I finished the Inca Trail a couple days ago now and I’m not sure what to say.. yet. The trek from “km 82” was a total of 44 km. The first day is a 11 km warm up hike to Wayllambama. This hike wasn’t so bad and was a very good warm up in terms of preparing us for the altitude and pacing ourselves. I realised the best way to actually pace myself (as I am normally a very fast walker) was to take photos. This isn’t too difficult of a job since every time you look around, there was a gorgeous site to behold.
The second day was a 12 km hike which takes you to Paqaymayo through Dead Woman’s Pass at 4200 m. This hike starts early and our guide said it would be best if we just plowed through the walk and have lunch as the end so as to not fill ourselves up and get lazy on the way up and down the pass. The climb was pretty intense, as was the decent. I definitely misread how long 4 hours up and 2 hours down really meant!
The third day is primarily a down hill day at 16 km, taking you to Wiñaywayna. It was also a day which decided to be a bit cold and yuck (like London weather as some of the group had likened it to). It meant that I finally started using the poles as I had previously hated using them (it also got in the way of my camera). This was one of those walks which needed to be enjoyed and taken in. Unfortunately, the clouds didn’t help in this case, but I made the most of it!
The last day is a 4 km hike to Intipunku and Machu Picchu. I think the 3 am wake up was somewhat unnecessary. It was great to be first at the gates to get going quickly, but the Sun Gate was very foggy that day, and Machu Picchu was full of people regardless of what time you got there. Of course, I made the most of what I got, and thoroughly enjoyed the walk and the company along the way!
