Inca Trail Day 1

August 14, 2016

The day has arrived. This trip has been in the works for over two years, ever since Gary saw Dr. Spanner’s pictures of his trek to Machu Picchu. Gary shared his desire to do the trek with a few friends, and the group of 12 was formed: Denise and Willie and their friend Allan, Bill and Tania who have hiked the West Coast Trail with Denise and Willie, Feng, Ron and Rhonda, Anita and Phil, and Gary and myself. We started training last fall and Denise was in charge of not only planning our trip details, but organizing our hikes twice a week. Thank you, Denise!

There was nervousness and excitement as we got up early and packed a few last minute items into the bags that the porters would carry. We had to carry our gear down the mountain to a spot where we could meet the bus, and we were on our way around 6:40. We stopped at a village so our cooks could purchase a few more groceries, and on we went to the starting point at km 82. Our group met with others in the staging area where porters packed their loads (up to 25kg), and we awaited our turn to go through the checkpoint to start.

And we were off!

We saw many people, porters, and mules/horses today.

There are many locals living along this section of the trail, and they offer drinks or the use of a bathroom for 1 sole.

After a few hours we stopped for lunch and we were surprised to be treated to a three course meal in a dining tent complete with tables and chairs.

Llactapata was the site of some Incan ruins which Ernesto told us about,

but we were also happy to have a chance to rest, eat a snack, and have some water.

Our porters and cooks passed us on the trail, and by the time we arrived at camp around 5:45, camp was set up and supper was in the works. We climbed an elevation of 900 feet today and a distance of 11 Km.

We enjoyed our supper by the light of a flashlight in the dining tent, and we figured out how to use our latrine tents. We had a portable toilet seat to sit on with a black garbage bag underneath as a collection agent.

We started our day at the base of Mt Veronica, and this beautiful snow capped mountain was in sight for most of the day.

When Gary and I finally settled into our tent for the night, it was the last thing we saw before we zipped up our tent to keep out the mosquitoes and sand flies.