The Inca Trail

You will have you're own share of the mystical by walking in the foot steps of the Sun Gods along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. The Inca trail is a four day hike from camp one at Chilca (the starting point) to Machu Picchu(?km). Porters carry all the clothing, bedding, food and tents, leaving you with just your mini backpack. This form of cushy hiking is called soft trekking in hiking terms, although by day 2 the words soft/gentle/easy/cushy have disappeared from your vocabulary. "Am I completely crazy?" that's the thought that always comes to mind on the second and most difficult day of the Inca Trail.

Day 1 - is a literal walk in the park - beautiful scenery, not many steep bits, hikers can get to know one another.
Day 2 - is just up, up, up from a height of 2700m to 4300m above sea level. Arriving at Camp Phuyupatamarca, with an incredible feeling of achievement you get when you've challenged the physical odds and overcome!
Day 3 - Takes us to the wet side of the Andes and the descent into the beginnings of the rainforest.
Day 4 - Awake before dawn and make our way to the Sun Gate at the Intipinku Pass for sunrise over the Machu Picchu valley. After which we make our way down to the ancient mystical city.

Machu Picchu

Discovered in 1911 by American Hiram Bingham, who stumbled on to it by mistake while in search of the lost city of Vicabamba. Much mythology and mystery surrounds the history of Machu Picchu, at the foot of its eternal guardian, mountain Huayna Picchu. Built in the later half of the 15th century at a height of 2,350 m, Machu Picchu's numerous structures of finely worked stone are incredible. Built in one of the most rugged and difficult areas of Peru. According to mythology, built on a sacred site as a religious center of the Andean world. "Sacred Geography" refers to they geographical features - mountains, rivers, lakes, boulders, caves, springs and so on - believed to possess super natural powers or to be the embodiment of supernatural beings. In the Andes, mountains are considered amongst the most powerful of the traditional deities. Machu Picchu is a unique combination of landscape and cosmological beliefs which together form a sacred center, without doubt one of the most impressive ceremonial sites if the ancient world.

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