Last summer, my wife and I did something I’d been dreaming about doing since I was a geography student in college. We hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

The Inca Trail is four day, 25 mile trek up and down mountain passes on the way to Machu Picchu. Along the way we learned about Quechua religion, social structure, culture and a lot of other great details. We also enjoyed some Peruvian specialties like anticuchos (skewered beef heart), ceviche (made with chicken instead of fish) and aji de gallina (a creamy chicken dish).

The Porters

To hike the trail, you have to book a trip with a licensed tour company. We used Peru Treks and had a great experience.

They provide porters, tents and meals along the way. We watched our hired porters carry our supplies very hastily ahead of us to the next check point each day. Many of them wore sandals and carried packs easily three times the size of ours. My wife and I did the math, adding together all the fees for the entire group, subtracting the costs for various permits and tickets the trekking company bought on our behalf, and assuming the company keeps at least 25% of the remaining revenue, we concluded that these porters couldn’t be earning little more than $15-20 a day for their long, backbreaking days of work.

At the end of the hike there is a time set aside where you can tip the porters. If you ever take on the hike, I suggest you take at least 50% more tip money than what the tour websites suggest. There are a lot of hard workers present and they really make the entire experience way more enjoyable.

Trail Mates

Just as exciting as the adventure were the people we had the pleasure of hiking with. We were accompanied by an esteemed cardiologist and his brilliant 19 year old son who taught himself fluent Spanish, a family of mega travelers including the toughest pre-teens I’ve ever met, a couple who were veteran hikers and also high school counselors, a lawyer from NOLA taking a year off from life and a mother/daughter team from Perth, Australia on the adventure of a lifetime, spending their entire summer split between Guatemala and Peru.

I grew very affectionate of these people over the four days where we went from being complete strangers to a tightly knit group all having an adventure together. The blisters, back aches, extreme temperatures, hunger, nausea, diarrhea and constipation, followed by breath taking beauty and awe inspiring discovery forced us close together.

I found it very hard to simply say “goodbye, have a nice life” after it was all over. I still wonder what each are up to from time to time.

The Sights and Sounds of the Inca Trail

I don’t have much to say about the sights and sounds of the Inca Trail other than I was gob smacked, dumbfounded, and completely without words for the majority of the hike.

Not only because of the natural beauty, the vastness and clarity of the wide open night sky, or the amazing Quechua ruins we were allowed to explore each day, but also because of the warmness of our guides, the work ethic of the porters and the physical and mental challenge I faced myself.

Instead of describing it, I’ll leave you with a ton of pictures to click through! Click the first, then click each image to scroll to the next.

I had a hard time putting down the camera during the trek and ended up clipping it to the front of my pack with a Carabiner for quick access.

Reaching Machu Pichhu

The Inca Trail is extra special because there is a grand treasure at the end. It is getting to not only see Machu Picchu, but to have earned it.  Anyone can buy a train ticket and admission to the ruins, but not everyone clawed their way there, waking up at 3:30 am on the last day and fighting your way along a dark, wooden pathway by the glow of a headlamp in a race to reach the Sun Gate by sunrise!

In fact, once you enter the grand ruins and are suddenly surrounded by well dressed, pleasant smelling tourists, you feel oddly disgusted and out of place. You feel the way I imagine the indigenous and locals feel about me when I wander around their neighborhoods and shops outside the touristy part of town, nosing around with my expensive clothes and fancy camera, nervously asking “Puedo tomar su foto por favor?”

Would I hike the Trail again?

If you were to ask me if I’d hike the Inca Trail again, I’d give an emphatic, “Hell Yes!” Then I’d step back and think about just how tough it actually was. It was hard, really hard,
but it was worth it. Maybe someday in the future with my daughters.

And finally- my certificate of achievement from Peru Treks! I means almost as much to me as my college diploma!  If you liked this post, be sure to also check out “Blowing My Wife’s Mind Open in Peru!”

All photos shot with my handy Canon Rebel XSi & Canon EF-S 10-22mm