Day 4, Inka Trail

Day 4, Inka Trail, Perú (5/12/2012)

[For an introduction to this four-day hike, see Day 1.]

Day 4: Today we woke up at 3 AM, had breakfast at 3:30 AM and set out on a short walk to the checkpoint in order to do our final leg of our four-day Inka trail adventure. The checkpoint opened at 5:30 AM so we waited in line with a long line of hikers in the dark. It was surreal. After getting through the checkpoint we hiked up and down at times steeply until we finally reached our glorious destination about 3 miles from camp, the majestic ancient Inka city of Machu Picchu. Our first glimpse was at IntiPunku, the Sun Gate, far above the ruins. As we arrived at the citdel through the Sun Gate (only hikers of the Inka trail can arrive through this portal), we could already see the buses hauling tourists up along the many bends of the serpentine Hiram Bingham highway far below. But we got to the ancient city well before the buses unloaded, so the city still had a serene sense of peace about it.

It began raining as Franklin began his three-hour tour, so I put my camera away for a bit. We were tired, unwashed and yet wonderfully exhilarated. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world. It eventually stopped raining and we boarded one of those tourist buses and took it down to the lovely little town of Aguas Calientes where we had a terrific lunch with Franklin, Becky and Colin.

Total distance hiked today was about 3 miles in about 2 hours.

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