The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu: Suffering and Enjoying

Even after some weeks now, I am still not 100% sure if I would have done walking the Inca Trail with knowing what I will experience. It was beautiful (and more beautiful than Machu Picchu itself) but also suffering, pain, sweat, and sleepless or short nights. But please, make your own picture 🙂

First of all, some basic facts:

The Inca Trail is a network of trails that connected the Inca Empire.
The most famous of these trails is the Classic Inca Trail, a 43-kilometer (27-mile) hike that leads to Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas.
The Inca Trail is a challenging hike but also one of the most rewarding. The trail passes through stunning scenery, including cloud forests, high-altitude passes (highest with 4215m), and ancient Inca ruins.
The hike culminates with a sunrise view of Machu Picchu, one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. (one of the new world wonders)

If you decide to walk the Inca Trail instead of going via train to Machu Picchu, you must find an agency guiding you and organize entrance tickets and everything else on the mountain. I choose www.alpacaexpeditions.com, and I can highly recommend them. They are highly professional and made everything to make it as comfortable as possible.

Not going into the details about the needed preparation, but for sure, you will hike 43km, sleep in tents with temperatures below 0, not get any shower for four days, and not see any proper sanitary. My agency gave me clear guidance on what to pack into my backpack and how to use my allowance of 7kg of duffel bag, which the porters carry.

Let’s start with the story:

Day 0

The evening before the hike, I met my group and the guides to get the last introductions. We were 16 hikers and two guides for starting the Inca trail the following day.

Day 1

All tours start in Cusco with a bus ride to the starting point of the Inca Trail. The pickup was at 4:30 a.m., and after two hours of bus ride, we reached the camp of porters. They already prepared some excellent breakfast, and we had the last chance to use a proper toilet.

The fun started after showing our permits (the agency is organizing them) and our passports. We entered the trail after the obligatory picture of the Inca trail entrance sign. The first day was ok-ish. From the starting point at 2720m in 14km, it went up to the first camp at 3300m. We felt the altitude, but more annoying was the heat we had on our first day. We got lunch, some drinks, and a good dinner in the evening. The porters prepared our tents, and we went into our first night early, as at 5 a.m., the wake-up was planned. First remark and recommendation: pay 30 bucks for a single tent! It’s worth the money as you are getting close to the others if you have to share your tent, and if your body is starting to behave differently than usual, it’s better to be alone. Especially if you are traveling alone, you might get into a tent with a stranger.

Day 2

5 a.m., wake up, had breakfast, and started into the most challenging day. It was planned to reach the top of the trail at 4215m after 4 hours. After two hours, we did a more significant break at 3800m (in addition to all the small breaks we always had). After the break, the most challenging part to the peak started. There, I decided to go my own pace, less talking, just concentrating on every single step. It was rough, but I made it and was rewarded with a fantastic view.

A little bit annoying was the way down to camp for lunch. The steps were flooded with huge stones, and walking was difficult. After one hour, I reached the base for lunch; again, we were back down to 3680m. (yeah, the trail is a rollercoaster).

After lunch, we went up again to the next peak, 4000m, before going down to our nightcamp at 3800m.

After dining and enjoying the chilly temperatures, we entered our tents… and the nightmare began…

2nd and 3rd day

At 1 a.m., my body started to feel weird. Something was seriously wrong. I went out for a little walk, and after 50m, I had to throw up. I was feeling sick like hell. But for some minutes, I felt better; I went into my tent again. And the story continued roughly 30 minutes later again. Until 5 a.m., I had to go out every 30 minutes as the body tried to get rid of everything in there… “Luckily”, I was not alone. I met someone from my team, and we suffered together. As I went into the cold night very often, I also got freezing. At 4:45 a.m., I saw the porters making a small fire for heating the water. So I went there, sitting beside the heat to remove my blue fingers. At 5 a.m., the guides joined me and immediately diagnosed altitude sickness. They gave me coca tea to feel better, but guess what: we saw the tea faster again than it was cooked… So they decided that I should skip breakfast to continue the trail as it will go down very soon, and that is the cure for altitude sickness: going down. Unfortunately, to get to the point of going down, I had to reach the next peak at almost 4000m. The two hours to this peak have been horrible. I walked 50m, had to sit down, threw up, walked 50m, had to lean on a tree, walked 50m, lay down… It was a mess… After 45 minutes of walking alone from the camp, one guide caught me and helped me with my little backpack. She took over that at least the only weight I have to carry is my own screwed body… I don’t know precisely how I reached the peak. It took me two hours of suffering, pain, and using every bad word in my repertoire. OK, ok, mainly it was the word with F…

Without having an eye for the beauty of this peak (and the lamas jumping around), I started the descent to the next camp. For over 1 hour, I experienced very steep stairs. In the meantime, the porters with 20kg of luggage overtook us at the speed of a marathon runner. Sick! Five hours after I left the camp at 3600m, I reached the next camp at 2720m. I felt much better; the decrease in altitude had an immediate effect. When I got to the camp, one tent was already ready: mine. I threw one last smile toward the porters, and 2 minutes later, I fell into a profound sleep. During the rest of the day, I recharged my batteries, and after the next night, I was almost at 95%… Thanks to my guides and the porters, nothing serious in the end…

Day 4

This day started again very early: at 3 a.m…

Why? The porters did have a train to catch at 5:40 a.m., and we had to go to the entrance gate for the walk up to the sun gate, the entrance point to Machu Picchu. The gate opens at 5:30 a.m., but the shelter in front only has 70 seats. Suppose you want to wait while sitting; you have to be early at this point. We reached the shelter after 5 minutes of walking around 3:30 a.m. it was almost complete with other hikers. We have been nearly the last group to get a seat. We waited for the next two hours in the dark shelter until the gate opened. As we had been there that early, we were also the 4th group in the row to get into the last hike. And, almost two hours of hiking later, we had the benefit of being up early. When we arrived at Sungate (at 3730 m), we saw Machu Picchu for about 10 minutes. After that, it was gone entirely in the clouds. Every group after us could not make the famous picture from the top.

And we realized: WE MADE IT! We walked 43km! One-third of the group had one or the other pain: stomach problems, altitude problems, sleepless nights, or a cold… But at that moment, we were all happy as we made it.

Machu Picchu

So, we started the final descent to Machu Picchu itself. After an hour, we reached it, and we saw the first Instagram victims trying to get the best selfie of them in front of the ruins. Most likely, in Dolce & Gabbana, with brand-new hiking shoes, belly-free, oversized sunglasses, and an annoyed boyfriend, who has to do 100 pictures before one picture that can be used on social media. Two things I realized here: It was so calm and empty on the mountain; And 2nd, the way was the more beautiful and unique part of the trip. Don’t get me wrong, Machu Picchu is incredible. But nothing compared to the nature we saw the last four days. Our guide gave us a two-hour tour, and finally, we left Machu Picchu to catch some food at a local restaurant (owned by the agency).