Inca Trail Day 3 - Machu Picchu

Today we start the last leg of the journey to Machu Picchu. As I mentioned before, our itinerary got changed due to the landslides this spring.  The trail is always closed in the spring because that is the rainy season here, and it’s too dangerous for hikers to be on the trail.  It’s also the time they typically make any needed repairs.  In February and March, there was so much rain that it caused landslides that damaged a lot of the trail.  They worked hard to repair it, and it was actually closed for a few weeks at the beginning of the season.  As a result, our third and fourth days changed (due to the campsite we were going to stay in on Day 3 being damaged).  The original plan was to hike most of the way to Machu Picchu, camp, and then get up at 3:00am to hike for a few hours on Day 4 to arrive at dawn.  The plan was changed for us to have a much longer hike on Day 3 all the way to the Sun Gate, which is the opening to Machu Picchu, and then go down to a different camp site for the evening.  Day 4 would still be getting up at 3:00am from the campsite and going back into Machu Picchu for the tour.  That meant a long Day 3 and a shorter Day 4, which sounded good since we’d see Machu Picchu twice and at different times of the day.  Our guide then gave us a “Top Secret Option.”  If we all agreed, we could do Day 3 as described and then, instead of camping, we could pay an extra $15 or so to go into town (Aguas Calientes), to stay in a hostel.  This would mean a shower and a bed!  We all agreed this was an excellent idea.

So, we hiked a very, very long day today.  However, despite the added steps, it was still the easiest of the three days because it was “Inca Flat.”  That basically means it was alternating flat and uphill most of the day, but there were far fewer steep grades.  There was, however, a lot of mud.  Near the end, we had one final test to pass.  There’s a very narrow, steep set of stone stairs that lead up to the Sun Gate.  I don’t know if they have an official name, but our guides called them the “Monkey Stairs” and the “Gringo Killer.”  This makes them sound pretty bad, and we were dreading them all day.  When we got there we saw they were certainly steep, and none of us felt comfortable walking up them standing up.  So, we all went up on all fours (hence the term “monkey stairs” because that’s what a monkey would look like going up).  Honestly, they weren’t that bad if you just focused on the next step and didn’t think about how high you were going.  The guides just walked up them without any apparent concern.  We got to the Sun Gate in the late afternoon and got to look around and take photos for a while before going down to town on a harrowing 20-minute bus ride.

[Photos above: End of the road.  We made it!]

Once we got into Agua Calientes, we walked a few minutes to the hostel.  Now, I’d never stayed in a hostel before, mostly because I’ve heard horror stories about how terrible they can be.  Somehow, this place was worse than what I anticipated.  It smelled like ammonia, it looked disgusting, and the very weak shower could only manage lukewarm water.  But, we had showers and slept in beds, so I won’t complain any more about that other than to say it was worth no more than the $15 we paid.  We ate another group dinner at a local restaurant, and most of us were wiped out and ready for bed.  Here’s how tired I was:  the two Belfast cops asked me to go out for “a wee beer” and I said “no thanks.”  I don’t think they stayed out long, but I was asleep in 20 minutes.

Daily step count:  34,569.  Even though it’s the highest number of steps in a day, it honestly was the easiest of the three days.