Llama Trail with Domes and Machu Picchu – 3 Days / 2 Nights

It is 6:30 in the morning and Cusco is not awake yet. We pick you up at your hotel and the first stop of the day is the Qorikancha, the Temple of the Sun. There your guide will explain that the ceques radiated out from these walls, the lines that ordered Inca territory, and that one of the roads starting here ended at Machu Picchu. Over three days you are going to walk it.
You leave Cusco on foot and uphill: the cobbles of the centre, the Twelve-Angled Stone, the Sapantiana aqueduct and, once the houses have thinned out, Sacsayhuamán with its blocks fitted without mortar. That is where the city ends and the mountains begin.
At midday we stop at the Balcón del Diablo, a natural viewpoint looking out over the whole of Cusco. There our chefs serve lunch, cooked by them and eaten out on the mountain.
In the afternoon the path follows the northern slopes between eucalyptus trees and stone walls. First Ñustapakana, a rock worked into steps and niches with a view of the red roofs of the city; then the Piedra Escalada, the Inca slide, with its carved channels still visible.
The pace is slow on purpose: this first day is also about acclimatising. At dusk you reach the Andean Sky Dome. Check-in, optional rock climbing if you feel like it, and a hot dinner before sleeping under a transparent roof at 3,850 m.
Meals: Lunch cooked by our chefs, and dinner.

Accommodation: Andean Sky Dome, with a bed, warm bedding and shared facilities.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Distance: Approximately 9 km / 5.6 mi.
Maximum altitude: Approximately 3,850 m / 12,631 ft.
Sites visited: Qorikancha, Sacsayhuamán, Ñustapakana and Piedra Escalada.
Weather: Mild during the day and cold at night.
 

The second day is the hardest of the three. You have breakfast at the dome and the path starts climbing straight away: two hours of steady ascent on Inca road up to Ruyaq Corralniyoc, at 4,100 m (13,451 ft), with tussock grass covering everything and birds of prey gliding over the ravines.
How you climb matters: short steps, steady breathing and, if you need to recover, better to stand for a few seconds than to sit down every so often. Nobody is in a hurry.
The Sihua lagoons are the reward. Six sheets of water appearing one after another: Andean geese and ducks on the first, llamas grazing by the second, the third the largest. You watch from the path and at a distance, because high-altitude vegetation takes years to recover from a single step off the trail.
Beside the lagoons, our chefs serve the day’s lunch. The Pukamarca pass, at 4,200 m (13,779 ft), is the high point of the route. From there it is all downhill through a canyon that grows warmer with every bend, until the tussock grass gives way to shrubs and cacti and the Sacred Valley appears below.
Huchuy Qosqo, the Little Cusco, closes the walk. You enter through its double-jamb doorway and walk with your guide through the kallanka, the terraces, the water channel and the storehouses of this administrative centre attributed to the Inca Wiracocha. The site is almost empty, because the only way in is on foot.
You descend to Lamay, where transport takes you to Ollantaytambo station for the train to Aguas Calientes. An hour and a half through the Urubamba canyon, watching the landscape change from valley to cloud forest. You sleep at the foot of Machu Picchu: tomorrow you go up.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch cooked by our chefs.

Accommodation: 3-star hotel in Aguas Calientes.
Difficulty: Moderate to demanding.
Distance: Approximately 15 km / 9.3 mi.
Maximum altitude: Abra Pukamarca, 4,200 m / 13,779 ft.
Sites visited: Ruyaq Corralniyoc, the Sihua lagoons, Abra Pukamarca and Huchuy Qosqo.
Weather: Cold on the puna and mild on the descent to the valley.
 

This is the advantage of having slept in Aguas Calientes: you wake up at the foot of the mountain and do not have to get up before dawn for a train. After breakfast at the hotel you walk the few minutes to the bus stop.
The bus climbs to the entrance of Machu Picchu along the Hiram Bingham road, a series of switchbacks that gains about 400 metres in roughly 25 minutes. From the window you watch the Urubamba canyon drop away below.
Your guide meets you at the gate. To go in you will need your original passport, because the ticket is issued in your name and checked at the control point.
You enter at the time slot confirmed for your visit and take a guided tour of approximately two and a half hours through the sectors allowed by your ticket. Along the way your guide will explain the history, the architecture and the meaning of this remarkable Inca site.
Bear in mind that the circuits at Machu Picchu are one-way and do not allow you to go back, so it is worth making the most of every point along the route for photographs and keeping up with the group.
After the visit you take the bus back down to Aguas Calientes, where you have free time to have lunch, walk through the artisan market or visit the hot springs before your train.
Later you board the train to Ollantaytambo. At the station our transport takes you back to Cusco, where the programme ends at your hotel.
Meals: Breakfast at the hotel. Lunch in Aguas Calientes at your own expense, unless your confirmed programme includes it.

Accommodation: Not applicable; the programme ends in Cusco.
Difficulty: Easy to moderate.
Distance: Approximately 4 km / 2.5 mi inside the citadel, depending on the confirmed circuit.
Maximum altitude: Machu Picchu, approximately 2,430 m / 7,972 ft.
Sites visited: Machu Picchu.
Weather: Cool in the morning and warmer during the day.