glimpse of Machu Picchu down below. When I finally reached the top of those steep stairs, I not only felt relieved but was overcome with happiness once I could see Machu Picchu with my own eyes - something I had been looking forward to for so long. I felt like crying tears of joy! Machu Picchu was even more amazing than I expected it to be, and I'll never forget that feeling of when I first saw it from the Sun Gate.
After a bunch of photos, including a few with a perfectly poised llama right outside the Sun Gate, we continued down, down, down the trail to Machu Picchu below. When we finally reached the site, we could not actually enter the ruins because our pass only allowed entrance on the next day. Our guide told us to stealthily take some photos and then head down to the place where the buses stopped in order to catch a ride to the town of Aguas Calientes nearby, where we would be staying the night.
While the sun started to go down, we took some snaps of the site. Tomorrow we would be back to explore the ruins. That evening our group was taken to dinner at an awesome restaurant called Indio Feliz by our guide Henry, where we celebrated our amazing day on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
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