JOURNEY IS YOUR REWARD
Five-day trek to Machu Picchu is an unforgettable experience
Until just a few decades ago, there was really only one way to visit Machu Picchu, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Before dawn, visitors would board the daily train from Cusco, the former capital of the Incan empire, and three-and-one-half hours later arrive in Aguas Calientes, the sleepy village below the mystical and mythical Incan ruins nestled on a steep Andean hillside in southcentral Peru.
Buses met the train to take the passengers up the mountain to the site. At the time — and still today — there was no road link to Aguas Calientes, and the same train returned in mid-afternoon, leaving only a few hours to explore Machu Picchu.
For the adventurous, there was another way to reach Machu Picchu — backpacking the ancient and challenging Inca Trail, a trek of at least four or five days.
Today, reflecting the site’s growing popularity, there are countless trains, including one costing more than $1,000 round trip. (Annual Machu Picchu visitor numbers have grown from fewer than 100,000 in the 1980s to 1.2 million today.)
Backpacking still remains an option, and there are now numerous companies and guides providing different trekking experiences into Machu Picchu, ranging from the basic tents-and-sleeping-bags option to the luxurious but sometimes challenging excursions offered by Mountain Lodges of Peru, the world’s fourth-best tour operator according to Travel + Leisure magazine.
Mountain Lodges travellers end every day in a modern inn with hot water, comfy beds and fine dining featuring local ingredients, accompanied by a glass or two of wine or beer. And for those who want to connect with the “real” world, the lodges have Wi-Fi.
With Mountain Lodges, the credo is “the journey is the reward,” reflecting the ancient Incan civilization’s reverence for living in harmony with nature.
Indeed, when taking the five-day Lares Adventure to Machu Picchu — shorter than the company’s seven-day Salkantay option — every day includes a mix of authentic cultural and hiking adventures.
Besides archaeological sites, we visit local breweries, hot springs, markets and native artisans.
As magnificent as Machu Picchu is, these excursions provide other memorable moments along the Lares trek through indigenous communities and their ancestors’ abandoned cities.
One afternoon, we walk down the Inca Trail for two-and-a-half hours through farming communities of only a handful of thatched-roof homes.
We see men in the fields using foot plows to till tiny plots for corn or potatoes, of which Peru boasts more than 4,000 varieties.
The women, with the help of dogs, watch over llama herds below. Little here in the Andean highlands has changed over the centuries.
The only other people we encounter are schoolchildren in crisp uniforms and preschoolers who chase us down with the expectation of gifts.
Mountain Lodges, whose close work with local communities has earned it several sustainable tourism awards, asks us not to hand out money, which could create a dependency, or sweets, since dental care here is almost non-existent.
Instead, having loaded up earlier at a local market with sugarless candy, toys and bread, we deliver our bounty to appreciative smiles. To this day, Cusco remains the staging point for Machu Picchu visitors.
Most of us — six Canadians, three Americans and two Australians — gather a day or two early in order to acclimatize to the thin mountain air. It is a city geared to trekkers and where, at minimum cost, one can buy those absolutely essential walking poles that even the guides use.
On Day One, we leave Cusco in two vans, which also transfer our luggage daily from lodge to lodge, to begin the first of the trek’s two major climbs.
We are met by an elderly woman and her burro, bundled down with plentiful water and oxygen, should anyone need it. Our tour leader, Danny Ayllon, assures us that no one ever has on the hundreds of climbs that he has led. This time, thankfully, is no different.
The ascent itself is not steep, but coping with the altitude is demanding for some.
“Altitude is very democratic,” Ayllon says. “It can knock down anyone, no matter their physical condition.”
We stop every three or four minutes to regroup, catch our breath and slow down our hearts. While we recover, Ayllon delivers a minilecture on Inca culture.
“I want to share my passion for the amazing Incan civilization, while helping people reconnect with nature,” he says.
The burro lady, somehow always ahead of us, provides water, and we drink and drink some more. Finally, we reach our highest point. High fives abound.
The vans have gone ahead and meet us below at a clearing where locals have prepared a hot lunch, including guinea pig, a Peruvian delicacy, in a makeshift tent kitchen and dining room.
Later, the vans deliver us to the Lamay boutique hotel, one of two that Mountain Lodges has built
solely for Lares trekkers.
We are greeted with cool fresh juices and hot towels. The groundskeepers here are four-footed — grazing llamas that keep the grass neatly trimmed.
The next day, after another major climb, we stay at Huacahuasi, an eight-room lodge that features hot tubs outside each room, filled and bubbling, timed to our arrival.
The tiny village, whose members staff the hotel in colourful traditional dress, owns 25 per cent of the operation, and it is this sort of shared arrangement that has won Mountain Lodges international accolades.
We end our five-day trek in Aguas Calientes, now called Machupicchu Pueblo, at Inkaterra Pueblo, a modern hotel whose grounds boast more than 200 species of birds and nearly 400 kinds of orchids.
The next morning at 6:30 a.m. we line up for the buses that still take visitors on the 20-minute switchback road to the UNESCO World Heritage site, 300 metres (1,000 feet) above.
We want to view the citadel in the early sunlight and to enjoy some relatively quiet time before the arrival of the day trippers who, all these years later, still come in droves by train from Cusco.
Nonetheless, the site is large enough to embrace us all and cast its centuries-old spell.