Hiking the Inca trail

When we planned our Peru family vacation, we knew we wanted to hike the ancient Inca trail and experience the awesome hiking and views that are along the way. We explained this to our tour guide, Victor, and he suggested we take the Salkantay route. We had never heard of this route and thought he was trying to rip us off, so we asked him to explain. Basically, the Inca trail consists of 5 known routes, and two of them are the most travelled. The traditional Inca trail is 46 km long and the Salkantay route is a total of 110 km long, including the hike up to Machu Picchu. Most people opt to take the traditional route because it has a lot of ruins along the way and you can actually walk on the old brick road. The downside to the traditional Inca trail is that it costs about $300 a person and you don't really get to experience Peru hiking at its best.

We opted to do the Salkantay route as suggested by Victor, because of several reasons: First it only cost $75 a person, including permits, food, transportation-but not tips. I do believe, this cost has gone up since the summer of 2006, so you should check on the prices beforehand. Second, this hike takes you through the mountain rain forests, the Salkantay pass (over 15,000 ft. or 4500 meters), and along some very lush beautiful trails surrounded by waterfalls and vegetation. And lastly, because it was longer and we thought we got more bang for our buck.

This ended up being a great decision because we considered this Inca trail hike the highlight of our Peru family vacation. We got going about 5 am, crammed into a bus with 27 other people, and took a long winding drive up some very narrow and heart stopping dirt roads. There were several times that could look out our window and not see the road but the bottom of the valley 3000 feet below us! We hit our trailhead around 8 am and had breakfast, then got our group of 10 people together, along with our 2 guides, 2 cooks, and 2 porters. The next 4 days were spent hiking almost 100 km to

Highlights of the Inca trail hike are numerous, but I will focus on just a few. The first day is strenuous, especially if you aren't in shape, like several of the people in our group were! We hiked 30 km (about 20 miles) the first day and did a total of 6000 vertical feet ascent over that time. The last few miles are some of the best, because you are walking up the valley looking at Salkantay mountain (17,000 ft.) in front of you. The next day is considered the toughest because you hike up to the top of the pass, which sits at 15,700 ft. and then you start your slow descent to a campsite by a river in the mountain rainforest. This was truly awesome and well worth the hike. Along the way, you will start passing huts that house a farmer and his family and usually a little snack bar set up. We loved buying candy from these people along the way and supporting their meager businesses. The last day, is truly awesome because as you come over a mountain range, you can see Machu Picchu from afar. To get to it, however, you need to descend the mountain you are on, into a valley, across a rope bridge and hike by a massive waterfall, up to a train station. At the train station, you connect to the main Inca trail and hike along the railway up to Aguas Caliente.

For the adventure minded family, we highly suggest hiking the Inca Trail and recommend you take the non-traditional route of Salkantay, if time permits. You will not be dissappointed!