10 out of 10 would recommend hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (known as machu eat-chu up to some), keep in mind it isn’t something you can just roll out of bed and put on pants for. It requires a little more prep than that.
when to book
My cousin and I were planning to go in May and started looking the previous July/August for an appropriate tour company. Back in the day, some 20 years ago, you could just grab your backpack/tent and hike the trail on your own, but nowadays you need to go with a tour company. Balls, I know.
You also need a permit. Our tour company arranged it for us, which I think is common. The limited amount of permits get released about six months beforehand. We didn’t know if this was a sell-out fast Adele tickets situation or not, and we wanted to lock it in early since our dates were set. Hence the eagerness.
Side note: an Australian couple I met in Turkey was doing a round-the-world trip. They ended up booking the trail a couple weeks before they arrived, but with one where they had to carry their own bags. Technically, you don’t need to be as anal as we were. After typing that, I’m scared this blogpost will appear in Google porn searches, but then I remember no one reads this.
After some research and a detailed excel spreadsheet later, my cousin and I narrowed down our choices. We wanted:
- a “sustainable” company that gave the money back to the Peruvs
- to not pollute the trail/destroy the ecosystem (I had to pee on the trail once, so sue me)
- it would be nice if they could throw in a little gender equality while they were at it
We booked the 5 day Inca Trail tour Orange Nation (same company as Sam Travel) in August. It’s on the pricer end of the Machu Picchu tours, but they had smaller group sizes and they fit most of our other criteria. We spent 777 USD on the tour plus the cost of poles ($15) and sleeping bags ($20). The sleeping mats were included. The tours we saw online ranged from $300-1500+. The ones on the low end were massive groups that basically stomped on the flora and beat alpacas with a stick (don’t quote me on that).
Our tour included Circuit 3 (route) along with a viewpoint that only the hikers get access to and entrance through the sungate. Worried we wouldn’t see everything, we bought an additional route/circuit through Orange Nation.
I didn’t realise, but you can also take a bus up from Aguas Calientes to see Machu Picchu without hiking the trail. If you do this, no matter what Circuit you book, you won’t get access to the hikers viewpoint nor the sungate.
After booking, I then went to a outdoor equipment store and spent $150 on hiking socks.
the circuit situation
Machu Picchu was not immune to the covid crazies (who was, am I right?) so they introduced this circuit system in 2021 that is more complicated than my friend’s 2005 relationship status on Facebook.
In addition to the Circuit 3 that was included in our tour, we bought Circuit 2+ bridge. It was wasn’t great since it included everything we saw on the Circuit 3 with the addition of the Puente Inka (Inca Bridge) that my cousin (who is deathly afraid of heights) couldn’t bring herself to see due to the sheer cliff pathways with no safeguards. I saw the bridge and it was chill.
This portion of your circuit has time slots that you can visit this bridge section, so be aware of your entrance time for it.
The dad and son that were on our tour added the Huayna Pichhu mountain. (This is the one that looks like the mountain from The Emporer’s New Groove). They said it was good, but my legs basically died after walking the 43kms so I wouldn’t have made it up another mountain.
Is there one circuit to rule them all? No, because the circuit situation seems to change every few seconds, but if I had to pick, I’d say circuit 2. There are other blogs that get into the nitty gritty of the circuits though.
best time of year to hike
May was colder but with a smaller chance of rain and apparently less busy, so that’s when we went. We had perfect conditions, mostly sunny and cooler.
Our guide told us the week before they had rain everyday so mother nature will do what she’s gonna do.
do you workout?
Have you seen these lengthy blogposts/terror tales on how to physically prepare for the trail to Machu Picchu? Relax.
I ended up hiking the Inca Trail with a broken tailbone, so you’ll be fine (maybe not, but I don’t know you).
I took up running (LOL), completing the couch potato to 5K app and I was partaking in some fitness classes, but then rum happened and I was immobile for a while there. So three days before my flight to Lima I tied tight my hiking boots and walked up the 4 flights of stairs in my building (there are no hills in the Netherlands). End of fitness routine list.
I’m going to go with those 2 sessions of 30 minutes walking up stairs did not make a huge difference, but who is to say really? I’m not a doctor.
My cousin on the other hand, ran, weight lifted, boxed and literally did the most prep you can you can imagine.
I don’t want to say anyone can do it but let me tell you a story from our tour guide:
Our tour guide went to the hotel lobby to check people in for the hike (to get their ID’s or whatever) and there was this severely overweight man just sitting there. The tour guide didn’t give him a second glance because he assumed he wasn’t going on the trail.
The man then approached the tour guide and said, Oh no, I’m actually doing the hike. I’m starting tomorrow.
So this guy, he was so slow that he would wake up hours earlier than everyone else. If everyone had to leave by 6:30, he would get up at 3:00 in the morning and still arrive five hours after everyone else. Apparently he drank Coca-Cola a lot. He had some snacks like chocolates and stuff like that, he missed most of the meals and stops.
By just putting one foot in front of the other, he ended up finishing it.
The tour guide then asked us, how do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
So moral of the story, don’t eat elephants unless you’re really hungry.
I don’t want to say anybody can do it, but I think the oldest person was 92, and then the youngest person was 7 or something. It’s doable. You might not be having a great time, but it’s doable.
The most strenuous part of the hike is the appropriately named Dead Women’s Pass (we saw so many dead bodies- not), but mostly because of the altitude- it’s the highest point on the trail at 4,215m.
Our guide informed us that we hiked at an average pace overall, except for the pass we were slower than expected. Rude, but okay.
you leave me breathless altitude
Or that could be my lack of B12 medical problems.
Before I left, I went to the travel clinic in Amsterdam to get some treats. We spent the first 10 minutes talking about what it was like when I got Dengue in India and funny enough, two weeks prior to my travel clinic appointment they released a vaccine for Dengue (WOOO) but I wasn’t eligible for it (BOOO).
My cousin was given altitude pills in Canada quite readily but for some reason (Dutch doctors, eye roll) my travel doc wasn’t going to prescribe them. I basically had to barter/convince her that I was going to high altitudes (Lake Titicaca, 3812m above sea level) and technically anything above a certain amount of meters, you should have them.
The hilarious thing about altitude sickeness pills is that the side-effects are the same as if you had gotten altitude sickness: nausea, light-headedness, headaches, shortness of breathe etc.
So when we were laying under 5 blankets in our reed shack on Lake Titicaca we genuinely didn’t know if we were feeling off because of the 12+ hour travel/plane rides/time zones, the side-effects of the altitude pills OR if we actually had altitude sickness. Hilarious.
I ended up not taking all of mine, partly because the Dutch doctor and Canadian doctor prescribed the same pills, but told us to use them differently. Bit sus. My cousin was told to take them a day before reaching the high altitude whereas the jokester I had said to take them once I felt sick. Good grief.
Everything and everyone told us that you should never jump from low elevation to high elevation because it makes the sickness worse. You’re supposed to gradually climb and then go back to lower elevation if you get too sick.
Naturally, we flew from Lima (154m) to Lake Titicaca (3812m) the day after we arrived in Peru and technically I live literally below sea level (-7m to 30m).
I love this journey for me.
You’re supposed to not do strenuous exercise/ over exert yourself when you go to high altitudes so you can acclimatize- step aside: this is where Corrine SHINES.
Honestly, during Covid I had breathing issues blah blah blah so I feared I would have to be strapped to oxygen tanks, crawling my way through the hike, but I was fine. Relax.
Don’t you love it when people tell you to relax when you’re in a rage?
prep in your step: packing for list Machu Picchu
You should put some thought into packing. The tour company gives you a duffel bag that you need to fill and that is what you take on the trail. Well, what the porters take on the trail for you. You just have to carry your day pack, which has some snacks, water, sunscreen, some extra snacks. But there is a limit of, for Orange Nations, 7 kilograms for your duffle bag that the porter’s carry. They didn’t exactly weigh our duffel when we got picked up the morning of, but once you see how much these porter’s have to carry, you’ll want to stick with the 7kg max limit. Yo, man.
You end up leaving the rest of your luggage at your hotel. Even if you don’t stay there again afterwards (like we did), they’re happy to keep it for you.
My packing list:
- 2 sports bras (wore one on the plane)
- 4 long sleeve (one base layer swiftly tech)
- 2 tights
- 1 legging base layer
- 3 short sleeve tops
- 1 bathing suit
- 5 hiking socks
- 1 base layer sock
- 5 regular socks that are wool/ sporty but can fit into my trainers (1 for on the plane)
- 1 waterproof flip flops
- hiking boots
- Turkish towel
- quick dry towel
- headlamp
- toilet paper
- poncho
- 2L camel back for water
- book
- meds: pain killers, expired Imodium, altitude sickness pills, magnesium, B12
- sunscreen
- hand lotion
- shampoo bar
- soap bar
- first aid pack with plasters and blister stuff
- hand/foot warmers (you open them and they heat up)
- sunglasses
- light gloves
- toque
- toothbrush
- toothpaste
- crib board
- passport
- vaccine booklet
- north american usb charger
- power bank
- headphones
- fleece (wearing on plane)
- walking pants (wearing on plane)
side note: The couple I met in Turkey said to always fill up your water bottle when you have a chance since on their “tour” they had set times to get the boiled water and they had to buy some on the trail. They also said: Hiking poles are cheap to hire and aren’t essential but help heaps, I would agree with this.
our route
- lima: 1 night (flight to)
- lake titicaca: 2 nights
- puno: 1 night (day bus to)
- cuzco: 3 nights (tour to trailhead)
- inca trail (4 night/5 days hike)
- vistadome train from aguas calientes to cuzco
- lima: 3 nights
