Inca Trail, background

First a little background: The Incas (actually Quechuas, but everyone refers to them as the Incas) were the last culture around in the Andes before the Spanish came and took over South America. One of the things that the Incas did when they conquered much of the Andean region of SA is they created a large number of roads between their cities, now collectively known as the Inca Trails. The most famous section of the Inca Trail is the section that runs from near Cusco to Machu Picchu (more on Machu Picchu in a minute)... this 49 kilometer section of trail is a very frequent tourist destination - generally groups hike the trail over 4 days, 3 nights. To keep the trail clean, etc ..., you have to hike with an organized group, which usually means that you are paying a lot and are in a group of 10-16 people. Also, there are 500 other people on your section of trail every day (500 people may start everyday, so there are about 2000 people hiking in al). The big advantage to going in a group is they organize and carry just about everything for you - a huge team of porters ( >1 for every hiker) carries all of your gear and food up the mountain, sets everything up for you, cooks for you, and cleans up the campsite after you. I can't say enough about how hard these guys work.

Anyway - the goal of the hike is Machu Picchu (pronounce Ma chu Peak Chu - apparantly ma chu pea chu, the common pronunciation, means little penis in Quechua), the "lost" city of the Incas. As far as we understand, when the Spanish were invading, the Incas abandoned Machu Picchu so the spanish wouldn't find it (and turn it into a spanish colonial city, just like every other city here!)... In 1911, an archeologist from Yale heard rumors of the city from locals and through persistent exploring and asking around, re-found the city for Western culture (there were a few people living in parts of the city still). Today, it is one of the most visited archeological sights in the world, etc.... It really is an amazing place to look at (especially after hiking for 4 days).

Thats it for background - now read the posts!
mike.