Llama Trail to Machu Picchu with Domes 6D/5N

We pick you up at your hotel in Cusco at around 6:30 a.m. Before you start thinking about Dead Woman’s Pass, there are two days of mountain hiking ahead that are, in fact, the best possible preparation. They begin at the Qorikancha, where your guide explains the system of ceques that radiated out from this temple and organized the entire Tawantinsuyo.
You leave Cusco on foot, not in a vehicle. You climb the cobblestones of the historic center, pass the Twelve-Angled Stone and the Sapantiana aqueduct, and at the top of the hill Sacsayhuamán comes into view. That first climb already tells your body something: you are at 3,400 m (11,150 ft) and you are headed a good deal higher.
At the Devil’s Balcony, high above the valley, our chefs serve the lunch they have prepared for the group. It is a long break: nothing about today is rushed.
The afternoon follows the northern slopes through eucalyptus and old walls to Ñustapakana, a rock outcrop carved into steps, niches and seats, and then on to the Piedra Escalada.
Today’s slow pace is no accident: that is how acclimatization works. At dusk you reach the dome camp at 3,850 m (12,631 ft). Check-in, optional rock climbing and a hot dinner. Sleeping at this altitude on your first night is exactly what your body needs for the days ahead.

Meals: Lunch prepared by our chefs, and dinner.
Accommodation: Mountain dome (glamping), 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 Resbalosa.
Weather: Mild during the day and cold at night.

Today your body does the work that pays off on day four. You have breakfast at the dome and start climbing: two hours up an Inca path to Ruyaq Corralniyoc, at 4,100 m (13,451 ft). Tussock grass replaces the trees and raptors circle over the ravines.
This is where you learn to climb at altitude, because you will need the technique again: short steps, steady breathing and, if you need to recover, a few seconds standing rather than sitting down every few minutes.
Then come the Sihua lagoons, six sheets of water one after another. Andean geese and wild ducks on the first, llamas grazing by the second, the third the largest of them. You watch from the trail and at a distance: puna vegetation takes years to recover from a single footstep off the path.
Our chefs serve lunch beside the lagoons. Then comes the Pukamarca pass, at 4,200 m (13,779 ft), the real test. Once you cross it you will have been within fifteen meters of the height of Dead Woman’s Pass, and you will have done it with a light pack and no accumulated trail days behind you. From there everything drops through a canyon that warms up bend by bend down to the Sacred Valley.
Waiting below is Huchuy Qosqo, Little Cusco: a double-jamb doorway, a kallanka, terraces, a water channel and the storehouses of an administrative center attributed to the Inca Wiracocha. You can only get there on foot, so there is almost never anyone else around.
You descend to Lamay, where our transport takes you to Ollantaytambo for the night in a hotel. Tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. the classic Inca Trail begins, and you reach it with two days of mountain hiking in your legs and the altitude already behind you.

Meals: Breakfast and lunch prepared by our chefs.
Accommodation: Hotel in Ollantaytambo.
Difficulty: Moderate to challenging.
Distance: Approximately 15 km / 9.3 mi.
Maximum altitude: Pukamarca pass, 4,200 m / 13,779 ft.
Sites visited: Ruyaq Corralniyoc, the Sihua lagoons, the Pukamarca pass and Huchuy Qosqo.
Weather: Cold up on the puna and mild on the way down to the valley.
 

The classic Inca Trail starts at 6:00 a.m. with pickup at your hotel in Ollantaytambo. From there it is a short drive to Km 82, following the Urubamba River past farmland and villages that still live off the land. At the official checkpoint they register your passport and your permit, you cross the bridge, and the trail begins.
This first day on the trail is deliberately gentle: about 14 km (8.7 mi) with almost no elevation gain, designed to get you into a rhythm and to meet the team. Because from today on you are not hiking alone. Along with your guide come the porters and the cooks, who move ahead, pitch camp before you arrive and cook every meal out in the mountains. Mid-morning Llactapata appears, a set of agricultural terraces above the river that fed the people who traveled this same road.
You reach Ayapata, the first campsite, at around 3,300 m (10,827 ft), with the tents already pitched. Dinner is served hot in the dining tent and, without a single light anywhere around, the night sky on that first night in camp is one you remember.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Accommodation: Camp at Ayapata, approximately 3,300 m / 10,827 ft.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Distance: Approximately 14 km / 8.7 mi.
Maximum altitude: Approximately 3,300 m / 10,827 ft.
Sites visited: Llactapata.
Weather: Mild during the day and cold at night.
 

Today is the hard day, and it helps to know that over breakfast. It opens with a continuous four-hour climb to Dead Woman’s Pass, at 4,215 m (13,828 ft), the highest point on the entire Inca Trail. There is no trick and no shortcut: you go up slowly, breathing evenly, stopping when your body asks for it. The advantage is that you arrive with two days of mountain hiking behind you and the Pukamarca pass already crossed.
At the top, the pass is a ridge between two peaks and there is almost always wind. It is the photo moment, and also the moment you realize the hardest part of the trip is behind you. From there you drop into the Pacaymayo valley down a long Inca staircase, where your knees work harder than your lungs.The afternoon delivers three sites in a row. Runkurakay, a circular structure that served as a lookout over the trail. Sayacmarca, perched on a rocky spur reached by a narrow stone staircase. And then a landscape that turns greener and greener all the way to Chaquicocha, the second night’s camp. It is the longest day and also the most complete of the whole route.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Accommodation: Camp at Chaquicocha, approximately 3,600 m / 11,811 ft.
Difficulty: Challenging.
Distance: Approximately 16 km / 9.9 mi.
Maximum altitude: Dead Woman’s Pass, 4,215 m / 13,828 ft.
Sites visited: Runkurakay and Sayacmarca.
Weather: Cold, above all in the morning and at the mountain passes.
 

Ask any guide which is their favorite day on the Inca Trail and almost all of them say this one. The trail enters cloud forest and for hours you walk on original stone slabs, laid more than five hundred years ago, among ferns, moss and orchids hanging from the trees.
The first stop is Phuyupatamarca, the place above the clouds: terraces and ritual fountains set into the hillside. On a clear day you can see half the valley; in fog, the site appears and disappears among the clouds, which many people like even better. After that come almost two thousand steps down.
At the bottom of that staircase is Wiñay Wayna, which means Forever Young: a fan of terraces suspended above the canyon beside a waterfall, and the most beautiful site on the whole trail. The last campsite is very close by. That night your guide gives the final briefing, because tomorrow starts before dawn.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Accommodation: Camp at Wiñay Wayna, approximately 2,650 m / 8,694 ft.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Distance: Approximately 10 km / 6.2 mi.
Maximum altitude: Phuyupatamarca, approximately 3,600 m / 11,811 ft.
Sites visited: Phuyupatamarca and Wiñay Wayna.
Weather: Milder and more humid, in cloud forest.
 

The last day begins in the dark. After breakfast you walk a little over an hour along the mountainside to Inti Punku, the Sun Gate, the entrance used by everyone who traveled this road. As you step through it, Machu Picchu appears below you, whole. After five days of hiking, that minute is the one people remember for the rest of their lives.
From the Sun Gate it is about forty minutes down to the citadel. With your guide you visit the sectors your ticket allows according to the assigned circuit, and everything you have walked over these days changes the visit completely: you are no longer looking at an isolated ruin, but at the end of a network of roads you started walking at the Qorikancha.
Afterward you take the bus down to Aguas Calientes, with time for lunch on your own, a shower or a stop at the hot springs before boarding the train to Ollantaytambo. Our transport meets you at the station for the drive back to Cusco, arriving at around 7:30 p.m. depending on the confirmed train schedule.

Meals: Breakfast. Lunch in Aguas Calientes is on your own.
Accommodation: Not applicable; the program ends in Cusco.
Difficulty: Easy to moderate.
Distance: Approximately 6 km / 3.7 mi.
Maximum altitude: Sun Gate, approximately 2,745 m / 9,006 ft.
Sites visited: The Sun Gate (Inti Punku) and Machu Picchu.
Weather: Cool in the morning and warmer during the day