When you first decide to hike the Inca Trail you’re going to have a lot to do and a lot of decisions to make! First and foremost, I recommend picking the tour company you’re going to go with. Not many know this but you can’t just show up and hike the Inca Trail by yourself, 1. You must go with a guide and 2. Arrangements have to be made as early as 8 months out (depending on when you plan to hike the trail.) I can promise you that our experience with Alpaca Expeditions was so organized and awesome so hopefully, this convinces you they are the best company to go with!
A few years ago I was scrolling through Instagram and saw Lauren Paul posted about hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I remember her posting about how wonderful Alpaca Expeditions was and I promised myself then I would look into their company if I ever decided to go. Last year one of my best friends decided to hike the Inca Trail and I told her she had to go with Alpaca Expeditions! She ended up booking with them and fell in love with the experience and the company, so then it was just another reason to go with them. There are a million reasons why but these are the most important in my opinion. We hiked the Inca Trail with Alpaca Expeditions from December 17-21 2018, and had the time of our lives!
Alpaca Expeditions Treats Their Employees Well
Once you see my pictures and start researching how much work the tour groups do for you on the Inca Trail this will make sense as to why it is my first reason. Not only is the company organized but they hire the best and take very good care of them. The porters, chefs, and guides all make a good wage and are provided with boots and clothing. These badass humans carry all the food you need, their gear, your gear, your toilet, and everything else you can think of. While you are carrying your little day pack they are carrying 55 pounds for over 26 miles on their back and even running sometimes! You’ll see in my picture they are all matching in uniform. You may think this is the norm but I saw so many companies where their porters were wearing old tennis shoes and I even saw a few wearing flip flops! So yes, you may spend a bit more to trek with Alpaca, but trust me, it’s worth it.
Below is a picture of how monstrous the bags are that they carry! And they do it the whole time with a smile on their face. I seriously cannot speak more highly of the employees of this company.
They Literally do Everything For You and Put You First
Not only do they carry your bags they bust their ass and get to the campsite hours early to set up your tent, cook your meals and even have hot water to wash your face with when you arrive! I used it to soak my feets after hiking all day and it was
Knowledgeable, Kind and Helpful Guides
Now that you’ve heard about my love for the porters and chefs you get to hear me rave about the guides. From the very beginning, these two men were so helpful. I happened to get sick on the bus ride there and was absolutely miserable and they were SO helpful. I can personally recommend Russel, Christian
Russell was our head guide and Christian our second guide. Christian was so kind and stayed back with someone from our group who needed to take it slower than the rest of the group. He never complained once and that hiker said he made her experience so awesome!
Yes, they are kind and helpful, but they are also extremely knowledgeable about everything you see on the Inca Trail. I swear you could ask any question and Russell knew something about it.
We even learned how these plants were used to kill prey during Incan times! It was so awesome to have guides that kept things interesting. We left these four days with so much information.
Here is a picture of Russell carrying someone from our groups bag when they weren’t feeling well. It was seriously so awesome to have a leader who literally thought of everyone in the group before himself. Here, he is also waiting for everyones phone because there was a cool photo opportunity in this cave, he did this multiple times to make sure we got cool pictures along the way!
Here is another place where he took a picture of every couple or person next to the waterfall.
They Take You in Small Groups
Once you see pictures of the trail you are so thankful you are going
They Are Supportive, Constantly Cheering You On, and Always Positive
Once again this was instilled from the very beginning. They never made us feel stupid for asking a question or needing to take a break. They were constantly telling you how awesome you were and to push through to make it to the next campsite. (That was sometimes a couple of mountains and 12 hours away) WordPress wouldn’t let me upload the video but here is a picture of the porters cheering us on. They would literally stop what they were doing and come and clap for you when you arrived
Here is one of my favorite
*Just a little fun fact some porters work until they are 75 years old😳*
For 4 days You Are Family
Another thing that was instilled from the very beginning. They made it very clear that we were only going to make it to the end if we worked together and lifted each other up the whole way. They said this and it started from the very beginning of our journey. When I got sick the first day literally every person came up to me at some point and asked if I was ok, and that attitude continued the whole four days when anyone was feeling down. I truly believe our group was next level awesome when it came to being a family, but either way, Alpaca Expeditions makes treating
Alpaca Expeditions is Very Organized
I can’t stress this enough. Anything we needed had a place and no one was ever running around trying to find something it was always found in a second because they knew exactly where it was. Our meals were always served in the green tent you can see in the middle and even if it was downpouring we were dry inside enjoying a warm meal.
They Serve the BEST Food
I will never forget
They even carved the vegetables sometimes!
We were all just so taken back by the incredible food. Jake is Gluten Free and every time they made us something with gluten in it they had a GF option for him. It was quite incredible. They accommodated all dietary restrictions so well, not just gluten-free. What really sent us over the edge was on the last night they baked a cake for the honeymooners in our group! On a mountain in the middle of nowhere on the Inca Trail, over a fire for 3 hours! A god damn cake. And of course, they even made a separate
Alpaca Expeditions Does Everything in Their Power to Time the Views Right
Obviously, the tour company has no control over the weather, especially in rainy season when we went. But, they always communicated with the porters who were ahead to see if we should slow down or speed up to try and beat the clouds or rain for a view! Here are a few pictures from moments we would have missed if it wasn’t for our awesome guides!
This was my favorite moment. We had arrived at the Sun Gat and it was so foggy and cloudy you literally couldn’t see a thing. (Obviously a bummer, but what are you going to do?) Russell assured us we had to keep walking because there might be a small window when the clouds clear. Literally 20 minutes later we were welcomed with our first view of Machu Picchu! We all got pictures and 3 minutes later the cloud you see rising up covered it and it was gone!
They Provide Excellent Communication Leading up to the Hike Including a Briefing in Cusco the Night Before
I can’t even count how many times I reached out to Alpaca Expeditions leading up to our trip on the Inca Trail. Not once did they forget to follow up and were always so nice and helpful! The night before our trek, they had us meet for 45 minutes to go over a few things and ask any last minute questions. It was so helpful to meet your guides, group and feel confident before embarking on such a huge trip!
As you can probably tell, I am a bit obsessed with Alpaca Expeditions. Their ability to provide such a safe and incredible experience is something I will forever be grateful for. For a company that has only been operating for 5 years, it’s quite impressive how incredible they are. I highly recommend them for all of your Peru excursions, click the link to learn more about their company and tours, Alpaca Expeditions.
Have you done the Inca Trail!? Looking to in the future!? I am working on a few more blog posts to convince all of you to do it someday! To read more of my blogs about Peru so far, click HERE.
