Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

When I was in Cusco with my family a few weeks ago, my cousin Boston and I hiked the Inca Trail to reach Machu Picchu. It’s a 3 day, 3 night hike in which you arrive to Machu Picchu at 7am on the 4^th day. Hiking the Inca Trail is not something that you can do on your own, everyone is required to do it with a guide and they only let a certain number of people in per day. Since this is the most popular trek in South America, when they say that they only let a certain number of people in per day they mean 500 people. While 500 people sounds like a lot, you still have to sign up to do the trek at least a half a year in advance or else you won’t get a spot.

Hiking the Inca Trail was one of the most incredible things I’ve done. Yes, there were a TON of people hiking it and a guide is required which made it feel less authentic, but the experience as a whole was so amazing. There were eleven people in total from all over the world in our trekking group and everyone was awesome. It was so much fun to get to know so many awesome and down to earth people that I would have never had the chance to meet who were literally from all over the world. And being able to spend some quality time with my cousin Boston who I don’t get to see very often was a blast. Great cousin bonding time. And our two trek guides were phenomenal!

The views were amazing, and we came across many ancient ruins on the way to the famous Machu Picchu ruins. It was so cool to imagine the Incas exploring the area and trekking through the mountains. I also loved that we started at high altitude and went through a few passes and then on the last day the terrain became jungle. Machu Picchu is at a very low altitude and is in the start of the jungle, or as the Peruvians call it “la ceja de la selva” (the eyebrow of the jungle). 

Our awesome group starting the Inca Trail!

We saw many beautiful ruins along the trail! 

Our camp spot the first night.

A photo with our awesome "chaskis" (it means strong men in Quechua) who carried all the extra gear! They are seriously rock stars and were so impressive hiking the inca trail super fast with over 50 lbs on their backs!

Boston and I giving our offering of coca leaves to Pacha Mama (mother eath in Quechua). It´s a Quechua tradition that everyone on the trail partakes in. 

Finished with day two at the highest pass! 

Eating one of our delicous lunches together! The cook that traveled with us did a fabulous job! I ate better on this trip that I ever have in Peru!

Parts of the trail got super congested at times because of the 500 people in total hiking the trail pero day. 

Another beautiful ruin along the way!

Cousin love!

Around when we started to descend into "the eyebrow of the jungle". 

More beautiful ruins. 

 On the 4th morning of the hike we woke up at 3:30am to start the 2 hour hike into Machu Picchu so that we could be some of the first ones to arive. We finally reached Machu Picchu and I was completely amazed. I’ve seen Machu Picchu in photos a million times but in person it was so much better and bigger than I could ever imagine. It was simply breath taking and so incredible. I was even able to meet up with my mom and aunt Wendy at Machu Picchu ruins :) They took the train/bus up and thankfully we ran into each other at the ruins since it´s such a big area with thousands of people visiting the ruins!

First view of Machu Picchu (it´s very far from this view). 

I was able to meet up with my mom at Machu Picchu to see the sun rise!

It´s even better in person! 

After arriving to the ruins we spend a few hours just exporing because it´s so big and there is so much to see! 

Exploring the ruins. 

 The whole trek was simply amazing and I would definitely recommend it to every one! It made seeing Machu Picchu all the more special.