We start the day early, 4am early to hike up to Machu Picchu. We eat and dawn our ponchos that I am so thankful we picked up the day before, because it is raining. The hike to the entrance is rough. A trail going straight up, and switch backs all the way. Lucky for us our lungs aren’t getting squeezed from lack of oxygen, the town is only 2000 feet above sea level and Machu Picchu is only 4000, not so bad. The rain is steady and the clouds roam about the mountain making our view white. By later in the morning the clouds disappear and our ability to see the whole mountain and the village is incredible. We end our seven hour tour with walking a small part of the Inca Trail out to the sun gate where we received a spectacular view of the entire city and all the mountains that surround the village. It was fantastic sight to see!

Up up and away poncho!

Incan Bridge in the background.

🙂

At first we were unable to Machu due to the rain and clouds

Clouds creeping away

Yep kissing a llama at the piccu

many different views if you look at the photo side ways you can see a face!

on our way to the sun gate, the original entrance of the Incan’s

We started our morning off early in search of coffee and snacks. We were dropped off by the taxi at San Pedro, a bustling market, it was not open yet. The life it had when we first experienced it now feels like a skeleton. We walk on and find a little older lady selling some thing we both are unaware of the contents of the cup we purchase. It was a mix of malto meal and… it was hot and tasty. I enjoyed it Mateo not so much. We continue on and find a small bakery off of a plaza. Good Coffee, and pastries.

They redirected the river while building the dam.

Our mini bus ride will be about 8 hours today and an additional 3 hour walk to the town of Augas Calinente. The bus ride is long and bumpy, once we are off the main roads. We are left at the end of the road at some rail road tracks, it’s the blind leading the blind, no one really knows where they are going. We navigate by poorly done signs and make it up to a third set of tracks and fallow them for many hours along a river until we hit the little town where we will stay the night at the base of Machu Picchu. It feels much like Leavenworth.

On our rail track hike

Cheese

The views are amazing

The guiding river

This was all we brought, sometimes you just need a break from the larger packs.