The Inca Trail Tips

The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu must be one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. It definitely reached my "things to do before I die" list. Now, the only way to hike the Inca Trail is with a guided tour. There's a lot of options for tour leaders out there, I personally chose G Adventures for this trek because of previous good experiences with this provider. I'm telling this just because some of this information may be specific to this tour company.

I did the Inca Trail in early May 2013, and even after some fairly heavy research into what to expect and what to bring, I was still in for some surprises. So here is my synopsis of general need to know FAQs, some of which I wished had been clearer to me before I departed.

Ours was a 4 day trek, with 3 days of about 8 - 10 hours of hiking each day, and the final morning we completed the extra 90 minute walk to the Sungate. Some tour groups walked longer on certain days, some tour groups were more relaxed and took 5 days to complete the hike.

Activity level: Personally, I found it very demanding, mainly due to the altitude. Everyone in our group felt the altitude at 4200m at Dead Woman's Pass. I don't think this was related to fitness levels, this was not "feeling the burn" of worked out muscles, but an overall breathlessness when you can feel like you just aren't getting enough oxygen. I don't know of a way to train for that, though some people suggest some cardio training beforehand can help.

Packing: We were allowed 6kg that the porters will carry for you, in bags that G provides. This 6kg includes the sleeping bag you will be taking - the ones G provides you with is 2kg. If you choose to rent the extra air mattress, that is another 1 kg. Meaning you will have 3-4 kg of belongings that the porters will carry, depending on if you rent the extra mattress. You will have access to your duffel bags at the campsites only.

Sleeping bags: The bags offered to us were clean and warm enough for the cold nights - and I am one that tends to always feel cold. We arranged to rent sleeping bags during the initial tour introduction in Cusco.

Daypack: You'll need a rainjacket (+/- rainpants if you have them), a hat, sunscreen, insect repellant, hand sanitiser, toilet paper, camera, pain killers, and room to pack your sweater/warm hat/gloves - you'll be removing these as you warm up. I packed about 1.5 litres of water capacity and I never ran out of water (I drink large volumes usually). Asthmatics bring an inhaler because it can get very dusty.

Shoes: I wore waterproof ankle-supporting hiking boots and it was great for me. My partner wore leather blundstone boots and was very comfortable. Whatever works best for your feet, just be sure it's a shoe that your foot won't slide around in when on an incline/decline. Ankle support is worthwhile for the downhill parts. We brought second skin just in case, but never developed any blisters.

Walking sticks: I hated them for uphill, but my partner loved them. We both were so grateful to have walking sticks for the downhill descents though, it saved the knees and ankles a lot of trauma. We shared a pair of sticks between the two of us, mainly because I prefer not to carry the sticks when not using them on the uphill climbs. We could arrange to rent the walking sticks from the tour guide at the initial tour meeting in Cusco.

Water: Drinking water will be supplied to refill your packs at the lunch site and at the campsite. I found 1.5 litres of carrying capacity to be more than adequate for my needs. Drinks will be available for purchase on the first day of the hike, but no further food/drink can be purchased until you reach Machu Picchu.

Food: Now, I don't know if it was the exhaustion and outdoors influencing how satisfying each meal was, but our food was really fantastic. Breakfast usually offered tea, coffee and hot chocolate, with some porridge, eggs, toast and bread.  We were provided a packed morning snack - usually a fruit, nut bar or chocolate, and lots of lemon candies (that allegedly help with altitude). Lunch was usually another cooked meal, with juice and coca tea. We were offered afternoon tea when reaching the campsite - tea, biscuits, jams and popcorn. Dinner was often the smaller meal of the day, but it included soup, a main and dessert. You will be offered coca tea all the time. We certainly never felt hungry.

Toilets: For the most part, squat toilets are provided at campsites and lunch sites. Bring your own toilet paper. Some local families provide toilet sites with toilet paper on day 1 (at S/$1 per use), but there are still no seats and these were actually harder to use. I can't stress this enough - BRING TOILER PAPER in your daypack. Who knows when you'll need it, and you don't want to be stuck without it in a pinch.

Washing: We were provided with a bowl of warm water every morning and evening at camp with some soap, to wash our hands, face etc. Some wet wipes can definitely be handy for other times and before meals. Cold showers were available at the second and third campsites, I didn't have the heart to use them as they didn't feel particularly clean to me.

Weather: In May, the nights were comfortable with thermal underwear, a polartec sweater, and my gortex coat (I have a tendency towards being cold). The days were warm enough to wear shorts for hiking, but I wore long sleeves and nylon hiking pants very comfortably to protect from the sun.

Insects: In May, there were a few times where we walked through jungly areas and I saw some mosquitos and I did get bitten there. At camp, I saw some friggin massive mozzies! That being said, they didn't appear interested in biting us - but I was also covered by an impenetrable Gortex cocoon at the times they were around.

Medications: I did choose to take the acetazolamide for altitude sickness, starting two days before leaving to Peru. I feel that it helped and I would take it again, but I know it's not for everybody. I brought antibiotics in case of travellers diarrhoea but I never needed it.

Camera: I took my SLR along with 2 extra lenses and a gorillapod, all packed in my backpack. My camera was hanging from my neck majority of the hike - there's just so much to photograph along the way, and the whole point of the Inca Trail is the journey (which in my humble opinion was more spectacular than Machu Picchu itself). The tripod wasn't necessary - we were never given enough time at any one place to justify setting it up or taking it out of the daypack, until Machu Picchu. I rarely changed camera lenses, and found my telezoom was a bit neglected except to take some photos of the llamas. You'll see lots of llamas :)

Machu Picchu: Now here's where things appear to have changed recently. Tour groups used to get started at 4:30 on the final day, to reach the sungate for sunrise. Anyone you talk to that's done the Inca Trail before, will describe to you the spectacular sunrise from the sungate. You can no longer do this. There is a control gate that lets campers continue their hike at 5:30 am (in May) to the sun gate, and therefore we arrived after sunrise. All campers, all tour groups, all tour providers, were in the exact same position. Don't expect to see the sunrise from the sungate any more, it seems this is a thing of the past. (As you can tell this was a massive disappointment for me - I lugged my tripod all that way just to take a nice sunrise pic). Folks on the Lares trek said they saw the sunrise at Machu Picchu, but not from the sungate.

Value: Priceless. Absolutely the adventure of a lifetime.