The title of this goal is wrong. It should have been take the Inca trail to Machu Picchu then explore Machu Picchu
I am so glad we don't let the start of our day determine the rest of it, because if we did, it would have been a disaster!
We were being picked up in Cusco at 4am for an hour and a half drive to our train. We had set the alarm for 3:30am to get ready, but we forgot to turn it on. At 4am, we were awoken by the hostel staff saying our ride was waiting for us. In the dark (to not wake the other people on our room) we rushed to get dressed and rushed out the door.
Luckily, we arrived to the train on time.
After an hour and a half train ride, it stopped at 104km where everyone doing the 2 day, 1 night got off to start their hike. Here is where we started the hike at 7:30am.
The first part of the hike was very up and down. We were walking at a nice pace, so i managed to not get too tired. I was also using a walking pole which helped a lot.
Here i am maybe 2 hours into the hike:
Here i am exploring one of the temple along the trail Winay Wayna.
The guide told us after this, we will stop for lunch. Little did i know, we had to first climb 332 stairs first!!
It actually wasn't that bad. After lunch we continued hiking. Our guide had a great eye and showed us different flowers & bugs along the trail. This was my favorite, a rhino beetle bug! (that is the guides hand)
And then we came across this. They have large amounts of rain this time of year (January) which results in land slides. This landslide happened 3 days before we were there but it took the rangers 2 days to clean it up and make another path so the trail was just re-opened the morning we started.
Finally at approximately 2:15, after a day without rain we get to the Sun Temple, where we know there will be full panoramic view of the ruin, and it started pouring! This was our first look:
Despite the rain, it was an amazing feeling finally reaching our goal! It took us about 6.5 hours to make the 16km hike. (Our guide said he thinks the trail is about 22km. The rangers took a guess and they went with that. He is hoping that they will get better technology soon so they accurately measure the distance)
After we rested for a few minutes, we started the trek down to Machu Picchu site. We ran into some llama's along the way! There are 15 llamas (now more since a few had babies) that are tagged, but roam freely in the mountains.
Luckily for us, the rain didn't last very long and the fog disappeared so we got this beautiful view.
Here i am with one of the baby llamas. I was too afraid to actually pet it.
We spent the night in Agua Caliente and took a bus back up to Machu Picchu for a wonderful in depth tour of the sites.
Our time in Machu Picchu and Cusco came to an end too quickly and we had to pack our bag, and head home.
This hike and our visit to the ruin was the highlight of our month trip around South America.
It was so amazing to be able to hike the same trail that the Inca people built and used 600 years ago and to visit the ruins that took them 50 years to build (and there probably would have been more) The hard work, dedication and craftsmanship that they had so long ago is just astounding to me. i am so grateful that i was able to experience it. (The trail was actually closed the next day due to a huge rainfall they received the night before causing more landslides)
These will definitely be photos and stories i will be telling my kids and grand kids.
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