Inca Trail Day 1 and 2

If you go to Peru, you have to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It´s the only thing that I have had to book in advance on this trip, and it forced me to travel all the way back to Cusco. It´s also extremely expensive relative to other S. American experiences. My four day hike, set me back about $420 USD. In the end, the trip was completely worth the money. The company I chose, Llama Path, was great and the guide, Freddy, both knowledgeable and ridiculously funny. Our group, was fairly young, American (only two German students), and everyone got along great. The hike itself can be a bit tough at times (not even close to climbing Huayna Potosi), but the views are spectacular. The ruins that you visit along the way - are obviously not as impressive as Machu Picchu, but each one is interesting in its own right and they add more to the story of Machu Picchu and the Inca people themselves. Its been quite a few weeks since I hiked the trail, so the names of specific ruins and places might not be right on - so I´ll apologize in advance.

Here´s the Group
The original Inca Trail can be seen on the right.

Me with Llactapata

Nevado Veronica (5750m)

A Shepherd at heart

The big climb also known as "Dead Woman´s Pass" (4198 m). This is the most difficult section of the trail with about a 1000m elevation gain.

Bastian and I on the top of the pass. I believe this is the stupidest pic of me yet. Coming down from the Pass

A bunch of pictures of Sayaqmarka (Dominant Town) chilling in the fog

A small Inca ruin just below Sayaqmarka.

Finally, the sun broke through for a few hours.

Inca Trail Day 3

After too many days of fog we were treated to this view in the morning.

Here I am with the World Record holder for the Inca Trail. This guy is a porter for one of the local tour outfits, and ran the entire Inca Trail (27.5 miles) in under 3 hrs and 45 minutes. Even more incredible is that he´s 46, and did the race in sandals. I think Nike could make a hell of a commercial with him.

Here´s the Llama Path team taking down the camp.

A spider orchid

Another orchid A Lady Slipper

Photos of Phuyupatamarka (Town Above the Clouds)

A bird in the window

Some interesting fungus

Another bit of peculiar fungus

Our guide took us to a recently discovered set of ruins that none of the other groups went to - I forgot the name (sorry). National Geographic is paying loads of cash to clear out all the vegetation and also get first dibs on the photo op, and so we were told not to snap any shots. I of course did not listen.

Some kind of orchid

A very colorful flower

The trail turns into a cloud forest jungle

Intipata

Winay Wayna (Forever Young) named after the orchid that blooms here year round.

Freddy (our guide) and I being Super Cool (his favorite phrase)

Inca Trail Day 4

The final day - time for us to reach the prize, Machu Picchu. We woke up at 4:30 am for a delicious breakfast of cake.
When we reached the magical Sun Gate, Intipunku, where you can watch the sunrise over Machu Picchu - we were greeted with the thickest fog of our entire trek. We could barely see the Sun Gate in front of us let alone the great Machu Picchu.

I decided to get close to this llama, for a shot. He jerked his head towards me while I was posing, and scared the hell out of me (please remember that it was very early in the morning).

With Machu Picchu being covered in so much fog I decided to make the most of it by stepping out on this steep ledge and shouting at the gods to bring the sunshine.

The fog began to slowly dissipate, and we took a group photo.

Lucky for us at about 8 am the clouds went home, and we had sunshine and Machu Picchu for the rest of the day.

Agricultural terraces used for experimentation with various crops.

Amazing plumbing cut right into the rock used to fill and drain the multiple ceremonial baths.

Temple of the Sun, Machu Picchu´s only round building used for astronomical purposes.

Royal Palace

Freddy, showing how the Inca´s ingeniously split boulders to create their building blocks. If you look closely you can see where they inserted pieces of wood, and then soaked the wood in water until the expanding wood cracked the rock.

Central Plaza, filled with the luckiest llamas in Peru - they get to lounge and munch on the greenest grass all day.

The Intihuatana, used by Incan astronomers to predict the solstices. A few years back, the Intihuatana was featured in a beer commercial. Sadly, during the filming a piece of camera equipment fell onto the Intihuatana and chipped a large piece off of it.

Two crias (baby llamas)

I climbed up to the top of Wayna Picchu, the peak behind Machu Picchu. From the top you can easily see that Machu Picchu is shaped like a condor.

A bad place to slip.

Don´t lean back too far.

Going for a dive.