Inca Trail - Day One

I woke at 4:30 with a thousand butterflies inside. Thank God for hot water. As I dressed, I could hear the chirping of phones all around waking others up.

Last night I spent an hour packing and unpacking, weighing and rearranging. Finally my porter bag came in at 5.9kg and my backpack, I think, at the same, even with half the trail mix out! The hotel gave me an id tag for my suitcase so I could claim it later and I left it in the room.

At 6am a van came by to pick me up and inside there were a bunch of kids. We looked at each other a bit dubiously. These were the people I was to spend the next 4 days with? I found out they had been travelling together for the last 2 weeks, which made me feel a bit more doubtful. But then I thought well, could be worse, and I came here to see the Andes, not make new friends.

The van drove on for 1 and a half hours to Ollantaytambo where we could use the bathroom in a small hostal, buy walking sticks, rain ponchos, hats, cocoa leaves, etc. We were swarmed as soon as we got out of the van. Around us, porters were gathering to bundle trekkers` equipment and bags. Most of the porters, we heard later, come from rural communities around Cusco.

After another hour along a gravel road, we reached the start point, km82. There were many other people there - 200 hikers are allowed every day. One of the staff came to give us each that day's snack bag: banana, 2 candies and chocolate cookies. We took our obligatory Inca Trail sign group photo. At the checkpoint, the official had a massive list and carefully checked my name and passport number. Our guide also had a group ticket. He was anxious to put some distance between us and the other groups and off we shot over the bridge and onto the Trail. At first the going was not too bad, comparative to the Bruce Trail pace, and we hiked as a group.

The first break was about 1 1/2 hours in, if I remember correctly, next to someone´s home. The women of the area sold water, gatorade and juice. Porters from all the different companies stopped to break as well and drank chincilla, a home-made sort of grape juice. For day 1, we passed through communities who use the Trail as their sole source of traffic. We had to clear the way several times for men with donkeys laden with goods, even once a small pig bundled up on one.

Lunch was served sitting down in a group tent: maize soup for starters, then fish, rice, and green beans. My first squat toilet. I took a photo, of course. Some manuvuering (sp?) required.

After lunch it became quite hot and I started to fade. Effrey the guide was sweeping right behind me, which I hated. I started to realize that his breaks were scheduled like Lucinda's on the Bike Rally - there was always a big hill after! The last break amused me - a window ledge with the usual gatorade, water and juice but with a sign: "Credit card accepted". A final 10 minute push to the campsite and we were done for the day at 3:30pm.

Today was my bad luck day: 1) I lost my treasured Montreal cap that someone gave me when I was nervous the first year I did the BR. 2) I lost the tips on my hiking poles, rendering them almost useless and forbidden on the Inca Trail rulebook. 3) I started to question my ability to complete the Trek and cursed myself for not training harder (that part didn`t last long as I managed to persuade myself it was not me but the fact I was trying to keep up to 22 year olds!) 4) I fell off my camp stool and scraped my hand.

Effrey was most concerned when I told him I had lost my hat and found a local woman to sell me the ugliest Inca Trail hat anyone has ever seen. (It came in handy later tho) The sun is incredibly strong in the Andes - I had sunscreen on and still got red. The bugs were also bad. I had pants on when we started and unzipped to shorts and got eaten alive.

Our campsite is a little away from the others. My little tent is right at the edge of the "cliff". I was glad I rented the optional thermarest as the default mat was very thin and worn.

At 5pm was tea: popcorn, crackers and jam and of course, cocoa tea. The group played "Shithead" which is a great game. I watched and wrote my notes, set up for the night.

At dinner we were formally introduced to the 2 cooks and 13 porters who would be taking care of us for the next 3 days. Imagine 16 people working to give 7 pleasure. Effrey then asked us to introduce ourselves in Spanish and say where we were from.

Effrey then told us yet again how difficult day 2 was - the others didn`t seem bothered but I was a little freaked out as I had found that first day (the "easy" day) a bit tougher than I had anticipated. Off to bed by 7:30pm - for the star-lovers, there were thousands in the sky. It was completely black by 6.