Every year, thousands of people do the Inca Trail. They usually complete the 43-km trail in 4 days. For most of them, the trip is their lifetime experience and fulfillment of their personal ambitions. The satisfaction of having completed the trek and visiting the spectacular Incan city of Machu Picchu is hard to beat. Although, this feeling is even better if you know that all porters helping you along the way have been treated well and with the respect they deserve. Now, most of trekkers are organized by a local tour operator. No draughts are allowed to enter the Inca Trail, only porters. For that reason, all camping equipment (i.e. personal tents, dining tent, kitchen tent, tables, chairs, stove, bottle gas and food) is carried on backs of human porters. Prices of this 4-day trek vary significantly depending on porter´s and other staff´s wages and conditions provided by each company. However, if you try to find out if a company looks after their porters well, it can be quite difficult as porters can be instructed to tell you they receive more than they really do. They are also afraid to not lose their jobs.
In April 2002, a new law was introduced that have improved porter´s working conditions dramatically!! The law came into force due to many years of exploitation!! New minimum wage for all porters was set to USD 10 per day. In 2005, the wage increased to 43 Soles (USD 15) per day. Even though, the law exists, it is not being enforced and many companies still pay their porters as low as USD 5 per day. New maximum weight that a porter can carry was limited to 20 kg (15 kg of load + 5 kg of porter´s personal items) compared to previous 45 kg. All porters have a weight carried checked by government officials at checkpoints of the trail. However, even this system is abused and many tour operators push their Tour Guides and Tour Guide Assistants to carry lots of loads across the checkpoints and behind them, they drop the loads to be picked up by porters. Tourists, who have hired a personal porter, are frequently asked to carry their own backpacks through the checkpoints as well. If you hire a personal porter, do not accept this practice and ensure that your porter is fully loaded when he is being weighed at the checkpoints. Some of the worst companies restrict the amount of personal items, which a porter can take with him, imposing upon his personal allowance of 5 kg. Most of porters are afraid that if their blankets are too heavy or they have packed too many warm clothes, they exceed the 20 kg weight limit and receive a fine, which a travel agency then deducts from their wages. Obviously, a decent travel agency does not practice such activities!!
Tierras Vivas DOES NOT permit this exploitation!! We guarantee that our porters carry only an amount given by the Peruvian law!! There is still a long way to go when it comes to a reserve of adequate meals, backpacks and warm dry sleeping accommodation. Tierras Vivas works with porter´s laws, Tierras Vivas provides all equipment to the porter to hike to Inca Trail as you will see when you hike with us.
How you can help to Porters:
Hire a personal porter: This will make your trek more enjoyable giving you time to enjoy surrounding scenery. You will also provide a job to a person who really wants and needs a work.Interact with your porters:
Talk to your porters, learn about their traditions and villages. Share some coca leaves. Even ask them to sing some of their local songs. Most porters suffer from low self-esteem so make the first move, do not wait for them to talk to you first.Thank your porter: Show your porters that you appreciate their work. Thank them verbally and by a tip as well.
Meals & sleeping conditions:
The biggest difference between a responsible company and an irresponsible is how they look after their porters on the trek. Many porters are given very little to eat on the trail. They have to wait to see how much tourists have eaten before left-overs are divided up amongst them. Many porters end the trail tired and hungry. In general, porters sleep together in the group dining and kitchen tents. This is fine since there is warmth in numbers. However, when you are on the Inca Trail, remember not end up talking all night in the dining tent as there might be tired and cold porters waiting outside to go to bed. You may also notice that very few dining tents have integral floors to keep out the cold and damp. When it rains the floor can become like a river running through the tent. Very few porters have sleeping mats or even warm sleeping bags. They usually put one blanket on the ground and cover themselves with another one.Porter´s culture:
Quechua´s (native Andean) people have a history of being down-trodden, first by Incas, then by Spaniards and then by landowners. Thanks to recent reforms, some Quechua´s people possess their own land, but just a few of them. Due to their long history of being dominated by others, they have mostly a low self-esteem. It is important to try to involve them into your group. So take some coca leaves and share with them. You can also try to learn a couple of basic Quechua´s words (your Tour Guide will be pleased to help you). Many of porters have amazing stories to tell about their traditions and life in their villages. At the end of the trek, do not forget to show them that you appreciate their work and thank them verbally as well as by tipping them.How much to tip?
Tipping your Tour Guide and Cook should depend on quality of the service. If their tips are consistently poor, then they soon get a message they need to improve. However, even if the food was terrible and the Tour Guide spoke no English (which we hope will not be the case!), the Porters were probably still working hard carrying all camping equipment, so please do not forget to give them a tip. The amount you pay depends on you. Usually, it is recommended to tip every Porter with 30-35 soles (it is a combined tip from everybody in your group). Try to take plenty of small change so that you can tip Porters directly. This is much better than giving money to your Cook or Tour Guide to be divided later as this is distributed unfairly. Be careful of over-tipping also as it can be often as bad as not leaving any tip. If a Porter receives a large tip, he usually ends up drinking in Aguas Calientes or Urubamba for several days and just a little of this amount reaches his poor family unfortunately. So try to keep your tip in a reasonable amount.Best Time To Travel
Most visitors do not come to the country just for Machu Picchu, but combine the visit with a longer vacation in Peru or a tour of several South American countries. However, the climatic conditions on site must be taken into account, because depending on the season, the climate and the vegetation of Machu Picchu are presented in a different light. The Inca city is said to be at its most beautiful between the end of March and mid-May. The city is also in full splendor from the beginning of October to the end of November. The climate is then particularly pleasant and the vegetation blooms at these times - from green Andean meadows to colorful orchids.
The trip to Machu Picchu can then be combined with a round trip through the coastal desert or to Lake Titicaca. Overall, the rain risk between May and September in Machu Picchu is only 20 percent and is therefore the lowest.
On the other hand, the worst travel time is January and February, when the rainy season prevails and the journey can be difficult. In addition, the risk of rain increases to 80 percent and fog can obscure the view over the city. Depending on your individual taste, this can also be a fascinating spectacle. At best, you also avoid the Peruvian vacations or public holidays, because then it can get comparatively crowded in Machu Picchu and the tickets are booked out early.
Machu Picchu Tickets
Since millions of visitors come to Machu Picchu every year, the Peruvian Ministry of Tourism has set an upper limit of two million people who are allowed to visit the ruined city, i.e. a maximum of 6,000 people per day. This number was identified by a study as the maximum resilience. UNESCO even calls for a reduction to just 800 people a day in order to remain recognized as a World Heritage Site. The reason for this is that nature suffers from the lively visit, after all Machu Picchu with the surrounding mountain ranges and cloud forests comprises 22 percent of the entire flora of Peru and ten percent of the animal life. Around 400 bird, 300 butterfly and 19 reptile species are at home here. Since 2019, visitors have therefore only been allowed to Machu Picchu between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., with a maximum length of stay and a limit on the number of visitors. So it is only allowed to stay in Machu Picchu for four hours. It is important that you buy your ticket before you arrive and have your passport with you, otherwise you will be refused entry, so it is best to prepare a little for your trip to Machu Picchu.
You can buy the Machu Picchu tickets 2022 for the visit to the Inca City online. You have the choice between four different types of tickets, either only for Machu Picchu, Huayna Picchu Tickets, the Machu Picchu mountain or Huchuy Picchu tickets. The purchase is recommended as early as possible and saves you annoying queues. However, Machu Picchu may only be entered with a licensed guide and a maximum group size of 10 people. Strict admission times and a maximum stay of six hours also apply to the ascent to the summit as part of the combination tickets.
How to get by train to Machu Picchu?
There are neither roads into the city of the Incas nor an airport nearby. The only way to visit the Inca City is therefore by rail. To do this, you go to Cusco, the former Inca capital, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is therefore worth a trip anyway. If you want to continue from Cusco to Machu Picchu, you can take the narrow-gauge railway to Aguas Calientes, the so-called Ferrocarril del Sur. The train journey to Aguas Calientes takes around 3.5 hours. This time flies by quickly, however, as the train chugs along a spectacular route through the grandiose mountainous world of the Andes. By European standards, this is a really breathtaking route. On the 100-kilometer journey through the Urubamba Valley, you will also experience a lot of wild nature and see colorful birds and cheeky monkeys. When you arrive in Aguas Calientes, you either take a shuttle bus or you climb the last few meters on your own. This means some effort for you, but it will be rewarded by the breathtaking nature of the Peruvian Andes. Nevertheless, only experienced hikers who are used to the corresponding heights should decide to climb on foot.
Machu picchu tours from Lima: You can take the early flight to Cusco and from there you can go to the train station and cacth the train to Machu Picchu. the minimun 2 day, if you would like to do this trip
Machu Picchu Hike
During you visit Machu Picchu you can choose between different tours. These range from a full-day excursion to Inca Trail tours through the Urubamba Valley of the Cusco region. On the one-day trip, you travel by train and make your way from Aguas Calientes to the paths that lead you through Machu Picchu. The multi-day tours can be combined with climbing the mountains Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, but you can also walk along the Urubamba River, follow in the footsteps of the Inca Trail on their original paths, visit other archaeological sites such as Wiñay Huayna and you can combine with the Laguna Humantay marvel at a lake shimmering in deep turquoise between the over 5,000 meter high and snow-capped mountains, the second option is the Rainbow Mountain. In case the Inca Trail is sold out, you can choose the alternative hike, the most popular hike is the Salkantay Trek or Lares Trek. There are no limits to your thirst for adventure around Machu Picchu!