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.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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.
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