DAY 1 - The Warm UpStarting at a little under 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) this trail slowly rolls through a narrow valley passing a few of the ancient Inca store houses and the ruins of Llactapata. The day concludes after nearly 11 Kilometers (7 miles) at an altitude of about 2,800 meters (9,400 feet).
Picture on left: The Trail head, located near the city Ollantaytambo.
The trail begins. The first steps of day 2 are up hill and it continues until you reach the top of the pass. After around 8 kilometers of hiking through the cloud forest, you are deep into the Andian Paramo reaching the infamous "Dead Womans Pass." This is the highest point of the trail at 4,200 meters (13,799 feet). Once at this point it is a 4 kilometer down hill knee cruncher to camp. Camp 2 is situated on a fairly steep hill, which drops down into another deep narrow canyon, towered over by skyscraping snow covered peaks.
The Amazing porters
Day 3 - The Breathtaking.
Our group strategically started late in order to be behind the rest of the other groups on the trail (an effort to be able to enjoy the trail without the hoards of people). The first .5 of a mile leads to an incredible little fortress. After passing the fortress, it is a shorter up hill battle to the top of the second pass. Once you are over this pass you drop back down on to another Inca city named Sayacmarca. This small set of ruins was comparable in quality to the ones in Machu Picchu. As we arrived the clouds from the valley floor began to slowly raise up, passing us as we walked among ancient ruins. The last 2 to 3 kilometers were some of the best of the trail. The path which you walked on was an Inca built highway along a ridge that connected several steep cloud forest covered peaks. In order to pave a level trail, in many spots the Incas had to build up retaining wall like structures along the sides of these steep peaks. At some points these walls were close to 50 feet tall and more then 6 feet thick. Many parts of the trail are also carved out sections of rock in the middle of 100 foot cliffs some actually entering the rock and creating a tunnel to the other side. The third campsite rests atop this ridge just behind Machu Picchu.
Sayacmarca
Camp 3 The city in the clouds
Day 4 - Knee Crunch to The Sun Gate
On the fourth and last day the excitment was unbearable. The trek began at 4 am and was a down hill staircase for the next 3 hours!!! It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen built. The staircase was literally never ending. Many times while standing in the darkness of the morning hours, you would point your headlamp trying to catch a glimpse at the bottom of the staircase and all you would see was the light being swallowed by the darkness before what seemed to appear an endless abyss of Inca stone steps. As we started our decent the stars were the brightest I have ever seen them. With all the clouds in the valleys, like a sea below our camp, the Milky Way streaked brightly across the sky and the Southern Cross oriented our steps. As the dawn began to break the trail again began to level out and that is when we knew that the infamous Sun Gate was near. Our final arrival at the sungate was a depressing moment. The clouds in the valleys had still not lifted and so the beautiful and long awaited view of Machu Pichu from the Sun Gate was covered. As our group sat at the Sun Gate resting and talking about the amazing trail that we had been on for the last three days the clouds started to break and Machu Pichu came into view!!!!! This picture is the picture we took just as the clouds alowed us our first peak at Machu Pichu.
From the Sun Gate to Machu Pichu is a short 30 min stroll and from there it is nothing but wonder and relaxing in Aguas Calientes.
