Machu Picchu, Peru
We visited Machu Picchu via a 4 day/3 night hike in June of 2017. We started and ended our journey in the city of Cusco, Peru.
This trip required a lot of forward planning, and I must give credit to Chris for arranging the most important details of our adventure, the dates, the hotel, and the tour company.
It was one of the greatest adventures of our lives! And I recommend this as a bucket list item for everyone.
How to get a Permit
We booked our Macchu Pichu Trip and applied for our Permits through Alpaca Expeditions 1 full year before the start of our trip. My last email advertisement from Alpaca Expeditions shows that permits for the full year are released the October before. (Find updated info on when 2020 permits will be released.)
Tickets for Macchu Pichu
At this time you need a Permit to be on the Inca Trail, as well as a ticket to be at Macchu Pichu. The tickets on the site are only good for 4 hours. Our tour group arranged for us to have a ticket for the day after our hike was completed, we came back and had a much more leisurely stroll.
Day hikes to Macchu Pichu Mountain and Huanapicchu
I did buy tickets to do a side hike, but by the time I got the site I was dead, I was tired, and I was so tired that money already spent could not motivate me to go any further.
The Huayana Pichu Hike
There are a limited number of permits available, 400 for the whole day, they are on a time schedule and you must be present to hike at your alloted time, and you have less that 2 hours to complete. The hike begins at an elevation of 8,031 ft, peaks at 8,230 ft. Between mile 1.5 and 1.8 you descend 800 ft at a 70% grade. And of course you will be climbing up out of that again. This 3.1 mile hike has a total of 1500 elevation gain. That can be quite a challenge after days on the Inca Trail.
The Macchu Pichu Mountain Hike
This hike is 2.4 miles, with a straight forward elevation gain from 8,030 ft to 9,933 ft for a total of approximately 1,800 feet. It’s pretty much up and down, with grades approaching 70% in some brief areas, but averaging about 40%.
Preparations
With more than a year of planning for this trip, there were many ways that we tried to get prepared. Firstly, I will admit that this was my first overnight backpacking trip. I had no clue what I was doing. I was nervous for the physicality, but I was overly confident in this area. I was worried about pooping in the woods. I was nervous about not showering.
I made many mistakes, starting with the world class, very expensive 80L backpack that I borrowed from my cousin who has been around the world, is a man, and is probably a foot taller than me. I took him up on this very generous offer not realizing that these fancy backpacks should be custom ordered to fit the person carrying it. I also think that carrying a backpack with this much space in it caused me to fill the space, with things I didn’t need. I outright rejected any suggestion of ultralight trekking. I was young, strong, and carrying 30lbs of stuff was not “heavy” – but I was wrong.
We started doing some more ambitious hikes. These included The Holy Jim Trail, Angels Landing in Zion, and the Champion Lodgepole via Castle Rock Trail in Big Bear. I was in Half Marathon shape, as I usually am, but I focused more on weekend warrior hiking in the 3 months following the 2017 Zion Half Marathon.
We bought rain gear on Amazon, a Head Lamp, Camping Lights, Plastic Flasks, Proper Hiking Boots, Wool Under Layers, and a Full on First Aid Kit including pills, creams, tools, Mole Skin, Rock Tape, Water Purifiers, Camping Toilet Paper, Camping Waste Bags, Bed Bath Wipes, Campsite Shoes and more changes of clothes than we actually needed.
We got vaccines, and anti-malaria drugs? Was that here or Belize? I forget but I remember consulting my favorite infectious disease doctor at work, who was also a passionate backpacker. I mean, I was nervous!!
The Elevation
My brief memories of physiology was that erythropoetin gets released when there is an increased oxygen demand, but then it takes 14 days to make new red blood cells. This was my rationale for strenuously hiking 4 weeks (at 5,000 to 7,500 ft) and 2 weeks (uphill at 7,500 ft) before our take off to Cusco, but it still the elevation is unreal. I don’t know what the physiological benefit is to arrive 4 days before you start your hike, but elevation sickness is real, and denial doesn’t save you from it. Walking down the flat streets in Cusco back from dinner was giving everyone anxiety from oxygen demand. Our hotel did have oxygen and it was utilized on the first night.
The Breakfast at the Hotel
I have such particulary pleasant memories of the breakfast at the hotel. Spreads of meats, cheeses, breads, crackers, fruits, jams, butter, omelettes to order, four different milks, juices, flavors of yogurts, with a granola and nut bar. We had black coffee with rich creams, papaya juices, and coco tea.
Arriving at the Hotel
I underestimated my ability to sleep on the plane. We left Los Angeles at 2:30pm, I had a bit to drink, and then I took some melatonin and…never fell asleep. We landed in Lima around 2:00 AM, waited a few hours, and landed in Cusco before the sun came up. I had been awake and mildly drunk for more than 24 hours and I was having an out of body experience with my fatigue. It’s hard to describe sleep deprivation when you aren’t in the middle of it. I was quite disoriented. A member of our group said they had booked their hotel room one day early so they could sleep on arrival. I though I would be rested on arrival and ready to explore a bit before our afternoon check in. I weakly sipped on the coco tea, which has no actionable effect on making you feel awake, though it will make you test positive for cocaine and supposedly eases elevation sickness, I drank it anyway, just in case it could do something.
Some angel at the hotel let us into our room fully 10 hours before our check in time, and I’ve never been more grateful in my life. I slept like a baby.
The Days Leading up to the hike
We went to a Zoo, Wild Life Reserve
Pisaq (Crop circles, we were also trying to go to a market)
Next Day:
The girl teaching us about weaving (Complejo Arqueologico Chinchero) ?? (Centro Textil Acllas)
We went to a Church with a huge grounds for selling Merchandise (Iglesia Colonial de Chinchero)
Moray – Crop Circles
Maras – Salt Mines
Ollantayambo -Sun was going down
June 20,
I don’t think we did anything on this day, the parades were going on, we ate at that place across the street from our hotel with the single chef, and went to a meeting with Alpaca expeditions at the end.
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