Entries By jess wedel

Hello hello!

We rallied for one more day of hiking. After a night in an actual bed in Aguas Calientes, we woke up early and headed back to Machu Picchu. Some of the group even hiked the trail back up instead of taking the bus — a first for me, but it was so fun. Big stair people on this team.

At the top we regrouped and headed to Huayna Picchu, the peak behind Machu Picchu in every iconic photo you’ve ever seen. Steep steps, but we’re professionals now. Up through some clouds and light rain, and our luck held, the views from the top were incredible. Machu Picchu is the main event, sure, but the tree-covered mountains stretching out in every direction makes it feel mystical. Hard to imagine a better way to close out this trip.

We came down and caught the train back to Ollantaytambo, panoramic windows and winding views the whole way, birds soaring, valleys and passes we’d actually walked through days earlier now passing by from a completely different angle. The train is the only way to Machu Picchu that doesn’t involve your own two feet, and it’s a gorgeous one.

Back in Cusco, the cold hit us the second we stepped out of the van, straight from jungle humidity to 11,000 feet of thin, sharp air. Grabbed our duffels, climbed a few more stairs (of course), and collapsed into a hotel with warm beds and hot showers waiting.

We climbed passes, ate guinea pig, survived a group Scum rivalry, and somehow all still like each other. 10/10 trip. Thank you for following along and to this crew: I’d get chewy cuy with you again anytime.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

Monday, August 10, 2026 - 8:38 pm PT

We made it to Machu Picchu today! Through the Sun Gate, down into the citadel, six days of trail behind us and somehow it still didn’t feel real once we were standing there.

After the downpour yesterday and all through the night, we figured we were done for, views-wise. We hiked up this morning in intermittent rain and heavy clouds. By the time we reached the Sun Gate, it was fully socked in. Nothing. We played the mind games anyway, telling the clouds they’d never clear, half-hoping that saying it out loud would jinx them into doing exactly that. Eventually we gave up and started the descent into Machu Picchu.

About a minute after we took off, the clouds started opening up. And then there it was, the whole citadel and the mountains around it, in and out of this mystical fog like it was showing off on purpose.

We took a stupid number of photos and celebrated like we’d won something, because we had. This whole trip has been extremes: cloud forests and downpours, dust and dry high altitude, brutal trail days to long quiet nights in a tent. Somehow it all resolved into that one minute of clearing sky.

Tonight we’re in Aguas Calientes, showered, fed, and saving what’s left of our legs for one final hike tomorrow.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

Hola!

Today we climbed up to Runkurakay, our third pass of the trip, a smaller ask than yesterday’s monster but still not nothing at this altitude.

The ruins there are round, almost like a watchtower, and it’s wild to think Inca messengers once used spots exactly like this as rest stops while running the length of an empire on foot. Meanwhile we needed a full snack break.

From there, into the cloud forest. Colonies of orchids appearing out of nowhere.  Some so tiny you needed a magnifying glass to see. Hummingbirds doing their impossible physics. The trail itself turns into pure engineering, stone causeways, a tunnel some ancient crew carved straight through solid rock.

Sayacmarca was a highlight: a ruin perched on a cliff edge, reachable only by one narrow staircase, tall rock wall on one side and a straight drop on the other. Edgar walked us through what it might have been, part checkpoint, part ceremonial site, nobody’s entirely sure.

We stopped for lunch at our fourth and final pass of the trip with views looking straight at Machu Picchu mountain and beyond. The clouds began to build (as they have most afternoons) but this time instead of dissipating, they got darker.

So we packed up and started the long descent into our camp for the night. And even though it is “dry season” the rain poured down. By the time we made it to camp it was a full on thunderstorm.

We piled in the dining tent, played our nightly Scum games and enjoyed our final dinner on trail. Tomorrow morning we wake up and hike to the Sun Gate. Cross your fingers these clouds clear so we can see Machu Picchu!

- RMI Guide Jess and the Machu Picchu team

After dinner I asked the team what some of their highlights were from the day:

• One had fun learning and playing Scum (Scum is the chosen card game of this group — we’ve been playing every night and I’m happy to report we saw our first female president who served two terms, iykyk.)
   
• Some said they enjoyed waking up at 5:00am to the symphony of dogs barking and someone else chimed in “or not sleeping to dog’s barking” and then I reminded them I asked for highlights…
   
• There was consensus that the lasagna dinner served with deep fried cauliflower was a top notch moment.
   
• One mentioned that passing every other group on the trail was their highlight. Now before you think we were zooming, dear readers, we weren’t. We were moving in our uphill formation slow and steady. You know what they say, smooth is fast and fast is slow. That was definitely proven true today.
   
• Many mentioned that skipping and/or running down the many rocky stairs was the highlight. With caution! No injuries! But it was fun.
   
• But the top highlight was climbing the 430 flights of stairs (more than 4,000 vertical feet) to Dead Woman’s Pass, the highest point on the whole Inca trail, named because the ridgeline lays out like a woman on her back against the sky. And seeing down into the valley below — the views were 10/10.

 - RMI Guide Jess and the Machu Picchu team

Wedel and team send pictures before they start the Inca Trail and lose service. 

We woke up with a little pep in our step after a good night’s rest at lower altitudes.

Today was our shortest day on the trail, and it came at exactly the right time after two big days and more ahead. After a leisurely breakfast — oat bread (a crowd favorite), quinoa porridge, breakfast sandwiches, and as much hot cocoa and coffee as we could physically put down — we hit the trail.

Descending for a couple hours, we took our time and stopped to learn about the plants, herbs, and flowers along the way. We stopped by the river and sat in silence for some minutes, everyone on their own rock, listening to what Edgar called “the music of Pachamama.” Peaceful, and a good reminder that you can do this anywhere, just sit and listen to birds and moving water, you don’t need to be at 12,000 feet in Peru to remember that. Though it helps.

We visited our first archaeological site on trail, then said goodbye to our horses and wranglers. From here on, we’re on the official Inca Trail, porter team and all.

The afternoon was ours. Rest, laundry, lying in the sun. A campsite chess match. Meanwhile the local chickens and roosters strutted through camp like they owned the place (they might.)

Well-earned, all of it, before tomorrow’s big climb up to Dead Woman’s Pass.

Everyone is doing well. Chess champions, laundry doers, chicken diplomats, the whole crew.

- RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

We had just arrived at Incachiriaska pass — over 16,000 ft. Everyone was sitting on the rocky ridge, breathing deeply after a big climb to get there. The guides were constantly reminding people to be careful and thoughtful with movement since both sides of the pass opened up into expansive views (and big falls lines.)

Edgar was just beginning to tell us about how the Andean people believe the mountains are holy. We had all picked up a rock on the way up. The bigger the rock for the bigger the sinner, Edgar joked. (Some of us even carried multiple rocks. Are we overachievers or perhaps have much to atone for? Who’s to say.)

But just as Edgar started to speak, a soaring condor flew, I kid you not, 20 feet above us through the pass. As if he was looking right at us, as if he was saying some important message to each of us that we needed to hear.

You could tell it was special because Edgar, who has lived his whole life in these mountains and been guiding for more than 20 years, stood in awe. His eyes wide as he whispered, “stay quiet.”

We watched as the massive bird sailed through the air, we watched as he in both an instant and an eternity soared away.

The feeling of awe is ever-present here but in that moment it was felt deeply. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. We just stood there, sixteen thousand feet up, watching.

We stayed a little longer at the pass, creating a stack of all our carried rocks as an offering to Pachamama. The condor continued to circle back a time or two but never as close as the first time.

Soon, we packed our bags, lengthened our trekking poles for the steep scree below and started our long descent to camp. We moved down and down nearly 4,000 vertical feet, back into soft grasses and birds chirping and the water rushing next to us. After many miles and hours, we arrived at our camp at 12,000ft.

The air is thicker, the temps are warmer and with full bellies from another delicious dinner, we tucked into our tents for the night. But not without the seared memory in our minds of the condor so close it felt like we were friends.

What a world.

- RMI Guide Jess and the Machu Picchu team

Hola!

We left Cusco long before sunrise, trading city lights for a winding, bumpy road that climbed steadily into the Andes. By the time we reached the trailhead, the sun was out and so were the mountains. The serac-laced slopes of Humantay and Salkantay both standing over 20,000 feet stopped us still. Today we met the rest of the team who will make this journey possible. Diego is joining us as a guide, and Pancho is our head chef (he's already far exceeded our expectations by serving up trucha, local trout, for lunch that we all deemed the best we’ve had this whole trip.) After days of travel, packing, reorganizing and checking gear, it was a relief to finally shoulder a pack and start hiking. We quickly settled into the simple rhythm of the trail: one step after another through mountains that people have called home and traveled across for generations. The highlight of the day was arriving at our camp at nearly 15,000 feet. We’re right at the foot of Salkantay — the mountain towers over our camp and we couldn’t stop looking up. Watching the clouds and the fading sunlight in a dance across the jagged slopes.

A pinch me moment for every single one of us.

We piled in the dining tent for an early dinner. One full of laughs & ease. After getting our hot water bottles (a necessity, it’s brrr cold up here) we headed for an early bedtime. But not before seeing the Milky Way and one million stars holding the sky.

What a dream.

Jess and the Machu Picchu team

Hello from Cusco, on our last night before the trail!

Today started about as well as a day can start: alpacas, llamas, guanacos, and vicuñas, all of them looking slightly like cartoons come to life, all of them very willing to be fed by hand. Pure, uncomplicated joy.

We learned all about the fibers and the natural dyeing techniques from bugs to plants and had a chance to shop, of course.

From there, up to Sacsayhuamán, the massive stone fortress above the city, and then down on foot into Cusco itself for a walk through the old imperial center. “Stone with stone, no element in between,” Edgar told us, pointing out joints so tight you couldn’t slide a knife between the blocks. Limestone, interlocking, no mortar, nothing but precision holding it together. The Incas had a passion for perfectionism.

After a few more stops at the convent and the cathedral, we took some time to go through our gear and pare it down for the trail. We also have a passion for perfectionism, or something.

And then, the main dinner event — cuy. Guinea pig. A full plate and a genuinely brave showing from this group. Verdict, once everyone had worked up the nerve: chewy. Very chewy. Chewy cuy, we said. Would we order it again? Debatable. Do you have to try it once in Cusco? Also yes.

Bags are packed, boots are ready, and tomorrow we drive to the trailhead.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

Hello from the Sacred Valley! Today felt like someone hit a fast-forward button on wonder.

We started at the Maras salt mines, which are, visually, out of this world. Thousands of small terraced pools cut into the mountainside, all fed by a single underground spring. Salty because this land used to be ocean floor millions of years before it was mountains. The Andes basically pushed the sea up and out and left the salt behind. People have been harvesting it by hand the same way for centuries.

We also met Edgar, our local guide, who’s with us for the rest of the trip. He walked us through the history and the agriculture of it all with this quiet, easy authority. The kind of person you feel lucky to be learning from.

From there, Moray. An old agricultural site built in circular terraces. Each ring its own microclimate which the Incas apparently used to figure out what would grow where. Hot sun, curiosity and a lot of walking and talking.

Lunch was box lunches by a still lake, Urubamba mountains in front of us, two baby alpacas grazing about ten feet away. The cutest little faces you’ve ever seen. Genuinely one of the better lunch spots of my life.

After a little rest, we had dinner in Cusco square: Japanese-Peruvian fusion. Does it seem like we’re only eating the best food ever? Okay good. Because we are…

Big day but we’re all doing well adapting to life at nearly 11,000 feet and looking forward to more tomorrow!

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team