Yesterday, was an adventure, especially for Susan and Tim Wright. We started for the train station on foot at 5:30 am (12 min walk or so); then we took Peru Rail to the KM 104 stop to hike from there to the Sun Gate and on into Machu Picchu.
We were the second of 37 groups onto the trail in the morning, and to tell you how it went, we were the 36th of 37 groups walking the trail yesterday to pass through the Sun Gate!
The hike is 11 kilometers or around 7 miles with a maximum elevation of 2500 meters or just over 8100 feet. We were at 11,000 feet in Cusco and a little under 9200 feet at Ollytaytambo, so this was lower, greener and warmer.
It had been cold when we left Ollytaytambo but I quickly realized it was going to be warm on the hike; I’d worn shorts under my pants, so took off the pants and soon after, my light jacket. It was a good decision to wear shorts and bug spray worked for keeping off the bugs.
We had two guides, Nilton, the leader, and Efrain, the second in charge. We had a group ranging from a Colorado hiker to 10 & 11 year old Aussies with their parents to others in their 20s, 40s & 50s. We headed off on the hike with Tim carrying too much as he had some of my water and some things of Susan. I brought a small pack, maybe 15 liters, they had larger ones. We had to take water, snacks, and overnight gear, as we were staying in Aguas Calientes that night.
We stopped shortly after starting at Chachabamba, an ancient Inka ceremonial center with a sophisticated hydraulic system.
We walked maybe an hour to our next stops and the last bathrooms for three hours (squat toilets). There was another Inka ruin there, mainly terraces used for farming.
Tim appeared to be tired so I took my water back, refilled my smaller bottles and dumped the rest. I put one of their heavy pouches in my bag. It was a good thing I took three carabiners with me for water bottles and jackets!
I started off in the front of pack, and lost track of Susan and Tim at some point…the trail was windy and I couldn’t see everyone when we stopped to let people catch up. I thought once we restarted the caravan that they were just out of sight…which they were. It turned out Tim was walking too fast, drinking too little and carrying too much and just laid out flat on the ground for a while. Fortunately, after resting he was better…but then Susan was carrying both bags till Nilton reached them (he was further back with Mick, the Aussie father). Nilton took Tim’s bag along with his own large bag, and they all walked along slowly towards the summit and the lunch spot.
Once I realized they were far back and that Tim wasn’t feeling well, I started back down the trail to check on them. I walked what seemed like a while but was maybe 5-10 minutes downhill. Some of the other in our group told me that Susan said to keep going up, but I went down till I reached another guide from the same company (they communicate via radios) and he said Nilton was with them and I was to finish the hike.
So I walked pretty quickly back up and got there in time to see another Inca ruin, this one quite impressive, WinayWayna. It’s located on a steep hillside above the Urubamba River. There are beautiful agricultural terraces above and below the upper and lower house complexes. The house complexes are connected by a staircase and fountain structures. The view from the houses of the valley below is gorgeous and it was fun to have time in an uncrowded space to explore the area. Unfortunately Tim and Susan didn’t make it there. But I saw them when I returned to camp for lunch. They’d had soup and then were sent ahead while we ate so everyone could get to Machu Picchu in time to see it before it closed. It was quite an adventure for Susan’s first ever hike!
After the visit to WinnayWayna we had a hot lunch…it was prepared in a tent which porters carried up along with all the food and cooking items. It was good…Peruvian potatoes, avocados, mango ceviche, rice, bread, soup, beef, chicken, trout and more.
The last part of the hike was mostly downhill and we entered Machu Picchu through the Sun Gate which has a view of Machu Picchu in the distance. We took the obligatory photos (Macchu Picchu is above the to the left of the people). Then we walked into Macchu Picchu. It was a bit cloudy but we had the classic view of the city and the light was fine.
Macchu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca Citadel located in southern Peru on a mountain ridge at 2,430 meters (7,970 ft). It is often referred to as the “Lost City of the Incas”, and is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire. The Urubamba River flows past it, cutting through the Cordillera part of the Andes Mountain range and creating a canyon with a subtropical mountain climate. From Wikipedia: “Most recent archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was constructed as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438–1472). The Inca built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later, at the time of the Spanish conquest. According to the new AMS radiocarbon dating, it was occupied from c. 1420–1532.” It was probably abandoned around the time of the Spanish conquest and not officially rediscovered till the early 20th century.
After our visit we walked out of Machu Picchu, took a bus to Agua Calientes (25 minutes), and had dinner as a group. We walked back to our hotel and got ready for our early morning visit the next day to Machu Picchu (meeting at 4:50 am) and a climb up the Huayna Picchu mountain at 9am. I’ll write about that hike…tomorrow.
