The Inka Trail Days 1 & 2

[Our group of 13 starting the Inka Trail]

On my third day in Cusco, I got up at about 5:45 to get ready for Isai, one of my to-be guides for the Inka Trail, to come pick me up at 6:30. With Isai was Ken, who works for the Forest Service in California and was also going to do the trail. We walked and talked until we got to the main square of Cuzco, where the bus was going to pick us up to take us to the beginning of the trek. As soon as I got on the bus, I realized that Sarai, who I had been studying with in Valparaiso, was on the bus with her three brothers. Although we tried to organize it so that we were going to be on the same trek, we weren't sure it would happen. Along with Ken, Sarai, her brothers, and I, there were six UNC law students with on our trek and another random guy named Scott.

After we had been driving on the bus for a while, we made a stop in Ollantatambo to go to the bathroom and buy some snacks. Although I had bought some trail mix and cookies in Cusco, I bought some candy bars too. Although the candy bars were good on the trail, I brought much to much food, since they feed you three extremely good meals everyday on the trail.


[Our dining tent set up for team time our first day on the trail...]

When we were stopped, I got to meet our head guide, who, much to my surprise was a woman. Maria is one of few women guides in general, and she informed me later that even fewer women do the Inka Trail, since it is really hard work. She was really a great guide though, and really knew her stuff.

When we got to KM 82 (which is the 82nd kilometer on the railroad between Cusco and Agua Calientes, the town that lies closest to Machu Picchu), we got off the bus, met all of our porters, took a group photo and got on our way.


[Ruins that we passed on the first day. The ruins that lie along the Inka Trail can only be seen if you do the four-day hike.]

The first day was a rather leisurely hike, without too much effort that had to be put in. In some ways, that was nice since we mainly stayed together as a group and got a chance to talk and get to know each other. Although I started on the beginning of the rainy season, we had OK weather the whole time, and it only sprinkled a bit when we were hiking the fist day. Although, I did put on my poncho just in case, and then took it off when I realized how silly I looked and how much I didn't need it.


[In my awesome red poncho on day 1]

When we got to our camp, we were amazed to see that the porters had already gotten there and set up all the tents and were already preparing tea time and dinner.


[Tents already set up]

We had some time to kill before tea time, and we still had lots of energy, we tried to find something to do. First, we had a rather pathetic soccer ball that we were passing around. Then, we decided to try to make a hacky-sack out of Sarai's bandana, a hair tie, and some rocks from the river. Although our improvisation was rather impressive and the hacky sack held up pretty well, our skills in kicking the ball around were horrible. But it did pass the time before dinner. We also got entertainment in the form of a soccer game between two little boys who looked about 5 and 9 and one of our porters.


[Watching the game with much interest]

After dinner, it was basically time for bed, since we had to get up at 5:30 the next day to eat breakfast and start our big climb up Dead Woman's Pass.

On our second day, we were woken up by the porters at 5:30 with a warm coco tea, and had half an hour before we had to get all our stuff packed up before breakfast. We were amazed again at breakfast, being served pancakes, toasted bread, and an assortment of tea, coffee, and hot chocolate.


[A crude map of the elevation changes along the trail]

The second day of the trek is definately the hardest, with a 1,000 m climb up to Dead Woman's Pass, which is also the highest point on the trail (about 4,200 m or 13,000 ft.) Walking uphill for 5-6 hours was really hard work, but absolutely worth the view and sense of accomplishment at the top. (Although more amazing was probably the porters who carry up to 50 lbs of gear and still go running past you on the way up.)


[Beautiful view on the way up]


[Self proclaimed "Team Awesome" at the top of Dead Woman's Pass]


[I MADE IT!]


[Sarai and I at the top of the pass. I have to give her some credit since she was my personal porter and carried my pack to the top of the pass for me :) Made it a whole lot easier.]

Since we got done with our hike already at about 12:30, we had a lot of time to pass between lunch and dinner. Since it was raining kind of hard, and we had nothing else to do, we started playing cards - a game called mafia that is less of a card game and more of just a game. Since we didn't have enough of us to play a good game, we invited the cook and some porters to play with us. Although the whole language barrier thing was hard (since most of them speak Qetchua as their first language and Spanish as their second, and only Sarai and I speak Spanish), we ended up having a really good time and laughing a lot throughout the game.