Hikers who watched their Machu Picchu plans fall apart this week can start rebooking. Cusco's regional culture office and the national parks agency Sernanp jointly confirmed that visitors can return to Routes 1, 2 and 3 of the Inca Trail network starting Wednesday, August 26, closing out a week-long shutdown triggered by a violent stretch of Andean rain, according to Agencia Andina. Officials say the return follows technical inspections, cleanup and repair work along the roughly 43-kilometer trekking corridor that leads to the 15th-century citadel, part of the wider Qhapaq Ñan road network built under Inca rule.
The trouble started late on the night of Monday, August 17, when what meteorologists call an isolated pocket of cold, high-altitude low pressure — a DANA, in Spanish weather shorthand — dumped an unusual volume of rain across the highlands around Cusco. Cusco's culture director, Maritza Candia, confirmed the downpour forced a shutdown of the trail's three main routes hitting heavily traveled stretches such as Llulluchapampa, Ayapata and Wiñay Wayna, where runoff tore through campsites and knocked out sanitary facilities along the path. Conservation lead Francisco Huarcaya said his team kept round-the-clock watch on the most exposed sectors to catch new hazards early, according to Crónica Viva.
