Journey with Christina

The third day was my favorite as far as scenery goes. We started out early at 6:00 with only a slight incline passing by more Inca Ruins, Sayaqmarka, a fortress perched on a mountain overlooking the valley. From there we made our way down, which is less aerobic than steep inclines but killer on the knees, what seemed like thousands of stairs. However, we were surrounded by the most beautiful dense cloud forest with impressive views of the valley. Our third night was spent at Winay Wayna which gratefully had cold showers (first in three days), but was busy and did not have the serenity of the other campsites. For our final farewell dinner, the cook baked up a delicious cake. The boys still think they somehow run the cake up from the nearest town.

Views from the third day.

Final campsite.

The final day was of course the most important, it was the day we would go through the Sun Gate into Machu Picchu. We were woken at the wee early hour of 3:30, yes am. There is only one train for the porters and it leaves Augus Calientes at 5:30, which is a one-and-a-half-hour hike from camp. Therefore, they needed to be on their way by 4am. We had a light breakfast and walked about 10 minutes to the final leg of the Inca Trail. Due to many accidents in the past with hikers walking in the dark the trail is closed until 5:30 am. All of the hikers queue up waiting for the gate to open, in the dark and cold for about an hour.

Hikers and Jon and my brother waiting for the gate to open.

Once the gate opened it was a mad rush of hikers trying to be the first ones to the sun gate. Our guide had asked us to stay together but of course it was not long before rocket zoomed ahead (she actually climbed Everest!) with my brother and Kyle joining her. Jon and I were heading along at a fast trot when I thought what the heck was I doing. This was the last piece of the Inca trail that I was going to trek, the morning was quiet with birds chirping in the distance and a morning mist covering the mountains. In addition, we had read that 80% of the time in the morning the mist prevented a view of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate. Jon and I slowed our pace and enjoyed the remained of the hike, both positive that the Sun Gate would still be there when we arrived.

Misty morning hike to Sun Gate, stairs up to the Sun Gate and Jon at Sun Gate with the non-view in the background.

True to its mystery when we finally arrived at the Sun Gate the only thing we could see was a bunch of mist. We were however rewarded with stories from my brother and Kyle of people pushing others over in a frenzy in order to be the first up the stairs to the Sun Gate. Basically we did not miss much and thoroughly enjoyed our morning walk.

More Llama pictures.

Our Inca Trail group, guide and porters.