Inca Trail – Day 1

Finally after being in Peru for almost six weeks it was time to go hike the Inca Trail and see Machu Picchu, one of the reasons I had come to Peru in the first place.  On Tuesday night, the day before the trek started, the company I had booked with, Enigma, had a meeting to go over logistics and schedule.  It was there that I met our guide, Erick, his assistant, Elbin, and the rest of the group.  Our group was nine (the maximum size that Enigma takes is 12).  In addition to a friend of mine who had flown from Houston to join the trip, there were two girls from Canada, two guys from Australia, a guy from Switzerland (who was living in Norway) and a couple from London (he was originally from South Africa and she was from Australia). Everyone was really great.  Erick quickly went over our itinerary (which I will talk about day by day) and answered any questions that we had on how the trek would unfold.  He then explained the logistics of the pickup the next morning which would be between 4:00-4:30 am.  We were getting an early star because part of Erick’s approach to the trail.  He likes to start early and walk a bit further on the first day in order to avoid the crowds.

The Inca Trail is highly regulated. Every day the Peruvian government allows 500 people to start the four day hike to Machu Picchu.  This number includes porters and tourists. In addition the amount of weight a porter can carry is regulated. There is a check point at the beginning of the trail and several along the trail to ensure that the regulations are being maintained.  At the initial checkpoint, where the trail starts, usually there is a line to begin. By starting early we avoid some of that hassle.  After the explaining the plan, making sure that we had all of the correct gear, and answering any questions the meeting was over and a few of us went to dinner together before going home to pack. (To read more about the Inca Trail :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Trail_to_Machu_Picchu )

I did not get to bed until 11pm so 3:30am, the time I planned to get up to be ready for a 4:00am pickup, came early.  Nonetheless I was excited to go and waking up was not a problem.  The bus showed up slightly after four and after two more stops to pick up the Canadian girls and the guys from Australia, we were off to kilometer 82 and the start of the Inca trail.  The bus ride to the trail head was about two hours since we had to climb out of Cusco and head over to the Sacred Valley, past Urubamba and Ollantaytambu to Piscacucho to start the trek.  Since I had already been to Urubamba part of the drive was familiar to me and even though it was dark I recognized when we were approaching Urubamba.  We stayed on the main highway until close to Piscacusho and then turned off on a narrow dirt road eventually pulling into the yard of a small farmstead near the checkpoint.  There we unloaded, met the porters, who immediately went about sorting and packing the gear, and settled down to a nice breakfast before starting the trek.  While we ate and the porters got organized Erick went to the checkpoint to make sure that everything was set.

At about 7:45am we were ready to start, but, unfortunately, not all of us.  Apparently there was a problem with my ticket and it required coordination with Cusco and until that was finished I could not enter the trail.  The group went ahead with Erick and Elbin stayed back with me to get the problem solved.  I was a little worried because I was afraid that they were not going to get the issue resolved (for some reason I was registered as a student and I am not and that made a difference on my ticket somehow).  I did not mind starting late since I knew I would catch up with the group sooner or later, but I had a few anxious moments as my imagination ran away with me and pictured myself heading, alone, back to Cusco on one of the many buses that were passing by dropping off other hikers for the trail.  It took about two hours to solve the problem, apparently due to a signature that had to be hunted down from a missing-in-action director in Cusco.  But finally, I could start the trail.

We went to the checkpoint and Elbin jumped us to the beginning of the line and we were off.  The day had dawned bright and sunny with not a cloud in sight so it was a beautiful day for a hike.  Even though the trip got off to a rough start it turned out to be a great experience because I had a guide to myself and I was able to practice my Spanish as Elbin and I spoke Spanish together the whole morning.  Even though we had to walk at a faster pace than most others, it was quite comfortable for me, and he made sure I did not miss the two Inca ruins that we passed on our way up the mountain where we were to join the others for lunch.  Luckily the trail at the beginning, according to Erick, was relatively flat.  The first part of the trail is still in heavy use. There are many homesteads along this part of the trail and it serves as their highway into town.  Consequently as we walked along we passed small homes and fields and several times on the trail passed people with donkeys or horses carrying goods or produce on their backs.  Elbin explained to me that on certain days of the week the farmers head to town to the markets to sell their wares and buy what they need.   There were other tour groups on the trail as well, those that had started earlier while I was waiting, but we passed them by.

It turns out that “relatively flat”, while accurate, still contains the word “relative”, which turned out to be a key hint as to what awaited us.  The Inca trail, I was to find out, is not for the faint of heart.  To describe the trail, in as few words as possible, the words “up” and “down” come to mind.  Because that was the essence of the trail.  It went up, up, up then down, down, down, then repeated.  And it seems that the Inca’s motto was “switchbacks are for sissies” because when the trail went up, it went straight up in one long unbroken line of stairs.  When it went down, same thing, a series of steps leading directly down.  The Inca trail is not a dirt packed path, worn down by years of use, but rather an actual highway constructed of rather large stones, in many cases uneven, and composed of steps, also rather uneven, too numerous to count.  We all found this out after lunch.  After the relatively “easy” flat trek of the morning which was about 8-9km we were going to go up 700m (about 2000 feet) after lunch for another 6km or so.  This was quite an ambitious day.  Most trekking companies planned their first stop where we were lunching but Erick’s plan included getting us out ahead of the crowd.  When we stopped for the night we were only going to have one other group at our campsite.  It made for a rough day, but as we found out the benefits were huge later on in the hike.

Elbin and I caught up with the group just as they were sitting down to lunch.  They had only arrived at the lunch site about 20 minutes earlier so we had really flown through the morning hike.  (But as I said, it felt like a comfortable pace to me so they must have really taken their time!)  Lunch was fantastic, as was all of the food that we were served by our Chef – Windell.  (One of the reasons I picked this company was because they were supposed to have great food and they certainly lived up to expectations!!).  Just a quick note about food since I am not going to go into detail about it later.  Lunch and dinner always consisted of some kind of appetizer, followed by a soup, followed by a main course.  Dinner also included a desert.  Breakfast always had bread and jam and some other hot dish.  Hot drinks were available at every meal including the tea that we had every day once reaching camp- basically snacks and drinks.  We did not go hungry and had plenty of calories- and we needed them.  It takes talent  and creativity to make appetizing, semi-gourmet food on the trail and I have to think we must have had one of the best chefs in the area!!!

After lunch we set off for the challenging part of the hike.  Little did we know how challenging it was going to be.  Immediately we headed up, climbing the rough hewn rock stairs most of the time but occasionally getting a break and simply walking up an incline.  The incline was easier because of the variety in the steps, some really tall, some short and the necessity of constantly having to evaluate how to approach the next step.  The uphill went on forever-or seemed to.  Thankfully having been in Cusco for over a month I was acclimatized to the altitude, but nonetheless I found myself huffing and puffing all the way up the slope.  At a slow steady pace I could keep going but we had to rest often for those who were new to the altitude- we were climbing up to about 3500m (11000-ish feet).  It was slow going and it ended up taking us between 4-4.5 hours to climb to the campsite, almost a kilometer an hour pace.  A few people were getting touch of altitude sickness and that slowed them down a bit too.  In addition the beautiful sunny day had disappeared and it had started to rain a bit.  Not hard enough to be completely miserable but enough that we needed ponchos to stay dry.  I think all of us were absolutely thrilled to get to camp and we felt a great feeling of accomplishment when we finally got there.

There are established campsites along the Inca trail all with running water, several well defined areas for tents, and rudimentary toilets.  Our porters having arrived first had everything set up and waiting for us.  The tents were on the edge of the plateau and had a great view of the valley that we had just climbed out of.  Even though it was cloudy we were above most of the clouds and you could see neighboring mountains poking through like icebergs.  Despite the lack of sun it was beautiful and somewhat magical.  Tea was ready but most of us were just interested in going to our tents and laying down for a bit before dinner.  Dinner was only an hour later and even then several people, who were not feeling well yet, decided to skip dinner and sleep, which is probably the best medicine for altitude and re-energizing for the next day.

Dinner was delicious and filling but we did not linger afterwards everyone was really tired and we knew the next day would be challenging as well as we had to clear two passes (although we were not climbing as much at once) to get to the next campsite  SInce it was still drizzling a bit as well, it was not pleasant to just hang out in the dining tent.  After a trip to the nearby toilet I headed for my tent and the dry and warmth of my sleeping bag.  It was dark and that meant bedtime in the mountains.

Day 2 would be an early day with a 5:00am wake up call.