G Adventures Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

This fall I spent a month in South America. First stop: G Adventures Inca Trail. I set out on the multi-day trek to Machu Picchu led by one of the top tour operators in the world.

SACRED VALLEY

I thankfully got to experience the Sacred Valley as well as the Inca trail through my G Adventures tour. Although it may be less easy to travel to these sites, it is well worth exploring this region to see many amazing ruins and the traditional ways of life in Peru. One of the benefits of traveling with G Adventures was the included crafts demonstrations.

view of the Sacred Valley

mud adobe houses in Cuyo Chico

Cuyo Chico in the Sacred Valley

First, we visited a weaving co-op that G Adventures created for the local Ccaccaccollo community women to be able to sell their textiles and educate travelers on their ways of life. This was really cool! For example, they use a root called sachaparakay to clean the wool but also as a hair shampoo and it is an amazing natural cleanser.

weaving co-op

We then visited the rural village Cuyo Chico to see the process of making adobe mud houses and ceramic objects. We finished by eating at the Parwa Community Restaurant in Huchuy Qosqo, a farm-to-table, resident-run eatery that benefits the small village of 65 families.

making mud bricks

ceramic pottery making demonstration (firing kiln pictured)

vegan fare, including local quinoa, at Parwa Community Restaurant

We also visited the major ruins site Pisac, which I definitely recommend. It is amazing to see the way the crops were planted in different rows and the civilization was designed. There are some additional ruins in Ollantaytambo that are worth a visit and I believe the entrance ticket was combined to allow you to visit both.

the ruins at Pisac

Pisac

Ollantaytambo is a bustling little town in the Sacred Valley with a medieval feel. I would definitely go here if you can! We stayed here before starting the Inca Trail and it is full of nice restaurants and fun to walk around.

view of Ollantaytambo town from the ruins

Ollantaytambo ruins

Pro tip: if in the Sacred Valley try some chicha, an Andean corn beer at an authentic chicheria. My favorite drink was the popular “chicha de morado” but it is hard to get the real thing as it is often just made from a mix.

chicha morado

INCA TRAIL

I had always dreamed of hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and I can now say I have completed this amazing journey! I went with G Adventures, which I highly recommend for their treatment of the porters.

ruins along the Inca Trail found on day 3

views from lunch spot on day 2

starting out on day 1

ruins from day 1

popular rest point

first camp site (house in back is a bar and to build it the owner had to carry by hand supplies along the trail for hours, including the refrigerator where he stores beer)

This incredible, life-changing trek was also extremely challenging. People told me it would be, but I still underestimated it. I figured that I was in very good shape (seeing as I am a professional athlete) and that the first day might be tough, and that there would probably be rough times but I would just power through and get there.

This was not the case. I was miserable most of this journey, I have to be honest. It was the most strenuous and exhausting thing I have ever done. There were times when I thought I was going to die along the trail. This sounds dramatic but is not.

Dead Woman’s Pass

photo taken at Dead Woman’s Pass showing the elevation

The last few hours to Dead Woman’s Pass were pure torture and the last 30 minutes I was running on just divine will maybe to get there. I felt like I was in another dimension, outside my body, struggling and powering on, had to make it. The last 10 minutes other concerned trekkers carried my small backpack and tried to help me up the last, very steep steps, until I made it to the top plateau and collapsed. On the last day when we reached the sun gate another hiker from a different group recognized me: “Hey you’re the girl that passed out at Dead Woman’s Pass! Wow you looked so bad I thought they were going to have to airlift you out of there.”

some areas had extremely steep steps and narrow paths, difficult to navigate even with trekking poles

view of ruins in the distance on the left mountain

wild alpacas

extremely steep descent at the end of day 3

But little did I know, getting to the pass was only the first part of the struggle. Afterward I had to walk for hours down straight stairs and my body was DONE. I had no energy to keep bending my knees and I was extremely shaky, making it hard to take careful steps and not fall down steep steps even with trekking poles. This took me a good hour longer than the rest of the group and I arrived at camp quite late. The point of this rambling account is not to complain, but rather be honest about how hard this trek is, even if you are in shape.

campsite on day 2, highest elevation we camped

Do I regret it? Of course not. This was a bucket-list, once in a life-time experience that I made it through. I will always know that I did this and I persevered and survived in an extremely hard situation. I can do anything now! Additionally, I got to see so many ruins along the way that no one else can ever see unless they do the same trek! Plus, very few people do the trek as only 500 permits are issued per day. That is priceless in itself.

view of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate

descending upon Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate

view of Machu Picchu as we walked down from the Sun Gate (about an hour’s descent)

view from the Sun Gate

Would I do it this way again? I am not sure. There are many places in Peru I did not get to see that I would have liked to: Humantay lake, Huacachina, Rainbow Mountain, the salt flats. I think taking the train to Machu Picchu is a great way to be able to have a more rounded experience in the same amount of time, as I spent more than half of my 8 days in Peru on the Inca Trail.

the “postcard view” from inside the ruins

the exit area of Machu Picchu

G Adventures did a great job to make this journey as comfortable as possible. All the groups rely on porters and I cannot explain how amazing these men are. It is a second job for most of them and it is incredibly hard. They haul all the weight to the camp in order to be able to set up starting a few hours before you would arrive. The porters carry 20kg each, but I was told it is not always regulated that well and they could end up carrying 60 lbs on their back. I had trouble completing this trek carrying only a few pounds on my back in a day bag.

porter from another group carrying a large pack on the trail

To get to camp in time the porters run ahead of you and in addition to setting up the tents and such they also cook all the meals, so they carry all supplies necessary, even propane tanks. You are encouraged to leave a generous tip for the porters and I left more than what was suggested, I recommend factoring this into your budget for sure. My G Adventures guides were also amazing and so helpful. They were endlessly encouraging when I didn’t think I could make it and always available for information about the trail and questions. I heard from some other travelers I met in Chile that their guide on the Trail wasn’t as knowledgeable and friendly.

We were also very lucky to have amazing weather along the trail. It didn’t rain once and we had cool mornings and warm days. We did get very hot and sweaty hiking, but the temperatures were very mild and bearable and the evenings were not super cold. I did the trek in late October.

When we finally reached Agua Calientes (the town where you arrive and depart by train) in the afternoon on day 4, nothing was more refreshing than a good meal and a cold beer. We had delicious food (I had a veggie burger) at the Mapacho Brewery taphouse. I highly recommend it.

Agua Calientes, the small town outside of Machu Picchu