Inca Trail Trek Giveaway

The Inca Trail is by far the most famous of South America’s many trekking routes, combining beautiful mountain scenery, lush cloud-forest, subtropical jungle, and incredible Inca ruins, it can be considered one of the best treks in the world. Culminating the challenging trek is the arrival at the Machu Picchu citadel at dawn, truly one of the modern world’s most incredible introductions to an ancient civilization. If this Peru adventure sounds like your ideal trip, Global Basecamps can help you get there! We are giving you and a friend the chance to win this classic small group four day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The hike is accompanied by the finest Inca Trail guides (English-speaking), well-paid porters and staff, and includes all meals,transportation, and camping equipment.

How to Enter

Enter the Inca Trail Giveaway on our Facebook page. To increase your chances of winning, invite your friends! You get an additional entry for each friend you invite to enter the contest, and there is no limit to the number of people you invite! Enter on Twitter by tweeting about the giveaway and filling out the entry form. For every Twitter follower that enters through your link you get an extra entry. Another way to increase your chances of winning this incredible adventure is by commenting on this blog and telling us what you love most about travel. Be sure to use the same email when commenting on the blog that you used to enter the contest on our Facebook or Twitter page.

Why Hike the Inca Trail with Global Basecamps

For the Inca Trail, we partner with a nonprofit conservation group to support habitat protection, wildlife monitoring and protection, and sustainable development with proceeds from your trip. While we aim to keep costs low for our clients, we also believe in supporting sustainable travel and the local economies. Our partner company is a member of the US Tour Guide Association and is recognized by the Government Tourism Office as one on the two best tour operators in the area. A very high standard of service sets us apart and more importantly, all of our guides, porters and staff are treated with the utmost respect. Many companies take advantage of their guides and porters - this is a huge issue worldwide. For the Inca Trail hike, you are provided with licensed, well-trained, English-speaking guides; well-paid, well-treated Porters and a Chef preparing healthy, hearty meals cooked with fresh, local ingredients.

A detailed pre-departure briefing by a member of our qualified staff will prepare you for the hike the day before you set out. On the morning of the trek we provide private transportation from Cusco to the start of the trail. While on the trek, we use only high quality camping equipment for the treks including spacious North Face tents, mattress and sleeping bags. Your camping experience will be made very comfortable as we provide a dining tent and toilet tent, as well as tables, chairs, and cooking equipment. Lunch at the impressive Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge on the last day of the trek will leave you feeling satisfied and rewarded after the long hike.

Itinerary

Day 1: Piskakucho (km. 82) – Huayllabamba

This morning you will be picked up at your hotel. A spectacular early morning drive through the Sacred Valley of the Incas will take you to the trail head at Km.82 of the Machu Picchu railroad. After getting acquainted with the trail crew the trek begins with a two hour hike down the Urubamba canyon, and then a visit to the settlement of Llaqtapata on the banks of the Cusichaca side river. Following, you will climb a short way up the Cusichaca valley to Huayllabamba, the last inhabited village on the trail, where you will camp.

Day 2: Huayllabamba – Pacaymayo

The day begins by climbing the steep-sided Llullucha valley past a rushing stream and through enchanted native polylepis woodland. Crossing the rim of a small plateau, you will abruptly find yourselves in the puna, the treeless grasslands of the high Andes. The trail traverses an open slope opposite mighty mountain crags as you ascend to the first and highest pass, Warmiwañusca (4,200m/13,776ft). Here you will encounter spectacular views of the trail ahead to the second pass, and look back to the sweeping snow peaks and valleys of the Huayanay massif. The trail leads to the floor of the forested Pacaymayo valley, where we make camp.

Day 3: Pacaymayo – Wiñay WaynaDay

You will ascend past the small Inca site of Runkuracay. As you reach the second pass, the landscape opens onto spectacular new views to the snow peaks of the Pumasillo range. The trek descends to the ruins of Sayacmarca (Inaccessible Town), an intricate labyrinth of houses, plazas and water channels, perched precariously on a rocky spur overlooking the Aobamba valley. The Inca trail, now a massive buttressed structure of granite paving stones, continues along the steep upper fringes of the cloud forest through a colorful riot of orchids, bromeliads, mosses and ferns. The third pass ends with Inca viewing platforms overlooking the archaeological complex of Phuyupatamarca (Cloud-level Town). Pausing to explore the wondrous maze of Inca stone towers, fountains and stairways down the mountainside here, you then begin a long descent through ever changing layers of cloud forest. An Inca stairway partly cut from living granite will leads you to the camp site by the ruins of Wiñay Wayna (Forever Young), the largest and most exquisite of the Inca Trail sites.

Day 4: Wiñay Wayna – Machu Picchu - Cusco

An early morning hike takes you across a steep mountainside through lush, humid cloud-forest of giant ferns and broad-leaf vegetation. After crossing the stone threshold of Intipunku (Sun Gate), you will encounter an unforgettable sweep of natural beauty and human artistry –a backdrop of twisting gorge and forested peaks framing the magical city of Machu Picchu. You complete the final leg down the royal flagstone walkway, past outlying shrines and buildings and into the heart of Machu Picchu, where you spend the rest of the morning with a guided tour of the highlights and some individual exploring among Machu Picchu’s multitude of hidden nooks and corners. In the early afternoon a bus will take you to the small town of Aguas Calientes, where you board the return train to Cusco.

Giveaway Includes:

• Transportation from Cusco to the start of the trail for Inca Trail
• Inca Trail permit fee (only 500 permits are avaible per day and are sold on a first come first serve basis)
• Camping Equipment: spacious North Face tents, dining tent, toilet tent, tables and chairs, oxygen bottle and cooking equipment. Trekkers need only bring a sleeping bags.
• A licensed, well-trained, English-speaking guide, who visits the clients the evening before departure to explain the trek and answer any questions
• Chef and Assistant Chef preparing healthy, hearty meals cooked with fresh, local ingredients.
• Well-paid and well-treated porters. We supply the appropriate duffel for you to pack and them to carry. You carry only a light daypack.

Giveaway excludes:

• Sleeping Bag Rentals
• Any personal items or goods
• Lodging in Cusco and Lima before and after the trek
• Additional night(s) in a hotel near Machu Picchu
• Additional excursions/tours in Peru
• Tips & Gratuities

Terms and Conditions

• No cash equivalent is available and the prize-winner is responsible for airfare and pre and post trek accomodations.
• Must be booked within 24 months of receiving notification of the prize.
• No blackout dates, but dependant on availability.

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