Summary

This title includes: historical background on the Incas; plans of all the main archaeological sites and comprehensive guides to Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu; routes from Cusco to Machu Picchu and hikes in the Urubamba Valley, on walking maps with walking times; points of interest; and details of where to stay and where to eat.

Author Biography

Richard Danbury studied philosophy at Cambridge University and trained as a barrister before practicing in criminal law. In a bid for freedom in 1998 he escaped to South America to reinvent himself as a travel writer, spending six months on the continent researching the first edition of this book. He first visited South America in 1992 and has also hiked in North America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Married to Trailblazer author, Melissa Graham, with whom he wrote The Rough Guide to Chile, he now lives in London and works for the BBC.

This third edition was researched and updated by Alexander Stewart. Born in England, he left for Kenya aged only three months and spent the next fifteen years shuttling between Africa, Australia, and Europe. The wanderlust instilled during his formative years has never left him and he has now visited more than thirty countries in six continents. The author of Trailblazer's New Zealand--The Great Walks, he is currently based in London where he works as senior travel guide and map buyer at Stanfords, the travel bookshop.

Introduction
Planning Your Trip
With a tour group or your own guide?
Tour operators and trekking agencies	p. 12
Porters, arrieros and guides	p. 17
Getting to Peru	p. 18
Budgeting	p. 19
When to go and for how long?	p. 20
Route options
The classic Inca Trail	p. 21
Variations on the classic trail	p. 24
Shorter trails	p. 24
Chilca (Km77) up the Silque valley	p. 25
Mollepata trek	p. 25
Santa Teresa trek	p. 25
Vilcabamba Trail	p. 25
Choquequirao trek	p. 26
Combining or altering routes	p. 26
What to take
Boots	p. 26
Clothes	p. 27
Equipment	p. 28
Food	p. 30
Medical kit	p. 30
Maps	p. 31
Recommended reading	p. 31
Internet sites	p. 34
Pre-departure health preparations
Fitness	p. 34
Inoculations	p. 35
High-altitude travel	p. 35
Insurance	p. 36
Peru
Facts about the country
Geographical background	p. 37
Historical outline	p. 39
The people	p. 48
Politics and economics	p. 49
Culture	p. 53
Practical information for the visitor
Documents and visas	p. 55
Airport tax	p. 55
Money	p. 55
Getting around	p. 56
Accommodation	p. 58
Food	p. 58
Drink	p. 60
Electricity	p. 61
Time	p. 61
Post and telecommunications	p. 61
Holidays and festivals	p. 62
Shopping	p. 62
Safety	p. 63
Drugs	p. 64
Flora and fauna
Flora
Orchids	p. 66
Trees and shrubs	p. 67
Other plants	p. 68
Fauna
Mammals	p. 68
Birds	p. 69
Reptiles	p. 73
Insects	p. 73
The Incas
Pre-Inca civilizations
In the beginning	p. 74
Pre-ceramic peoples	p. 75
The Initial Period	p. 76
Chavin	p. 78
Mastercraftsmen	p. 79
Tiahuanaco-Huari	p. 82
The days before the Inca	p. 84
Days of the Inca
Piecing together the jigsaw	p. 86
The origins of the Incas	p. 86
Oral history	p. 87
Class and clans	p. 89
Inca government	p. 90
How they ran the empire	p. 91
Spiritual life of the Incas	p. 92
Inca culture	p. 94
The fall of the Incas
Plague and civil war	p. 98
Pizarro and Almagro	p. 99
First contact	p. 100
The trap	p. 101
The great checkmate	p. 101
The march on Cusco	p. 102
Cusco: capital of the empire	p. 103
Sow the wind	p. 104
Reap the whirlwind	p. 104
Vilcabamba	p. 105
Reap another whirlwind	p. 107
Lima
History	p. 108
What to see	p. 110
Arrival	p. 114
Getting around	p. 114
Orientation	p. 115
Services	p. 116
Where to stay	p. 118
Where to eat and drink	p. 124
Shopping	p. 127
Moving on	p. 128
Cusco and Around
Cusco
History	p. 130
What to see	p. 132
Arrival	p. 138
Getting Around	p. 139
Orientation	p. 139
Services	p. 139
Where to stay	p. 145
Where to eat and drink	p. 148
Shopping	p. 152
Moving on	p. 155
Around Cusco
Ruins near Cusco
Day hike: Sacsayhuaman	p. 156
Qenko	p. 158
Salapunco	p. 159
Puca Pucara	p. 159
Tambo Machay	p. 159
The Sacred Valley
Pisac	p. 160
Chinchero	p. 162
Urubamba	p. 162
Ollantaytambo	p. 164
Aguas Calientes	p. 167
Minimum Impact and Safe Trekking
Minimum impact trekking
Environmental impact	p. 169
Economic impact	p. 171
Cultural impact	p. 173
Safe trekking
Safety in the hills	p. 174
Health in the hills	p. 175
Trail Guide and Maps
Using this guide
Route descriptions	p. 181
Route map details	p. 181
Inca Trail regulations	p. 182
Practicalities
Food and water	p. 183
Getting to the trailheads	p. 183
The classic Inca Trail
Km88 to Huayllabamba	p. 185
Huayllabamba to Pacamayo camp	p. 188
Pacamayo camp to the third pass	p. 190
The third pass to Machu Picchu	p. 195
Variations on the classic trail
Starting at Chilca	p. 200
Starting at Km82	p. 202
The shorter trails
Km104 to The Trekkers' Hotel	p. 205
Chilca up the Silque Valley
Chilca to halfway up	p. 209
Halfway up to past Ancascocha	p. 210
Past Ancascocha to valley turn	p. 212
Turn in the valley to Paucarcancha	p. 214
Options from Paucarcancha	p. 217
The Mollepata trek
Mollepata to above Marcocasa	p. 218
Above Marcocasa to Soray	p. 220
Soray to Inca Chiriasq'ua	p. 220
Inca Chiriasq'ua to Pampa Cahuana	p. 222
Pampa Cahuana to Paucarcancha	p. 226
Options from Paucarcancha	p. 226
The Santa Teresa trek
Mollepata to Salcantay Pampa	p. 227
Salcantay Pampa to Rayampata	p. 227
Rayampata to Ccolpapampa	p. 230
Ccolpapampa to La Playa	p. 231
La Playa to Paltallacta	p. 234
Paltallacta to Aguas Calientes	p. 234
Other trails near Machu Picchu
Chilca circuit	p. 236
The full Mollepata	p. 236
The Riverside trail	p. 237
The Vilcabamba Trail
Introduction	p. 238
Preparations	p. 240
Timing and getting to the trailhead	p. 240
The Vitcos walk	p. 242
Huancacalle to Ututo	p. 244
Ututo to Urpipata	p. 248
Urpipata to Espiritu Pampa	p. 254
Espiritu Pampa to Chaunquiri	p. 259
The Choquequirao trek
Introduction	p. 263
Background	p. 263
Preparations	p. 266
Timing and getting to the trailhead	p. 266
Cachora to Capuliyoc	p. 267
Capuliyoc to Playa Rosalina	p. 270
Playa Rosalina to Choquequirao	p. 271
Choquequirao	p. 273
Options from Choquequirao	p. 276
Machu Picchu
The Lost City?	p. 277
Practicalities	p. 277
History	p. 279
A guide to the ruins	p. 283
Moving on	p. 293
Appendices
Quechua and Spanish words and phrases	p. 294
Glossary	p. 297
Peruvian embassies	p. 299
Train information and timetables	p. 301
Bibliography	p. 303
Peruvian tour agencies licensed for the Inca Trail	p. 306
Index	p. 310
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Supplemental Materials

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Excerpts

Introduction
Declared both a natural and a cultural World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary is truly a rare and wonderful place. Where else in the world can you walk for days through cloud forests and over razor-sharp passes, in country that's been inhabited for thousands of years by civilizations only discovered by Europeans less than five hundred years ago? Where else could you have such a breathtaking goal to your trek: the magical, lost city of Machu Picchu which rises from a high spur of mountain, like a stage set in a green amphitheatre of forest-clad hills?

THE INCA HERITAGE
For thousands of years the people of South America developed separately from the rest of the world. Their culture culminated in the Incas, a people whose empire was centered on Peru and which stretched further than that of the Romans, yet who governed without having discovered iron, the wheel or writing. Like the Romans, the Incas left behind them monumental stone constructions, built for the most part without mortar yet strong enough to withstand centuries of earthquakes that have toppled more modern edifices. Also like the Romans, they left behind them one of the most extensive road networks in the ancient world, for the most part paved and drained, which linked every part of their realm.
Many of these roads have been rediscovered, and some of them have been cleared. The Inca Trail is one such road, part of a network that once penetrated the thick rainforest which grows either side of the river Urubamba. Walkers who follow it today pass over high-altitude wind-blown grassland and down to steamy encroaching jungle. At the end of the road is Machu Picchu. On these grasslands and in this jungle is a multitude of plant, bird and animal life, and beside this ancient Inca road are recently rediscovered castles and remote fieldstone inns.
The Incas also left their capital, Cusco, which for the most part has been spared the complete destruction suffered by Mexico, capital of that other great ancient American people, the Aztecs. It's still possible to wander along Cusco's Inca alleyways which run between walls of perfectly hewn stone and visit the remains of the magnificent Sun Temple, once the religious heart of an empire. And the 'new' buildings such as the Cathedral and the Compañía, built in the sixteenth century by the Spanish colonizers, are beautiful in their own right.
In the days of the Incas, Machu Picchu was a long hard walk from Cusco. Chasquis, Inca messengers, ran the roads of the Inca Trail and herders drove llama trains laden with maize and potatoes over the high passes. Today Machu Picchu is only four hours from Cusco by train, along a railway that's been pushed through the jungle along the banks of the Urubamba river.
However, you can still walk. The high tableland around Cusco leads down to the fringes of the Amazon rainforest, and the area is criss-crossed with roads and tracks, ancient and modern, passing through unrivalled natural and ancient beauty. As you walk you'll pass dazzling high glaciers and remote corries, along trails lined with original Inca canals and dotted with remote unvisited ruins where a multitude of orchids grow in the clear Andean air.

ABOUT THIS BOOK
The book is designed to take you from your armchair to these cities of the Incas, Cusco and Machu Picchu, and to guide you along the Incas' trails, stretches of some of the best hiking in the world. It includes information on getting to Peru, a guide to Peru's capital Lima, background material on modern Peru; there's a chapter devoted to the Incas and their predecessors, and chapters on Cusco and Machu Picchu. Detailed trekking maps are included, as are site plans and descriptions of what's known about the abandoned ruins you'll pass on your way.
The trekking section of this book also includes full details of a wonderful walk to the last refuge of the Incas at Vilcabamba. The ruins of this city now lie abandoned and overgrown in a heavily forested valley. The hike to get there includes a stunning variety of scenery, from lofty mountain passes, via pampa, puna, pasture, dwarf forest and cloud forest to thick lowland rainforest, the 'eyebrows of the jungle', that smothers and engulfs the lost, ancient stones of Vilcabamba. In addition, we've added two new treks: the trail to the city of Choquequirau and the trail to Santa Teresa.

RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL
Sadly, as with many tourist sites, the paradox of tourism means that the trails, ruins and cities of the Sanctuary are at risk, threatened by their own beauty. It's this beauty that draws the tourists who bring much needed money but at certain times of the year the main trails have become overcrowded and the fragile environment and old ruins damaged by thoughtless visitors who fail to behave with sensitivity. Such damage is not inevitable and this book contains a section suggesting how on your visit you can help preserve this beautiful environment.
Peru is full of wonders. Its beauty is breathtaking, and its culture fascinating. If you are sensitive to the place, it can have a greater impact on you than you have on it.

Excerpted from The Inca Trail: Cusco and Machu Picchu by Richard Danbury, Alexander Stewart
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.