Inca Trail - Peru Adventure Path

Hands down, Peru Path is the best tour guide experience ever, and I highly recommend Freddy & his team as tour guides for anyone interested in getting the most out of their Peruvian adventure. My fiance and I traveled to Peru and wanted to see Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, and Rainbow Mountain but we were limited to 3 days in that area. None of Peru Path's pre-existing packages fit our tight schedule so Freddy (the owner) whipped up a tailored itinerary for us - which was incredible and I can't believe how much we did in those 3 days!

Day 1: Chinchero and Aguas Calientes
Freddy picked us up from our hostel in Cusco and immediately I felt like we were meeting up with a good old friend. Freddy told us the history of Cusco and took us to Chinchero where we saw a demonstration on how alpaca weavers create yarn from the fluff, dye it, and create beautiful tapestries - it was awesome! After that, we made the drive to Aguas Calientes where we would be spending the night. Freddy booked us a beautiful hotel room that had a balcony view of the mountain - Machu Picchu loomed above us in the mist.

Day 2: Machu Picchu
Since we only had a day to do Machu Picchu, we all took the bus ride up to the site at around 5:30 am - to catch the sunrise of course! Freddy sat us down on the first bench within the Incan walls and told us the story of the Incans, drew diagrams on the sand to show us geographical data, how Machu Picchu's location was no coincidence - and how it lines up with other sacred Incan sites. Freddy's way with words is engaging, mesmerizing and his English is perfect. My fiance and I were the only ones touring with Freddy that day, but several passers-by stopped to listen in to what Freddy was saying! We learned SO much, and I couldn't help but feel like we had the best guide at Machu Picchu that day. It started pouring rain and my jacket got soaked during our hike up to Waynapicchu, so Freddy lent me his Peru Path jacket - savior!

Day 3: Rainbow Mountain
Another early morning, we got up at 4AM and met with Freddy. It was a 3 hour drive from Cusco to the base of Rainbow Mountain, but the drive was so scenic and Freddy had so much history to share with us, the time flew on by. Freddy took us to breakfast at little family owned hostel which was simple, clean and yummy. I was getting a little sick with a cold but we wanted to see Rainbow Mountain so we ended up hiring some horses to carry us up the loooong trek up to the mountain top. This hike starts at 13,500 feet in elevation so THANK GOD Freddy had a great oxygen mask because I was feeling weak in all the muscles. Even with the horses I felt pretty drunk from the altitude and at some points almost fell right off my horse (lol). Since Freddy had already hired 1 emergency horse for us, we only had to pay for the 2nd horse (we had originally told Freddy we were going to hike it, but then I got sick).
The views were INCREDIBLE! Again, Freddy came through and told us all about the minerals in the mountains, and how they came to become colorfully striped. Absolutely a MUST if you're in the Cusco area. So beautiful.

After Rainbow Mountain, we made a bathroom stop in Ollantaytambo. We were too pooped to go see the ruins there but we asked Freddy if we could just go roam around for awhile, which of course he was totally chill with. On that note, Freddy is so laid back - we literally changed our minds about maybe 7 times during our tours with him and he was so easy going with everything, and somehow still managed to show us a fantastic time, got us to where we needed to be, hotels booked, train tickets, everything went as smooth as possible! I'm amazed really because I highly doubt any other tour guide would be that easy going when you have such a tight schedule, but Freddy worked his magic and made everything easy for us. Ollantaytambo was fantastic, it was awesome walking among old Incan streets and seeing the old Incan mills in the mountainside. Beautiful town and highly recommend stopping there!