Machu Picchu. Who hasn’t seen the photos of the idyllic Inca mountain town  and talked about it in 8th grade Social Studies? It’s one of those places you learn about and seems so far away. I spent a summer in Ecuador and almost booked a flight to Cusco because I wasn’t sure if I’d ever have the chance again. Lucky for me, I was wrong.

 

 

After missing out on going when I was in the neighborhood, I started talking to my brother, Mario, a lot about going and what treks we would take if we ever had a chance. When it became clear Will and I were going to take this journey through South America, it became serious for us all to revisit those old conversations. And luckily, one more person jumped in, my mom, as visiting Machu Picchu has always been one of her dreams. We planned our trip so our paths would cross in Cusco in the end of February.

We always knew we wanted to do some sort of trek in, but reading about visiting the area in February is a bit disheartening. It’s the rainy season, so the internet is littered with stories of rainy, wet days. My family had about 6 days in Cusco, so we started looking at 4 day treks. The Inca Trail is closed due to the rain, and it being the low season, also for repairs. We never planned on doing the Inca Trail, but since it was automatically out, it helped narrow down our options to the Lares and Salkantay.

The Lares Trail is known as the Last Trail of the Incas. When the Spanish took over Cusco, it was the escape route many of the Incas took. Currently it is home to many villages between Lares and Ollantaytambo. The Salkantay is traditionally a 5 day trek, but the tour company we were looking into, Tierras Vivas, offered a 4 day option as well. My understanding is that it is more mountainous, a bit more difficult, but breathtakingly beautiful. We decided we wanted to learn more about the Quechua culture along with the views so we chose the Lares Trek – 3 days hiking and camping, then a hotel in Machu Picchu Pueblo, and Machu Picchu on day 4. We were ready.

 

Will and I, seeing as we have nothing but time, arrived in Cusco early to allow about 4 days to acclimate for the trek. Mario and Mom, with jobs like normal people, were only able to arrive the day before we set off. That left us all an afternoon to pack, grab some food, and aim for a good night of sleep in our last night in beds for a bit.

 

Day 1: Transport and Hot Springs

Since we were on a private tour we were able to delay the usual start time to be picked up at 6:45am with time to grab a bit of our hotel’s breakfast. The drive from Cusco to Lares is about 3-4 hours with a few stops throughout for photos of the Sacred Valley, market adventuring if you need some trail snacks, and other photo points. We got to Lares and went immediately to the hot springs. The hot springs are S/. 10 a person and there are quite a few pools. After about 20 minutes soaking, we were all bright red and decided to get ready for lunch.  This was our first meal of many with our esteemed chef, Porfirio (Teacher). It was amazing, I can’t even remember what all the platters he cooked us were.

 

 

After the long drive and the hot springs, we were all ready to get going on the hike we had for that day – about 2.5 hours. The morning was also nice and bright with blue skies, and as we were eating lunch the grey clouds started rolling in, we were ready to go to try to beat any rain that was coming. The first day’s hike was a nice introduction to get our legs moving. The sun was out every once in a while and the trail was not too tough. There were some ups and downs and river crossings, but overall a great way to get started.

When we reached our campsite, it was already set up for us with buckets of hot water to wash up. We took our wet wipe showers and then all met up in the tent with our guide for hot drinks (coca tea, hot chocolate, and coffee), popcorn and crackers. This also began the tradition of my mom and I eliciting numerous eye rolls from Will and Mario due to our detailed (and very interesting, if I might add) questioning of our guide, Adner, about the Inca civilization. This discussion continued through dinner (which I can’t remember what the meal all included, but I assure you, it was massive and delicious). With our bellies full of food and hot liquids, our brains full of new information to ponder, it was bed time.

 

 

Day 2: Hiking to the Top

The rainy season struck in the middle of the night. I remember waking up multiple times to the sound of pouring rain on the tent roof and hoping it would stop by morning. It didn’t. And my mom’s tent leaked over all her clothes. Yay Rainy Season! We got our wake up call at 5:30am, which was Teacher wishing us “Buenos Dias!” with steaming hot cups of coffee right to our tent for us to drink while we packed and got ready. Now that’s camping. We all met for breakfast (again, massive, delicious and hot) which was a big omelet and bread with of course, coca tea or more coffee. 

 

 

Luckily for us, the rain ended up stopping in time for us to start the most difficult hiking day of the trek. Before we get to our lunch spot, we were to hike about 4 hours, most of it being uphill, to our highest point on the trek – about 15,000 ft (4,500m). The uphill was usually very gradual until you finally near the top of the mountain. The most difficult part of the hike is definitely the altitude. It’s definitely a good place to go slow and take deep breaths. But we all made it in good time to the freezing top of the mountain. As mountains are sacred to the Quechua culture and the Incas, when we got to the top Adner gave us some info about the religion and beliefs. Or you know, to torture us in the cold.

 

If you do this trek, and make it to the peak, it is quite literally all down hill from there. We walked about an hour or so more and stopped for lunch. Teacher had for us like 5 different giant platters of veggies, quinoa, and meat. After lunch we walked down to our final campsite which is in a larger town than we stayed the first night. Both of our campsites were courtesy of our horseman, Ignacio. Night 1 was at his house, and Night 2 was a friend of his. I cannot rave enough about the staff on the Tierras Vivas trek.

This definitely ended up being my favorite day of the hike. It was beautiful with cool temperatures and there were so, SO MANY llamas and alpacas to watch. Will has already promised me that one day we will own a plot of mountain side for an alpaca farm for Mario’s future alpaca lawn cutting service (the grass was very well groomed the whole trek). Also being in a larger town, a few of us decided to kick back with a beer and we all hung out and played cards for the night. After another delicious dinner, we went to bed. This time, to a fairly dry night.

 

 

Day 3: Hiking Down

“Buenos Dias!” More coffee in the tent. More great way to start the day. After our final delicious meal from Teacher, which was pancakes and banana/cheese stuffed pastry things, we took off on what was, to me, the day toughest on my poor knees. Downhill all day on stones. I hate downhill. It was technically fairly easy though, as it was down the road that takes you to Ollantaytambo, where the train takes you into Machu Picchu Pueblo. The day went really smoothly and we even got blue skies and sun. When we made it down for our 12:30pm train, we were all ready to sit down and relax for awhile.

 

In Machu Picchu Puebla (which was Aguas Calientes until recently), we went to our hotel, took deliciously hot showers, and went to check out town and get some dinner. We were ready for the main event on the next day, Machu Picchu.

 

Day 4: Machu Picchu

It was a little rainy right when we got up, so the original plan of rushing up to see the sunrise was not as vital. We did however take off before the sun came up to beat the heat for the steps up. It was about 2 hours to go from our hotel to the entrance of Machu Picchu on a shit ton of steps. And when I say a shit ton, I mean way more than I expected. Our guide warned us to bring a spare shirt for the top, and he was absolutely right. Compared to hiking around the mountains, it almost felt tropical going up in the humidity and sun so we were all pretty drenched on the top. Not good for photos.

Finally all dried and changed, we made our way in. It was unreal. Most of us have seen the photos, but being there is truly an unbeatable experience that no picture can truly capture. You realize when you finally make it to the top, that all the nice stone steps we raced up were not there when they built this city that housed hundreds of people on the strip of mountain top. Walking through the city you learn about all the brilliant ways these people lived, from building around a fault line to designing terraces to grow crops but not disrupt the mountain by causing any erosion or instability.

 

We spent a few hours up there walking around, being pestered by llamas, learning about the culture (eliciting more eye rolls from the boys after the questions), and just enjoying the scenery.

While the rainy season may seem scary, the day was sunny with blue skies, the grass was green, and the breeze was cool. It was the perfect day to end our trek and experience the wonders of the ancients.

 

What We Packed – We each had our day packs and were given duffel bags for the horse

• Hiking Pants (Or Shorts or Jeans)
• 3-4 Shirts – Will is a firm believer in 1 shirt while hiking, the rest of us brought a few spares. It’s up to your comfort level. We all had a couple extra for when we were clean in Machu Picchu Pueblo and for when we got to Machu Picchu.
• Sneakers/Hiking Boots
• Socks and Underwear for all days
• Rain Jacket – The company gave us all ponchos, but I liked having my raincoat too.
• Hat
• Gloves
• Day Pack Rain Cover – The poncho was large enough to cover our day packs, but it was drizzly a lot the 2nd day so I liked having the additional cover.
• Sweat Shirt/Flannel/Warm Jacket – Sleeping outside at 3,200m can get pretty chilly. It’s also nice to have dry warm clothes at the camp site for the evenings.
• Warm clothes to sleep in
• Walking Stick
• Shampoo/Conditioner/toiletries you need
• Toilet Paper for the 3 Days of the Trek
• Camera
• Hand Sanitizer
• Wet Wipes
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• Bug Spray – Not really an issue on the trek, but I got bit a bunch at Machu Picchu. No one else did. But hey, there are some bugs up there.
• Money – Be sure to have enough to tip the guide, horseman, and cook. We tipped the recommended amounts as a group. Also there are people selling souvenirs throughout the trek and Machu Picchu Pueblo has a bunch of restaurants, shops, etc. We were also on own for lunch after Machu Picchu and the entrance fee to the hot springs in Lares.
• Snacks – We each had a few granola bars we bought in Cusco. However the meals fed to you throughout are massive
• Candy – Throughout the trek you see indigenous children in the towns you pass through. We had little hard candies to hand to each of the children. However, we were asked to give the candy and not the wrapper to help prevent any littering, so it may be easier to find a candy without a wrapper to hand out.