Hiking Tours in Peru
Inka Trail Tour 2

~ 4 Days / 3 Nights ~

Explore the Land of the Incas!

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Hiking Tours in Peru   (
a.k.a. trekking tours)

Our hiking tours (or trekking or walking, if you prefer) offer you the opportunity to see the land of the Incas - up close and personal.  You miss too many sights of interest if you only see the area from a moving vehicle.  Following the same trails used by the Incas lets you take in everything, a marvelous experience!  
   

Each morning we have an early wake-up with a cup of hot tea or coffee and a basin of warm washing water brought to each tent. We pack up our personal belongings as the camp crew breaks camp, and we eat a hot breakfast, usually eggs, pancakes, or oatmeal. Donning our daypacks (lightly loaded with sweater, water bottle, and other small necessities). We're ready to head out on the trail. In almost no time, the camp staff and porters pass us by, some on the way to our picnic lunch spot, others to set up the next camp.

The morning walk lasts about three or four hours, then we stop for a leisurely lunch of an hour or more at a scenic spot on the trail. Lunch is usually a meat or vegetable salad, along with a cream, drinks. After lunch, we walk for another few hours until we reach our campsite- each one, it seems, more beautifully situated than the last! Dinner is prepared late in Peru (around 8 PM), so the crew usually serves us afternoon tea and a snack to tide us over until mealtime.

Before dinner, there's free time to read, relax, or wash hair or clothes in a stream if we're near one. Dinner is a mixture of continental, Peruvian, and Quechua cuisines. It's a hearty meal consisting of a delicious hot soup (often made with the local grain, quinoa), with a main course of spaghetti, stroganoff, or other beef or chicken casseroles, and pudding or cake for dessert. After dinner, we usually chat away the evening in the dining tent, perhaps enjoying a glass of pisco, rum, or wine. Sometimes the lovely and soon hauntingly familiar sound of a single quena (Andean flute) fills the Andean with melody, always a fitting accompaniment to our spectacular setting.

 

ITINERARY:

First day      We take the train to go to km.88 , the trip lasts 2 hours. We meet with all the staff that will escort us . We cross the bridge to cross the Panticalla pass leading to the jungle settlement of Amaybamba. Perhaps this was the only highway still in use by the time of the conquest, for the Spaniards never discovered the trail that continued on down the valley to a point where it is becoming a gorge and will soon be a canyon. The Incas built a string of settlements onward from here down the left bank of Urubamba.

Here you pass the ruins of Llactapata (town-on-a-site), above to the right. Below to the left, near the banks of the Cusichaca, close to its confluence with the Urubamba, is the Pulpituyoc (pulpit-having), a great carved rock, which was the principal huaca of the area. Following the trail you descend to the river and cross just below a small ravine, adorned with a Inca buttress. (2 km.).

After crossing a small pass to the left of the ravine, your route follows an undulating course up the left bank of the Cusichaca. At first the valley is broad; higher up it narrows. At the end of this bottleneck you see a tributary stream, it valley, and traces of an old landslide on the right bank. Here there is a log bridge over the Cusichaca. Descend and cross it.

Continue uphill along the main valley, on the fight bank now, until you reach the village of Huayllabamba (grassy plain) at 3000m elevation. We have a lunch and relax time. The trail now leaves the Cusichaca, turning northwest up the valley of the Llullucha (the name for a kind of herb). The climb gets steep and unrelenting. You are ascending toward the first pass. We get to Llullucha, and we camp there.

Tea and snack time. Then we have time for rest. Dinner.

Second day     Wake up with a hot cup of tea. Breakfast. Before the walking we provide you a snack and bottle of coca tea. About 1 1/2 km. Upstream is the Llullucha. Both valleys are steep-sided and and densely forested. Follow the trail up the leftbank fork for roughly 500m beyond the confluence, then leave this trail to the fight and descend to a log bridge across the stream. With luck you might see a white-tailed deer, or even the rare Andean taruca (a small barrel-chested deer with spiky little antlers).

This is the last, hard climb to the first pass, the Abra de Warmihuanusca (Dead Woman's Pass, we have no record as to the origin of this name). Notice traces of ancient steps at the head of the pass, the first unmistakable signs that you are following a pre-Columbian highway. This is the highest point of the trail at around 4200m. (1OKm.)

Lunch time and relax. In the afternoon we descend to the valley of Pacaymayu. If visibility is good you can see two high passes ahead of you. The one on the right is your destination. You can pick out the two small takes near the pass, and the circular ruin of Runkurakay below them.

As you near the valley floor you see the waterfalls of the river Pacaymayo tumbling down the mountain to your left. The valley floor of the Pacaymayo is an official campsite. We have the tea time and rest. Dinner.

Third day     Wake up with a hot cup of tea. Breakfast. Before the walking we provide you a snack and bottle of coca tea. We begin the walking from Pacaymayo. Here you are at last convinced that you are walking an Inca trail. Up to now the path has been a trail like any other, but now you find stone steps built into the mountain as your route zig-zags up its slopes to Runkurakay (5kms).

The circular shape of the main structure at Runkuracay is unusual for a large Inca construction. The two concentric walls of the enclosure form two long , curved chambers and four smallones, all giving onto a central courtyard. The outer walls are massive and solid, and have no windows, but the eastern quarter of the courtyard is open, giving a magnificent view over the Pacaymayo valley.

Descend. As you do so trail becomes more and more obviously an Inca highway. Below lies a long, shallow lake, green with algae. Soon you can see ahead of you, clinging to a spur the ruins of Sayacmarca (dominant town). A trail to the left climbs abruptly, via a flight of steps hanging above a cliff, to reach these ruins, while the main highway toward Machu Picchu descends almost as abruptly to your fight (7kms.).

Sayacmarca was discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1915. He called it Cedrobamba, meaning "Plain of Cedars" But since it is not a plain, nor are there any cedars, Paul Fejos, who visited the area in 1940, gave it a new Quechua name meaning "Dominant (or Inaccessible) Town." The complex is built at the end of precipitous ridge commanding a sweeping view of the Aobamba valley, with the snowcapped Pumasilo (ca.6000m) in the distance. But it would be wrong to consider it a fortress. It might have saved as a center from which to control travel and cargo along the two main highways visible from this point.

Descend from Sayacmarca by the same route you entered. After 100 meters or so the trail cuts down to the left there's a small campsite here, as you approach the stream. About 15 minutes from Sayacmarca the trail crosses a shallow bowl known as the Dry Lake (Cha'Kicocha).

The third and final pass is at close to 4000m. Here you emerge onto a stupendous view of the Urubamba Valley. The ruin of Phuyupatamarca (Cloud-level Town) lie below you to the left. If the day is clear you will just see the tip of snowcapped Palcay (ca.5600m.), Salcatnay (6180m). We stop here and we have the Lunch and rest.

Phuyupatamarca was another of Hiram Bingham's discoveries. His for this one is apt, because clouds tend to settle around the ridge below which the complex is built. There are many agricultural terraces here, possible enough to have made the site self-sufficient. Once again we find ritual baths here.

Where the trails exist from the ruins on the west side you come to two flights of steps pointing downward into the jungle. The first of these is an incredible granite staircase that was probably the principal route from here to Huinay Huayna, the next major site along the Inca Trail. This trail and staircase is a recent discovery. The staircase is two meters wide in places.

The trail cuts across the mountainside and eventually joins a new pathway that descends near a line of electricity towers. The original Inca trail probably led directly to Huinay Huayna. The site is named after an orchid (Epidendrum crassilabiuma E. Secundrum) with red, violet or yellow flowers, that was once abundant in this area, and is still to be seen. The plant blooms year-round, hence the Quechua name, which means "forever young".

The ruins here were discovered in 1941 by Paula Feijos, during the last days of the Viking Fund expedition. He had time only for rudimentary survey and clearing work. The ruins are built on the steepest of mountains slopes, flanked by ancient farming terraces. Due east from here the land plunges into the Urubamba Gorge and then soars upward to the shining glaciers of Mount Veronica.

We camp in this site. Tea time and rest. Dinner.

Fourth Day Wake up with a hot cup of tea. Breakfast. Before the walking we provide you a box lunch for the visit of Machu Picchu.  Leaving Huinay Huayna you are on the last leg of the trail. The trail traverses fairly stead-fly across open mountainside at first, and then enters dense woods, rising and falling. When you come to a steep, imposing flight of stairs, you have almost arrived. Soon you reach the top of a ridge, where the path passes through a ruined gateway flanked by remains of buildings: Intipunku (Sun Gate).

You have reached the city limits. Walk to the far side of the ruin and you see the climax of your journey. The tall peak of Huayna Picchu lies directly ahead.

Before it, spread impressively over the ridge below you, lies the lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu (7 kms.). We descend to the Citadel. We have a complete tour with our guide during three hours. As soon as you decide we take a buses to get down to the train station to take the train to Cusco.

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IMPORTANT: 

  • All hikes are private -  just you and your party, not with a group of strangers.  
  • All hikes have highly experienced professional guides.
  • Tours can be arranged to begin on any day of the week.

   

Listings are updated periodically, so check back here for the current schedules.

Call Today For Prices, Information, or Reservations!
TOLL FREE IN THE USA & CANADA: 
1-800-327-3573
LOCAL / INTERNATIONAL: 1-863-439-1486     FAX: 1-863-439-2118

 

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01/06/2008

     

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