Your guide will pick you up at your hotel in Cusco at 4:30 a.m. to drive to the trailhead at Kilometer 82. The early start is rewarded by the most beautiful drive through the Sacred Valley with dawn breaking around us. Our drive take us to Ollantaytambo, where we will stop briefly to take advantage of photo opportunities and breakfast (not included). We then arrive at the trail head at Kilometer 82, where the Classic Inca Trail begins. Our porters and chef will meet us here to embark on the trek. The trek starts easily with 2.5 hours of relatively flat terrain to reach the Wilkaraqay Inca site. Here we will have spectacular views of the Llactapata ruins. Your guide will talk about the history of the site as well as provide an overview of the history of the Inca trail. Back on the trail, we hike for two more hours to Hatunchaca (2,598 m/8,525 ft) where we will have a delicious lunch. In the afternoon, we will hike for another 2.5 hours until we reach our campsite at Ayapata.

Archaeological excavations have led to suggestions that it was a rest stop and shrine on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and would have been used frequently by travelers and pilgrims. It’s also believed it was an administrative support site for Macchu Picchu, and possibly had some kind of ceremonial or religious importance of its own, given its solar alignments. The site’s agricultural terraces probably also helped feed Macchu Picchu’s inhabitants. The site was discovered by the American Hiram Bingham in 1912: at the time, he described having found 10 or 12 dwellings and what they thought was the home of an Inca chieftain.