I'm back in Cusco after our 5-day hike to Machu Picchu.

Day 1: We set off on at a fairly leasurely pace, walking along a road with a moderate hill. There are 13 people in our group, as well as the guide. Two cooks also followed the group, with all the cooking equipment on the backs of a group of horses and donkeys. The first day we walked 19 kms and rose 1000m in altitude.

It was fairly warm, and every now and then we'd have some steep climbs when the track departed from the road. By lunch time I was pretty tired, and finding myself always out of breath. We continued after lunch, steadily walking up, and as we got closer to the mountains the air got colder.

I was tired, and getting pretty cold, and was feeling pretty bad by the time we made camp that night. Apparently my symptoms (shortness of breath, lack of appetite, headaches) are common in people with altitude sickness.

Day 2: Today we had a steep climb in the morning, gaining about 800m altitude to the Salkantay mountain pass. Then we would descend about 1800m to the campsite at the end of the day. The whole day covered about 21 kms of walking. After the previous day I didn't feel great about the morning climb, and took the opportunity to hire a horse to take me up (what a wuss...)

The walk down from the pass was a lot easier, although my knees were getting a bit sore by the end of the day. By the end of the day we were all pretty tired, and the air was a lot warmer.

Day 3: We were hiking through fairly dense forest/jungle now. We descended another 600m or so, in a half-day of walking. Most of the time we were walking in valleys between huge mountains. The scenery was pretty impressive:

There were little houses, shops, villages and campsites dotted all the way along the track, even though it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Obviously this was a fairly well-trodden route for tourists. We got to our campsite in a village called Santa Teresa shortly after lunch, and then were taken to the nearby hot springs. It was a great way to relax after a few days of hiking.

Day 4: We didn't do a lot of hiking today. We were driven the first part of the way, stopping at a stream coming from the Andes that eventually would join the Amazon.

We walked on to lunch, then took a train to Aguas Calientes, a medium-sized town at the bottom of the Machu Picchu mountain. Aguas Calientes ("Hot Waters" because there are some hot springs nearby) seems to only exist as a stopping place for tourists going to Machu Picchu. It is full of hotels, hostels, restaurants and shops. Everything is designed to part tourists from their money.

Day 5: We woke up at 4am, and started the climb up to the Machu Picchu entrance. There is a road that zig-zags up the side of the mountain, and buses go up there, but as part of our hike we were walking up. There are stone steps set into the side of the mountain (about 3000 of them) and it was very steep going. I found it pretty hard, but eventually got to the top exhausted and covered in sweat at about 6am, just in time to for the gates to open.

Machu Picchu is a city of the Incas, built about 550 years ago, abandoned about 100 years later when the Spanish conquistadors overran the Incan empire, and discovered by westeners about 100 years ago. It is pretty impressive to look at:

And there are llamas:

We took a tour around the Machu Picchu "town" (which apparently held up to 50,000 people at it's peak), and were shown the different buildings such as the Sun Temple, the Temple of the Condor, and the Intihuatana Stone - believed to be a sun-clock or calendar device.

The tall mountain you can see in the background of the photos above is Wayna Picchu ("Little Picchu"), another smaller citadel which looks down over Macchu Picchu. We climbed Wayna Picchu - another very steep, difficult climb - and got the reward of one of the most amazing views. You really feel like you are on top of the world here.

After climbing down from Wayna Picchu and looking around the buildings of Machu Picchu we walked back to Aguas Calientes, and caught a train and bus back to Cusco.

Machu Picchu was pretty amazing - it's easy to see why it's considered one of the (new) Seven Wonders of the World. The hike itself was pretty draining, although we had a good time along the way and saw some great scenery. Was it all worth it? I don't know. Would I do it all again? Probably not when you can catch a train and bus straight to the top.

We got back to Cusco last night and are staying here tonight, before heading down to Lake Titicaca for a few days. More updates soon!

good to hear from you and see some more pics- altitude sickness sucks. i remember it a bit from then i was first in PNG. you got your exercise hit in the hike! :) keep us poted!

Hey Steve, great to see what you've been doing. That hike sounds intense!! Great pics though..hope the altitude doesn't detract from the experience too much for ya. Those views are awesome.

Yeah to be honest it's probably my general lack of fitness as much as the altitude. All the guys I'm travelling with are super-fit.. at least compared to me.

I've got more photos and videos that I'll post when I get back.

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