Back when I was about Leo’s age, there was a fascinating animation series on TV called The mysterious cities of gold. It was about the spanish conquistadors coming to South America and desperately looking for legendary cities made entirely of solid gold, and the incredible engineering skills of the lost Inca civilisation.
Around the same time, whenever I’d go to my grand mother’s house, I would sleep in a bed with a big poster of the Machu Picchu just above my head.
Ever since, I knew that I would one day walk the Inca trail that leads to this famous Inca city. And with this trip, the time had finally come.
We couldn’t really choose the time; we’d get to Peru when we’d get to Peru. But February was coming fast and the site is closed in feb because of the rainy season. Even end of January we ran the risk of not seeing anything but clouds and rain.
Then in December, major political turmoil broke out in Peru and we heard of protests and riots in Lima and tourists being stuck in Machu Picchu.. so, sadly, we decided to give up on Peru and go to Ecuador instead.
A few weeks later, Mary found a contact in Peru who told her that the situation was better and things seemed to get back to normal, so we booked a plane ticket « straight » from Quito to Cusco, to avoid Lima, and we booked for the Inca trail.
After Mary’s experience on Acatenango, she was pretty scared of hiking in high altitude again, so we provisioned a few days to get acclimated in Cusco, and start the trek on the 19th.
When we arrived in Cusco, it seemed pretty quiet and normal. But more protests were coming and, instead of leaving early morning, our guide came to pick us up on the 18th evening, to take us near the start of the trail and avoid being blocked on the road. (One extra night in the tent; Mary and Leo were thrilled!)
For those who don’t know, the Inca trail is a famous (and expensive!) 4 days trek along a path made by the Incas that leads to various historical sites and ends with the majestic Machu Picchu.
Besides the guide, we were accompanied by an « army » of 5 porters/cooks. Their job is fairly straightforward : everyday, wake up a half hour before us, prepare breakfast, leave after us to pack our tents and all the equipment, then pass us on the trail with 30kg of equipment on their back, prepare lunch before we reach the lunch site, leave after us to pack everything again, pass us on the trail again to setup our tents and prepare diner, and of course sleep after us. All this with a big smile on their face, while we are exhausted from our daily walk and complaining about our back and legs pain!
The second day is the most challenging with two peaks to climb at 4200m (Dead Woman pass) and 3900m (Runkuraqay pass), and a LOT of so called « gringo killer stairs »!
Mary took paracetamol pills to counter the effects of the altitude and bravely managed the two peaks! But our view from the Dead Woman pass was completely blank with clouds, which confirmed my fears of not seeing the Machu Picchu. Between altitude and weather changes we kept switching from sun to rain and it was impossible to know what to expect. But whenever we had sunlight, the views of the andes and the various Inca sites we visited were magnificent !
The morning of the 4th day we woke up at 3am (as opposed to 5 or 6 the other days) to let the porters catch their train and for us to see the sun rising at the Sun Gate. The sky was clear and full of stars and I thought my prayers for good weather had been heard, but when we reached the Sun Gate we were again in complete fog and couldn’t see a thing 😭
That’s when the magic happened. Just like in the animation of my childhood, when Esteban would call out to the sun, the skies slowly opened, uncovering the mountains and the Machu Picchu, like a beautiful gift that is unwrapped under several layers of cotton!
We walked to the abandoned city, and last but not least, we realised we were the only tourists there! This site, normally so packed with tourists that one must queue to take a picture, was completely to ourselves! Even the guide had never seen the site like this! It’s a disaster for the tourism economy but an incredible chance for us!
Well, this chance came with a price. There weren’t anyone because there was indeed a strike and there weren’t any bus or train to or from Cusco. So instead of an easy last day, we had to walk for another 3 hours down to and along the train track to a place were we could find a taxi that could take us back to Cusco in 8 hours. We finally reached our bed around 11pm, completely drained, 20 hours after waking up.
Info and contact: instagram @leotourguide20
Raahi - A traveling family 