Inca Trail (4 days)

Availability:
To protect the historic trail, the number of people allowed to hike the Inca Trail each day is limited to 500 (including hikers on the 2-Day, 4-Day and 5-Day hikes and all porters, cooks and tour guides). For this reason, you should reserve your spot as soon as possible. Sometimes the spots are filled three to four months in advance. To reserve the Inca Trail, we need to send your personal information to the Inca Trail Regulator Office. This office needs all reservations at least four days from the start of your hike. Note that spots will fill more quickly in the high tourist season (June through September).

OUR SERVICE INCLUDES:

Transportation from your hotel to the start of the trail.
Entrance fee to the trail and Machupicchu.
Bus ticket from Machupicchu to Aguas Calientes where you will enjoy your last meal as a group.
Train ticket back to CUSCO at the end of your journey (backpacker class).
Camping equipment such as an igloo, waterproof, spacious tents, a kitchen tent manned by a professional cooking staff, dining tent and a bathroom tent. We will also provide you with mattresses, camping chairs, and a camping table. Our guides are equipped and trained to use a First-Aid kit, oxygen and a radio to communicate.
Complete meals during the trip (you’ll never be hungry!). When you wake up in the morning, you will be greeted at your tent by a selection of teas, as well as soap and a bowl of warm water to wash your face. Breakfasts include milk, coffee, herbal, dark and coca tea, and a combination of bread, butter and jam, pancakes, scrambled eggs or oatmeal. For lunch you will eat traditional Andean food. Dinner includes chicken, beef or lamb, fish with potatoes, pepper or other main dishes. Snacks include fruit, chocolate candies or sandwiches. We also provide our famous teatime, which includes a buffet of teas, popcorn and other delicious goodies.
Accompanying you will be a professional chef who grew up in the countryside as well as several porters who will carry the equipment from the company. All of the food is included.
Wayki Experience (Explained below).

Something unique that Wayki Trek offers is what we call the
“WAYKI EXPERIENCE.” Only available if you do the 4-Day Inca Trail, you can spend a night getting to know our porters that will assist the group on the hike. We will transport you and a guide the night before you start the hike to a porter’s house in the countryside to enjoy a typical Andean meal and spend the night chatting with locals. You will see a typical Andean kitchen and learn ancient traditions. One of Wayki’s priorities is sustaining good relations with porters by providing them with the same food as the tourists during the trek and creating the “Wayki Experiences” to connect the porters and tourists. We are the only travel agency in Peru that offers a similar experience.

Additional Optional Services that are included when you book the Inca Trail.

The “Wayki Experience” where you can visit the porters´ village.
A city tour of Cusco.
One night in our backpackers hostel before or after your hike.
Wayki’s kitchen and dining room to prepare food.
Wayki’s hot showers that are available 24/7.
A safe storage room to leave your backpacks.

NOT INCLUDED:

Sleeping bag (you may rent a sleeping back from our office)
Lunch on the last day after visiting Machupicchu.
Tips for porters and guides.
Extra porters to carry personal things

Prices and discounts:
Adult: $480.00
Student: $450.00 when you show your University student card with a correct expiration date.
Children under seven years of age receive a 30% discount. Children between 7 and 15 years pay the student price but must show a copy of their passport.
Groups of five people or more receive a $15 discount per person.
Members of the South American Explorer club also receive a $10 discount.

Additional Options:
Porters: Depending on your physical fitness, the hike can be strenuous. If you would like to lessen your load, you can hire an extra porter to carry your belongings. You can either hire a porter to carry 8 kilos (18 pounds) for $50 or a porter to carry 15 klos (33 pounds) for $95. Included in this service is the porter’s salary, entrance fee to Machupicchu and food. If you decide to use this service, the porter will carry your packs until Aguas Calientes. You should reserve your extra porter upon reserving the trek because the extra porters are also considered a part of the 500-person maximum on the trail.

HOW TO BOOK:
To reserve your spot on the trail with Wakyi Trek, each person must pay a deposit of $200.00 and then pay the rest at our office in Cusco two days before your trek beings. To register, send an email to reservas.waykitrek.net with the following information: complete names, passport numbers, date of birth, nationality, and gender. Let us know the date you are looking to hike and we will send you back the availability. To make the deposit, use WESTERN UNION (http://www.westernunion.com/). The recipient’s name is Gorki Dalens Paucar, one of our administrators. Once you have made the transaction, you will need to send the money transfer control number (MTCN). Notice that only the complete details and the money deposit will prove your participation in any of our trips. Following Inca Trail laws and regulations, we use the money deposit to buy your entrance fee to Machupicchu. To get the student discount, please send us a scan of both sides of your student card through email at the time you wish to reserve your spot. Valid student cards include the International ISIC cards and college and high school student cards that contain the student’s name, institution and expiration date.

Cancellations:

Because of the strict regulations of the Machupicchu Park, once you have made your reservation, you cannot cancel the space that you have reserved. You also may not alter the name or date of the reservation. If you are unable to come on the date you have reserved, we cannot reimburse you.
We can return most of your deposit only if you cancel 30 days or more in advance. But, we cannot reimburse the entrance fee to the Inca Trail because Wayki purchases the tickets from Machupicchu Park when you reserve your spot.
If you cancel between 30 and 10 days before your trek, you must pay 50% of the total cost.
If you cancel between 10 and 3 days before your trek, you must pay 80% of the total cost.
If you cancel one or two days before your trek, you must pay 100% of the total cost.
In the exceptional case that you decide to head back once you have started the trail, you must pay extra expenses such as food and transportation. You may join the group in Machupicchu for the walking tour and use all of the services onward.

Important information about your passport:
1. Once you have reserved, Wayki must give your information to Machupicchu Park. This information includes your name, passport number, nationality, gender and age. Everything listed above must be the same upon arrival to the start of the Inca Trail. It is very important that you bring your original passport for the park to verify your information. If any of the information does not match upon arrival, you may not be able to start the trek.
2. In the case that your passport number changes between reserving your spot and the start of your trek, you have two options. You may send us a copy of the new passport at least ten days before the start of your trek. The change costs $12 that you must pay to Machupicchu Park upon arrival. The other option is to bring your old as well as your new passport to the start of the trail. This option will not cost you anything.
3. If your information does not coincide upon arrival to the Inca Trail, Wayki may not be held responsible.

ITINERARY:

DAY 1: START OF THE Inca Trail After breakfast we leave from the village or from Cusco to the start of the trail (82km). There, you will begin the journey, warming up on the relatively flat part of the trail. After two hours, you will reach the first archaeological center of Patallacta, where we will appreciate the impressive landscapes, flora and fauna. This site and others will show the importance of this valley in the context of Incan history. After lunch, we will continue ascending to a semi-tropical valley for two hours until arriving at our camp, Huayllabamba, where we will spend the night.

DAY 2: HUAYLLABAMBA – PACAYMAYO After breakfast, we will start hiking early on the morning of the second day, passing through different climatic and ecological zones. We will ascend to Warmiwañusca. We will walk amongst abundant vegetation with various types of trees. This pass is known by many as the world’s highest cloud forest. After the toughest part of the journey, an ascent of nearly 5 hours, we will arrive at the highest point, known to some as Dead Woman’s Pass. From there, we will take a well-deserved break and observe the beauty of the deep valleys. If we’re lucky, we will see the flight of the condors and will pass among the thick clouds in the sky. After this rest, we will descend towards our second camp at Pacaymayu.

DAY 3: PACAYMAYO – Huiñayhuaina We will climb steeply up the opposite side of the valley wall, towards the second pass. About halfway up lies a small, round, roofless stone building. This Incan ruin is known as Runkuracay, a building thought to have been an astrological site and a sort of checkpoint for couriers following the trail to Machupicchu. After a short tour, we will continue to ascend towards the second pass, the Abra de Runkuracay. On the far side of the pass, the trail descends towards a valley and a shallow lake. At this point, the trail changes from a dirt path to a narrow stone roadway, containing the exact stones that were in place when the Incas walked the trail. The trail after the pass leads to a second, larger Inca site, Sayacmarca (“Town in a Steep Place”). This Incan ruin was built on a rock overlooking the trail and is accessible only via a single narrow stone staircase. On the left of the staircase lies an overhanging rock wall and on the right a sheer drop with expansive vistas of the Peruvian countryside. This site is roofless and slightly overgrown, but the walls still stand strong and the shape of the fortress can easily be seen. We will also see a stone aqueduct, which once carried water to the farmlands. After touring Sayacmarca, we will descend to the valley floor. The roadway takes the form of a long causeway leading across what may once have been a shallow lake. We will stop at this valley to enjoy lunch. After lunch, you will begin to climb again. At this point, you will pass through interesting Incan structures, including a tunnel that is eight meters long and wide enough to allow humans and animals to pass through. After this tunnel, we will reach the third pass and enjoy the third Incan site, Phuyupatamarca (“Cloud-level Town”). We will learn about the ritual functions that the Incas used this site for. Here we will see baths that Incas bathed in before they reached Machupicchu. The highest baths were reserved for the nobles, while the baths lower down on the side of the structure were used by the lower class. After this Incan site, we will reach another one, Huiñayhuaina (“Forever Young”). At this site, we will enjoy your dinner and settle for the night.

DAY 4: To Machupicchu On the last day of the trek, we will wake up early and follow a wide, relatively flat path. After about an hour and a half, we will climb a narrow flight of stone steps leading to Intipunko, the sun gate. After three and a half days of trekking, we will look through the rectangular doorway of the sun gate and take in the first views of Machupicchu. From there, we will descend into Machupicchu. There, your guide will give a thorough, three-hour tour. Following your tour, you will have time to yourself before taking the bus to Aguas Calientes. From there, we will return to Cusco.

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