How you can use this data base: as you can see the information given below is in Spanish! Well the INC ( National Institute of Culture), create this data base, which is for the use, mainly by the trekking companies in Cusco, to decide when they need to close their groups and buy the trek permits. Any way you don't need to know much Spanish in order to check how many trek permits are still available on the date that you want to do the hike on the Inca trail.
Step 1 : first press “ Ingresar como invitado” (enter into the Database as a guest); then you have to go into the icon of “Consultas” (consults)
Step 2 : Hit the "Disponibilidad Camino Inca 2008" button ( availability on the inca trail 2008)
There is when you’ll be able to see: “Disponibilidad de espacios Camino
Inca año Aut 2008”
Step 3 : then you got to go to “mes” (month), the month that you are
planning to do the hike on the Inca trail . The month options are
identical to English to be able to check the Spanish equivalent.
(you can do it Using the drop-down menu) and as soon you’ll do this,
hit the button of “Ver Disponibilidad” (check availability )
Then you’ll get the number of remaining spaces for each day of the month,
so there will be shown. (Fecha = date, Disponibilidad = availability).
Remember that the maximum number of spaces is 500 people per day, that
includes porters and guides.
Interpretation of the Results:
The information that you’ll get is the remaining spaces on the Inca trail; and this does not fall steadily, by the other way it falls
exponentially. Often the last 60 spaces can be sold out in a day or less.
For example just because there may be 100 spaces available on the day
that you want to start the trek, and by the time that you’ll find a
company and send them your trek deposit, it doesn't mean that there will
still be 100 spaces left! So it is highly recommended to book your Inca
Trail as far in advance as possible. If the number of spaces available is
00 then it basically means that all the trek permits have been sold out,
and no matter how many companies you’ll contact, none of them will be
able to offer you space on the Inca Trail.
