Inka Trail day 1
Machu Picchu Travel Blog
› entry 64 of 72 › view all entriesJune 15th, 2006 – by: bramwan

The beginning....
Our bus took us to have a breakfast and do some last minute shopping (plastic poncho and walking stick) and grab a quick breakfast at the small town of Ollantaytambo before heading to Km 82 for the start of our hike.
Most points in Peru seem to be marked as km markers from one town or another. This is 82km from Cusco, and marks the village of Piscacucho.

Luckily not the path
Kat and I had decided that it would be a smart move to get a porter to carry our main pack (and sleeping bags) and that we would just carry a day pack and the camera. Smart move and well worth the money.
The first day was to be an “easy” day – about 12km of hiking past some ruins and then a bit of uphill at the end to our camp at Huayllabamba.
The ruins, Llactapata (town on the hillside), are viewed from on top of a hill, so not that easy to see, but still impressive. They were basically a farming settlement with some administrative area. Lobo, our guide, gave us a bit of chat about the history and different styles of buildings that we would see.

Day 1, the "easy" day
Along the way we got to know a bit more about the group, which was made up of: some young poms (Michael, Stefan, Raul), some Americans (Gregory, Mario & Christina, Miguel & Nora), a Brazilian (Thomas), some Portuguese guys from Madiera (Roberto, Alberto, Gilberto), and Canadians (Marilyse & Daniel).

Still looking quite confident and relaxed
The day was quite hot, so we got rather sweaty pretty quickly. Lunch was provided at a camp site and was amazing. This was a sign of things to come. When we arrived at the site we were greeted with water bowls to wash hands and then sat down to a meal of cream of asparagus soup and grilled trout, followed by tea. We certainly were not going to go short on food.
When you go through the original checkpoint, the group is allocated a campsite for the night. Ours was nearer the top of Huayllabamba, so it meant that we were a bit further up the hill than some of the other group (and hopefully would make the next day a bit easier).

The porters are awesome, carrying "only" 28kg's now
When we arrived at about 5pm, afternoon tea had been set out for us. This included popcorn, biscuits and tea/coffee/hot choc. Dinner, an hour later was another massive affair. In between, Lobo introduced all of the 19 porters and the cook who would be looking after us over the next few days.
The porters are incredible. They have now been limited to carry “only” 28kgs and their packs are weighed at some of the checkpoints. Despite the weight that they are carrying, they literally run past you. They are carrying everything from gas bottles to plastic chairs, tents to rucksacks. Our porters had quite a range of ages too, from 19 to 54! As I understand, to become a guide, they need to be a porter for 6 years too.

Good to know that cards are accepted
There is a race every year which is open to all comers, although I assume that porters are the most common participants. The record time, for the course which stretches from km82 for 43km to Machu Picchu, is 3h34m. Bear that in mind when following what the course entails. Scary.
The toilets on the trail are one of the less pleasant experiences on the Inka Trail. Almost all are the hole-in-the-ground type of efforts. Charming. I hope they don’t give us too much fibre in our meals…..


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