Our last hiking day started off extremely early. We woke up at 3am or so, packed up camp and enjoyed the most delicious pancake I've ever had. The reason for the crazy schedule is the first train from Machu Picchu leaves at 5am and that's the only one that porters are allowed to take. If they miss the train, they have to stay in Aguas Calientes- the city at the base of the mountain- until the next morning, or find a way home. At that point, they've missed out on another 4 days of work if they weren't able to get started on a hike with another group. I'm sure you can tell my opinion is that the system is idiotic. These guys work so hard and they are forced to just deal with it. Hernan said it's because the train company is from another country, not run by locals and their main purpose is to provide a nice experience for tourists. Just wait until I tell you about the train ride later!
Anyway, it was a 'hurry up and wait' situation. The trail didn't open until after 5am. We got in line and played our favorite new card game: Shithead. I lost every time!
Here's the view of the line behind us. We got a pretty good spot! The best parts of the entire trek were when it was just our group. The worst parts were when the trail was crowded with other groups. We knew that the entire 2 hours of hiking this day would be the latter part. The sun wasn't up so we had on our headlamps. Every hikers' goal was to make it to the sun gate and see the sun rise over Machu Picchu.
What we didn't realize was the adrenaline that would take over. It felt like a competition. Don't let the people behind you pass. Keep going. The swish of the leaves. The unsteady ground. One foot in front of the other. The pace was so much faster than ever before. The cool, wet air. Dim light streaming through the leaves. More steps, up and down. It turned into a single file line of slightly sweaty, intense hikers with one purpose in mind.
And then, all of the sudden.
Around this corner is our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. What we've worked and waited for the whole trip.
From the Sun Gate, we had about an hour hike down to the actual site. We walked right up to the 'postcard' picture that everyone wants:
It was so incredible. Surreal. Looking at the pictures now, I can't even believe we were there, and I especially can't believe we finished the hike! At this point we were so tired and proud and ready to use a real bathroom.
One interesting thing was that we went backwards through the entrance:
All the buses show up and regular tourists come through this entrance. So we were already inside the gates, but to get to the bathrooms we went back out. We also got our 2nd stamp on our passport. Not as exciting, because any tourist can get it. On our way to the restrooms, I heard a tour guide tell his group in spanish, "See, they just finished hiking the Inca Trail".
Best part of the entire trip.
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