I decided to write down my experiences hiking the famous Inca/Inka trail to Machu Picchu before I forget the details. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most satisfying things I’ve done in my life. The timing of this trip also worked out pretty well, to clear my mind and reintegrate my thoughts. There will be a lot of pictures, probably too many. You are welcome!

If you are not into hiking, there are perfectly normal ways to get to Machu Picchu by train and bus. I felt like I wanted to do it differently. I have already been to Machu Picchu “twice.” The first time, back in 2023, my wife and I did a 1-day hike from the 104-kilometer marker (a railroad marker where the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes stops). It’s about 8 miles/13 kilometers, entering Machu Picchu through the Sun Gate in the afternoon, and you get to explore Sector 1 (the whole Machu Picchu site is split into several sectors, and you have to buy tickets for the specific part you want to see). We returned the next day to explore Sector 3, and to climb the Huayna Picchu mountain that is right next to Machu Picchu. That was an amazing experience on its own; I strongly recommend doing it if you are visiting Machu Picchu — but it’s steep, very steep.

That’s from 2023

But after that one-day hike, seeing all the people with backpacks finishing the 4-day Inca Trail, somehow I decided that this is something I want to do. One of the main reasons I wanted to do it is to prove that people with transplanted organs can have a normal life and achieve things that may seem unachievable even for some “normal” healthy people. Another reason is just l am crazy like that, trying to prove something to myself — I wish I knew what exactly.

I’m not a backpacker; my hikes are typically more like 2–3 hour walks with the dog, but I was dead set on my desire to do it the “correct way.” Luckily, Peru is a huge country with a lot of things to see and to do, and there was no need to justify another trip to keep exploring it. So last year I reached out to our local agency that organized our first trip and did an amazing job with everything (transfers, hotels, tours), and asked for their help again. Planning ahead is super important, because both Machu Picchu and the Inca Trails have limits on the number of people that can visit them in a single day. For MP – the historic place, it’s about 5000 people a day; for the Inca Trail – no more than 500 people can start the trail on a particular day, and it includes hikers and a crew — porters, cooks, guides. (The hike is essentially backpacking “lite,” where you only carry your daily stuff, and tents/sleeping bags/food are carried by porters. Although, I believe, some people in our group were carrying their own sleeping bags and mats.)

PS: In addition to the Apple Watch, I was wearing the Garmin Instinct 3 Solar that would not require overnight charging, and I was tracking my stats with it while hiking. The data at the end of each segment is from Garmin, although I forgot to correctly unpause it several times after making a stop for a break or lunch. The data covers only the segmented hikes, not other movement during the day.

Day 1

On day 1, I was picked up by a tour bus with the rest of the hikers.

We drove to the starting point at the railroad marker KM 82, where we met our porters and the rest of the crew. This is where most of the packing for porters happens, and whatever is not needed during the day can be given to porters in a duffel bag (I had my own, but they can also offer their own duffel bags).

The group gets their passports checked at the entry point, and once we cross the Urubamba River, the hike begins. My group consisted of two families of 4 from Denmark, one family of 4 from Belgium, one person from Argentina, one person from Spain, and me. We also had 2 guides, 1 cook, and 18 porters. That 500 people limit fills up very fast.

The starting point is approximately at 2,800 m (9,200 ft) elevation and it goes up from there, so it is recommended to spend a few days in the country getting adjusted to the altitude and the lower level of oxygen at this altitude. I didn’t have time to do so, arriving to Cusco on Sunday and starting the hike on Monday. It probably made it harder for me, but not significantly, and I didn’t experience any signs of altitude sickness. I was also actively using local “herbs” that supposedly improve oxygen absorption in the blood, although it does not look like it has been scientifically confirmed.

It was raining when we began our hike, which wasn’t pleasant. I’ve seen pictures of people doing this hike in the rain, and it didn’t look fun. At least 3 minutes after we crossed the river using a bridge, we saw a very good sign — there was a rainbow over the river, and there was hope maybe the rain would be over soon (it wasn’t).

The first day is relatively easy; it’s 7 miles long (about 11 km) and only 2,00 ft/600 m of elevation gain. It starts slowly along the river, and about halfway we reached the first major ruins — Patallacta, after which the route starts picking up elevation until we reach the village Huyallabamba at about 3000m (9,843 ft).

Along the way there were several rest stops, including one for lunch. During these stops our guide provided us with plenty of historical and cultural references and facts about the trail and the history of Peru. There are still some villages along the route where you can buy drinks, snacks, rain ponchos, etc. One place even had guinea pigs, and they were there not for petting (hint: it’s a popular dish in Peru).

The restroom situation on the trail was pretty good — every rest stop had one, and some locals were offering these services as well, costing just 1 Peruvian sol to visit.

It was intermittent rain, and at times it looked like the rain might pass (nope). We reached our campsite around 4PM, and by then we already had tents installed, where we could have a break after the day of walking. We had dinner around 6.30PM, discussed the plans for the next day, and went to sleep.

Stats:

• Distance 7.16 miles (11.52 km)
• Ascent 1751ft (534 m)
• Descent 957 ft (292 m)

Day 2

Everyone who has done the trail will tell you that the second day is the hardest — it may not be the longest, but in terms of elevation gain it’s alright. The previous day we discussed our options for the second day and how much we were willing to push ourselves, and decided to focus on the shorter segment, leaving most of the distance for the third day. This turned out to be a very good decision, because weather conditions made the second day climb much harder.

The first night reminded me why I’m not a fan of sleeping in the tent (the following night only reinforced that): cold, noisy, uncomfortable. The bathroom was pretty far away, almost like a separate hike, and getting out of the warm sleeping bag at night was unpleasant. At least it was an early start; we had to wake up around 5.30am. The crew brought us a cup of warm tea and set up a breakfast in the tent. After breakfast and some additional instructions from the guide, we finished packing and started our second day segment around 7 am.

That building on the hill is the toilet

There are a couple of important things about the second day:

• We are reaching the highest point of the journey at 4215m/13,828ft
• Elevation gain is around 1300m/4,255ft before reaching the pass

In most of the hikes that I’ve done, the elevation gain varies, so after a climb you may get a flat segment, allowing you to catch your breath. Not in this case: for most of the second day’s trail, it’s just constant climbing until you reach the pass.

The pass is called Warmiwañusca, which translates to “Dead Woman,” because it supposedly somehow resembles a tired woman (I didn’t notice it). There are a couple of rest stops/camping sites along the way, the last being Llulluchapampa at 3,800m (12,470 ft), after which the hardest part of the trail begins.

When we departed the camp, it looked like the weather was going to improve, with scattered clouds and even glimpses of sun. As we climbed higher, a cloud forest area began, and it was already somewhat raining there, and also super humid.

As we reached Llulluchapampa campsite, it was already cold, windy and raining. But one thing that was impossible not to notice is that the mountains ahead and the pass itself were covered in snow. Not surprisingly, about halfway between the last campsite and the pass, it also started snowing.

I’m pretty sure the weather was not making the climb any easier. But the main culprit was the altitude and the lack of oxygen at that altitude. Endless steps would change to step-less climbs, and then back to steps. I remember that the last kilometer I probably was stopping every 30 seconds to catch a breath for 5-10 seconds — I discovered that micro-rests definitely helped better than doing larger breaks.

Interestingly, I didn’t feel much tiredness in my legs, and the quads felt suspiciously fine; it was the lack of oxygen and being out of breath that was making it hard. The pace also slowed down significantly, so the heart rate was below 150. In these moments, I was mostly thinking “where’s air?” and “why am I doing this to myself?”.

Even porters, who were passing us on flatter stretches carrying 20kg on their backs, majorly slowed down and paced themselves climbing the final stretch to the pass.

Four very long hours later, I finally reached the Warmiwañusca pass! It was very windy and cold (expected), and the pass was covered in snow (based on what our guide and other people were saying, this was not expected and it hasn’t happened in the last 5 years). Some people were building snowmen and porters were taking pictures of the snow covering the pass.

This was hard, but doable. Three years ago, a short hike at 5000m (16,400 ft) was much harder, but luckily it was also much shorter. Bad weather was ruining the views, which, I suspect, should have been very spectacular, but on that day most of the mountains, covered in snow and glaciers, were hidden behind clouds.

We hung out at the pass for about 15-20 minutes for the rest of the team to catch up, and it was time to continue the hike. As expected, after climbing to the pass, there would be a way down.

View into the valley on the other side of the pass

And one would think that going down is easier, but it’s not that much easier when you have thousands of steps on a pretty steep and slippery slope.

Two other guys from our group and I rushed down the pass, and by the middle of it, our legs were shaking. Luckily, we only had slightly more than a mile (2km) to cover to our next camp site, but I could barely walk by the time I reached the campsite around 12.30 PM — my calves were giving up on me.

At least it was supposed to be a short day, and we had the rest of the day to recover. I remember I spent 3+ hours just lying in the tent and recovering, because I was so tired and we had a long day ahead of us.

But since it was at 3800m (12,470ft) above sea level, it was also pretty cold; I remember getting out of the tent and actually running up and down the steps just to get warmer. The night, however, was an even bigger issue: even though it was pretty warm inside the sleeping bag (plus a liner, plus warm sleeping clothes), my nose was freezing, so I didn’t get a lot of sleep. And don’t get me started on getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night!

Stats:

• Distance 5.79 miles (9.32 km)
• Ascent 4199 ft (1,280 m)
• Descent 2028 ft (618 m)
• Steps — 20,478 total

Day 3

The next day started around 5.30 AM as well, as we had a lot of distance to cover. It was also my birthday that day. (If you tried to reach out that day, apologies — the trail was covered by a “No Service” operator.)

Screenshot

Unfortunately, the third day after the Pacaymayo camping site starts with another climb, close to 400 meters (1,312 ft) in elevation gain, all the way to Runqurakay Pass at 3970 m (13,023ft) above sea level. Not as hard as the previous day, but with tiredness from the previous day compounding, it was still challenging. But about an hour and 20 minutes later, we managed to climb that and reach the Runqurakay pass, which rewarded us with some amazing views.

On the third day the weather started improving: it wasn’t raining anymore, we just had a lot of clouds, and as we came down more and more, it was also getting warmer.

It was especially great to see the Warmiwañusca pass far away and to remember it as something we had conquered just a day earlier.

What lies ahead are several major archeological sites, the Machu Picchu mountain view and the Machu Picchu site itself. There was, however, one little problem — to get there, we had to do a lot of steps down. Like A LOT A LOT. The total amount of descent on that day was more than 1500 meters/5,000ft, and boy did the Inca-period people love the steps.

On the way we visited the ruins of Sayaqmarka and Qunchamarka, which, as you can imagine, look and feel pretty much like the rest of the ruins. I’m sure they have some great historical and cultural value as ancient cities or temple sites, though!

About a third of that day’s distance we stopped for an early lunch at the Chakiqocha camping site (approximately 3500m/11,600ft asl), which was good timing as everyone was getting tired.

After lunch we took off again, and our next target was Phuyupatamarka pass at approx 3700 meters/12,140 ft (ascending again, arghhhh!). It was mostly a gradual ascent, no vertical walls, and the views were getting better and better.

There were beautiful trees, clouds, birds, vistas – everything that makes a hike like this super enjoyable. By around 1PM the first part of our group (three speed runners, including me) reached the pass that hosts both the campsite and some historical ruins.

The views from the pass are simply mind-blowing. When looking at the pictures from the Peru trip in 2023, the sky immediately pops up as something absolutely mesmerizing: the sky, where blue is deeper, the clouds, where the white is whiter, and there’s always a lot of drama happening in the sky. Same here, there’s just something different with the sky in countries like Peru.

After we explored the ruins (another village with an altar for sacrifices), we continued our descent, “un-gaining” 3600 ft/1100m of altitude. Yay, steps!

Again, the views, the tunnels, the vegetation (jungles!), the experience — this is why the Inca Trail is considered to be the number one in the world (but also, of course, because at the end, Machu Picchu awaits).

We decided to do a detour and visit Intipata – the agricultural site with terraces where they produced food for the Machu Picchu population.

This second half of the segment brings a bit of civilization – you can hear the train arriving or leaving Aguas Calientes, you can see the hydroelectric power station on the river, and the feeling of getting close to the end of the journey starts to become overwhelming.

Our last camp for that day was located near another set of ruins — Wiñay Wayna (which apparently translates to “Forever Young”). It’s another village that is also an agricultural site with a lot of terraces to grow produce.

I passed it three years ago, doing the 1-day hike, and now I was back. As a quick, entertaining trip, we decided to visit a waterfall nearby, and some people even took a VERY refreshing shower in the ice-cold water (I decided to wait for a day to take a shower in a proper hotel).

But climbing the steps of Wiñay Wayna back to the camp showed me how exhausted I really was.

I started doubting whether I would have enough strength tomorrow to reach the Machu Picchu site. Both my quads and calves were giving up on me.

This was not the end of the day, though. After dinner, our cook brought a birthday cake! It was a great moment, to celebrate my birthday with the people who are as crazy as me, doing this tiresome thing.

Afterwards, we discussed our plan for tomorrow, which involved a very early start in order to catch a sunrise at Machu Picchu. Then we went to our tents to get a few hours of sleep.

Stats:

• Distance 8.68 miles/13.97 km (here I think I missed 1-1.5 miles/1.6 – 2.4 km)
• Ascent 2,421 ft (738 m)
• Descent 5,000 ft (1,524 m)

Day 4

For safety reasons, the Inca Trail at Wiñay Wayna has gates that open at 5.30am. And every group wants to enter the gates first — nobody wants to waste time while other groups are getting checked in with the lists of tourists. Because of this, we decided that our group should be at the gate at 3.30AM, and just wait there for 2 hours for the gate opening. (My alarm that night was set for 2.45am — to wake up, do the morning routine, pack my stuff and the tent, and be ready). There’s a long shed there with benches so it makes for a slightly more convenient wait. Well, apparently, all other groups had the same idea, so by 3.45 all 7-8 groups were already at the gate!

Our group, because of the proximity of our campsite to the gate, was the second one. The relatively excruciating 2 hours of waiting in the dark and cold mountain night were filled with us drinking hot tea that our crew brought us, checking the equipment, watching other people, and thinking thoughts that are suddenly capable of forming in your head because there’s more oxygen in the air.

At 5.30 the guard showed up, opened the gates, and the groups rushed through to the final stretch of the journey. Remember how I thought that I might be too exhausted to finish the trip? Or thinking “why am I doing this?”? Well, all of that was forgotten! Finally, after all those long three days, I was overwhelmed with happiness for actually reaching the Sun Gate (Inti Punku), and I again found myself running in the front of the group, with a wide-open smile and excitement.

It’s about 3km/less than 2 miles from the gates to Inti Punku, and includes some dangerous places (just three months ago an Australian tourist died on the trail after falling into a ravine), but it didn’t matter — the destination was almost there. I remember climbing one of the last steep segments — the Monkey Steps, an almost vertical set of steps — like it was nothing!

And in less than an hour, at around 6.25AM on August 13, we entered Inti Punku to see Machu Picchu still undisturbed by the sun!

We spent a few minutes at the gate, but then decided it was time to rush down (about another mile, or 1.6 km, or so) to get to the terraces of Sector 1, to get a better view of Machu Picchu as the first rays of sun started touching the ancient ruins. The rainbow in the beginning wasn’t a lie, it was indeed a good sign: after enduring rain, snow, cold and wind, the weather was absolutely perfect on the day we reached Machu Picchu. Not a single cloud, clear sky, and just the sun rising above the mountains.

We could not have wished for better weather. Such an amazing finish to the long and exhausting journey! We spent probably an hour on the terrace above the site, contemplating… whatever one wanted to contemplate after this hike. And as I was sitting there, watching the sun climbing higher and higher, with Huayna Picchu right in front of me, I felt… happy?

Stats:

• Distance 3.11 miles (5.01 km)
• Ascent 559 ft (170 m)
• Descent 1068 ft (326 m)

Would I do this, knowing how hard it would be? I would, definitely. It is a unique hike, in which both the journey and the destination are the rewards. Would I do the Inca Trail again?  Not the Inca Trail, since I’ve already seen Machu Picchu 4 times from different points. But I already feel the urge to do something as crazy. I don’t know what yet.

Other notes

Food

Our cooks prepared for us different dishes with chicken, beef, rice, pasta, lots of bread, popcorn, pitas, but also a lot of vegetables in different forms. Heavy on the carbs, but that’s totally understandable, considering the physical load.

For drinks we had boiled water, lots of coca leaf tea and muña tea, orange juice, hot cocoa, etc.

Equipment I carried

• iPhone – mostly useless as a phone since the majority of the hike is in a “no service” zone with no coverage. But I used it extensively for pictures and videos.
• Apple Watch and Garmin Instinct 3 Solar for tracking movements and progress.
• iPod Touch, loaded with music – a lifesaver on those long climbs where you just need to get into a rhythm and nothing else matters.
• Spot Gen 3 — satellite messenger in case of emergency, with a search and rescue plan.
• Powerbank to add charge to iPhone and Apple Watch.
• Fuji X-T50 Camera with 16-55 lens (useless in the first two days of bad weather, and a reminder that I still need to learn how to take good pictures with it).