We were all looking forward to the Inca trail since we had to book it about two months in advance and it wasn't even peak season. The government only allows 500 people on the trail per day (including guides and porters) so you have to book early to guarantee yourself a spot. The day before leaving we had a meeting at the tour office and met a bunch of our fellow trekkers. There was a total of 13 us in our group and everyone except for myself, Ryan, Mike, and Lauren had rented a porter to carry some of their things. So it seemed as though we were stuck carrying all of our gear.
We met with our tour group at 530 and waited for our bus to take us to Ollantaytambo which is about 2 hours north of the city. We stopped for a quick breakfast and then reached kilometer 82, the entrance to the Inca trail (elv 2350m). We were off!
Back row: Jill, Brian, Warren, Ryan, Frankie
Front Row: Ross, Valentine, Lauren, Parveen, Katie, Sara, Paulito, Emer, Emma, Mike
(click photo for higher resolution download)
The beginning of the trail is quite nice flat ground for an hour or two so we didn't need many breaks. Then there was one huge staircase that climbed about 150 m, our guide told us that a few years ago an older man had died right after climbing them. We reached our first ruins Patallaqta shortly after that. The incas built several communities throughout the sacred valley for a variety of purposes and always in strategic places. These ruins lie at the base of a mountain to control both paths through the valley. About 2 hours later we stopped for lunch. Upon arriving at every break the porters already had our meal tent set up and had some small bowls where we could wash our hands before eating. If you ever hike the Inca trail I can guarantee you will not go hungry, every single one of our meals was fantastic and there was always more food than our group could eat. Kudos to our cook Walter for taking such good care of us, the pumpkin soup was awesome.
The second half of day one was killer. We climbed probably another 6-700 m and hiked for a good 4 hours. For some reason I had real trouble with or post lunch hikes. I'm not sure why I just always found the going much more difficult after eating. We slowly made it to our campsite before sunset and I was just glad to get the weight off my shoulders. Our campsite sat at around 3300m and had a beautiful view. Now you'd think you'd have a lot of time to hang out, maybe read a little on the trail, do some sudoku, well if you aren't hiking then you are catching your breath or eating with the group. At night you just pass right out until morning.
Let me tell you about our group now. Our two guides were Paulito and Valentine who were really great guides. They were both extremely informed, friendly and helpful. There was Ryan, Mike and myself from Canada. Lauren from Malaysia, Ross and Jill from Chicago, Parveen and Katie from Australia, and then Sara, Emer, Emma, Warren from Ireland and Brian from Northern Ireland. It was an awesome group and I couldn't have asked for a better troop of people to trek with for four days.
Total distance: ~16 km
Total elevation ~1200m
