Inca Trail - Ayapata to Chaquicocha - Blog

By: BW Admin (1/10/2022)

Date: 11/15/2017 - 11/16/2017

This blog is part of the trip: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - Just like the Incas only mas lento

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The honeymoon is over folks! We started trekking around 6:00am, this is pretty much the most difficult day of hiking and it starts almost immediately. The trail out of camp begins with stone steps that go straight up right out of the gates. It is about a 900m increase in elevation from camp to the first pass, which is called dead woman's pass. The guides tentative schedule is for you to reach the first pass by 10:00am.

There are also steps going down from the top of the pass, unfortunately these seemed even steeper than the ones on the way up. Following these down to the Pacamayu camp for lunch took around another two hours. The llama path crew served up another delicious lunch here and we were able to rest our legs for a spell.

After lunch it was climbing time again, it was about another two hours to trek to the second pass which is around 250m lower than the first. We got to pass through several Inca sites this day, the Runkurakay and Sayacmarca ruins. It is a phenomenal perk to have the guides there who always went out of their way to fill us in on the history of each place, it is almost like backpacking with a museum curator at your side.

Porters had the tents set up again for happy hour and another outstanding dinner prepared by the crew.

Inca Trail - Ayapata to Chaquicocha - Photos

by: BW Admin (1/10/2022)

(click images to view full size)

This is a shot of the stone steps you have to traverse, pretty much straight out of the Chaquicocha campsite.

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Another shot of some of the day 2 steps with a nice waterfall running along the side.

This is the guide pointing out Dead Woman's Pass before we have to climb it.

Random trail shot

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This is the sign at the top of Dead Woman's Pass. As with most peaks there is a pretty significant drop in temperature with increase in wind up there. Unfortunately the descent is probably even steeper than the climb, watch those knees.

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Descending stone steps, use those trekking poles

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These were taken at the Runkurakay ruins. This was along a trade route used by the Incas, it is believed the site was used as a rest station for messengers.

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Runkurakay ruins

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Runkurakay ruins

Runkurakay ruins

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There are a few cool spots along the trail where you navigate through caverns like this

These were taken at the Sayacmarca ruins. The site is believed to be the ruins of an ancient village and sacred area that was part of the Inca empire.