Not-So-Short Inca Trail
Name: Short Inca Trail
Address: Machu Picchu, Peru
Date of Hike: Sunday, January 27th, 2019
Duration: 8 hours
Distance: 10 miles
Difficulty: Challenging
✅Historic Site ✅Panoramic Views
🚫Shade🚫Picnic Area
There is no un-pretentious way to say you hiked to Machu Picchu, which is honestly why it took me this long to sit down and be comfortable with the fact that sharing this experience is contrary to my entire relationship with social media. We're just going to pretend that liking stuff ironically is boring and outdated.
5:00 AM - 7:00 AM : Bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM : Breakfast
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM : Train from Ollantaytambo to KM 104
After our 5:00 AM bus leaves Cusco and drives 2 hours to the small village of Ollantaytambo, we board a train that goes to Aguas Calientes. For people that don't hike the Inca Trail, there are buses that run from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. If you do hike the trail, you can get off at "KM 104," which is not so much of a stop but more of a spot in the middle of the Peruvian jungle for the train to kick you out.
9:00 AM - 1:30 PM : KM 104 to Wiñay Wayna
I don't think I could have emotionally prepared for the kinds of views we were going to get on the Inca Trail. Enormous, green mountains that extend so far you wonder if the world still exists outside of this place, or if you've been transported to a time before mankind itself existed.
And if you want an idea of how much I'm carrying:
1. A lunchbox with two water bottles (provided by our tour group)
2. A camera bag that weighs about 5 pounds
3. A backpack with three days' worth of clothes and a 2-liter container of water
So I'm having a great time is what I'm saying.
Wińay Wayna was a great taste of what was to come. It had dozens of levels of these farming terraces, and a couple ruins of stone residences. At 8,700 feet, it's a little higher than Machu Picchu.
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM : Wiñay Wayna to Sun Gate
This part was pretty grueling. I really started to feel the weight of my stuff here. We climbed for another hour or so, took a quick lunch break, and then finished our ascent to the highest point in our day, the Sun Gate.
Since the Incas were basically the most advanced civilization of their time, you won't be surprised to hear that the sun rises perfectly through the Sun Gate on the summer solstice when viewed from Machu Picchu.
So many of the ruins we saw in Peru were precisely aligned for these kind of astrological phenomena, because no one loved lighting drama like the Incas.
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM : Sun Gate to Machu Picchu
This was the hike I had been preparing for since I started this blog at the beginning of 2019. I knew I wasn't going to give up despite what my knees were telling me, but boy were they telling me a lot in this next part.
An hour of hiking downhill and my knees were aching. With each step I could feel the weight of my backpack crushing down on me, as if to say, "We're only a quick tumble to the bottom of the Urubamba River if you want the easy way down."
But then we reach the site.
It's so magnificent I feel embarrassed trying to capture it in a picture. The scale of these ruins, how high up we were, surrounded on all sides by more mountains; it's no wonder this site remained hidden from the 1500s, when the Spanish invasion forced the Incas to flee to the jungle, until 1911, when it was rediscovered by American historian Hiram Bingham.
Without the constant upkeep of removing foliage from the ruins, a few good years of vegetation could whisk these ruins right back into nature's hands.
We arrived with the perfect lighting, as the sun went down just to our left, and the perfect weather, everything felt earned through our treacherous hiking.
I don't want to shame anyone who takes the bus to get here, I believe everyone should see Machu Picchu however works best for their body, but I was truly grateful that I was physically able to travel on the same path as the people who built this beautiful city. It felt like I had in some small way honored the efforts of this marvelous architectural achievement.
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM : Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes
As if I really needed more downhill climbing to permanently damage my already crying knees, we took a long winding staircase down the mountain to the village of Aguas Calientes where we were staying for the night.
This picture from the Sun Gate shows the switchback road that the bus takes from Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes (bottom right where the river is). We took the stairs instead, mainly because we wanted the satisfaction of saying we completed the 10 mile trail we set out to do.
My body regretted it in ways that still haunt me every time I walk down a flight of stairs.
All jokes aside, I could not have done this trip alone, and I will never, ever forget what it was like to climb up over that Sun Gate and peer through to reveal the vast expanse of lush mountains, with Machu Picchu cradled in the mountaintops like a resting cloud. How mighty I felt walking towards the ruins, like a spectator in one of the greatest feats of human engineering. That will stay with me forever.
Address: Machu Picchu, Peru
Date of Hike: Sunday, January 27th, 2019
Duration: 8 hours
Distance: 10 miles
Difficulty: Challenging
✅Historic Site ✅Panoramic Views
🚫Shade🚫Picnic Area
There is no un-pretentious way to say you hiked to Machu Picchu, which is honestly why it took me this long to sit down and be comfortable with the fact that sharing this experience is contrary to my entire relationship with social media. We're just going to pretend that liking stuff ironically is boring and outdated.
5:00 AM - 7:00 AM : Bus from Cusco to Ollantaytambo
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM : Breakfast
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM : Train from Ollantaytambo to KM 104
After our 5:00 AM bus leaves Cusco and drives 2 hours to the small village of Ollantaytambo, we board a train that goes to Aguas Calientes. For people that don't hike the Inca Trail, there are buses that run from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. If you do hike the trail, you can get off at "KM 104," which is not so much of a stop but more of a spot in the middle of the Peruvian jungle for the train to kick you out.
9:00 AM - 1:30 PM : KM 104 to Wiñay Wayna
I don't think I could have emotionally prepared for the kinds of views we were going to get on the Inca Trail. Enormous, green mountains that extend so far you wonder if the world still exists outside of this place, or if you've been transported to a time before mankind itself existed.
And if you want an idea of how much I'm carrying:
1. A lunchbox with two water bottles (provided by our tour group)
2. A camera bag that weighs about 5 pounds
3. A backpack with three days' worth of clothes and a 2-liter container of water
So I'm having a great time is what I'm saying.
Wińay Wayna was a great taste of what was to come. It had dozens of levels of these farming terraces, and a couple ruins of stone residences. At 8,700 feet, it's a little higher than Machu Picchu.
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM : Wiñay Wayna to Sun Gate
This part was pretty grueling. I really started to feel the weight of my stuff here. We climbed for another hour or so, took a quick lunch break, and then finished our ascent to the highest point in our day, the Sun Gate.
 |
| You can see us smizing to finally see Machu Picchu for the first time in the center of the picture |
So many of the ruins we saw in Peru were precisely aligned for these kind of astrological phenomena, because no one loved lighting drama like the Incas.
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM : Sun Gate to Machu Picchu
This was the hike I had been preparing for since I started this blog at the beginning of 2019. I knew I wasn't going to give up despite what my knees were telling me, but boy were they telling me a lot in this next part.
An hour of hiking downhill and my knees were aching. With each step I could feel the weight of my backpack crushing down on me, as if to say, "We're only a quick tumble to the bottom of the Urubamba River if you want the easy way down."
But then we reach the site.
Without the constant upkeep of removing foliage from the ruins, a few good years of vegetation could whisk these ruins right back into nature's hands.
We arrived with the perfect lighting, as the sun went down just to our left, and the perfect weather, everything felt earned through our treacherous hiking.
I don't want to shame anyone who takes the bus to get here, I believe everyone should see Machu Picchu however works best for their body, but I was truly grateful that I was physically able to travel on the same path as the people who built this beautiful city. It felt like I had in some small way honored the efforts of this marvelous architectural achievement.
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM : Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes
As if I really needed more downhill climbing to permanently damage my already crying knees, we took a long winding staircase down the mountain to the village of Aguas Calientes where we were staying for the night.
This picture from the Sun Gate shows the switchback road that the bus takes from Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes (bottom right where the river is). We took the stairs instead, mainly because we wanted the satisfaction of saying we completed the 10 mile trail we set out to do.
My body regretted it in ways that still haunt me every time I walk down a flight of stairs.
All jokes aside, I could not have done this trip alone, and I will never, ever forget what it was like to climb up over that Sun Gate and peer through to reveal the vast expanse of lush mountains, with Machu Picchu cradled in the mountaintops like a resting cloud. How mighty I felt walking towards the ruins, like a spectator in one of the greatest feats of human engineering. That will stay with me forever.
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