I hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu back in November of 2018. it was my first multi-days
hiking adventure and it was truly life changing so today I want to share with you some things
that I wish I knew before hiking the Inca trail and I want to answer some of the questions that
I've been receiving in preparation for the group trip that I'm leading this year from
November 6 to November 16th to Peru to hike the classic Inca Trail I have five spots open so if
you are interested in joining me check the link in the first comment to reserve your spot if you
want to hack the classic infertile tomato picture you're going to be basically flying to Cusco Cusco
is one of the oldest cities in the Americas and if I'm not wrong it is probably the oldest still
inhabited City people have been living there for more than 3 000 years so there's a lot of
history and that's the city where your adventure will start if you are planning on hiking the Inca
Trail you will be probably flying to Lima and then some people choose to spend more time in
Lima and then they would catch a flight to get from Lima or you can just have a connection in
Lima and then make your way to Cusco but Cusco is a city that's located at about 11
000 feet so that's around 3 400 meters which is pretty high when I did the Inca Trail I
was living in Scottsdale Arizona and I think in Arizona the elevation was just around 2
000 feet in that City so going from 2 000 feet up to eleven thousand feet is a huge elevation
change and everybody's body is different but generally speaking a lot of people struggle
with the change of elevation so my tip to you never plan your hike to start immediately when
you arrive in Cusco try to at least have a day or two in the city to acclimatize to the change
in elevation I remember Alex and I when we got to Cusco are headaches were so bad we were literally
unable to just even take the stairs to get to our Airbnb it was it was pretty interesting and when
you check into your hotel or your Airbnb or guess house is pretty common to get offered coca tea so
the tea is used with coca leaves that are supposed to help acclimatize and to help with high altitude
sickness and if you are walking around Cusco you will even notice that some of the shops or markets
they will be selling raw coca leaves but they also sell candies and chewies that you can buy you will
also notice when you start hiking the Inca Trail some of the guides will probably offer you some
cocoa leaves raw leaves that you can just chew on and they are supposed to help so other things that
you can do other than the coca leaves or the coca tea to help you acclimatize well is to drink a lot
of water and make sure that you are hydrating pretty well you want to make sure that you are
getting enough sleep I know it's a little bit hard if you are jet lag and that's why I'm saying take
two days to acclimatize and that's what I'm doing with this group trip we're not going to
start hiking the Inca Trail immediately we are taking the first night to have our group dinner
and then the next day we will be walking around Cusco to explore the the historic city of Cusco
and check some of the in Carowinds around the city and then the next day will be an acclimatization
hike and when we feel like our bodies are ready we will start our adventure to hike the Inca trail
and I highly highly recommend taking the time to do something like that the other thing that can
help you with avoiding high altitude sickness is to stay away from consuming alcohol because
that's just going to make it worse and make you dehydrated and then also when you are flying make
sure that you are taking your viewers care of yourself during the flight and make sure that
you are hydrating and drinking a lot of a lot of water even before arriving to Cusco okay so
that's about high altitude sickness and changes to the elevation now from Cusco you will be starting
your adventure and by the way the the Inca trails from a true picture it's not something that you
can do on your own you have to be with The Local Company because the government has a set number of
how many people can be on the trail every single day and you are going to be with a company who
will be taking care of most of the logistics six on the trail but they will also take care
of obtaining the permits on your behalf and that's something for my group this is something that I'm
taking care of but anyway so you will be driven from Cusco to get to the trailhead an area called
olaitan Tambo and there is a point the starting point is called kilometer 82. so kilometer 82 is
where you will be starting your hike from when you arrive there we just arrived at the trailhead here
this is one of the buses of ours and this is our portraits team they're getting ready some of the
team members over there the views are just amazing and we all are excited to get started this is the
classic in control tomato and there are so many other trails that you can take to get to Machu
Picchu some of them are shorter than others but for this video I'm Only focusing on the classic
infantrell it's four days on the mountains three days of camping and at the end of it
you get to match your picture alright so day one from kilometer 82 you're going to be hiking for an
average around five hours to six hours it just depends on the pace and how many people in the
group and everybody's speed but on an average about six hours to get to Camp the second day
is supposed to be the hardest day of the Trek where you climb all the way up to the highest
point of the trail the first pass is called the dead women's path and the elevation at that point
is a little bit over 13 000 feet and that's the highest point on the Inca Trail and then you will
be also hiking all the way down to sleep for the second day at lower elevation the third day you
will be climbing a little bit higher up to the second and pass on the trail and then the rest is
going to be climbing down and when you do the full day is when you arrive to the side of Machu Picchu
it is a wonderful site and then when you get to the site you will be taking a tour around the
site to learn about it and then the guys are super helpful and knowledgeable they will explain to you
the history behind every single piece around that Monument all right so that's in a nutshell now the
company that you will be traveling with they will be taking care of most of the logistics meetings
um commonly the tense and the sleeping mats will be provided and the sleeping bags is something
that's going to be available for you to rent so you can rent through sleeping bags or if you have
your own sleeping bags and you choose to bring them with you you can do that too but I would
say just stick to renting because the sleeping bags that are provided they are rated for the
temperature on the mountains so don't gamble if you don't really know if your sleeping bag is
going to be rated for the temperature in the area so I would say it's better to rent them
and then you don't have to drag a lot of gear luggage with you while you're flying and same
thing with tracking poles you can you can rent trekking poles and I highly highly recommend
tracking poles because this Trail is notorious for having a lot of stairs these are called The Gringo
killers and Gringo is a derogatory term for white people and it's really tough so we're aiming for
the top which is over there I wonder if you guys can see some people and then we'll drop down
I believe we're tracking poles you have more stability whether you are going up and down
but mostly down because it's Steep and there are a lot of stairs and it's not like you're going to
be hiking on a dirt Trail so there are a lot of stones uneven so the trekking poles are going to
give you some stability and they're going to help you alleviate some of the pressure on your back
and lower back especially is because having two points of contact which are your legs when you are
walking is not as good as having Four Points of contact with the tracking ball so I really really
suggest having your tracking balls if you choose to bring your trekking poles with you if you are
flying but just keep in mind you can't have your trekking poles in a carry-on backpack it must be
checked because most Airlines see tracking poles as potential weapons so that's something to keep
in mind every team of hikers will have a team of Porters and the porters do a tremendous job to
pack all of the provision necessary for the four days on the mountain and they will be basically
carrying the tents and sleeping mats and kitchen supplies because they will be preparing food for
you on the trail and food was actually so impressive it's not the typical generic
I don't know Mountain House meal with hot water but they do actually cook every meal so you will
have a proper breakfast lunch and dinner and then snacks in between and honestly the chefs they do
a tremendous job they go above and beyond to make sure that the food is really good and pleasant and
I remember when we did this track they even made the cake for our group which was pretty impressive
and they put a lot of thoughts in how they present the food to you which was pretty interesting to
see and for people who have dietary restrictions they are very accommodating all you have to do
if you're traveling with me on on this trip you let me know what dietary restrictions you have we
communicate that to the chefs and they make sure that you have food for you on the trail whether
you are vegetarian vegan or whatever restrictions that you have about the difficulty of the trail it
is not an easy track and it is rated and moderate to strenuous so some people might find it to be
moderate but for other people it might be really hard especially if you haven't really hiked in
the past at elevation and if you're not used to hiking for long hours so it is very important
for this track to prepare and spend some time on training three aspects of training that
are important to focus on cardio strands and endurance so if you can go on some long runs
if you can work on strength to make sure that you have strong knees and the suggestion here is to
use the StairMaster if you have a StairMaster in your gym and you can just throw some weight in
your backpack and then just walk for one hour two hours that would be great but nothing beats going
out and being on a trail and trying to assimilate the conditions on the actual track if there are
mountains around your area where you can go and hike for five hours and six hours at a time if
there is an incline that's great but if you don't that's not a problem you can still stick to using
the incline on the treadmill mail in your gym or the stand Master like I said but it's really
important to take training seriously of course there are some people who just show up and they
don't take training seriously and some people can do it but it is going to be difficult and
your goal when you are tracking is to really have a pleasant time on the mountain and the only way
to guarantee that is by training properly the guys are so supportive and usually with the our group
for example we will have a guide in the front and the guide in the back and if it's necessary
we might have additional supportive guides to the group but even if people in the group they
don't have the same page there's usually a guide in the front for folks who are faster and there is
a guide in the back so no one is really left behind and you are as safe as it gets I mean
I remember even with our group because at that time I decided to carry all the weights me and
Alex which was not a good idea and I'm gonna talk about this in a little bit here but I was slower
than the rest of the group at that time I had the super heavy backpack but even with that the guide
was with us at all times and I never felt Left Behind okay so when it comes to packing really
all you have to carry with you is your date bag and I would say 20 liters to 30 liters 30 liters
is ideal and all you need to carry with your in your backpack would be water which is provided by
the company so the porters and the chefs they will boil fresh water to make sure that it's safe for
you to drink and they will give you enough water in the morning late at night whenever you did it
really so you will have to carry that I would say at least have like three liters hydration pack if
you have one of those and if you need more water they will supply you with more water but basically
your water snacks you want to have some layers and gets it gets cold or warm you want to have a
rain jacket with you Poncho and just the typical Essentials of hiking if you want to have a small
emergency kit with your backpack that would be helpful but really things that you will need
while you are hiking during the day your camera extra portable charger or batteries and stuff
like that and the rest it can be carried by the porter so there is an option for you if you feel
like oh my gosh this is too much for me I will give it to the posters you can give extra weight
or extra clothing to the portraits they will be able to take care of that it is key to keep it to
a minimum and I know for somebody who's going on this adventure for a first time it's very you're
very tempted that first and that's exactly what I did when I had the the first time I just packed
way more than I needed and that's not necessary so I will help you with all of the packing gear and
the things that you will need on this Trail you also want to have some cash with you on the trail
because at the end of the adventure there's going to be a tipping ceremony where you are expected
to tip your guides and the portraits because of course they do a tremendous job on the mountain
and honestly it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the posters and the guide so there's a tipping
ceremony where everybody pitches in and usually the company will send some information about what
is the the norm what how much you are expected to tip and obviously if you feel like they're
doing a better job you can tip them more and you can be as generous as you can you will also need
cash with you if you want to buy some snacks on the trail I didn't expect to see this on
the trail the first time but there were stands throughout the the four days on the trail where
you come across you know people selling snacks soda and even beer I remember one of the hikers
in our group he was just drinking every night which I don't really recommend because you're
already way too dehydrated to drink alcohol but if you know your body and you know it's something
that you can handle go for it but yeah extra cash with you will be helpful so this is the Inca Trail
on a high level if you guys have any specific questions please leave me a comment and I will
be happy to make more detailed videos about this adventure and I hope to see you soon in Peru bye