Inca Trail - Day 1
So the Inca Trail had been a long-time coming, and much anticipated by all in our group. And of course my own ankle worries had only added to the build-up, so the positive feeling when we set out for the beginning of this 3 to 4 day trek - me clutching my invaluable walking sticks that I´d been lent by tour leader Charlie and which made me look like a professional (or a bit of an idiot) dependent on who you believed - was great.
The first day was misty (this turned out to be a common theme for the whole trail) but the walking was not too difficult and when we made our first stop for lunch we discovered that we were going to be treated like luxury with a large dining tent errected with tables and chairs, on which we were then served 3 course buffet meals! Awesome, we suddenly understood how there were reports of people putting ON weight during the Inca trail! The only complaints to the chef and his team were to come from Helen - a veggy who had an alergy to dairy products - when they consistently failed to remember that she couldn´t eat not just one but both of these food types, and so would serve her the chicken breast without cheese sauce in the expectation that this would be ok.
We also came across some Inca and pre-Inca ruins on the way to lunch, a site of one of the battles the Incas undertook to defeat neighbouring and more prosperous tribes in the first stages of their ascent.
After lunch we continued walking and close to the Day 1 base camp our guide Jose showed us a shop where they sold rum. Most of us had intended to drink only a bit combined with a fruit punch, bearing in mind the following days walking was expected to be the hardest. But the Kiwi boys and Mark and Nicola (Aussies) had other ideas, and subsequently drank 3 or 4 bottles between them whilst playing an increasingly entertaining card game (called Arsehole). The night ended with Alex turning the dining tent into a mini disco, with the rest of us admiring the silhouettes of his wiild dancing!
